PR 101

This might be too easy of a target, but I am getting really frustrated with television reporters and their complete inability to even come close to proper English. Now, I am not talking about using slang or regional expressions. That’s different. Slang and regional expressions often become accepted English.

Let me set the scene for what set me off this time. The western suburbs of Milwaukee were hit hard by tornadoes Monday night. There was extensive damage, but thankfully no one was killed or serious injured.

Of course, the local television stations were all over the story. Although I often criticize local news coverage of weather because it is over-hyped, this is one instance where the coverage was mostly justified. Although at one point last night, I did turn to my wife and note that we wouldn’t know if the US had decided to bomb Iran. The local weather took precedence over all other news.

What set my teeth on edge when one reporter noted that some buildings were “destroyed beyond repair.” Someone badly needs a dictionary. Or when another reporter noted that a building was “totally flattened.” Is there an alternative?

The reporters go on and on like this. I could listen dozen of other examples. As I said, I am not looking for Shakespearean actors here. I just want someone who knows how to put six words together into a sentence.

While I am on the subject, another reporter asked a person whose house was damaged by the storm how they felt. That almost made me throw something at the television.

Now, for those of you don’t know, I spent 26 years as a print reporter. I covered plane crashes, major car accidents, multiple murders, all kinds of natural disasters and even ship sinking. Not once did I ever ask someone how they felt. It might be the dumbest possible question any reporter can ask. How does one feel after finding out a relative was dead or having a home destroyed? What do they expect people to say?

“Well gosh Biff, I feel great that Aunt Henrietta got swept away by the storm. We are in the will. We can pay for that trip to France we always wanted to take.”

Of course, what television people are looking for is emotion. Tears look much better on the evening news than someone dispassionately discussing how they are going to rebuild their lives.

I could go on with this, but you get the idea how I feel about reporters who don’t do their jobs.

For the past few years, I have thought the press release was an outmoded way of getting the word out. From my own experience as a reporter, I know how little time reporters have to read all the stuff they get daily. However, the old fashioned released has morphed into a social media release. It is press release on performance enhancing drugs. I am starting to see how effective that kind of release can be.

When I was a reporter, press releases were a fact of my workday. Before the Internet, dozens arrived daily in the standard number 10 business envelope. As a young reporter, I dutifully read through each and every one of them. I thought it was the right thing to do. Who knew, maybe the key to next Pulitzer Prize was in the one of those envelopes.

Reporters get a lot of mail from every imaginable source. Not just press releases, but letters from convicts who feel they are wrongly accused, happy readers, angry readers, story ideas written on pencil on legal paper and a lot of other stuff. That avalanche of envelopes is what stopped from reading every press release. I just didn’t have time to weed through them every day. I would quickly sort through the pile, keeping only the ones with return addresses that told me the company might have to say.

The people I dealt with soon learned the best way to get my attention was to call me. We would discuss a potential story and if I was interested, I would request more information. Even then, I didn’t want a press release. What I wanted was background information that provided basic facts – things such as the size of company, number of employees, annual income, size of the project, that kind of stuff.

I don’t think I ever missed a story by not reading the press releases. My sources knew if they gave me a good story, I would fight like hell to get it into the paper. I was usually a pretty good salesman.

When I switched to public relations seven years ago, I brought the anti-press release attitude with me. Because I spent 26 years as a reporter, I have great contacts all over the U.S. and even some internationally. Reporters used to be professional nomads. We would continually switch jobs, always striving to get to a bigger paper with a larger circulation. You make a lot of friends doing that. So, if I had a client who needed a story placed, I could usually reach a person who could make that happen.

Even when I didn’t know somebody, I was pretty skilled at getting a story into a publication. I speak the language of reporters. I know what gets them excited. I know the first four words you say to any reporter when you call. I should make this a quiz, but I won’t – the first four words are: “are you on deadline?”

That’s all changing with the rise of social media and the shrinking of regular media. There are fewer reporters chasing more stories. They need stuff they know is accurate and can access quickly.

As I said at the start, enter the social media press release. What is it?

As I also said, it is press release on steroids. It is so much more than the old paper press release. When I set up one up for a client, I include pictures, background material, contact information, video, links to my client’s website, their Twitter feed, their Facebook fan page and the LinkedIn pages of key executives. It is so much more complete than the old ones.

And sites such at Pitch Engine allow you to send links to the information out to just about anybody to whom you want.

What I usually do is call the key contacts I want to receive the information to give them a heads up that it’s up. Then I email the link so they can access the data. I have found universal acceptance for this.

Reporters and bloggers seem to love it. At one of the click of the mouse, they get anything they need for their story. It makes their job easier, which makes them happy, which means they are more likely to a do a positive story. That in turn makes my client happy, which makes ultimately makes me happy.

So, you see, while the traditional press release is going, going…. , the social media release is on its way. Once again, social media takes a traditional method of doing something and improves it.