Communicators need to shift from providing information to showing outcomes in their writing. This was one of the points at a recent Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) professional development lunch to help PR professionals tell their organization’s stories effectively.
Flickr Image: Jill Clardy
Panelists Cindy Atlee, partner, The Storybranding Group;Nancy Belmont, CEO, Belmont Inc.; Danny Harris, founder, People’s District, and moderator Donna Savarese, director of communications, Innovative Solutions Group revealed ways to find and craft an effective story. Atlee lead the panel by asking attendees to choose a character from a list (i.e. every person, lover, jester, caregiver, hero, etc.) they felt most like that day and then tell us why. The panelists agreed that offering role names can often encourage people to open-up about their emotions toward a product, place or organization, and you can then find the emotion behind the story.
Harris says stories can have a magical construction, where you don’t realize there is a call to action. He reminded the group every good story has three parts:
Challenge
Struggle
Resolution
Belmont encourages creating and finding deeper connections with your audience. She added we should look for the “like.” The more detail you can get into the story, the likelihood you will find something in common with your audience and the more likely they will like your story. She used the example of her client the U.S. Army. They look to tell the story of the everyday soldier, who we all like, not the war.
Not all organization’s stories seem interesting, so Savarese says she uses case studies to tell her organization’s stories. She always looks to give the resolution meaning to everyday people. She encouraged adding visuals, pictures and video, to help pull the reader into the story.
The panel also encouraged communicators to look outside the communications department, when looking for an organization’s story. Everyone should be involved and recommended several books on effective story telling:
How have you used storytelling to promote your organization or client? What were the challenges? Do you have any advice for BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Media Relations Summit. And I’m here with Yanique.
Yanique, will you please introduce yourself?
YANIQUE WOODALL: Yes. My name is Yanique Woodall, and I’m the vice president of enterprise public relations at 1800flowers.com.
BURKE: And, Yanique, you’ve led a session that I think is invaluable for communicators and PR professionals especially, talking about how you targeted your audience, and the research and the focus that you used with your existing audience. Can you share how you did that?
WOODALL: Specifically, when I joined 1800flowers.com, it was important for our internal in-house–our internal PR team, as well as our external PR agency, to align ourselves with the marketing partners to really understand our target audience. But for us it was not just about knowing who the target audience is, because 1-800-Flowers services anyone from 18 to 54, basically anyone with a credit card, we wanted to know the sweet spot of the audience, the brand influencers, the ones that were going to move the needle. So we knew that when we put together a PR campaign, it would affect that audience and we could show measurement at the bottom line.
Specifically, it was important for us to be a part of the focus groups, be a part of the surveys, be a part of the opinion polls, to understand the customer. And once we figured out that customer, we understood she was a social media maven and she was in Twitter, she was in Facebook, and she wanted to engage with brands through social media tactics. Specifically, once we found that best media vehicle, which we understood it would be social media tactics, we needed to do some research to understand if that vehicle was going to have an impact on our brand. And through some research, we did find out that social media has a great impact on the brand, and we decided to go about that route.
Looking ahead, we did a case study for Mother’s Day around our Spot a Mom Movement. Basically, we’re encouraging all of our customers, our best customers, to celebrate every mom in their life. In this case, we saw an increase in multiple purchasing and we saw an increase in total transactions, so we knew that that was a success.
BURKE: Fantastic. And where can people follow you in social media?
WOODALL: If anyone has any additional questions in reference to social media, they can follow me on Twitter @woodallpr.
MARTIN MURTLAND: Good afternoon. My name’s Martin Murtland. I’m vice president at Dow Jones Solutions for Communicators. I’m here at Bulldog Reporter News Summit.
BURKE: Martin, can you talk about the qualities that PR practitioners need to have?
