Tag Archive for 'publicity'

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% [?]


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% [?]


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% [?]