When you are faced with the need to manage an issue on behalf of your organization, choose your words carefully. This may sound like I’m telling you to be careful not to use certain words that may offend, which is partially true, but if this is all you take away, you’re setting yourself up for defeat.… Read the rest
The landscape for pitching local news stories has shrunk dramatically in recent years. Not only have newspapers transitioned to mostly online platforms, drastically cutting newsroom staffs, but the platforms and newscasts have changed as well.
There simply isn’t the space, the airtime or the available newsroom staff to cover all of the news they may have covered as recently as three-to-five years ago.… Read the rest
One of the more common questions new clients have when it comes to media relations is, “How do we get started?”
Here’s a quick summary.
Information-gathering/Discovery – Anyone who’s a fan of legal or crime dramas is familiar with the term “discovery.” This is the phase of the legal case where the attorneys work to ‘discover’ as much information about the case as possible.… Read the rest
For as long as I’ve been in the PR business, the format of just about every proposal I’ve created and every proposal I’ve read features the budget page at the end. There’s a purpose for this. It’s important to talk about what you’re going to do before talking about how much it will cost. This is logical and it’s very important to both the sales and purchasing process.… Read the rest
There is a fine line between what used to be called “cause marketing” and disingenuous virtue signaling in your marketing communications programs. I tend to prefer neither, and much prefer when your actual corporate values stand for something.
An example of the disingenuous kind of virtue signal marketing is when brands and marketers use “greenwashing” strategies.… Read the rest
A lot of media relations programs stagnate when the organization has nothing new to talk about. PR teams sit and wait for something to happen so that they can create a news release or a news alert. They wait for the organization’s management or the client to tell them something new is happening or about to happen within the organization.… Read the rest
In a conversation with an old journalism school classmate one time, we talked about some of our pet peeves when it comes to reporting. She has been a long-time serious journalist, and I’ve been in the PR profession for just as long. That’s why we found it amusing that one thing that bothered both of us is when reporters frame certain allegations in their coverage with, “Critics say.”… Read the rest
After producing over 240 episodes of my podcast called Shaping Opinion, I’ve interviewed a wide range of people, some who’ve had a lot of experience with media interviews, and others not so much.
Still, for the better guests, it really didn’t matter how much experience they’ve had doing interviews so long as they could tell a story.… Read the rest
Let me tell you about two situations where companies wanted me to guarantee specific media results. Both were foreign-owned firms, which is relevant from a media culture perspective.
The first one was a steel service center that sold piping for industrial uses. It had approached me about possibly working with them on public relations matters in the U.S. … Read the rest
One of the more popular means for consuming information for Internet users is video, yet video remains one of the more difficult channels to sustain for organizations. Why?
It all comes down to time, money, daily disruptions and constantly changing priorities.
You can commit to a social media schedule or even a blog schedule, because staff members can create the content on a somewhat more flexible schedule.… Read the rest