As a PR practitioner, once in a while something happens to make you scratch your head and revisit the question we all wonder from time to time: what qualifies as newsworthy on any given day?

Of course, there are certain things we know about this question (known knowns, if you will). For example, that size matters - the big news always gets covered first, and that it’s a known fact that survey results invariably make for good content on a slow news day.

But sometimes the rulebook goes out the window. A recent announcement by a client was deemed by all to be a fairly routine affair - certainly a story that was worth distributing, but not one that would generate significant media attention. Or so we thought.

Cue two days of frantic media activity, spawning all kinds of broadcast and print media coverage. No complaints here - delighted to get the response, but did we miss something on this one? Clearly we did, although, looking back, I stand firmly by our original conviction that the story was a relatively minor one!

In retrospect, the response was unexpected, but primarily driven by the media’s willingness to revisit a good story that, while already having played out in the press extensively, has the kind of enduring appeal that means it only takes a fairly minor event to push it back into the limelight.

It’s great when it happens, but confounding nonetheless.

Technorati Tags: media relations, public relations, newsworthy, news value 

I’m always on the lookout for interesting advice and insights that can serve me as a PR practitioner as well as provide insight to those interested in how things work, or should work, on this side of the fence. Here are some recent links of interest.

Be heard

As a PR gun, you are the gatekeeper for your client. It’s not only your job to take the client’s story to the media, but also to qualify and investigate media opportunities when they come knocking. Not all media opportunities are ideal for your client and some can in fact be a well-disguised sales pitch that’s nothing more than a nuisance. Even when there is an ideal fit, you must still ensure your client is prepared for the interview with an overview of what ground the journalist wants to cover and how specific questions should be answered.

This requires that you, as the PR gatekeeper, interview the journalist to some degree. As Cece Salomon-Lee at PR Meets Marketing says, you can’t be afraid to ask questions that put your client’s best interests forward. 

Communication works two ways

Meanwhile, Richard Edelman articulates the evolution of the PR function into a critical tool for public engagement that must be part of business strategy and policy formulation. His particular point that strikes close to one of our key foci here at inmedia is positioning the client as a go-to expert in certain areas relevant to their subject matter expertise to become part of a public discussion on broader issues. Maybe this kind of content doesn’t talk about your client’s products or services, but it still contributes to the marketing effort.  

Sometimes, silence is golden

Lastly, there’s much to be said about pitching your client’s story to key media in the context of current events. Under the appropriate circumstances, it can be an excellent means of demonstrating the value of your client’s product or service using a real world example of what pain point it addresses or problem it solves. It can also give teeth to that story pitch you have in mind that demonstrates your client’s authority and thought leadership in an area relevant to their market.

But note my use of the word “appropriate.” It may be wise to give hard thought to putting out a news release that references a recent event in which lives were lost, no matter how strong the case that your client’s product could have made a big difference.

This may seem like common sense, but as the folks at the Bad Pitch Blog point out, common sense doesn’t always prevail. Of course, if you are interested in finding out how quickly you can have a cocked and ready shotgun in your hands in the middle of the night, this may be just the thing for you. 

Technorati Tags: public relations, media relations, PR 101, pitching

It’s not uncommon to sit down with a startup technology company for an initial discussion about a potential PR engagement and have a conversation that goes something like this:

Tech company exec: “I think we need to start doing some PR and I’d like you to present us with some ideas.”

PR agency: “Er, okay, but can you first give us some idea of why it is that you think PR will help your business at this time?”

Exec: “Well, I was hoping that you could tell us that …”

Of course, at this point the conversation typically becomes an exercise that should really have been started before the agency even entered the equation. That is, to explore what are the primary reasons for engaging a PR program, and what it is ultimately supposed to achieve.

Yes, the PR firm brings the expertise needed to plan and execute an effective program, but they are not the experts in your business … you are. Can you really expect a PR agency to sit down at the first meeting and tell you how they can help you achieve your goals or overcome certain challenges, when they have little idea what those goals and challenges are? Of course not. PR is not a cookie-cutter proposition, and its practitioners work best when they can apply their knowledge to a specific scenario, which invariably changes dramatically from company to company.

