Posts Tagged with Media Relations
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Heart racing, palms sweating… no, you’re not having a heart attack. You’re pitching your first story as an intern or entry-level pro. Whew! it can be nerve wracking, for sure. Through a good process, you can feel prepared and confident in your delivery. Know “why.” What’s the point of the media relations effort? What’s the big picture? How does this release, this pitch fit into what the client/company wants to accomplish? It’s ok to ask. You’re not just “smiling and dialing,” asking why can help you craft a better pitch, but also helps you understand the business of public relations and the media relations function. Know the story. Understand not only the primary story, but all the potential angles. You may not be able to pitch the primary story to every editor (in fact, you probably can’t). Create, refine and refine again your media list. An awesomely targeted and strategically... Continue Reading
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“…PR people are ruining social media…” “…P.R. people drive me crazy…” “…PR sucks…” Okay, that last one is more of a paraphrase than a quote, but you get the point. PR has taken a bit of a lashing recently. Beyond being tired, cliche and trite, the “PR Sucks” meme is an informal fallacy - a straw man argument. The assertion of most of these pieces is that because much of PR (particularly agency work and especially over the last 20 years) has been focused on earned media (media relations), that PR people are not suited/incapable/really bad at social media strategy and implementation. That media relations models don’t work in the social world, so clearly we’re ill-suited. But media relations of course is only one specialized function – this argument reveals more about the respective writers’ (lack of) experience or limited view of PR and its role in management than it does... Continue Reading
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I’m just wrapping up a weekend in Seattle where I was a keynote at the Pacific Northwest President Elect Training Seminar, so I’m a bit late on my weekly best-of. In fact, I can tell that I’ll be running to catch up with myself this week… so here we go! You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here. Oregon has the third largest twitter usage per capita of anywhere in the U.S. Sweet! Ten really (really!) great tips for acing the job interview (and, as someone remarked to me via twitter, for acing conversations!). Josh Bernoff shares that half the pitches he receives are irrelevant and shares some tips and a good pitch. Rogue Tweet! this was a great example of a mis-tweet and recovery from the Red Cross. What do you think? Need to convince yourself – or others –... Continue Reading
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Wow! I actually had to stop looking at my feedreader. Way too much good stuff to share this week. Enjoy! What skills (tangible or conceptual) do public relations students need as they graduate from college? I asked this question on Quora, the newest shiny object that social media peeps are paying attention to. Check out the great responses I got back. And share your thoughts! Please, Facebook: Help shameless recruitniks help themselves by Andy Staples at Sports Illustrated. A tongue-in-cheek open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, asking for a Facebook shut down to save all those football recruits from themselves. An interesting look at college football and social media. The History of Social Media from Mashable I love infographics. This one is a timeline, going back to the first email that was sent. An interesting response post could be just to share your thoughts about how these tools have changed your... Continue Reading
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Stuff like this irks me. According to a study of Australian newspapers, more than 50 percent of the content was “driven by some sort of public relations.” This isn’t the first time I’ve heard stats like this, and it’s not even the largest percent I’ve seen. What irks me is the tone. Oh dear God… PR might have an influence on media coverage? Oh the humanity! Those PR people are evil! I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Let’s be real. Without public relations people most organizations, nonprofits, government agencies (even little ones like parks and recreation, human right commissions or your public library), entrepreneurs, start-up companies, etc. would not have a voice in the marketplace of ideas. They wouldn’t be able to tell their stories. If it weren’t for PR people, how would that work? So, yeah, sometimes that takes a press release or a pitch. And sometimes those... Continue Reading
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Public relations professionals are, I would argue, faced with ethical decisions every day. They might be small or they might be life or death. In this business, the “product” we have is our integrity and credibility. Doing things that breech either can damage your reputation and your ability to be effective and just do your job. My best all-purpose advice is to develop a decision making process for yourself and to think through in advance, how you’ll handle difficult situations. One of the trickiest areas of practice for PR professionals is dealing with the media. Spin, control and manipulation can not be part of your repertoire. Period. Some specific (and basic) tips for behaving ethically in a media relations function. Don’t lie. People will find out. And in this day-and-age, they will find out more quickly and the backlash will be broader and more far reaching than ever before. You’d... Continue Reading
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The ability to work with the media is our “value added” in public relations (and one of the key reasons PR is in the journalism school at the UofO)… So when you want to add a media relations strategy to a client plan or proposal, how do you do it? “Get [my organization] on morning talk shows” is not a media relations strategy. First, think about your target audience. You need to have a solid understanding of who your target audience is. Have you painted a picture that makes it clear what media they use and respond to. If not, do more research. Once you’re comfortable with your understanding on the audience, you’re ready to move forward with recommended strategy. Your strategy needs to include your key messages and the tone of the media materials that you will create. For example, say you’re working with a local humane society on... Continue Reading
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20 Jun 2010, Kelli Matthews