Posts tagged public relations

I work in PR and most of what I do deals with who I know, the information they are sharing and the stories I am trying to help brands tell. I love social media and I am constantly connecting with bloggers and journalists and finding new people to connect with. 

Because of this I follow twelve-hundred people on Twitter, have over seven-hundred Facebook friends, follow over two-hundred blogs on Tumblr and my Google reader combined and have a massive gmail address book.

Still, sometimes I find myself sitting here trying to figure out if I know anyone that lives in LA or New York or Washington DC. I am racking my brain to remember which of my friends has a newborn or a five year old or a teenager. 

Where is this idea going?

There is an app for that.

Why don’t we have an app that pulls all of our social networks together and we can filter through our networks by the information that we are looking for.

Last year I read a book by Abbie Hoffman (I feel like saying that is a little controversial) but whatever. The man was a PR genius. He was pulling media stunts and pitching press in some of the most innovative ways. Sure he was controversial, got arrested, got a bunch of plastic surgery and eventually killed himself. But we aren’t going to focus on that today. 

Instead, we are going to focus on his PR stunts. I have always had this idea to re-make some of the classic books through PR stunts. What if a brand threw two-thousand flowers from the top of a building in the middle of New York? People would talk about it—no question.

A while ago I saw an example of someone handing out pie on the sidewalks. How genius is that? Walking down the street in New York and someone is offering you free pie served up togo. It brought me back to the times Abbie Hoffman handed out pamphlets with random inspirational sayings. 

Go pick up some Abbie Hoffman and some Jack Kerouac and find the PR ideas hidden deep inside of those stories.