Name: Tressa Robbins
Email:
Bio: A country girl at heart, who loves the city, I’ve worked in marketing, consultative sales, and media relations for the better part of 20 years. The skills acquired from these positions certainly come in handy in my present role as vice president, BurrellesLuce Media Contacts. This is an exciting time of change in the world of media and I want to initiate conversations on news to assist and support public relations professionals in the industry. In my personal time, love the outdoors, boating, fishing, riding 4-wheelers (ATVs) and being mom to my three dogs. Twitter: @TressaLynne; LinkedIn: TressaLynne; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Tressa Robbins:
- PR pro and blogger Dave Fleet offered some advice. One piece is to “Sign your name. Trolls send anonymous messages. Good PR people don’t.” (Am I the only one who gets a mental image here?)
- Stephanie Quilao, in her (now retired) Back in Skinny Jeans blog, wrote an open letter to those pitching her. I’m a huge fan of “telling it like it is” and she bares no bones here. Among her advice was:
- Use the name of the blogger when pitching: “My name, Stephanie Quilao, is written all over my blog on every post and in the “About” page, so use it. Do not address me “Dear Blogger,” “Hello Back in Skinny Jeans” or “Hey Fit Blogger!” Yes, I’ve gotten versions of the “Hey you!” When you don’t use my name, it tells me that you are either lazy, cold, or don’t really give a rat’s [expletive deleted] about who I am.”
- “Stop talking at me and talk with me. Eight out of ten times, this is how your pitch sounds to me, ‘Dear Stephanie, us, us, us, us, {insert product name}, us, us, us, us, {insert press release}, us, us, us, us, enough about us, let’s talk more about us, and what you’ll tell your readers about us…’ You sound like the adults in Charlie Brown, and I tune out because we’re not having a conversation, you’re shoving your agenda at me.”
- Avoid large email attachments. Sally Whittle wrote on her Getting Ink blog, “… and attachments. Dear God, why are we still having this bloody conversation? Only today, I got a 5MB attachment attached to a random press release – twice, because the PR agency hasn’t cleaned its data lately. If you’re using WiFi on a public hotspot or you’re using a 3G dongle or BlackBerry, downloading huge chunks of data is not fun. HUGE waste of time. Don’t do it.”
- In a U.K. PR Week article, Mark Borkwoski says: “PR spam is as contagious as chlamydia and has the same effect. It can cause sterility in the people infected.” While the analogy here is a bit crude, it certainly gets the point across.
- Develop meaningful relationships; learn to effectively communicate. Lou Hoffman sums up relationship-building between PR and the media by saying, “If the PR profession jumped on this bandwagon, we would go a long way toward resolving what the warden in Cool Hand Luke called, ‘a failure to communicate.’”
- Economy – budgets are down and value propositions are up, making it more difficult to succeed in the marketplace.
- Environment – trust is down, number of messages is down, and audiences now expect to provide input.
- Effects Strengthened Through PR/Partnerships – public relations understands how to build and sustain beneficial relationships; transference of credibility moves the messages faster and feedback is more immediate and helps facilitate needed change.
- Focus on strategy, not tactics
- Include all the tools available
- Integrate and innovate
- Embrace the new normal
- Deliver more listening points than talking points
- Maintain your individual brand ethics
- Don’t go in with a sense of entitlement. You’ll be “knocked down a peg” and only set yourself up for disappointment.
- Not everyone works with clients immediately. While you should have a writing portfolio, you are still the “low man on the totem pole.”
- With entry-level positions, you may have to jump through the hoops and prove yourself until acknowledged as a professional. It can be a long road, but you must keep on until accepted.
- In corporate PR there can be as many as ten approvals and red lines before something is given the go-ahead.
- Not every office is like “Devil Wears Prada!”
- Digital PR is a must. Agencies want to hire those that already have these skills.
- Be sure Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages are “clean.” With Facebook, you can set privacy filters, but keep in mind that nothing is truly private on the web.
