Author Archive for Robynn

Mastering the Art of Communication

Published
by
Robynn
on July 7, 2008
in Communication skills
. 0 Comments

For those Capetonians interested in building greater networks, learning how to positively influence people and how to improve your professional and personal relationships, keep your schedule open on Wednesday night.

Dr Demartini, international authority on maximising human awareness and potential (among many things), is on his way to Cape Town this week to present a few talks and seminars. On Wednesday he’ll be talking about “Empowering relationships - mastering the art of communication”. It’s at 19:30 at the Westin Grand (next to the CTICC).

Dr John DemartiniAlthough I’ve heard him speak on this topic before, I’m not missing this one, because apart from being a philosopher, teacher, author and international speaker, Dr Demartini is an absolute genius and he generously shares his inspirational insights.

On Thursday night, this self-made multi-millionaire will be doing a talk on how to build wealth (no matter the obstacles) and master your finances. For these two talks, you can book through Computicket or find out more on Dr Demartini’s event schedule.

Friday night sees him joining a Going4Gold event where he’ll be talking about activating vision, how to be the difference and live an inspired and amazing life.

Popularity: 8% [?]


Must-Have PR Book - A Perfect Press Release

Published
by
Robynn
on June 19, 2008
in Public Relations
. 4 Comments

Almost every PR person comes across this problem at some stage or another: their client wants every major national media to cover their little ribbon-cutting ceremony; or they insist on adding their own flowery adjectives and industry jargon to your neatly-crafted news releases. This book will help.

A Perfect Press Release... Or Not?A Perfect Press Release…Or Not? by Jennigay Coetzer is a highly practical book, which jumps straight into useful advice right from the first paragraph. Although it’s mostly a “how-to” type of guide, it also offers some strategic advice to senior PR practitioners. Importantly, it is written so that any CEO or business person can understand what a press release should be, what it should never be and why.

I highly recommend that PR consultants and agency owners give a copy of this book to each of their clients as part of some essential media training. It will go a long way to streamline the press release approval process and possibly prevent a lot of frustration (and no, I’m not being paid a cent for saying this).  :)

This book should also be prescribed reading for all PR interns and junior staff as a quick way to cover all the basics and best-practices, along with Encyclomedia’s free Media Pitching Tips Revealed email series.

Popularity: 14% [?]


Marketingweb’s Tips To Get Your Press Release Published

Published
by
Robynn
on June 10, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 2 Comments

The editorial staff at Marketingweb receive over a thousand press releases each week. In order to make sure that your media release stands out, they’ve very kindly published their top nine guidelines on how to get your story published.

These simple guidelines and tips can be applied to any journalist you plan to contact, although certain journalists will have their own pitching tips and preferences regarding email attachments and follow-up calls. Nonetheless, it’s a very good summary of some of the best practices in pitching your PR stories.

Also have a look at Encyclomedia’s Media Pitching Tips Revealed series. It’s a free email series with tips and advice straight from South African journalists on what works best and what PR tactics to avoid.

Popularity: 9% [?]


Sad Situation - PRISA National Conference Cancelled

Published
by
Robynn
on June 9, 2008
in Public Relations
. 0 Comments

The Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA) has cancelled its annual conference, which was set to take place next week. The official reason: low bookings due to the recent xenophobic violence and unrest in Gauteng. Is it just me, or does this sound somewhat like a story that’s been spun?

Zimbabweans living in the townships have had a terrifying time trying to travel via public transport. But public relations practitioners travelling by plane and by car are in a very different situation, very far away from experiencing any xenophobic attacks. I find it hard to believe that people outside of Gauteng would decide not to attend the conference for this reason, it just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps the increase in petrol prices would be a more believable reason.

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but it actually isn’t the point. I completely agree with Louise Marsland where she says that PRISA’s statement - citing xenophobic violence as the sole reason for low bookings - is highly irresponsible. According to a statement by PRISA’s president, Mixael de Kock, South Africa will have great difficulty in restoring its reputation following the recent xenophobic attacks. The statement said “PRISA is ready to play its part in strategising the country’s communication efforts in the months to come”.

Hmm, so after fanning the flame you then offer to help put it out?

