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Wondering what to put in your company blogs? One of those blogs should be company news. This is where your press releases go. This is where you announce that so-and-so just got promoted. This is the boring stuff which has no edginess to it whatsoever. For ideas on what to put in your other blogs, read "Business Blogging Results."
http://101publicrelations.com/bloggingresults.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=business_blogging_results
Should you keep a media database of your top media contacts? Absolutely! . I have two databases. I use the 20,000 database that I told you about. But every time I have an interview, I move that person. They stay in the 20,000 database, but they go into my separate corral of reporters that I've already done interviews with. And in my comments box in the database, I'll write myself a little note. This woman was a great interviewer. She really asked me good questions. This guy was a total jerk. Don't do an interview with him again. This person was wonderful. They followed up. They did this.
Do not, however, ever feel obligated to do an interview. 99.9% of the reporters that you deal with are going to be wonderful people but .1 percent are going to be jerks. Don't do another interview with a jerk. There's no reason for it. You'll gain nothing. I have never, in 25 years, ever called a reporter, unless they were a friend of mine, or wanted a follow-up call, or something else. I do not call because to me, if I call the editor, and I flag them that I'm sending a news release, that flags them to immediately trash it, because I shouldn't have called them. For more fantastic tips on how to write great press releases, read How to Write a Killer Press Release That Stops Reporters in Their Tracks
When you are looking for people to contact so you can get on national public radio a very helpful tool is to use media directories to aid you in your search.
You can use Bacon's Media Directory. There's both an online version and a book version. That book version is very expensive and weighs a gazillion pounds. So just go to your library and ask your reference librarian. Those are very helpful because they're subject specific and can certainly point you in the right direction very easily. You can also just go to Google.com and type in the words "radio" and "show" and "health" and you can type in "public radio" if you're looking specifically for NPR shows.
You can find more information like this in How to Get Booked on National Public Radio.
http://101publicrelations.com/nationalpublicradio.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=npr
What's a common reason people don't get on a talk show? Well, will you try to turn their show into a commercial? Even though a producers knows it's tit for tat - that you're promoting something and they are the vehicle, at the same time they want to know that you know how to deliver an incredible show. This first interview is not the time to discuss your product, service, or cause. In fact, former Oprah producers Molly Allen and Melinda Morrison say that Oprah producers may automatically disqualify you if you dare mention your wares. NEVER NEVER NEVER say "In my book" even once in pre-interview - they'll notice it and make a mental black-mark. Just give them the information.
It's understood that they will do what is necessary to get your book, product, service or company mentioned. Once you've been confirmed as a guest, you can gracefully suggest ways to incorporate whatever you're promoting into the show. Producers will be prepared to show your book or product, put up a chyron (information on the screen that tells your title, web site etc.), use b-roll (background footage filmed before the show), create stills of your products and the like. While they don't want you to be an obnoxious promoter type, they are looking for experience. But that doesn't mean you've been on a national talk show before. It means that you understand how to handle yourself.
For more great tips on how to make sure that you're the one being interviewed on a TV talk show, read "Secrets to Get TV Talk Show Hosts to Book You As Their Guest."
Confidence is the key to powerful and effective public speaking and getting publicity.
Power lies with the person who appears confident and in control. How you carry yourself, enter a room, walk, sit, or shake hands contributes to the impression of confidence. Whether stepping on stage or entering a room for a meeting, conference or interview, make your entrance a strong one. Stand tall, shoulders back and head high, and walk with a good steady stride.
To convey confidence and authority with your stance:
Stand tall and act with confidence, whether you feel it or not.
Place feet directly under hips, one foot slightly in front of the other.
Balance your weight on balls of both feet.
Hold your shoulders back and chest high.
Enter a room with a stride that indicates confidence.
Move about easily, but refrain from excessive roaming.
When sitting, sit tall and lean forward, with arms resting on the table rather than in the lap.
Avoid slouching in the chair.
Learn to perfect your public speaking with Building the Power of Your Voice: How to Improve Your Voice to Command Attention & Move People to Action
http://101publicrelations.com/voicepower.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=voice_power
There are things you should and shouldn't do when trying to get your photos published in print media:
When you approach an editor with a story idea, be ready to suggest photo possibilities!