This doesn’t have to be an extensive exercise, and the information needed to get things rolling is probably common knowledge within your organization. Simply ensure that you have a fairly clear idea of what it is that you expect from doing PR, and then you can expect to have a valuable conversation about what the experts can do to help you.

Technorati Tags: public relations, strategy, business plan, technology company

In my years as a journalist I endured my fair share of embarrasing gaffes, both my own and those of my staff (which I was often on the hook to explain, apologize for and redress.)

Despite the emphasis on clean, factual and reliable content, the occassional mistake is made in the newspaper business. Nobody’s perfect and the strain of rushing to meet a deadline can easily lead one to skip out on taking the time to check the facts through a second time.

Of course, it’s difficult to feel all that sympathetic about the plight of harried reporters when it’s your good name that’s attached to the error. Maybe they called your CEO Rob when his name is Rod. Or said your flagship product is still in trials when it has been commercially available for six months. There’s the little things that don’t matter so much, such as whether your company was founded in 1989 or 1990, or the big whammies that can land you in a lawsuit — like that defamatory off-the-cuff remark that was never intended to be on the record.

Sometimes the error is clearly on part of the reporter. On the other hand, I’ve seen many examples of interview subjects horrified to see what they said on the record immortalized in print desperately backpedal and claim no such thing passed their lips.

But what makes my teeth gnash as either PR consultant or newspaper editor is the simple, easy things that can be verified within thirty seconds by journalists with this little thing called the internet. In one client’s case, it amazes me how many little factual details about the company, its history and the features of its product are so consistently mixed up by some media despite the fact that it’s all there clear as day on the online newsroom page of the corporate website.

You can lead a horse to water, but …

All we can do for our clients is ensure we have provided all that factual information in as clear and concise a format as we can, as readily available as it can be. Never pass up the opportunity to follow up with a journalist to ensure they have everything they need to complete their story and make sure what they need is what they have.

If factual errors do appear in the final product, don’t lose your cool. Contact the reporter in polite, but firm fashion, to point out the problem, without pointing fingers. If they aren’t receptive to the idea of addressing the matter, then call their editor. A correction notice in a subsequent issue of the publication is a common method of setting the record straight. Don’t be extreme in your demands for redress, but don’t let your concern be casually dismissed.

Though it’s often seen as a nuisance by journalists, it isn’t unreasonable to ask to run through an article pre-publication to verify whatever facts, figures, proper name spellings, and dates they are using. Don’t expect to be handed a copy of the entire article. That’s not considered a reasonable request (for reasons I won’t go into here). Instead, the journalist will simply run through what they’re using with you over the phone or through an email.

The tone and angle of the story is beyond your control, but in this way you can at least ensure that the peevish journalist who’s writing unfavourable things about you at least has their facts straight. If you don’t like your portrayal, but there aren’t any factual errors in the piece, well, you can always try and get your side of the story better represented with a letter to the editor, but that’s a topic for another time.

Technorati Tags: media relations, public relations, journalism, press kits

One of the first of what I like to call “Francis’s favourite fictions,” or “Everything I know that’s wrong about PR I learned from technology company executives,” was a line from the CEO of one of the very first tech companies I pitched when I originally ventured out on my own in the early 1990s. “I want to be on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen tomorrow morning,” he said.

I was a lot younger, thinner and more intemperate in those days, so I replied, “Okay. Go home and shoot your wife tonight.”

Right answer, just not terribly delicately put. However, he got the point and I got the gig.

What I was trying to say, of course, is that media relations usually doesn’t work that way and, for some companies, it never works that way. In fact, at inmedia, our objective is never Page 1 tomorrow. Rather, we try from the very outset to build the kind of foundation for an ongoing media relations effort that will generate meaningful coverage over the long haul. In the technology B2B space, where virtually all our clients are new, small and/or completely unknown, this means we first must thoroughly educate target media about the client, its story and how it will be of interest to the journalists and their audiences now and into the future. If this process delivers immediate coverage, so much the better, but that’s not the primary intent.

This first company was also the first time I tried out what has come to be known around here as a ramp up and roll out, or the media and analyst launch of a company that builds the foundation I’m talking about. The company had recorded many newsworthy successes in its history and had a market-leading presence in its space. However, as we also like to say around here, they call it the “news” business, not the “olds” business. So most of those achievements were now just so much fishwrap as far as the media were concerned.

