This year’s PRSA 2010 International Conference was my 11th in the past 12 years. As the date approached, I found myself wondering if it was going to be worth it. Would I really learn something new? Now that the Conference is over, I can report a resounding, “Yes!”
One of the sessions I attended was led by my BurrellesLuce colleague, Johna Burke (@gojohnab). She offered so many great tidbits of social media/media relations-related information that it would be impossible to include them all in this blog post. However, there’s one point that stood out the most to me.
Burke began by discussing the changing media landscape. For example, according to the Pew Research Center, some 44 percent of online news users get news at least a few times a week through e-mails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites. You must decide where social media fits into the strategy, and how to take advantage of it.
She advises:
Participate in the dialogue, but don’t broadcast.
Messages need to work in tandem and support other messages. In other words, consistency is key.
Communicate to the whole organization, not just the media.Who are your other audiences? Who are our stakeholders?
Be where your audiences hang out online. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the “big three.”
So what about pitching via social media? Burke prefaced these best practices with her PR101 golden rule: everything is on the record! She says, at the bare minimum, know what sort of journalist they are — print, online or “MOJO” (mobile journalist). You should also:
Know what they are writing about.
Think about how to build a relationship with them. Comment first, pitch later.
Find a way to provide information without giving away the scoop.
Tell them why they should care.
Do NOT send multiple requests to one reporter/blogger on multiple platforms. (You don’t want to stalk them!)
Obviously, not all of the tips are necessarily “new,” but there were new applications of old principles, and some were simply solid media relations refreshers.
Tressa Robbins, vice president, Media Contacts, BurrellesLuce, is a regular contributor to BurrellesLuceFresh Ideas blog, a member of the St. Louis PRSA Chapter and a PRSSA mentor. She recently served as a panelist for PRSSA’s National Conference and speaks at the local and regional level. Connect with Tressa on LinkedIn and follow Tressa on Twitter @tressalynne.
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the Bulldog Media Relations Summit. I’m joined by Paul.
Paul, will you please introduce yourself?
PAUL GILLIN: Hi, I’m Paul Gillin. I am a writer, speaker and a consultant in social media.
BURKE: And, Paul, you were just on the panel about social media and the future of social media marketing, and I think that a lot of the viewers here are probably still just getting started or maybe don’t feel like they have the traction that they need in this space. What are some tips that they can apply tomorrow as far as making their programs better?
GILLIN: Well, first of all, I would get–if you’re not on Facebook, which almost the entire world is at this point, be sure you’re on Facebook, be sure you’re on Twitter and you have the basic groundings in those areas. I think the important thing is to listen. The first thing you want to do is listen. And for that, become familiar with Twitter search. Start looking for your company name or the names of your clients on Google. But also become familiar with some other search engines, such as Boardwatch. These are—or Twitter search. These are ways to see what people are saying about you in forums that aren’t necessarily being indexed by Google.
Build a dashboard. And, I mean, go to–go to Google and become familiar with Google Reader and learn how to take the feeds that are coming in from search.twitter.com and from a lot of Google alerts are available through a–through a feed reader. You can also go to a site like Social Mention, which indexes strictly social market–social networking areas, and you can create feeds that you can capture in Google Reader, and you can sort of build yourself a dashboard so you can see, any time you look at your dashboard, the latest information about what people have been saying about you and your company.
So I’d say spend, you know, a couple of months really getting comfortable with listening and understanding how the back and forth works, the way people talk to each other, and some of the–some of the behavioral standards of social media, and then, you know, dive in as a participant, but only once you understand how people really like to interact with each other.
BURKE: Thank you so much. And where can people find you in social media?
GILLIN: Well, thank–I’m glad you asked. I am @pgillin, that’s P-G-I-L-L-I-N, as in Nancy, on Twitter. And I’m at gillin.com. And I’m also pgillin on Facebook. So I sense a pattern there.
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.
Last week, I attended a webinar by Sally Falkow, APR, and Rebecca Lieb, on how Internet technology and social networking affects news media and as a result, the public relations and media relations practitioner.
For those of you who attended last year’s PRSA International conference and heard Arianna Huffington open the keynote address with, “The press release is dead…” or those who read Tom Forenski’s rant a few years ago, “Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!,” may be surprised to learn the press release, like traditional media, is NOT dead. Falkow told us the news has changed, but journalists still want information. The way that journalists work is evolving so we need to provide this information in different ways.
