My niece hit me up on Facebook last night with a most excellent request: Uncle Jimmy- Was hoping I could pick your brain for a moment? What would you say are the major differences between PR & marketing/advertising? Not in a technical sense, but rather, your opinion, as someone in PR.

The landscape of blogger relations and product review campaigns is changing. Through our ongoing work with bloggers - from mommy bloggers to baking bloggers, fitness bloggers, weight loss bloggers, DIY bloggers, and bloggers with diabetes - we have seen a significant shift in how bloggers approach product reviews.

Let’s face it. Not all products and services are going to be 100% perfect 24/7 and not everyone is going to be 100% satisfied. More and more consumers are turning to social media with their questions, complaints and concerns, despite customer service phone lines, Q&A, and live online chats.

The Sterling-Rice Group tapped its Culinary Council to determine the top 10 Food trends for 2013.  And while some sound very exciting, others strike me as rather undesirable. On the "sounds good to me" side are sour foods and drinks influenced by the DIY pickling and brining trend (e.g., sauerkrauts, pickles and sour cherry beer).

  There's been a lot of chatter lately speculating the bloom is off the rose at Apple, and  Samsung is the next big thing. Please.

I received an email from my brother-in-law earlier this week requesting my thoughts and prayers on Monday, World Cancer Day.  But it turns out Monday is not World Cancer Day; that would be in February. And it is not National Cancer Day or National Cancer Survivors Day.  It is however, American Diabetes Month.

Conducting a Facebook contest is a fun way to engage followers, attract new followers and liven up a Facebook page. But, you cannot just expect the contest to run itself. It is important to have a strategy to help make the contest a success.

Corporate rumors can be a headache for marketing departments, and potentially be very damaging to the brand if they are not addressed properly. However, this does not always mean the best course of action is to address the rumor directly.

I read a story last night – you probably saw it – reporting at least five deaths have been linked to Monster energy drinks.  Apparently some adolescents can't process all that caffeine and sugar they are so frequently encouraged – with minimal restriction – to consume.

Everyone is talking about the presidential election – and rightly so – but this year, things (let's call them presidential-isms) have seemed to “go viral” faster than ever. After Republican candidate Mitt Romney referred to “binders full of women” during the second presidential debate, within seconds parody sites popped up and the Twittersphere was literally tweeting up a storm.