PR 101

First, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. As my Irish cousins would day:

May the best day of your past

Be the worst day of your future.

Now onto the rant. In this one, I am channeling my former colleagues in journalism. Some of them read Monday’s blog on press releases. They contacted me and asked to add some other things about press releases. Most of their requests covered the same things I used to complain about. Some things never change.

So, let’s cover them:

• Make sure all of your information has been proofread. There should not be any typographical errors, the names should be spelled correctly, the times should be right and none of the addresses should be wrong. Reporters and bloggers are very sensitive about putting mistakes into print, onto the Web or on the air. Sure, they can later explain it was your fault. But, people usually don’t remember that. The reporter will get blamed. By including that error, you have made the reporter look bad. Think that person is ever going to trust you again?
• Along those same lines, make sure every piece of information you provide is accurate. Have the experts check whatever you write. Same reasons as above. Plus, if you don’t want it made public, do not put in anything that will go to the press. Once it is in the release and winging its way to the media, it’s too late. There are no do-overs in something like this. Calling up a reporter or a blogger and asking them not publish something pretty much guarantees it will be.
• In particular, make sure the contact information for follow-ups is accurate. In addition, realize reporters work different hours than most people – other than the police and nurses – do. A number should be listed where you can be reached after so-called normal business hours. If a editor has a question at 9 p.m. and the reporter doesn’t know the answer, that writer has to be able to reach you to get the answer. If you cannot be reached, a story might not run.
• Make sure when you send the information out there is a headline that clearly says what it is. Don’t get cute. If a blogger, reporter or editor cannot figure in about 30 seconds what the press release is about, odds are good it will get deleted. That goes for social media releases also.
• Make sure your sending the traditional or social media release to the right reporter. Do your research on who it should go to. That’s very important. Read the paper or the blogger so you know what they write about. And make sure you are targeting the correct publication. Do your research to ensure the place you are sending the information to cares about the topic.
• I always advise calling the reporter or blogger before you send the information to gauge their interest and to give them a heads up. If they are not interested, they are not going to change their minds. I promise you that, so don’t send it anyway. If one reporter or editor rejects your information, don’t send it to someone else at the same publication. It ticks them all off. No means no.
• If they do say yes, ask them when you call back to see if they have any questions. Again, if they say they will call you back, let them. Don’t become a pest. What’s important to you might not be as important to the reporter.
• As for embargoes and exclusives, I have mixed feelings.
  • On embargoes, most publications will honor your request to use the news until a certain date. Unless an editor thinks for some reason the competition has the story. Then it will run. Or the editor decides for competitive purposes to break the embargo. You are basically powerless in this unless you live in a very large city with multiple media outlets. If you don’t, you need the media more than they need you.
  • On exclusives, I was the recipient of some and my competition was the recipient of others. What happened when my papers didn’t get an exclusive was that we would often try to shoot the story down. Then you are responding to a skeptical journalist who is mad is at you. Not a good situation.

I hope this helps in your press relations. If you have any more questions, email me at jjccole at jjc-communications.com.

So, you review your new client’s needs and decide social media is the best course. Or, you are pitching a potential client and feel using social media would be the most effective way to meet their needs. The problem is the CMO and CEO are in their ‘50s and think The Wall Street Journal is the be-all and end-all of information dissemination. They think Facebook is a place where their kids waste time in mindless pursuits and tweeting is what birds do.

This is a more common situation than one would think. It is true that more and more major corporations are turning to social media for their marketing needs. However, there are still a large group of executives who frankly don’t get it.

As an aside, I have run into public relations executives who also don’t get it. They have told me they are taking a wait and see posture on social media. I get the feeling these people’s great-grandparents were buggy whip makers in 1908 when the first Model T drove by. They told themselves this automobile thing was a passing fad.

So, how to do you leap that hurdle?

So, how do you convince the person in charge that using Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools are the most cost effective – and just plain effective – way to market? It’s not easy, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as you would think.