If you make or sell luxury products, like boats, houses or cars, offer to lend them to photo editors at magazines!
Send your art by first-class mail, messenger, or overnight courier and pack it in sturdy envelopes with stiff cardboard to protect it!
Make sure you have a clear understanding with editors about exclusivity for photos!
Use a professional 35mm (or larger format) camera rather than an instant or Polaroidr camera.
To learn more about submitting photos the right way, and tips for getting photos published see David R. Yale's "How To Get Publicity Photos In Newspapers, Magazines, And On TV"
What kind of personality will help your company blog? This blog is best if it is written by the CEO or ghost written for the CEO. But it is the CEO's voice. It's communicating the CEO's opinion about the company. It is designed to take the personality that the corporation wants to communicate to the world and communicate it on a regular basis. So if your corporate culture is "We wear white shirts, button down collars and red ties every day to work, and we wear our jackets at our desks." And if that's what you want to communicate, because, maybe you're a bank and you want to communicate staid, proper and precise, then your corporate personality blog is staid, proper and precise.
You want to have a personality that goes beyond corporate white-shirt buttoned down and into more "We care about you" that's a really good attitude to have in a blog. Or "We give you information that nobody else gives you." or "We look at the world in a different light." And here's where, in one or two paragraphs each time you blog, you can take the opportunity to comment on the world around you - usually about your industry - in a way that shows your corporate personality. For more great ideas on how to use blogs for business, read "Business Blogging Results."
http://101publicrelations.com/bloggingresults.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=business_blogging_results
When working with editorial boards you need to act in such a way that they will respect you and not dislike you.
I think the best thing to do when you're dealing with editorial boards is to be as open and honest with them as you possibly can. Even though they might not agree with you, tell them that you understand that and that you also understand that they have a job to do and you're going to continue to make it as easy as possible for them to work with you. I can promise you, if you tell an editorial board that, they are going to have a great deal of respect for you, even though they might not necessarily agree with your position.
You can find more information like this in How to Use Newspaper and Magazine Editorial Pages.
If you are writing a letter to the editor you need to be careful about what type of information you write in it.
Be careful about whatever you submit because what runs in the op-ed pages generally, in my opinion, carries more weight than what runs on the news side. What people pick up from the op-ed pages carries more weight than what they read in the news. You don't want to run something that appears, that you think is really strong, but then someone within your organization has a problem with it, or maybe some statement that you're making on behalf of someone in your organization through this letter differs from another opinion within your organization. You want to avoid those sorts of political problems that can happen. You want to make sure everybody's on board with the message that you're trying to get across.
You can find more great information like this in How to Use Newspaper and Magazine Editorial Pages.
What should you do with your hands while you speak? Careful use of gesturing can help you effectively convey your message.
Gestures are as necessary to your speech as your words. Used effectively, they serve to highlight and emphasize the points you consider important. They should be large enough to be meaningful, but not so large as to be distracting. Meaningless gestures - those unrelated to what is being said - will only detract attention from your words and undermine your message.
"What do I do with my hands?" is probably the most frequent question I am asked in my workshops. Hand gestures are not difficult to control. A simple rule is to keep all movements natural and comfortable. Establish the habit because when you are excessively nervous you won't have the faintest idea what your hands are doing as you speak.
You can use your hands in many ways. The following suggestions offer several possibilities. Practice them until they feel natural. Once you are comfortable with these gestures, be sure to vary them as you speak. Repeating the same gesture over and over can be as distracting as gestures that are meaningless or too broad.
Let both arms hang by your side. This may feel uncomfortable at first but that will become more comfortable with practice.
Keep one hand down and the other at waist level.
Hold both hands at waist height, using one or both to emphasize your point.
Keep elbows free of your body, not clamped tightly to your waist or ribs.
Hands should be relaxed and open.
Building the Power of Your Voice: How to Improve Your Voice to Command Attention & Move People to Action by Dr. June Johnson provides professionals with additional tools that will allow them to perfect their professional speaking.
http://101publicrelations.com/voicepower.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=voice_power
What are common mistakes made when people follow up a news release? A few things.
1. They focus too much on them, and not enough on the story. That would be what I'd call focusing on the advertising, and not on the publicity. The focus is not on you and your story. The focus is how the story helps the reader and the viewer. That's a pretty common mistake.
