I have a content graveyard. You probably do too. It’s full of random photos and videos that felt way too boring to post at the time. Me working. Me reading. Me editing. Me setting something up. Me sitting at my laptop doing the exact same thing I do 365 times a year. Thrilling stuff. Except one of those boring little moments recently turned into one of my most engaging Instagram posts. You do not always need to create content. Sometimes you just need to capture it. Take the picture. Shoot the...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Authors, small business owners, experts trying to get publicity… Come here. We need to have a little chat. If someone emails you and says: “We’d LOVE to interview you!” and then, three emails later, casually drops: “There is a $225 production fee.” No. Absolutely not. Legitimate earned media does not invite you to be interviewed and then send you a bill for the privilege. I know this because I spent years working as a TV reporter and anchor, and now I run a PR agency where I pitch...
14 days ago • 3 min read
I worked in TV news for years. And when I say I worked in TV news, I mean I WORKED. At some stations, I was what we called a one-man band. I was the photographer, reporter, and editor. I’d drive to the story. Set up my own camera. Walk in front of it. Record myself. Interview people. Shoot all of the video. Write the story. Edit the story. Then go live. Start to finish, that story was mine. At the time, THAT felt like doing the job of multiple people. Apparently, major TV stations said, “Hold...
21 days ago • 4 min read
Sometimes the post nobody approved is the one everybody loves. Aldi made the kind of mistake every social media manager has nightmares about. Someone on the social team was apparently VERY excited about two recent book cover and title announcements and posted about them from the Aldi account instead of their personal account. Which might be the most social media manager thing to ever happen. They caught it and deleted the posts. But this is the internet, so of course people had already seen...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
I got quoted in Business Insider because of a LinkedIn post... and I never pitched the reporter. Here’s what happened. LinkedIn Did This 👇 There was a lot of conversation happening around Neutrogena and how the company responded after Hayden Panettiere died. A few months earlier, Hayden had talked publicly about why she believed Neutrogena had dropped her as a spokesperson after she opened up about postpartum depression. Then, after her death, Neutrogena put out a response. I thought the...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
If you’ve ever opened a blank document and thought, “What the heck am I supposed to post about today?” I have a very easy trick for you: Look at the calendar. Seriously. Awareness days, holidays, seasonal changes, and cultural moments can give you a reason to talk about something right now. And I don’t mean posting a stock photo of a book with “Happy National Read a Book Day!” slapped on it. Please don't do that. The awareness day is the hook. Your job is to find the interesting story hiding...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
I have a Google Drive folder full of death threats. Screenshots, emails, DMs, all saved from the time I reported on Justin Bieber getting arrested for drag racing in Miami. I did not write the story to make anyone mad. I reported a fact. The fact was that Justin Bieber got arrested for drag racing in Miami. The Beliebers did not care about my journalistic integrity. They cared that I had said something bad about their guy, and they 👏🏻 came 👏🏻 for 👏🏻 me 👏🏻 I thought this one was creative...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
I listened to Brandon Smithrick interview Dan Roth, LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief, in this video, and now I’m reconsidering my entire LinkedIn existence. Cool. Love that for me. Dan said that if he were starting in content today, he’d find a niche he was passionate about and put in the work there. Wasn't I already doing that, tho? No, Christina. Marketing, media, and content is not a specific niche. If we’re talking about things I could happily obsess over for the rest of my life... Obvi, it’s...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Tell a story only you can tell. The strongest content is specific enough that no one else could copy and paste it into their own feed. Don’t just say you learned an important business lesson. Tell us where you were, what happened, what you said, what went wrong, and the tiny detail you still remember. It’s the same advice I give people when they’re pitching the media: the broader the idea, the easier it is to ignore. The specific details are what make people stop, care, and remember. Now I...
2 months ago • 1 min read