We were pleased to announce this week the addition of CoreMedia of Hamburg, Germany and StepStone Solutions of the U.K. to our expanding client roster of national and global brands.

Behold the April Fool’s Day edition of the Bateman Buzz Meter (technically #4), our semi-regular ranking of recent newsworthy events based on PR and Social Media effectiveness.

We know 2010 will be another fast-paced year filled with new and exciting opportunities for the Bateman Group. January was a growth month for the firm and February is forecast to be one of our busiest on record. In order to maintain our superior service levels (and some semblence of sanity), we need to expand our team. We’re seeking exceptional candidates to come in and interview for both Associate and Senior Associate positions at the firm immediately.

Is Facebook’s usefulness as a social media and marketing tool beginning to lose its cache? As PR practitioners, how do we best advise our clients which social media tools are right for their business and for how long? Bateman Group’s Lisa Melsted shares her insightful personal observations and goes out on a limb with some predictions of her own.

Bateman Buzz Meter, Debut Edition, July 2009.

The heated debate sparked by Claire Cain Miller’s NYT article on the Evolution of PR in Silicon Valley has one week later cooled off considerably. Referred to in PR circles simply as “The Article”, Cain Miller’s piece really hit a collective nerve throughout the entire profession ― and the subsequent histrionics and grandstanding were something to behold. This was one of those rare occurrences where everyone felt compelled to take sides. Either you were with Brooke Hammerling, defending both the woman and her “relationships are everything” style of PR, or you were against her.. and with Ms. Cain Miller by default, a difficult position given her not-so-hidden agenda to set Hammerling up for maximum vapidity.