I know it’s fuzzy, but, yes. That is indeed my 100% complete LinkedIn profile. I’ve been hanging tough at 95% complete for about two years now. Not sure what moved me up but I’m just enough of a total nerd to be really, REALLY excited about this.

Oh! And I finally figured out how to make my blog posts show up in my profile, too. YAY, technology!

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It was truly an honor to be in the company of such talented PR pros at today’s PR News PR People Awards(PDF) luncheon in Washington D.C. We arrived to the National Press Club a little early and I was totally soaking in the moment.

I was doing fine until they told us we’d have “no more than 17 seconds” to give thanks. I’m not really sure what I said once I got up there, but Abby, Kriste, Dave and Mom agreed I’d not said anything patently offensive. So that’s good.

At any rate, I’m so honored to be a part of this group of young professionals and I only hope I can keep improving and honing my craft. Read More…

Lately I’ve really enjoyed scooping up links shared by PR bloggers I follow. So, I thought I’d be a copy cat and spread a little link luv of my own:

Reads

DaveFleet’s Getting Started with Twitter So you’ll know how Twitter works, how to use it and why it’s not useless.

PRSquared’s Ideas for a Rainy Day When it’s cold and rainy you should be reading about social media, duh.

Read, Write, Web’s Five Ways To Keep Momentum After Your Big Announcement Big Mo Do’s and Don’ts

Chris Brogan loves LinkedIn’s new applications and wants you to love them, too. Right now.

Laughs

Cursebird.com Finally! A Twitter spin-off site that lets you track your favorite curse words in real-time.

Tunes

KCRW Radio It’s online, it’s eclectic, it’s Southern California’s leading National Public Radio affiliate and it rocks Team Newman’s world.

I might name my first born Zemanta. Here’s why:

Every blogger likes to think she’s got something to say that a reader will find interesting and relevant.

Maybe he’ll comment on it, email it to a friend or twitter about it. Maybe others will follow suit. It’s the whole point, really. Nearly all of us are striving for relevance on the web. Same goes for life, actually, but that’s a for another blog post.

It’s this relevance realm is where Zemanta really shines. Zemanta is a free FireFox browser extension that sets up shop right in your blog editor thing. As you type your blog post, Zemanta pulls related links, photos and other web content that match up with your draft. It does all the research for you – making your posts well-rounded and saving you time.

See! That FireFox link came from Zemanta, I didn’t have to go to the site and pull the link. Same goes for that stock image of the Zemanta logo up there. And the Zemanta link in the first graph.

Don’t worry – you don’t have to use any of Zemanta’s findings if you don’t want to. It’s all just there for the taking if you need it. It event pulls in suggested tags for you.

But here is the best part: if you are using Zemanta it adds your content to the list of on-topic articles it offers up to other Zemanta users; see below.

I’m thrilled because I’m starting to see visitor traffic coming here to FlackRabbit from blogs that are linking to my content because Zemanta is telling them I’m relevant to what they’re saying. It’s like magic!

Do you Zemanta your blog posts? If not, I’d highly recommend you give this tremendously user-friendly blogging tool a try.

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Apparently, I’m supposed to cringe at the word “flack” as used to describe PR professionals like me. But, um, instead I kinda named my website after the term. Sorry!

From the PR News blog:

Technically, most dictionaries will refer to flack as a press agent/spokesperson. But we all know it’s not the preferred name for a spokesperson, for a communicator, for a PR executive. Yet it’s used all the time.  Whether behind your back or to your face…

…it’s a sad story — or a sad state of affairs — any time bona fide PR professionals (and I am assuming the PR dept at AIG is legit) are referred to as “flacks.”

Okay, true. It’s not my preferred name, but the use of the term flack is not the least bit offensive to me. Furthermore, I’ve had many a journalist and PR pro ask me what the word means, as they have never before heard it used to describe a communicator or spokesperson.

Now, I do agree with the blogger on several points. The NY Post was being less than professional and showing complete bias by recently referring to a spokesperson as a “flak.” I would roll my eyes if I was quoted that way, especially if it was spelled incorrectly like that.

But the bottom line is this:

The NY Post’s printed flack attack only speaks to the complete lack of trust the reporter has in that spokesperson. This is not something that can be prevented by one good response to a question. A solid media/flack relationship develops over time and boils down to how much respect you’ve earned (and keep) as a PR professional.

It’s that deteriorated media relationship, not word choice, that is so troublesome.

It’s no fun calling to tell four local TV stations your client’s event finished early so “don’t bother coming out after Noon” only to hear three of those stations had “already assigned a reporter and camera crew to come out at 1 p.m.”

(sigh)

On the bright side, they did thank me for calling and not “just letting us show up to an empty room.”

I’m still sad though.