What I did was develop a comprehensive set of materials that told the company’s complete story, including a timeline of its growth and successes and a couple of case studies that showcased its leadership position. I then sent that package out to the media I had identified, through research, as being at the intersection of Writes-about-this-subject and Influences-my-client’s-market. I followed up with each of them, had great conversations about how my client might feauture in future coverage, and even generated some really good immediate hits. Over the long run, I generated a constant stream of coverage about the client, including, eventually, a Page 1 piece in the Ottawa Citizen.

If a client today tells me the same thing — “I wanna be on Page 1 tomorrow.” — I tell him or her much the same thing. I just use a slightly more subtle approach now.

Technorati Tags: Launch, media relations, technology, B2B

As we here at inmedia are coordinating our upcoming vacation schedules and as next week has two major holidays in North America that kick off in earnest the sorts of summer activities that Nat King Cole envisioned in the song whose title is above, we begin to hear the common summer rumblings from clients and prospects about whether media relations efforts are best left to the Fall.

There’s a common misperception that summer media consumption drops away to almost nothing and that your investment is better spent holding off until the Fall. This very topic was explored in detail last year at OCRI’s Zone5ive, by Veronica Engleberts of Vector Media, a media planning and marketing agency here in Ottawa. The presentation has really stuck with me because it provided effective proof points to support the idea that marketing needs to be a year-round activity and that those companies that go fallow as the mercury rises are losing momentum by sending their marketing efforts on summer holidays.

Consider this, from Veronica’s presentation: “If every one of your prospects took a vacation at some point in July or August, it would amount to an average of 11% of prospects in any given week. Can you afford not to advertise to the other 89%?” Excellent point. Yes, people do take holidays, but not all your customers or prospects are away for the entire season. Why miss the opportunity to make some noise when perhaps your competitors are taking the summer off from getting their messages out?

With regards to media relations in particular, which is our bailiwick, there are even more compelling reasons to carry through with your campaigns. A lot of the media outlets that we target on behalf of clients are trade publications, some of which are glossy print publications with long lead times, sometimes three months or longer. So, by ceasing the conversation with these publications in the summer, we would, in essence, be scuppering our chances at seeing some coverage in the Fall editions. Our actions now are targeting opportunities through the balance of the year and beyond. Effective media relations is a consistent effort that is cumulative; it’s important to maintain regular contact with our targets through myriad tactics as you can never be sure when the tipping point will be that will secure the most impactful coverage available with that outlet. It’s quite possible that the editors are suffering from a content famine in the summer, prior to the feast that is that Fall when everyone ramps up their efforts once again.

Does this mean that I’m advocating sending out a news release on Canada Day or on Independence Day? Of course not (unless it’s really bad news, of course, and you’re hoping to bury it…) But to take the rest of the summer off is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Technorati Tags: PR tactics, marketing, summer

Prior to the release of an announcement, there is a lot of work to be done. Not only must we develop the content, but often times we must run the potential content past a series of third-party gatekeepers. This is where things can slow down and timelines can get pushed out.

The good news is, you’ve gotten this far and your partners or customers have agreed to talk on your behalf or participate to some degree in your media activities. This third-party validation opens up a range of PR activities, from customer win announcements to case studies and speaking opportunities. When it comes to distributing a release though, a document that will live in your company’s newsroom for considerable time and be found by any Googler searching for a company name, those parties involved want to ensure that materials are on message and accurate.

To that end, understandably, often times our clients’ partners and customers will want approval on the information and/or quotes being attributed to them prior to dissemination. Sometimes, this can mean that materials need to run the internal approvals gauntlet at third-party organizations.

Depending on the size of the organization, or how high up the chain of command your information needs to be vetted, this can take considerable time. Typically, though not always, the larger the organization, the longer you’re going to have to wait for sign off. There’s a good chance that the materials will have to float up through a sophisticated communications department to a c-level executive, and come back down through the ranks back to your hands. These departments are busy with announcements and initiatives of their own and so sometimes your news will have a lesser priority in the sign-off pile.

Still, getting the facts straight and the endorsement, implied or explicit, of a third-party partner or customer will go a long way for your public relations campaign. The best advice comes from the Boy Scouts - be prepared. Begin the conversation early and be prepared to hold your announcement or pitch until all of the stakeholders are on the same page. Most of the time, it’s worth the wait.