The planning of this conference has been going on for months, whereas the xenophobic violence has only flared up over the last few weeks. The conference organisers could’ve seen early on how the bookings compared with those of previous years at the same stage of planning. If the sales were slow, they could’ve used their strategic skills to make changes or increase the marketing and PR efforts much earlier. Granted, South Africans love to leave things for the last minute, so perhaps they were counting on a mass charge for tickets in the last month.

To my mind, perhaps the biggest barrier to ticket sales was the choice of topics covered during the conference. Covering “Communication - The Sixth Sense“, topics ranged from the nature of intelligence and consciousness to neuro-semantics and neuro-hermeneutics. Although these topics fascinate me and I can definitely see the benefit of these for communication in general, I’m probably in the minority.

The choice to cover these topics was very brave and perhaps even pioneering for a conservative type of organisation like PRISA. I applaud them for trying something new, but considering that it is such a new angle, surely they should’ve done their homework first to see if the idea would take, or at least keep a very close watch on ticket sales in the early stages. PRISA plans to reschedule the conference for September and they say they will tweak various aspects of the offering to make it an even better event.

The biggest irony for me is that a conference covering emotional, social, ethical and spiritual intelligence is cancelled due to fears of unrest, which is perhaps not the most ethical or socially aware response. I really am sad for PRISA that the conference has been cancelled, but I can’t help but wonder if it could’ve been avoided or could’ve been handled differently.

Popularity: 8% [?]


Managing Perceptions Around Social Media - Does Your Client Get It?

Published
by
Robynn
on June 6, 2008
in WebPR
. 0 Comments

Gerry McCusker’s post on PR Disasters.com asks if the term ”Social Media” is a misnomer and possibly acts as an inhibitor to adoption. The argument being that social media just sounds lightweight to many CEOs and traditional marketing heads.

“It’s that thing my kid spends all his time on instead of doing his homework, right? Too much socialising and nothing else.” But, the teens that’ve been brought up on social media have a very different perception of it - kind of like the way a fish feels about the water it swims in. It’s just part of the way they communicate and the way they work.

There’s not much we can do now about changing the actual term and we certainly don’t need to, because the users of social media completely get the purpose, usefulness and benefits of it (or at least many of them do). They are also our future CEOs and business leaders.

But what we can do in the meantime is to sharpen our skills on how we pitch the concept to those clients, CEOs and colleagues who couldn’t be bothered with this new web0.2-socialising-thingamajig. Public relations is largely about managing perceptions and that’s exactly what we need to do here.

The art of communication is finding a way of communicating your message so that it matches the values (or priorities) of your audience. Your client won’t rate the concept of webPR and blogging very highly if it’s only being done because it’s the lattest, hottest trend. That means nothing to a business person. But if you pitch your online marketing, social media and webPR plans in terms of real business objectives, then it’s far easier to grasp. Like the SEO benefits of driving more traffic to the website and thereby increasing sales; the ability to more easily establish, affect and monitor your online reputation, thereby creating more credibility and increasing sales; the ability to get faster feedback, make improvements and then increase sales.

It’s really all about the money at the end of the day. If social media simply comes across as a cool, trendy, fun, time-wasting thing to do, then the big corporates and traditional clients will never risk it. Smart public relations people will know how to rephrase their pitches with words like “influencers” instead of “bloggers”, “business networking” or “network media” instead of “social networks” to ensure that they’re using the language their audience understands best.

Popularity: 10% [?]


Top 15 PR Blogs I’ve Read

Published
by
Robynn
on June 4, 2008
in Public Relations
. 10 Comments

This is a quick list of some of the best international PR, publicity and media relations related blogs that I’ve read recently (and there are many, many more that I haven’t read yet). I’m not numbering them, because this list is not in order of priority or greatness, it’s just a random order - you can see which blogs appeal to you most.

- The Bad Pitch Blog: “An award-winning public relations resource from Richard Laermer and Kevin Dugan, since January 2006. Read our Wrath.”

- BuzzMachine: “Jeff Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com.”

- The Buzz Bin: Geoff Livingston & Livingston Communications.

- Allied: Jeneane Sessum. “Allied is Jeneane’s personal weblog, which covers cultural, social, and professional topics ranging from race and gender issues, to marketing and PR, to pet hamsters.”


