Texas Public Relations Association held its “Media Relations 2.0” workshop in Lufkin on Oct. 29 where a panel of PR professionals, reporters and broadcasters discussed the changes social media has made on the way consumers get their news and its effect on the public relations industry.

This workshop allowed all attendees to discuss how to evolve with the ever-changing social media industry’s captains Twitter and Facebook; explore how to pitch stories to the new media world; and dive in to how important building relationships with the media is. Andy Adams (Editor of Lufkin Daily News), Tina Alexander-Sellers (News Director, KTRE-TV), BethAnn Black (PR Professional/Agency Owner), Pam Rosen (Social Networking Manager for Shell Oil Company) and Rebecca Elliott (Sr. Communications Manager for Shell Oil Company) were featured on the distinguished panel for the 2.0 workshop.

This is the first PR workshop for East Texas and had a great turnout (41 attendees) despite the stormy weather conditions. TPRA hopes to increase its membership by coordinating events like these to provide PR opportunities for smaller Texas cities.

Mark you calendars for March 5 in Austin, Texas for the Texas PR Leadership Day and Gala.  This gathering of state-wide communicators will focus on “Get Connected:  Personally, Professionally and with your Planet.”  You’ll be seeing more about this day during the next few months.

What is this day you may be asking?  It’s the 2.0 version of our annual conference.  We’re beefing up the line-up, streamlining the day and promoting it throughout the state to make this the largest gathering of Texas communicators.

Making this a reality is a dedicated group of students from Texas State University in San Marcos.  Dara Quackenbush — fellow TPRA member by night, college professor by day — assigned four students from her senior PR campaigns class to partner with me to develop and execute to a PR plan.  They have really done a great job and have designed a social media strategy leveraging our two platforms — this blog and Twitter.  They will be jumpstarting the conversation about PR in Texas and keeping you up to speed on how to get involved in the Leadership Day and Gala.

Also, to build on what the students are doing, I’m hosting a kick-off conference call for everyone who wants to help with the Leadership Day and Gala.  I’ve got folks from El Paso to Dallas to San Antonio who’ve already volunteered.  Just let me know if you want to help as well by replying to this blog.

See you in Austin!

From Barb Dybwad at Mashable.com, we learn that Australia’s Griffith University is requiring journalism students to learn how to tweet. Good thing, too. At the Houston PRSA media day recently, TPRA/PRSA  member Terri Larson twittered what one panelist told the crowd – Twitter is the new police scanner.

TPRA member and Abilene Christian University instructor David A. Hogan, APR,  sets down his thoughts on the reluctance of investor relations departments to use social media tools to reach their shareholders.

Hogan presented his paper recently at the 2009 Annual Conference of the International Association of Online Communications.  Read his paper here.

Are you an East Texas professional communicator? Mark October 29 on your calendar. TPRA is coming to you with “Media Relations 2.0″.  To register, call Yana Ogletree at 936-639-7163 or YOgletree@memorialhealth.org.

As most know by now, last Thursday, October 1, 2009, David Letterman admitted on Late Night with David Letterman that he had had sex with women on his staff. This was associated with a threat he had received to be blackmailed.

Regan.com, that provides, “News, ideas & conversations for communicators worldwide,” this morning posted an interesting article this morning (Oct. 5, 2009) addressing this issue. The article quotes Fraser Seitel, who, according to Regan.com is a prominent PR author, teacher and managing partner of Emerald Partners public relations. For the most part it states that Letterman took the steps that so many PR professionals suggest to clients when facing a potential threat of bad news being “leaked out” by other parties. Letterman addressed the issue and confronted the possible outcomes that could have happened if he hadn’t.  Good for you, David, to step forward! Bad for you, David, that you made bad judgement calls in the past! Now, we’ll see how his reputation moves forward.

Here is the link to the Regan.com article that includes the 10-minute video from the October 1, 2009, Late Night with David Letterman: http://is.gd/3YCtw.

What do you think?

Are you facing budget and staff cutbacks at the office? Are you concerned about the impact – on you, your team, the rest of the organization? Are you responsible for providing clear communication counsel amid mounting anxiety and disruption? Then this TPRA tele-webinar session is for you.

On Tuesday, October 6, learn how to balance good news with the bad, proven methods for communicating with candor and credibility, and how to re-engage your surviving work force.

Click here to register. Deadline is Monday, October 5.

Fellow Houston PR executive Sharon Dotson posted this article on her Facebook page today. It’s a concise, honest appraisal of what this group should have done to earn PR for its event. Imagine the heartache of organizing a charity fundraiser with celebrity guests at Harlem’s Apollo Theater for 1,600 people and getting no press. Nada, zip. Read on to see how it happened and what DoSomething.org will do differently next time.

TPRA past president Larry Springer sends us this timely article on the PRSA blog addressing the ethics of paying people to post positive reviews of clients’ products. The article provides links to several of the most recent examples around the country. Kudos to PRSA and its chairman, Michael G. Cherenson, APR, for the roundup and the discussion of why the practice is wrong. Here is an excerpt:

“Several unfortunate events of late have thrust the issue of ethics to the forefront of discussion and debate in the public relations industry. … These events prompted PRSA to broadly condemn such acts as constituting no less than public relations “malpractice” under our Code of Ethics. The Twittersphere’s reaction to PRSA’s announcement was swift and positive, as evidenced by the overwhelming number of individuals who “re-tweeted” the link to our announcement. Clearly, these individuals are as dismayed as we are”….Read the rest of the article.

TPRA’s 2010 Annual Convention is scheduled for March 5-7, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Hotel in Austin, TX.  The theme of this year’s convention is ‘Get Connected’ and will feature three tracks – connecting personally, connecting professionaly and connecting with the planet.

Convention Chair Michele Glaze, APR has a lot in store for one of the largest gatherings of public relations professionals in the state of Texas.  If you are interested in presenting at the upcoming convention, please submit the Call For Speakers form no later than September 18, 2009 to have your submission considered. Selected presenations will be notified by September 30, 2009.

Current featured speakers include: Kevin Tuerff, Founder & President of EnviroMedia & Green Canary Consulting and T.R. Reid, VP Corporate Communications of Dell, Inc.

Interested in joining the TPRA Convention Committee? Contact Michele Glaze, APR at michele_glaze@dell.com.