For those of you in the midst of playing the waiting game, in the meantime, ensure that all of your other ducks are in a row, so to speak - the media list is prepared and updated, the balance of the media kit is ready to go, and once you’ve got the approved materials, all that you need to do is hit send.

Technorati Tags: public relations

Where the tire hits the tarmac in public relations is when it comes time to pitch a story. All of the materials have been written, the stage is set, spokespeople are available, and the news release has been sent. It’s our time to shine.

There’s a reason that news releases clock in at about 750 words - there is a lot to say about the news item that we’re putting out. We’re adamant that hyperbole doesn’t make it into our clients’ releases, but even when we trim away the fat, there is a lot of ground to cover.

Regardless, we have but a few words to grab our target audience’s attention, whether in an email or in a follow-up phone call. Hence, my reference to Shakespeare in the title of this post. We make it or break it in just a few seconds - can we distill the key message of the story in under 10 seconds on the phone? What few words can we lead with in an email to increase our chances of a positive reply? Has the headline included enough detail to communicate the crux of the story? We work hard to ensure that this is the case because in today’s news dense world, our release is just one of hundreds likely to cross that reporter or editor’s desk on any given day; our phone call is just one of the dozens that they’ll field amid pressing deadlines and breaking news. While we are strong believers that every story has an inherent news value, the fact of the matter is that unless we can quickly and effectively communicate the story, regardless of the channel, we are not doing the best by our clients.

Is brevity similarly appreciated when it comes to blog posts? Today, I’ll have to hope so as I’ve got to get back to pitching.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR tactics

This week has been a perfect case in point for why inmedia has a horizontal rather than a vertical account structure. What I mean by that is that our agency, unlike a lot of agencies, puts at least two senior consultants on each account. It is these consultants, with support from the balance of the team, that do all - and I mean all - of the work on a client account, from initial briefings with the client to developing the media list, to writing the materials, to pitching the story to the media and so on. That way, if one of the consultants is unavailable or out of town on business as is the case this week, the remaining consultants can capably manage any and all requirements for that client because they’ve been involved from the outset and have the same knowledge about the client as the other consultant.

In agencies that employ a vertical account structure, the most junior of consultants with the least experience is typically tasked with outreach to the media, having had little to no involvement in the procuring of the client, the learning of their story or development of the materials. If a journalist has a question that requires additional knowledge beyond the news release that the consultant has been handed to pitch, well, let’s just say that it’s this lack of full understanding of clients and their stories that has given our industry such a bad reputation.

This has been a busy week, with a number of our consultants doing international travel, new clients coming into the fold, big projects with upcoming deadlines in production and preparations to be made for several major campaigns getting underway next week. Still, despite being far flung across time zones and countries, the team has been able to keep all of the proper plates spinning because of our account schema. This provides both our clients and consultants with peace of mind, knowing that the needs of clients are not superseded by out of office requirements and that work continues seamlessly on their behalf.

That said, it’ll be nice to have the Ottawa team assembled once again when two of our consultants return from overseas, to hear of their most recent adventures and determine whether any of them picked up a detectable brogue on their travels.

Technorati Tags: PR agency, account structure, business travel

In case you missed any of these posts the first time around, here’s a roundup of everything we published this month.

Francis
India a challenging but promising market, entrepreneurs hear
inmedia’s “Team iPhone” triggers productivity crash
It’s easy building green

Danny
Do social networking sites play a role in B2B PR?
Tools are great, but they can’t do PR!
Checking out the Scottish Technology Showcase
Top business mags embrace social networking

Linda
Bulldog Reporter weighs in about online newsrooms
Best practices for your online newsroom
Providing the media with the tools they need to cover your company
Database maintenance
Components of an integrated PR program: Media monitoring

Jill
When and how to inquire about editorial calendar opportunities

inmedia
Not all journalists are angry
Major publisher of technology media titles declares bankruptcy

Peter Kemball
2008 Canadian budget a boon for entrepreneurs

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, B2B PR, B2B public relations, online newsrooms, press center, iPhone, social networks, 2008 Canadian budget, Ziff Davis bankruptcy