Lieb quoted some statistics on how journalists work today:
91 percent of journalists search Google to do their job (“expert” is a common search term)
89 percent use blogs
64 percent are using social networks
In addition, Lieb went on to say that over 75 percent of reporters view blogs as helpful in providing story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue. And, almost half of reporters say they are “lurkers” on social networking sites.
So, what do journalists really want and need from PR?
They want the news in easy-to-identify, digestible sections.
They are looking for images, quotes, video, backgrounders, fact sheets.
Tag the information so it’s easily found.
Give them the full embed code for multimedia.
Put your news in a feed.
Make it available on social sites.
Aggregate your news/social content in one place.
She says, “Deconstruct the press release into special sections and tag the information. By using news tags, a newspaper or news site could pull together larger numbers of news stories and the PR industry would be helping news publishers to gather the facts and present them in a near-publishable format.”
Bottom line: if you aren’t telling your story, then someone’s telling it for you. If the media can’t find the information they need from you, they will find it elsewhere – and you may not like what they find!
The media in general is expected to provide more than just a print story, or just a video clip – it’s also on the web. What is your organization doing to feed the media’s hunger for content?
In ancient China, soldiers would warn against impending attacks by sending smoke signals from tower to tower up to 300 miles away within just a few hours; In 1775, Paul Revere used his vocal chords and a horse on his “midnight ride” to warn of the British invasion and in the 1800’s Samuel Morse used a type of character encoding system to send 20 words per minute via radio.
Today, in just a few typed lines and a few clicks, stories are being spread around the world through social networking sites circling the globe in a matter of seconds. And the vivid details from personal accounts through citizen journalism and the proliferation of camera phones are adding more truth and authenticity to these stories. In some cases the immediacy and extra scrutiny can lead to positive things (e.g., shedding light on last summer’s Iranian protests). In others, it can be
devastating for the main character or brand – causing irreparable harm to their reputations. The BP oil spill in the Gulf, the English goalies blunder against the U.S. team in the opening round of this year’s World Cup, or any Lindsey Lohan story these days are just a few stories that go against the old PR adage, “Any publicity is good publicity as long as you spell my name right.”
Celebrities have been putting up with this type of scrutiny, to some degree, for years with paparazzi constantly photographing unsuspecting beach goers wearing unflattering bathing suits or in compromising positions. But when it happens to our politicians, business leaders, corporations, athletes or just everyday people, how does one cope with the instant barrage of viral videos, bloggers, or tweeters, and the repercussions that follow? At least bad weather would force the ancient smoke signalers to take a break every now and then. Barring a colossal Internet crash, today’s perpetual flow of information continues to tarnish reputations worldwide (and many times rightfully so).
Today crisis communications is becoming increasingly difficult with public relations and marketing people scrambling to keep up with today’s technology. One lesson that Southwest Airlines taught the PR community back in February is to always keep a close eye on what the media, especially social media, is saying about your company. When movie director Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest Flight on Feb 18, 2010, essentially for being too fat, he tweeted about the episode and the next day the story was all over the Internet. However, Southwest wasted no time and offered an apology to Smith via Twitter and posted an explanation of their policy on its own blog before the story started to trend.
Maybe there should be an island for all the victims of negative social media fall out, where they can live in solitude and where there are no computers, web access, or mobile devices until their names are mercifully pushed down the search engine results list. Even then, it probably wouldn’t take long before helicopters were swirling overhead taking video and instantly downloading the footage online. A more practical approach would be to prevent the crisis from spreading further by paying close attention to what is being said in all forms of media and to who’s saying it.
The “who are you with attitude?” is old school now. So how are you preparing your clients and executives for “the every one is a reporter mentality?” Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
One of the sessions I attended was led by my BurrellesLuce colleague, Johna Burke (@gojohnab). She offered so many great tidbits of social media/media relations-related information that it would be impossible to include them all in this blog post. However, there’s one point that stood out the most to me.
Tressa Robbins, vice president, Media Contacts, BurrellesLuce, is a regular contributor to BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog, a member of the St. Louis PRSA Chapter and a PRSSA mentor. She recently served as a panelist for PRSSA’s National Conference and speaks at the local and regional level. Connect with Tressa on LinkedIn and follow Tressa on Twitter @tressalynne.
press release is dead…” or those who read 
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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