2. They also either talk too fast or they're just not even pleasant enough to talk to, so that the reporter can't even really get what they're really saying.
3. They don't have their message clear enough-a strong enough focused pitch that's a one- to two-liner, and it's done. When I was interviewing for Gorilla Publicity on what journalists love and hate, one gentleman out of NBC in Denver said he's been in the business for 20 years, producing television, three times a day-and oh, I wish I could do his voice!-but what he said to me was, they have 10 seconds to tell him why they're news and why they're a good story. If they can't do it, he's off the air.
For more follow up mistakes and how to avoid them, read "Failproof Ways to Follow Up After Sending a News Release or Pitch Letter."
http://101publicrelations.com/failprooffollowup.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=fail-proof_follow-up
Should you contact reporters through email? Technology editors want the technology, but most of them are giving out what I call a "public" email address. They never even go to that email box. It just overloads and they ignore it. They have private email addresses, because think of the numbers here. If it's that easy for you to email 10,000 press releases to 10,000 reporters, it's that easy for everybody. So these reporters are finding they are just swamped getting thousands of emails a day. That makes it tough. That's why it's important to know which reporters want the email, and which would rather have the snail-mail, and which would rather have the faxes. For more fantastic tips on how to write great press releases, read How to Write a Killer Press Release That Stops Reporters in Their Tracks
http://101publicrelations.com/killer.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=killer_press_releases
You may not know when a crisis is looming on your company. Be prepared with a crisis communications plan.
Whether big or small, no organization should be without a crisis communications plan.
Crises happen all of the time: it could be a fire, it could be a robbery, it could be a high-profile sexual harassment case, or it could be a major safety issue with one of your products. Whatever it is, it's highly likely that some kind of crisis is going to hit your company sometime in the next couple of years.
There are many aspects to being prepared for a crisis, many of which, frankly, are not worth preparing for in advance, either because of their low probability of occurrence (alien abduction of your entire management team), or the fact that many crises require more real-time attention that a crisis plan simply can't prepare for in advance.
But almost all crises have a consistent element, which you can, and we believe, must plan for in advance - how your company will communicate with the media during and after the crisis.
Why? Because how well your company manages the media during a crisis could determine your whether your company gets hurt, or even sometimes, grows as a result.
In Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing a Plan That Works, Don K. Crowther provides expert techniques and tips for creating a successful and effective crisis communication plan.
http://101publicrelations.com/crisis-communication.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=crisis_communications
When you want to pitch your story to get on national public radio you can do it yourself or you can seek help from a professional. Some people such as authors will choose to just call but another great way to do it is by email.
For an author to cold call, it can be tough. That said, if you don't quite feel comfortable cold calling someone, and you're the author, and you want to pitch the show yourself, maybe an email is the best way to do it. Authors, especially, are really adept at putting words together very nicely and being very persuasive on paper, so that's an option.
There is a lot more great information about getting on national public radio in How to Get Booked on National Public Radio.
http://101publicrelations.com/nationalpublicradio.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=npr
Articulation is the key to successful and professional communication in the business world.
Articulation is the meat and potatoes, the bread and butter of speech. According to the dictionary, articulation is, "The power of speech ... divided into clear and distinct words."
Well-articulated speech calls for:
Energized consonants.
Sentences that flow smoothly, using pauses not gaps.
Pronunciation of all syllables.
Articulation at ending consonants.
Consistent pronunciation of vowels.
Energy maintained throughout the entire sentence.
It takes energy to speak with good articulation. You can have the most beautiful voice in the world but if the consonants are missing or sluggish, the beautiful voice will have little effect.
Building the Power of Your Voice: How to Improve Your Voice to Command Attention & Move People to Action by Dr. June Johnson provides techniques and tips that will help you speak more clearly and effectively on-the-job.
http://101publicrelations.com/voicepower.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=voice_power
When you go in for an interview with a reporter they can sometimes ask mean and "nasty" questions. These tend to scare people and they do not do well in their interviews.