MURTLAND: That’s an interesting one. I think there’s probably two key qualities that I see communicators needing in the future, first one being their alignment to the business media, both to truly align themselves with what the business is trying to achieve. And secondly, I would say regards to analytical skills, the ability to question things. I’ve sort of looked at the future and sort of tried to create a–I’m interested in scenario planning, sort of four scenarios what the future may, may not hold. You sort of imagine a two-by-two grid where you have, at one end, people who are very much aligned to the business, and the other end people that have sort of, “vanity publishing.” You’re just going to get a publication where the coverage of the story with their CEO is actually a hometown newspaper. And the other axis we imagine something like highly analytical skills and that augment, you know, very uncomfortable with analytical skills. So what I would say, somebody who’s got high analytical skills and a–and strong alignment in business are going to be the winners in the future. And those are the things we should strive to try to become as communicators.
But some of the other scenarios, what I would say, they’re what I would term the bluffers. They’re people with good–can talk the talk. They’ve got political alignment to the business, but they don’t have the strong analytical skills to back it up. And they’re typically people who’ll move on after shorter period of time, perhaps before they get found out. And the other end of this expert spectrum I would sort of look at people who I call ostriches. They’re people that are very much into vanity publishing, or a world future that’s sort of run by ostriches. They’re very much into vanity publishing, and their idea of measurement would be how large–how loud the clip book makes whenever it hits the desk.
And then there’s the–sort of the final scenario for what the future may hold, is a world that’s sort of controlled by the gamblers. They’re people who do have strong analytical skills, but then they’re basing on flawed content or data. And so they’re doing the sophisticated analysis on not complete information. That’s why I call them gamblers. But what I–what I think, and certainly what I’m getting across in this conference is there’s a lot of winners out there, and how there’s a very good future in store for communicators as we look forward.
BURKE: Martin, thanks so much. And where can people find you in social media?
MURTLAND: I’ll try and do the–without doing the funny dot-com bit. You can find us at the conversationofcorporation.com.
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the Bulldog Media Relations Conference. I’m joined by Maggie.
Maggie, will you please introduce yourself?
MAGGIE FOX: Sure. My name is Maggie Fox. I’m the founder and CEO of a company called Social Media Group, and we are one of the world’s biggest independent social media agencies.
BURKE: Now, Maggie, you just did a panel, and I was just wondering, you know, so many people are talking about social media. For those people, perhaps, that haven’t quite started or don’t have a lot of traction yet, can you please share your couple of tips on how PR professionals and communicators can get going in social media?
FOX: Sure. Well, I think we have to recognize that social PR, that reaching out to people of influence and connecting with them in the hopes of getting them to tell your story for you is no different than traditional media relations. It is not brain surgery, the approach is very similar. The only thing that is different is the language. It is, you know, what they’re going to want from you, the way they’re going to want you to approach them, and kind of that human relationship piece, I think, is a lot stronger. The other part of it is, you know, that the reality is if you want people to tell your story, you want people to talk about you, you want them to share your content, it has to be good. So the notion that you are becoming a broadcaster, you’re starting to produce content of entertainment quality or asking other people to experience something that is really special is what’s always going to break through to us.
BURKE: Great. And where can people find you in social media, Maggie?
FOX: They can find me on Twitter @maggiefox, all one word, or on the Web at socialmediagroup.com.
The Oriella PR Network issued their 2010 Digital Journalism Study recently. The survey consisted of 770 journalists across 15 countries, and is used to find out how digital media has changed the nature of news-gathering. In reviewing this study, I naturally paid the most attention to those items that directly affect public relations and media relations practitioners.
For example, according to the report, “interest in traditional news content remains healthy.” Results showed:
75 percent of journalists surveyed indicated they like to receive emailed press releases, and
52 percent want to receive still photography.
Interestingly, demand for social media news releases (SMNRs), chosen by 19 percent of journalists in 2008’s survey, and 15 percent in 2009, has leveled off at 16 percent in 2010.
Video content has fallen to 27.5 percent from 35 percent.
Audio / podcasts have fallen to 15 percent from 19 percent.
The report notes it is possible that these declines may be due to the fact that publications have the capabilities to produce their own multi-media content now. Previously they were more reliant on content from third parties.
Considering the international reach of this survey, I was curious if our own U.S.-based media followed suit. I set-up a (very un-scientific) three-question survey on PollDaddy and asked my Twitter and LinkedIn journalist connections to respond. There were only a handful of responses, but the poll answered my question.