(Too much good content out there and too many things to do. Picture Source: Krelic on Flickr)

- POP! PR Jots: Jeremy Pepper.

- Catching Flack: Jon Greer. “Smart ways to win the public relations game.”

- GreenBanana: Heather Yaxley. “Connecting ideas, thoughts and comment because if you’re green, you’re growing.”

- Open (minds, finds, conversations): Antony Mayfield.

- PR Disasters: “PR disasters, spin doctors and reputation management gone wrong, by PR analyst and author Gerry McCusker.”

- PR-Squared: Todd Defren. “Conversations about social media + marketing.”

- A shel of my former self: Shel Holtz.

- Micro Persuasion: “Steve Rubel explores the impact of digital trends on business, culture, media and marketing.”

- PR 2.0: Brian Solis. “Shaping the convergence of social media, PR, web marketing & technology - Live, from the edge.”

- NevilleHobson.com: “Welcome to NevilleHobson.com - the place at the intersection of business, communication and technology. Sometimes, it’s a collision.”

- Communication Overtones: Kami Huyse. “Conversations at the intersection of public relations and social media…”

 


Have a look at the PR Friendly Index for a list (according to ranking) of many more PR blogs.

Popularity: 100% [?]


The Way You End Your Emails May End Your Media Relations

Published
by
Robynn
on May 30, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 2 Comments

Stuart Jeffries wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday on “A guide to signing off your emails“. He raises some interesting points about netiquette and how PR practitioners should avoid faking a sense of intimacy through over-familiar email endings.

Although Stuart yearns for a return to proper business correspondence, personally, I always avoid what feels like overly formal communication, such as addressing someone with “dear sir”, or ending an email with “yours faithfully”. It just feels dishonest. Not that it’s untruthful, but rather, by using these standardised formalities, it strips all sense of individuality. Your real message, feeling and tone gets muffled.

Don’t get me wrong though, there is always a place and time for the formal, business communication style. Also, I’m certainly not suggesting a descent into colloquial, over-familiar chit-chat with the business contacts and journalists you email.  As an example, I did a double-take today when I opened an email from a job applicant I have never met, which started with “Hi there”. Hmm, not really appropriate as a first time introduction, considering the applicant already knew my full name.

So what is appropriate in emails to journalists? Is “warm regards” too warm and fuzzy? Stuart Jeffries seems to think so, although he’s received far worse. In my case, I’m a warm-blooded human being, a pretty friendly one at that, so I regularly use “warm regards” to end my emails. Although, if I’m emailing a complete stranger I normally opt for the slightly more stand-offish “kind regards”, or more formal “best regards”.

While “warm regards” might still be debatable, “love and kisses”, “xoxo”, “ciao” and “cheers” definitely are not. You might well be filled with divine “light and love” at the time of sending, but these phrases are reserved for friends and family only.

You can’t try to imitate a closer relationship with someone by using an over-friendly ending to your email. You’re more likely to cause the opposite reaction and irritate the journalist.

Phrases like “God bless” and “take care” can also be irritating when received by a stranger. The words come across as empty or insincere when you are asking someone that you have never met to take care. Why? What for?

When in doubt, rather stick to a neutral email ending, such as:
Regards,
Kind regards,
Best regards,
Thank you,

By the way, by not using a sign-off at all, you will come across as curt or rude. Read more about email sign-offs and other email etiquette on NetManners.com.

Popularity: 18% [?]


Leveraging Your Publicity - Why Not?

Published
by
Robynn
on May 30, 2008
in Public Relations
. 0 Comments

One of my clients forwarded an email to me last week (sorry I didn’t get to share this with you until now), where she pointed out a simple, yet very effective marketing message she received from Dawn Wing Couriers.

The email simply referred to an upcoming guest appearance of their CEO, Mike Fanucchi, on 702 Talk Radio. Dawn Wing’s marketing manager invited their clients to share their comments and opinions during the show. The email provided all the details of the interview and the studio number.