- As far as skills to be highlighted, do NOT say you are a “people person.”
- Include group projects (not just individual) as this demonstrates team work.
- Showcase achievements rather than activities.
- Be prepared for an on-the-spot writing test.
- When interviewing, ask lots of questions before accepting a position so you know what you’re getting into.
- Early in your career (or even when doing internships) – diversify. Even if you know what area you want to go into, don’t pigeon-hole your experience.
- AP Style (there’s even an app for that now!)
- Social Media
- Reading industry magazines and newsletters as well as thought-leaders blogs.
- Having accurate media contact information – keeping up with ongoing changes
- Breaking through filters to reach the right contact, at the right time, with just the right information
- Leveraging new media like Twitter in appropriate ways
- Having better access to what journalists are writing about and what information they value most
- Measuring the value of media outreach and placement – beyond impressions, release pickup and ad value
- Developing more effective processes for media relations – moving away from one-size-fits-all pitching
- Associated Press business writer Joyce M. Rosenburg did a story on small business owners making resolutions. The first interviewee was a PR agency owner and her resolution was one we should all strive to do: spend quality time with clients. In that same article, another PR agency president planned to improve her work/life balance.
- My Twitter friend @PRcog has some resolutions, found on the PRBC (PR Breakfast Club), site that I think many of us can relate to, as well: Stop using descriptors like “cutting (or bleeding) edge,” “revolutionary” or the “next big thing” and to convince clients to stop caring about their follower/fan count. He doesn’t say it, but it’s implied that they should be focusing more on the strategy, not the tool.
- Linda Jacobson, APR, published her New Year wish list which included promising to only put out quality content (versus a press release just for the sake of releasing something). She also encouraged us to “play nice with others,” stating that, “Marketers, advertisers and PR professionals need to be on the same team. Playing to each strength usually gets targeted results. When one of the three legs decides not to do this, the result skews and doesn’t deliver full strength.”
- Charlotte Schaff posted her top ten resolutions on the Valley PR blog, which include making the most of her PRSA membership, improve media relations by being a connector and source to the media, and (one I can personally relate to) saying “no” more often.
- PR student and PRSSA national vice president of professional development, Nick Lucido resolves to learn to lead – his resolutions are in relation to his studies but can be applied in the business world as well.
- Finally, Brian Solis, in his “Greatest Hits of 2009” series, states “Our resolutions for 2010 must include learning and participation. With an open mind and an open heart, we can continue to learn, grow, and in turn, teach those around us to make 2010 a banner year for new media literacy and change.”
Are You Conducting Media Relations or Committing PR Spam?
April 12th, 2010
Flickr Image: Hergarty David
Media relations and PR professionals today are beleaguered to not only deliver exposure through traditional media channels, but to also engage bloggers, stakeholders, key influencers and, in many cases, direct consumers.
How do you know if you are conducting a valid media relations campaign or are just contributing to PR spam? I like Drew Kerr’s definition of PR spam: “Impersonal email blasts that contain completely irrelevant information.” Although, clear and concise, it should also be noted that even well intentioned PR professionals can be seen as spammers if they aren’t aware of suggested guidelines or following best practices.
So, in the spirit of Spring and all things new, I thought I’d share some of the, um, more entertaining excerpts I’ve read on this topic and save the lecture for another day.
I can’t wait to hear your PR spam anecdotes or comments – please add to this BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post.
The Future Of Public Relations Is Bright – The View From Above
March 19th, 2010
As you may know from my last BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post, I had the pleasure of attending and serving on a panel at the PRSA/PRSSA Pro-Am Day in St. Louis.The some 120 attendees (about half being college communications majors), myself included, were fortunate to meet new PRSA president/CEO Gary McCormick and listen to him speak. His luncheon presentation, “A Tale of Two Sides: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” addressed why the future of PR is bright – while acknowledging the downturned economy and shuttering of many print media outlets.
McCormick began with the “Three E’s Bringing Change.”