No matter how nasty the questions are asked, the trick is to think in terms of categories. Don't answer the question; look to the category. If there's an accident and somebody's been hurt, the category might be "who's at fault," where you have messages for who's at fault. Now, there's a positive way to ask who's at fault, "What happened here?" That's a very, nice, easy, "What happened? Did somebody make a mistake?" And a nasty way would be, "Is it your janitor's fault for leaving the mop lying out there?" or even nastier, "Who really screwed up here? Who's going to get fired because of this?" The category for both types of questions is "who's at fault." If you have your positive key message about how to say that, and which may well be something like, "We're investigating, and as soon as we find out, we're going to take appropriate action," then you respond appropriately.
If you want to find some more great information about working with reporters you can read How to Keep the Media Wolves at Bay.
Should you have a news conference to announce your event? Don't reporters like news conferences? What is your event is important? It might be but the general answer is no. The media hate news conferences for two reasons. First, so many people call news conferences, and the media often arrive at the news conference and there's absolutely nothing newsworthy going on. And they feel as though they've just wasted their time. But the bigger reason they hate news conferences is because they feel like a herd of cattle. All the media people go into the same barn, they're all fed the same thing, they're all given the same information, and everybody walks out with the same story. That's the broad-brush approach.
The much better approach is to take the time to meet one-on-one with media people and give them each a different kind of a story that best fits with the audience that their media outlet serves. I think that's a much better approach. Media like exclusivity. They like to know that they might be the only ones on a story or that you can really target different pieces of that story for them. Instead, you could also round up some of the biggest local celebrities you can find and do a special tea with the celebrities where people maybe change tables periodically. You can have all kinds of fun with it. You could do mother/daughter teas for Mother's Day. Look at all the big holidays on the calendar where you can tie in your events to holidays, anniversaries, special celebrations, things like that. For more great information and tips on how to create media buzz for your event, read "How to Create Media Buzz When Promoting Your Special Event."
http://101publicrelations.com/buzz.html?utm_source=prideas&utm_content=media_buzz
Your photographs should be sent with sturdy cardboard stiffeners inside the envelope so the art can't be bent in the mail. If you bend a photograph, the surface may crack, and then it can't be reproduced well. Don't skimp on cardboard or postage. After all, you've put a lot of time and money into those shots, and you want them to arrive safely. They should, of course, be sent only by first-class mail, messenger, or overnight courier.
If you are sending digital photographs, use a plastic jewel case inside a diskette mailer to protect the CD-ROM from bending or breaking. Don't be tempted by media mail. The rate is a bargain, but delivery may be slow. Spend the extra money for first class delivery.
If you are submitting photographs to a publication unfamiliar with your organization, be prepared for questions. "Of course we don't accept photos from new organizations until after we have checked them out," says one photo editor. "Otherwise it can get very sticky."
Some small newspapers charge an "engraving" fee when you submit a publicity photo. You should call and ask them about their policies for publicity art. Don't mention the possibility of a fee; wait to see if they bring it up. If the fee is minimal, it will be worth paying because it's probably a great deal less than the cost for the same amount of advertising space.
To learn more about submitting photos the right way see David R. Yale's "How To Get Publicity Photos In Newspapers, Magazines, And On TV"
What makes a press release catchy? It was an event designed to call attention to animal rights, and that really gets your attention, the alliteration, "Million Mutt March" (a play off the Million Man March). Those are qualities that are used in good writing, so why not use them in headlines as well?
If you want to learn this skill of injecting drama and pizzazz, then just start reading headlines and start thinking about what makes them work. When I stand in the supermarket checkout line, I always read the headlines on the women's magazines and just marvel at the skill at which they can make me want to pick up that magazine and find out what are the "7 Tricks that Every Married Woman Should Know in Order to." whatever. Here's one on Yahoo today, and this is timed for Valentine's Day, "Secret to Romantic Intimacy: Skip the Nagging." But it's timely, and even if you read that story before, somebody's going to pick it up and write it this year. Here's another one. This is on a science story. Now you would think that a story about some discovery of the geological composition of the rocks on Mars would have to be very dry and unimaginative. Well, here's the headline, "Water on Mars, But Not a Drop to Drink." Think about plays on words and putting a little fun in the headline once you have that clarity. For more tips on how to write fantastic press releases, read "The Do-It-Yourself Press Release Makeover."
Copyright © 2006 by Breakthrough Consulting, All Rights Reserved.
