I Am Big Brother

In an article I read today in our local newspaper, a substitute teacher was arrested for having sexual relations with two girls, ages 14 and 15. He got caught because the parents had installed a program on their computers called "Iambigbrother." I had never heard of this program until today but it sounds like something that all parents should be aware of! The fool (substitute teacher) then bragged about his activities on facebook.com. He said, "Hah . . . im so going to hell . . . I can't believe I hooked up with two 9th graders!!!" Well Mr. substitute teacher (whose name I don't want to appear in my blog), if you call jail hell, happy trails to you!

The Power of the Associated Press

I don't beleive there is any media outlet more powerful than the Associated Press. Their stories get picked up from coast to coast and on national talk shows on a regular basis. For example, I was quoted this week by Tara Burghart, an Associated Press reporter, regarding childhood immunizations and anxiety. Today, when I searched my name in Google, I found 64 hits on the article which include the likes of CBS News, MSNBC, Fox News, The Chigago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Newsday New York, and the Miami Herald. The story even hit the our local market and was covered by 6ABC and The Intelligencer which is our local daily.

So what's my point? Why does this matter to you? Because if you want good pick up on your news and it has national or international appeal, you should spend most of your time pitching the Associated Press!

Originally uploaded by FuriaRubel.

On Friday night, May 4, 2007, I had the honor of working with First Friday Doylestown to help pay tribute to two young men from our town who died while fighting for our freedom in Iraq. Marine Lt. Travis Manion and Army Ranger Colby Umbrell were remebered at a town vigil. Hundreds of residents came out to pay their respects to the two families who have lost their sons. The Intelligencer covered the story at http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-05062007-1342060.html.

My heart goes out to the families. My husband said it best, "I never want to walk a day in their shoes but if we do, I pray that we can be as graceful and dignified as the Manion and Umbrell families." I couldn't agree more. God bless them and God bless America!

To see all the photos from the evening's tribute, click here.

Searching for Your Web Mentions

As a PR firm, we're issuing news on a daily basis on behalf of our clients and since we're in the age of social and new media, it's very important to track you online coverage. Although there are many services that will do this for you and you should ALWAYS subscribe to Google Alerts, you also need to know that not every search engine has all the same information. So if you want to see where your story has been picked up, you need to search by your keywords in a myriad of search engines.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I used the links in this article by Danny Sullivan which is posted on searchenginewatch.com. The article also has some great tips about how you can optimize your website.

Happy searching . . . .