Tag Archive for 'media relations'

PR Success Strategies For Your Business - PR Conference

Published
by
Robynn
on October 14, 2008
in Public Relations
. 4 Comments

If you’re looking to expand your media knowledge and learn highly effective practical PR skills, then the PR Success Strategies For Your Business conference is not to be missed. This full-day conference is going to be jam-packed with invaluable insights into the media, best practices in PR and publicity success strategies. 

THE DETAILS:
- 20 November 2008.
- 08:30 - 17:00.
- The Forum, Victoria & Alfred Hotel, Cape Town.
- Early Bird Special: R2500 until 3 November (R2750 thereafter).
Limited seats remaining, register here.

 

YOU WILL LEARN:
- The power of PR & how to apply it to your business.
- How to think like a journalist & understand the needs of the media.
- PR and publicity best-practices and success strategies.
- Top publicity and media relations tips, direct from journalists themselves.
- How to effectively pitch your ideas to journalists.
- Best media relationship building ideas.
- Top tips on using social media for business.
- How to use online PR to boost your exposure and reputation, plus online reputation management.
PLUS:
- A practical workshop session on mapping your message - how to define and fine-tune your core message to the media.
- Discover new publicity angles and story ideas.

Find more details on the conference and the speakers here: http://www.encyclomedia.co.za/events/.

Popularity: 24% [?]


Great Example of a Pre-Pitch PR Introduction

Published
by
Robynn
on August 20, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 0 Comments

Before sending out your press releases to the journalists in your media database, have you ever tried sending an introductory email to ask whether the journalist would in fact be interested in receiving the type of press releases and angles you have planned?

A PR professional named Scott Duehlmeier did just that when he sent a short, descriptive email to a well-known blogger, Chris Brogan, asking if Chris would be interested in receiving further emails with PR announcements from their clients.

Have a look at Scott’s email on Chris’ post “Great PR manners go a long way”. Chris refers to it as “a very polite, very personal-seeming opt-in letter”, which came across well because it was “human-sounding”.

Unfortunately, far too many journalists (and bloggers) are on the receiving end of the spray-and-pray press release distribution approach. Even though software can automatically enter the journalist’s name into the email, they can mostly tell that they’re part of a mass mailing, especially if it starts with “I thought you’d find this interesting”.

Nothing beats personalised, thoughtful communication if you want a good response from the journalists. Of course, if all you’re looking for is a long list of media contacts to tick off and show to your client, then you may need to revisit what your PR goals are.

For some great tips on how journalists like to be pitched to, sign up for this free media pitching tips email series. It’s full of advice on various PR-related topics from editors, producers and journalists across South Africa.

Popularity: 23% [?]


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% [?]


How To Really Irritate a Journo in The First 5 Seconds

Published
by
Robynn
on April 4, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 7 Comments

It’s simple. If you start a phone call with “Hi, how are you?” you are looking for trouble.

Perhaps you’ve heard that public relations people are sometimes referred to as PR sales people? This is not because the poor journalists aren’t savvy enough to know the difference, it’s because people in our own PR industry are creating this perception - often unwittingly. In fact, some are so unconscious to the effect that their sloppy PR habits have, that they get upset and exclaim “how rude!” when an exasperated journalist doesn’t want to hear another irrelevant PR pitch.

I think I need a quick disclaimer here: I am not saying that journalists should be excused for being rude, there is no excuse for that. But after hearing some of their stories, I can understand why blood pressure levels rise as often as they do. 

Ok, so getting back to the PR/sales person comparison. Here’s what you can do to avoid a negative impression when making your call:

- Introduce yourself upfront.
Only untrained telemarketers selling dodgy products start a conversation with a bubbly “hi, how are you?” in an attempt to “build rapport”. The only thing this does is build scepticism. First say who you are and what company you’re calling from. No-one wants to make small talk when they don’t know who they’re dealing with; journalists generally don’t want to make small talk at all.

- You don’t need to be everyone’s best friend.
Get to the point and then be friendly, in that order. Once you’ve built a good relationship with a journalist, then you can chat away about your weekend plans and the weather. But up until that point, simply give the journalists what they need in a professional manner.

Please, for your own sake and for the sanity of the journalists you’re dealing with, understand why “hi, how are you?” just doesn’t work. Then pass on the tip to all of your colleagues too (despite its obviousness), because somewhere out there some PR people are unknowingly sabotaging all your hard media relations work.

What’s obvious to one is obviously not obvious to everyone.

Popularity: 7% [?]


PR Awards - Creating More Division?

