Posts By Steve Radick

A Partial Reading List for PR Students

This post originally appeared on my blog, Social Media Strategery. College students across the country are in the midst of moving back to college for the fall semester. In between partying, traveling, club activities, sports, Greek commitments, and jobs, some will also be attending classes. Those lucky enough to be taking a PR class shouldRead… Read more »

Eight Conversations Your Customers Want to Have With Your Brand

This post originally appeared on my external blog, Social Media Strategery. While it’s focused on private sector brands, these ideas can easily be applied to public sector entities as well. My last post criticized the content that a lot of brands share via social media – the incessant begging for likes and shares, the linkbaiting,Read… Read more »

Customers Don’t Want Ads, They Want a Conversation…Just Not the Conversations You Want to Have

Fast Company just published another article discussing how customers are no longer satisfied just with good products and services or low prices – they want collaboration and conversation from brands. In another Fast Company article from January, they state that “brands, marketers believe, ought to start acting less like things and more like people, andRead… Read more »

Social Media Lessons from a Two-Year Old

What a difference a few years can make. For the last few months, I think I’ve spent more time talking people out of using social media than talking them into it. The pendulum has swung the other way, especially in the marketing industry. Everyone wants to be everywhere. Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter Facebook, Vine, Foursquare, KloutRead… Read more »

NHL Skating on Thin Ice With Many Supporters Post Lockout

This article was written in mid-January and originally appeared in the February issue of PRWeek (subscription required) On January 6, after 113 days, 625 missed regular-season games, and countless starts and stops, the National Hockey League ended its third lockout in 19 years. After the last lockout, the NHL launched the “My NHL” campaign whichRead… Read more »

Taking the Next Step: Going From a Grassroots Enterprise 2.0 Community to an Official One

As your grassroots community takes the next step to becoming an official one, what challenges will you face? Way back in 2008, microblogging and enterprise collaboration platform Yammer launched at TechCrunch50. A week later, I became member #1 of the Yammer network at my old firm, a 25,000 person consulting firm with offices all overRead… Read more »

Set Your New Social Media Manager Up For Success

You wouldn’t hire Jonathan Ive and put him in a cubicle with an underpowered Lenovo laptop, would you? You wouldn’t sign Peyton Manning to run the triple-option offense, would you? You wouldn’t hire Tony Stark but tell him he’s not allowed using your tools, would you? Then why do organizations continue to hire social mediaRead… Read more »

Ten “Boring” PR Skills You Need to Have

A few weeks ago, I was talking to some college students about PR, advertising, living in Chicago, and the work I’m doing at C-K. They loved hearing about the work that we’ve done with Corona, Porsche, and Cedar Fair. We talked about branding, TV commercials, media tours, and social media. By the end of ourRead… Read more »

Start Your Community With Role Models, Not Influencers

I just finished reading this article in last month’s Fast Company where the CEO of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann, discusses how Pinterest got started, where it’s at today, and what its future may hold. In it, they highlight some of the ways in which Pinterest defied best practices when they first started – they didn’t includeRead… Read more »