Exactly a year ago today, the hosts of Inside PR: Martin, Gini and Joe, celebrated their one year anniversary of hosting Inside PR.
Their year, funny enough, started and ended with a launch. Martin launched energiPR in June 2010 and Gini launched Spin Sucks Pro just last week.
But along the way, public relations and communications never seased to amaze the world, and Inside PR was there are every turn.
They started their year talking about billable hours. And as much as some may not like writing down and calculating their hours, it seems like billable hours are here to stay.
Like it or not, there is value when it comes to billable hours. It allows you to track your productivity and the amount of work put in to a certain project. And remember, time equals money, so tracking billable hours can help track whether or not a project may go over – or in the best case scenarios – under budget.
The year moved on with a discussion about privacy. Is it just me, or does this world move in a recursive manner? Here we are a year later in the wake of the Sony security breach, another booming discussion on privacy and online security issues.
As Martin reflects he states: Facebook, Google and other social media companies probably know more about us then we know about ourselves. It is scary, but a reality. Not less than 20 years ago, we feared “big brother” was watching us and listening to our conversations. Today, we welcome “big brother” with every “check-in”.
Throughout the year, Inside PR made notes of certain trends arising in our society. Among those trends are:
- Video
- Search
- Mobile payments
- Social media policies
- Tablets
One trend in particular, mobile payment, has evolved a lot over the past year. Gini recounts that in Chicago you can use your phone to pay for merchandise in retail stores like Target or at places like Starbucks. One step towards this new evolution is something called Square, which enables anyone in the US with an iOS or Android device to sign up and accept credit card payments in minutes. It is like your very own personal debit machine, but for credit cards only.
Another trend is the tablet. The prediction is a tablet will evolve to become a mini office. With the increase in bandwidth and with 4G networks, and a portable device such as a tablet, we will be able to do virtually anything we want “on the go”.
Speaking of tablets, I am currently looking at purchasing one. If anyone has some suggestions, please leave me a comment.
With the evolution of tablets and e-books, even reading has evolved. We can now use one device to switch between reading social media content, news, and long-form books.
Although I may have come in at the end of the year, I can still proudly say I have had the time of my life working with Joe, Martin and Gini. There is never a dull moment and always lots and lots of useful information for public relations and marketing professionals.
You can catch the entire episode at Inside PR.