Published
by
Robynn
on March 27, 2008
in Public Relations
. 4 Comments

PRISA’s PRISM AwardsThe 11th PRISA PRISM Awards took place last night in Midrand, with the Gautrain Project walking away with the top awards. According to the comments appearing on Bizcommunity, several people aren’t happy about this and are looking for comments from PRISA.

But before I get into that, I’d firstly like to say well done to everyone who won awards. Then, secondly, I’d like to ask why I seem to be the only one (please let me be wrong) congratulating people/companies on their efforts. Yes, I hear the argument that the competition is only open to PRISA members (apparently that’s a misperception though - see comments below) and it’s always the usual suspects that take part. I also know that many award-deserving companies don’t feel the need to register with PRISA and will therefore never be acknowledged in these awards. So yes, the pool from which the winning PR campaigns are chosen is possibly not very deep.

But nevertheless, these PR companies took the initiative and went to the effort of submitting their case studies to get acknowledgement for their work. There’s nothing wrong with winning an award for that, irrespective of how many companies actually took part. A Marketingweb article earlier this week asked people to list top SA PR practitioners or companies, ahead of the PRISA awards ceremony. It was sad to see that so few took the opportunity to congratulate their peers and colleagues. So once again, congratulations to all the winning (and award-deserving) companies!

Coming back to the Gautrain issue, I don’t know how PRISA’s judging process works and until we know that, no-one can really objectively criticise their decision. Ideally, the key journalists’ who cover the Gautrain project should have been asked for their opinions on the effectiveness of the Gautrain’s PR team. It is a “Media Relations” award, isn’t it?

Just to let you know, I am not a PRISA member. I do, however, feel that we need a strong, healthy industry body and I’ve been keen to chat to some of the PRISA board members about this - if only they would’ve returned my calls.

I’ve just visited the PRISA website to see if I could find any media releases about the awards, but alas their newsroom link doesn’t work in Firefox and their home page still says that “judging is taking place now”.

Popularity: 8% [?]


Instant Media Turnoff

Published
by
Robynn
on February 29, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 1 Comment

I’ve just finished a phone call with an editor covering the marketing and media industry in South Africa. She received a press release this week from a PR practitioner where 60 email addresses were included in the recipient list, for all to see. 60! Naturally, the editor said that she didn’t bother to read any further, it was simply deleted without remorse.

Think of this from a journalist’s perspective. If you see that a media release has been sent to 20, 30 or 60 (gasp!) other people covering your beat and industry, what thoughts would possibly be going through your mind? Probably something like this: “if Sally, Susan and Peter are covering this, then why should I bother?”

Personalised and exclusive
A journalist will not use your media release if there is a chance that another competing magazine or newspaper will cover the same story, or at least the same angle of the story. That’s why journalists love exclusives. It gives them a chance to give their readers something unique, something that their target audience can’t read, hear or view anywhere else.

Many PR companies aim to get as much coverage as possible and will send the media release to as many people as possible (including those who left the publication two years ago). But if you’re employing the “spray-and-pray” method to achieve this, then you’re probably wondering why you get no coverage at all.

Well, now you know.

And don’t try the BCC tactic. Journalists receive enough emails every day to spot the personalised emails from the … well, let’s just call it what it is: PR spam.

Popularity: 7% [?]


Sunday = smart-day for media relations

Published
by
Robynn
on February 24, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 2 Comments

Why am I sitting in front of my computer writing this post on a Sunday afternoon, with such gorgeous weather in Cape Town? Well, it’s just to let you know that I am not the only one sitting at my desk, missing out on an extra degree of sunburn.

Journalists working for daily newspapers are hard at work right now compiling tomorrow’s newspaper. What, did you think they put the whole paper together on Friday afternoon before they left for the weekend? No, Friday’s news is old news. Their week starts today and ends on Thursday. Now some of you already know this and your eyes are glazing over, so let me get straight to the point. When a public relations practitioner or publicist gets into the office on a Monday morning, they only have four days within which to pitch their media releases to these newspaper journalists and editors – the same four days that every other PR person is trying to get through.

Be smart, call them on a Sunday. Daily newspaper journalists have been telling us here at Encyclomedia that their phones are dead quiet on a Sunday, which I’m sure comes as a welcome relief to many of them. However, they still need good content to fill the newspaper so that they can make an impact on their readers by Monday morning.

So if you have a good idea that you’ve researched, a good story that will interest the readers, then take a few minutes next Sunday and make the call. Make yourself stand out and build a better relationship with a journalist. Just think how much more effective you’ll be.

Ok, so now that I’ve said my bit, I’m off to enjoy some more sunshine.

Popularity: 4% [?]