One of the most important steps toward taking a podcast to the next level is also one of the most commonly skipped steps. There may be many reasons for this, from not wanting to confront limitations, to the fact that there are so many different types of podcasts and podcasters, so there isn’t one standard. But if I had to guess, I’d say the leading one is that this step is not so simple or easy.… Read the rest
Category Archives: Content Development & Writing
Media Relations: Tell Us What We Don’t Know
As a blogger, a contributor to business and trade media, and as a podcaster, I get my share of pitches from fellow PR professionals. One of the things I notice quite often is how the pitches usually center on assumptions, ‘revelations,’ or other news hooks that are all about things we already know.
A new study finds that consumers avoid higher prices and go for discounts.… Read the rest
Baseball and the Fine Art of Selling ‘Hope’
The following blog post was originally posted on January 28, 2020, just before the pandemic that would change everything. Baseball wasn’t the same that year or since. In anticipation of next week’s MLB Opening Day games across the country, we’re re-posting this slightly updated version.
The grass on baseball fields in Florida and Arizona is getting lush right now, ready for the annual rite that is Major League Baseball spring training and those sunny exhibition games.… Read the rest
The Teddy Roosevelt Speech that Every PR Professional Should Know
After decades of working with and dealing with the media on a wide range of topics and matters, one of the more common patterns I’ve noticed is something that President Teddy Roosevelt spoke about in his famous “Man in the Arena” speech. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Before we do, it’s important to understand what this has to do with the public relations business.… Read the rest
Media Interviewing: Don’t Name Names
Since 2018, I’ve produced over 230 episodes of the Shaping Opinion Podcast, which is released weekly. In all of those episodes I only had to go back and edit one after it was posted because I made the mistake of letting the guest name names.
More to the point, the guest told a few stories that were unflattering to the two or three individuals mentioned in our interview.… Read the rest
Crisis Communications: Is it Time for Your Crisis PR Reset?
One thing that gets talked about a lot in the public relations business is crisis communications. You read articles like this one, perhaps you go to conferences or participate in webinars on the topic. You follow people on social media who give you a steady diet of crisis PR tips and tricks. But what is the current state of your crisis management readiness?… Read the rest
March Madness is Not All About Basketball, It’s About Community
The biggest misconception about the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as “March Madness” is that it’s all about basketball. It’s not. If it was, fans would watch a lot more college basketball between December through March.
So, what is it about?
In a word, it’s about “community.”
Start with the annual rite of filling out a bracket.… Read the rest
Inconsistency is the Death of Credibility
One of the mistakes people make when they point out someone else’s hypocrisy is that they assume that everyone understands that the inherent inconsistency undermines the credibility of the hypocrite.
Years ago, that may have been more practical but not today.
One of the more glaring examples of this is when a group of students who don’t like a visiting guest speaker, so they decide to shout down that speaker when he comes to campus.… Read the rest
Media Relations: Building a Stronger SME Pool
One of the biggest challenges in media relations is not only having the right spokesperson on a given topic but having enough subject matter experts (SMEs) to go around.
Not every organization or every media relations program can be solely reliant on one spokesperson for everything. No matter how large or small your organization, it may not be fitting for that one person to try to speak to everything.… Read the rest