85 percent of journalists who responded to my survey indicated they prefer to be contacted via email.
44 percent said it was okay to contact via Twitter, but keep in mind that I posted the survey on Twitter and LinkedIn so the journos that responded are those that are on social networking sites – be wary of assuming this is true across the board.
67 percent want to receive hi-res photos with press releases.
55 percent would like to see supporting documents (such as backgrounders, bios, fact sheets, etc.) and/or attributable quotes.
When I asked for additional comments, one respondent replied, “I wish press releases had original quotes instead of marketing-speak.” Another responded, “Short, sweet and to the point. Make it catchy. Make it actually newsworthy. Make it interesting. And don’t send something that’s happening that day. Timing is EVERYTHING.”
Jessica Pupillo, freelance writer and editorial director for St. Louis Sprout & About, opined: “Put the news release headline in the subject line of an e-mail. Also put the text of the release in the body of the e-mail, and ALWAYS include copies of the release and access to photos on your online press room. Include a phone number where you can be reached during reasonable hours (7 a.m. to 9 p.m.). If you don’t answer your phone when I call, I may just skip your news.”
The author of the Digital Journalism Study results report surmised, “Time pressures remain – it is down [sic] to the PR community to facilitate access to relevant stories so they can turn it into a compelling story as efficiently as possible.” And, goes so far as to state, “While the communications landscape has become increasingly complex, journalists continue to rely on PR professionals to address the basics of news gathering in the content they produce. Communicators that overlook this essential need do so at their peril.”
If you’re a media professional, do you agree with the survey findings published in the Digital Journalism study or from my poll? What do you wish public relations professionals would do better? If you’re in PR or media relations, how are you tailoring your strategy to meet the changing needs of journalists? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
Is Digital Media Changing PR’s Role in News-Gathering?
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010Flickr Image: yago1.com
The Oriella PR Network issued their 2010 Digital Journalism Study recently. The survey consisted of 770 journalists across 15 countries, and is used to find out how digital media has changed the nature of news-gathering. In reviewing this study, I naturally paid the most attention to those items that directly affect public relations and media relations practitioners.
For example, according to the report, “interest in traditional news content remains healthy.” Results showed:
Interestingly, demand for social media news releases (SMNRs), chosen by 19 percent of journalists in 2008’s survey, and 15 percent in 2009, has leveled off at 16 percent in 2010.
The report notes it is possible that these declines may be due to the fact that publications have the capabilities to produce their own multi-media content now. Previously they were more reliant on content from third parties.
Considering the international reach of this survey, I was curious if our own U.S.-based media followed suit. I set-up a (very un-scientific) three-question survey on PollDaddy and asked my Twitter and LinkedIn journalist connections to respond. There were only a handful of responses, but the poll answered my question.
When I asked for additional comments, one respondent replied, “I wish press releases had original quotes instead of marketing-speak.” Another responded, “Short, sweet and to the point. Make it catchy. Make it actually newsworthy. Make it interesting. And don’t send something that’s happening that day. Timing is EVERYTHING.”
Jessica Pupillo, freelance writer and editorial director for St. Louis Sprout & About, opined: “Put the news release headline in the subject line of an e-mail. Also put the text of the release in the body of the e-mail, and ALWAYS include copies of the release and access to photos on your online press room. Include a phone number where you can be reached during reasonable hours (7 a.m. to 9 p.m.). If you don’t answer your phone when I call, I may just skip your news.”
The author of the Digital Journalism Study results report surmised, “Time pressures remain – it is down [sic] to the PR community to facilitate access to relevant stories so they can turn it into a compelling story as efficiently as possible.” And, goes so far as to state, “While the communications landscape has become increasingly complex, journalists continue to rely on PR professionals to address the basics of news gathering in the content they produce. Communicators that overlook this essential need do so at their peril.”
If you’re a media professional, do you agree with the survey findings published in the Digital Journalism study or from my poll? What do you wish public relations professionals would do better? If you’re in PR or media relations, how are you tailoring your strategy to meet the changing needs of journalists? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
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