The first step I take is to ask the person in charge if they use LinkedIn. According to the latest numbers I have seen, approximately 80 percent of employment managers go to LinkedIn first when looking to hire. So, the odds are fair to even that the CEO and CMO are at least familiar with LinkedIn. If you are really lucky, they have their own LinkedIn profiles.

The odds are also good that they don’t realize LinkedIn is a social media application. If they have a LinkedIn profile, explain they are already using social media. I often see resistance crumble at this point. Once they realize they are already using social media, explaining the rest is easier. You are not home yet, but at least you have hit a solid double.

But, what if they don’t use any social media?

Now, if they don’t have a LinkedIn profile, I sometimes show them social media’s dark side. “United Breaks Guitars,” the Motrin moms, and the Comcast stuff will often make the people in charge sit up and take notice. What I tell them is social media can kill your company before you even know you are bleeding. For instance, I have read estimates that United Airlines lost an estimated $100 million because of “United Breaks Guitars.” Watch a CFO’s ears perk up when he hears that number.

Of course, fear is not the only motivation you should use. After scaring them, tell them of social media’s successes. Southwest Airlines had one of its most successful fare sales ever primarily by using Twitter, Paula Berg, the airline’s manager of Emerging Media said at a conference I attended last fall. PepsiCo has pulled all its Super Bowl advertising. Instead of television ads, the soda company is going to spend $20 million on a social media campaign.

“… the Pepsi Refresh Project is about getting the global community to nominate projects that need funding in local communities, you upload your video/project profile, gather as many votes as you can by spamming the social sphere and the top projects will win finding from $5k multiple times per month up to $250k a few times every month,” according to the Digital Buzz blog.

There are a lot more examples of the successful use of social media. There are thousands of companies using Twitter. Ford, Honda, Jet Blue, the Marriot Hotel chain, Wachovia, and Sun Microsystems are heavily involved in it. You will find the same results for companies using Facebook.

Remember, most CEOs – especially in this business climate – don’t want to be a pioneer. They want to know that whatever you are proposing has worked for someone else. Once they know it has worked for others, they are willing to listen.

Now, if you find their competitors are already using social media, you have broken through another wall. Remember, those C-suite people are judged on results. Their board of directors, their shareholders, their lenders, analysts and journalists are all looking over their shoulders. Those company leaders do not want to discover they are losing market share to a competitor that is using Facebook or Twitter when they are not. In this case, they already see the benefit.

There is much more to talk about when it comes to pitching social media. I will cover more of the topic in next Monday’s blog.

I was once pitched by a Milwaukee public relations guy about a client that had made some minor changes in the way it did business. I told him it wasn’t a story in which our readers would be interested. Even in those still halcyon days of newspapering, there was a finite amount of space in the paper.

When I told him no, that account executive made the biggest mistake any public relations person can make – he threatened me and yelled at me. He told me he was going to call The Milwaukee Sentinel’s editor – who he claimed was a close friend – and tell him what a bad journalist I was. Secondly, he screamed at me, telling me I didn’t know what a great story he was giving me.

Not only did this person strike out on that pitch, he took himself out of the game completely. I went to my editor and told him what had occurred. He immediately took this public relations person off the list of people to whom we listened. Yes, there was list. It was informal, but it existed. Second, the overall editor said he had never heard of the guy.

It is pretty obvious what this public relations guy did wrong – everything. I am starting off with this example because a lot of people make some of the same mistakes in dealing with outlets.. I am constantly surprised by how many people have no clue how to pitch a story.

There are several steps you should take before you make the pitch, when you make the pitch, and after you make the pitch. Doing this will not guarantee your story will be published or aired. Nothing can. But it can increase the odds.

Some things to remember before we get into the details. The news media in general is more overworked than ever. They don’t have the time for you to waste their time. And they have less air time and space than ever. They are going to be very selective about what gets published or broadcast.