McCormick cited a number of statistics and studies to prove his point that current changes are good for PR. For example, according to CareerCast.com, PR tops other communication disciplines, such as advertising and journalism, in the listing of top 200 jobs. The annual Veronis Suhler Stevenson study predicts a consolidated aggregated growth rate for public relations as nearly 10 percent for the years 2008-2012. Even in a downturned economy, spending on PR in the U.S. grew by more than 4 percent in 2008 and nearly 3 percent in 2009 – to $3.7 billion. And, finally, the rise of the Internet and social media has given PR a big boost.
Why else does McCormick think the future of PR is bright? Things like: advances in technology, changing role of traditional media, reduced trust in business, 24/7 immediate/global news cycle, segmentation of messages and authentication of sources, the ongoing turf war on owning social media, and the fact that organizations will no longer own messages/messaging and that actions will define reputation are all benefits influencing the landscape of public relations.
Finally, he made the following suggestions for preparing for the future:
What do you think? Are you beginning to see an upturn in business? How are the current media and economic environments affecting the way you do public relations? Share your thoughts with me and the readers of Fresh Ideas.
Young Professionals: St. Louis PRSA Pro-Am Day
March 1st, 2010I had the pleasure of attending and serving on a career panel at the PRSA/PRSSA Pro-Am Day in St. Louis last week. (New PRSA president/CEO Gary McCormick was the luncheon speaker, but that’s for a future post here on BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.)
In this post I’d like to share some of the advice that was provided in the “Diary of Young 
Professionals” session. Allison Hughes, Lara Golike, Tanya Kath and Phillip Cleveland served as panelists and answered questions from the Missouri and southern Illinois PRSSA members in attendance.
When asked for advice about entering the job market, the panel offered these points:
As far as advice about job searching and what skills should be highlighted, the panel offered this guidance:
Finally, panelists were asked about some the things they wish they’d learned more about in school, to which they responded:
If your local PRSA, IABC, AMA or other group has a Pro-Am event, I’d encourage you to participate in any way that you are able. What additional advice would you offer these about-to-be young PR pros?
The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same
February 8th, 2010
Flickr Image: David Reece
Now that 2010 is well underway, I thought it would be interesting to go back and read some articles and posts from the past couple years to decipher what’s changed in the realm of media relations.
I was a little surprised to find that not much has really changed! (Not entirely surprised as this was what I suspected.)
Your target media now may not be just traditional media but also bloggers, ezine/webzine editors, streaming webcast producers, and freelance writers. However, the qualities or traits that define good media relations have remained essentially the same: Before preparing your press release, do your homework and familiarize yourself with the chosen topics as well as recent writings of your target journalists and bloggers. Then do some additional checking to ensure that your intended audience is also the audience for the media you’re about to pitch. (BurrellesLuce 2009 whitepaper “New Rules for Media Relations”)
In early 2009, Jeremy Porter conducted interviews with PR professionals in an effort to gauge what the biggest challenges were in dealing with the media. The results shared on his Journalistics blog could have been written today! Some of the challenges included were:
With the exception of Twitter, this sounds like the same challenges we had 15 years ago when I was working at a St. Louis PR agency.
I’m not oblivious to the fact that public relations and the media are changing in some ways (that may be the topic for a future post), but in many ways it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Am I wrong? What similarities or changes have you seen occurring in the world of public relations and media these past few years?
PR Resolutions and Goals for the New Year
January 8th, 2010
Flickr Image: Gavin Luhrs
As I began to think about the topic for this first post of the New Year, I thought about my goals and aspirations. (Colleen Flood, my colleague here at BurrellesLuce had similiar inspiration when she wrote about “Setting Smart Goals in 2010“). Then, I realized that there is already lots of good information out there – many that parallel my own thoughts. So, I thought I’d provide a round-up of some of the posts I’ve read in the past week – ones that I think we can all relate to.
What resolutions have you made? What would you add to this list? I look forward to your participation!