Why does an email like this stand out? Well, for some of Dawn Wing’s clients it probably doesn’t. But PR practitioners would certainly recognise this as a way of leveraging publicity. In this case, it was done in an excellent way. It’s not boastful to tell interested people about the media coverage you’ve gained, it’s smart - especially if it’s done in the spirit of sharing information about topics that would interest others.

If you’ve done all the hard work and research to organise a great radio interview or magazine feature, surely you would want as many people as possible to hear it or read it. That is, after all, the whole point. Who better to inform about your media coverage than your existing networks - the brand or company’s employees, clients and suppliers. They can then spread the message to other people who would be interested.

This is so obvious, yet I’m not sure how many PR companies and publicists actually have systems in place or set time aside to really leverage the hard work they’ve already done.

Popularity: 7% [?]


Mother’s Day or Mothers Day - Quick Lesson on Apostrophes

Published
by
Robynn
on May 13, 2008
in Communication skills
. 6 Comments

After Mother’s Day this past weekend, we’ve all seen enough adverts, posters, junk mail and retail signage to remind us of just where and how to spend our money spoiling mom. Of course, Mother’s Day promotional mailers and press releases were abundant too, but apparently the time for checking grammar was not.

In an email titled “Mothers should be Mother’s” (huh?), a well-known global skin care brand couldn’t quite decide which plural was correct, so they simply used them all. 

“This month we’re celebrating mothers’ everywhere…”

“The perfect gift for Mothers Day.”

And a little further in the email…

“The perfect gift for Mother’s Day.”

Ok, so not everyone is a grammar guru and apostrophes can be particularly tricky. But by nature, apostrophes tend to stick out, so here’s a quick lesson on how to use the darn things and get it right. 

There are several uses for apostrophes. They can be used to show the plural of an abbreviation, letters and numbers (there are two m’s in accommodation). They are also used in time expressions (one day’s leave). Here are the two other uses that I’ll focus on a bit more:

1. Apostrophes replace missing letters.
Examples:
- We’re celebrating. (In full: we are)
- Don’t buy this. (In full: do not)

Please note that “it’s” is short for “it is” or “it has”. It is not the same as “its”.
- It’s been a great lesson. (In full: It has been a great lesson.)
- Its whiskers are long.

2. Apostrophes show possession.
Examples:
- John’s coffee is great. (Whose coffee is great?)
- That shop’s flowers are fresh.

Before or after the s? This depends on whether the word is plural or singular. To show singular possession, put the apostrophe before the s. To show plural possession, put the apostrophe after the s.
Examples:
- The cats’ bowls are empty. (Many hungry cats.)
- The cat’s bowls are empty. (One hungry and thirsty cat.)

The reason why so many people get it wrong is because there are several confusing exceptions. Plural words that don’t end in s have the apostrophe before the s when showing possession.
Examples:
- The people’s poet.
- The children’s jackets.

Here’s another exception:
- James’ car is red. - Interestingly, James’s is also grammatically correct. It depends on whether you pronounce the word “James” or “Jamesiz”. The spell checker shows that James’s is incorrect though (and it just looks strange to me), so I prefer to stick to the first option.

As an example of people getting it wrong, here’s a piece out of a CV I received recently:

“Worked at a Candy flosss stand Andys’s Candy. Worker at Cathys’s gift shop. Worked as a manager for Ann’’s Beauty Salon.”

To learn more about apostrophes, here is a good grammar lesson that I used to check my facts for this post. :)

Popularity: 36% [?]


Email Subject Line Tip - Get Noticed

Published
by
Robynn
on April 25, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 0 Comments

My resident media expert at Encyclomedia, Chantal, was speaking to a radio producer yesterday about his contact preferences and pitching tips and he gave a great tip that I’d like to share with you. It’s simple, perhaps it’s even really obvious, but I can guarantee you that very few PR practitioners practice this.

After pitching your idea to a journalist over the phone, when you then email your media release, write the following in your subject line: [Journalist’s name], we’ve just spoken - [concise headline].

For example: Thabo, we’ve just spoken - Purple pumpkin discovered in Potgietersrus.

According to this Kaya FM producer, he receives so many emails that even though you have discussed the idea with him, he may still miss your email. But by using his suggestion above, while scanning through the subject lines, he’ll be able to spot your email and media release straight away.

Popularity: 8% [?]