OK, let’s go over the dos and don’ts of pitching. First, the dos:

* Determine if really it is really a story. The old cliché is true: “dog bites man is not news, man bites dog is.” In other word, a story has to be something new, out of the ordinary, or unusual.

* If you think you have a story, do your research on who you should pitch. Reporters hate it when you don’t know what they cover. I had three primary beats in my career – police, business, and courts. I specialized in a number of things on my business beat. I used to get calls about food, sports and a number of other areas I didn’t cover. Sometimes I would pass the tip on the right reporter, but not always.

* For two reasons, I usually counsel against calling an editor to pitch a story: often times the editor will just refer you to the reporter; and it can make the reporter angry. Reporters often hate it when their editor overrides something they are doing to assign them something else. You want a happy reporter talking to you, not one who feels like they have been forced to do the story.

* Pitching broadcast is different than bloggers or print journalists. Call the news director or assignment editor with your story. Remember, for television you have to have to visuals – something that can be broadcast.

Now comes the most important part: making the actual pitch. If you take nothing else from this blog, remember this – when you call anyone in the media, the first four words you say after you say hello and identify yourself are: Are you on deadline? If the person says yes, thank them, ask when is a good time to call back and hang up. Never keep talking. Deadline is very stressful time when the person is trying to complete an assignment. They don’t have time to talk. Of course, if your building is on fire or you just won the Nobel Prize, that’s different. Use common sense.

In addition:

* This is an “elevator speech” situation. You have a limited amount of time to make your case. Use it wisely.When you do talk, get to the point. Before you pitch, repeat the mantra I use: “be brilliant, be brief, be out of there.”

* A note on email pitching. Find out the outlet’s policy on email before sending one. Because of a fear of viruses or hacking some organizations have a blanket policy of deleting any email that comes from an unknown source. I recommend calling the person first and telling them the email is on the way.

* Once the interview is scheduled, do your homework. Make sure you have the answer to every question you think might be asked. Have background materials ready to give the journalist or blogger. The goal is to make it as easy for the interviewer as possible.

What not to do:

* It is OK to pitch a story to different outlets at the same time. However, once an outlet says yes, stop pitching. Every editor or blogger wants the exclusive story. Unless this is a major media event, only give it one outlet initially. What’s a major event – something that involves a subject that affects thousands of people.

* It is not OK to pitch a story to different reporters at the same outlet. If you’ve pitched to the correct reporter, and that person says no, that’s it. You don’t think writers talk to each other?

* You will not be able to see the story, read the blog or view the broadcast before it is made public. So, don’t ask. Most people in the media feel you will try to influence a piece to take out anything you don’t like if you see it before it runs.

* Don’t do elaborate media kits. I have a friend who covers the brewing industry. He likes beer, so he is always happy when he receives free beer as part of a pitch. But, giving him beer doesn’t mean he will do a story. What writers and broadcasters want is information in a form they can use. They also are usually barred by ethics codes from accepting anything of major value – say over $10.

After the initial interview is completed, don’t assume it’s over. The interviewer will usually have more questions once they review their notes. Make sure you are available to answer those questions. Don’t be surprised if only about one-quarter to one-third of what you said ends up in the story. Only what the reporter determines is important will be used. As I said before, space is limited.

Those are the basics of pitching. Remember, every situation and writer is different. So be careful, and think before you pitch.

I post this blog every Monday. As a new feature, if you have questions you would like me to answer, please email me. I am always looking for topics and input. My email address is in the next paragraph.

My background: I worked as a reporter for 25 years in central Illinois, upstate New York, suburban Detroit and Milwaukee. I now help clients with marketing communications through my company – JJC Communications LLC. If you want to know more about my company, and myself, click the link. It’ a cliche, but it’s true for me: no job is too big, no job is too small. I have worked with companies on the Fortune 500 list and I have worked with companies that have one employee. The service I provide is the same for all.

I am also available for speaking on media relations and marketing. I can be reached at 414-763-8310 or
jjccomm@wi.twcbc.com.