PR Consultants/Publicists

Get the monkey off your back using VAs, subcontractors

7/27/2010 By Joan Leave a Comment

If you’ feel like you can’t do it all, start pushing the monkey off your back by delegating some of your work—particularly the stuff you hate doing—to an assistant.

A good virtual assistant and other subcontractors can free you up to concentrate on the strategies and tasks that bring in the money.

But knowing where to look, understanding the kinds of work you can delegate to an assistant, and working in tandem with an assistant so you aren’t stepping on each other’s toes, can be confusing.

Here are my top five tips for outsourcing:

1. Ask for referrals.

Ask business friends and your social media connections for referrals. LinkedIn is an excellent resource. Do this before you follow Tip #2.

2. Use the outsourcing sites.

VWorker and ODesk are great, but you have to spend a lot of time sorting through bids, portfolios and other details, then communicating back and forth via email until your project is completed.

3. Check references

When you find an ideal assistant, check references! If you’re looking for someone to help with PR or write press releases, checking refernces is imperative because those tasks require special skills. Ask to see samples of their work. When checking references, ask about the person’s weaknesses as well as strengths.

4. Ask your assistant for suggestions

Give your assistants the freedom to suggest other types of work they can do for you. My assistant, Christine Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services, often suggests that I delegate tasks she KNOWS I hate doing. And she shares with me tasks she has done for other clients.

5. Listen to Charlie Cook’s series of interviews on hiring assistants.

If you need more guidance on hiring an assistant, take advantage of Charlie Cook’s free series of interviews with 10 of the top experts who will reveal their practical insights on how they achieved their BIGGEST dreams through outsourcing and delegation. You’ll hear hundreds of tips you can start using immediately. It starts next week. Many of these luminaries charge $30-$20K for keynote speeches, but you can listen to the entire series of interviews for free by signing up here.

What tips can you share about hiring and working with an assistant? What pitfalls should people avoid? What horrible tasks have you been able to delegate to an assistant?

Filed Under: PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources

6 ways to tie your pitch to breaking news for PR, publicity

7/14/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

News is breaking all around you.

Here are 6 tips on how to generate publicity from breaking news.

Update: We’ll be discussing these tips and many others during the webinar “How to Tie Your Story Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU” tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21.

1. The local angle. If you’re the “local angle” to a national breaking news story, let the media know. Example: Coffee prices nationwide skyrocket. You own a coffee bar. How will you deal with the price increase? Let your local newspapers and TV stations know. (This blog has an entire sub-category on the local angle.)

2. Comment on celebrity news. Al and Tipper Gore announce they will divorce. You’re a divorce attorney. Can you offer tips for national men’s and women’s magazines on how wealthy divorcing couples can negotiate for the best settlement possible?

3. Pay attention to weather news. Your area has just had 4 weeks of rain and people are bailing water out of their basements. You’re an expert on how to remove mold from houses. Contact every media outlet that’s covering the weather and offer your comments.

4. Target industry journalists and bloggers. If there’s breaking news within your industry, or an industry you target, and you’re a part of it, or you can offer expert commentary, contact business reporters and bloggers who write about that industry. How do you know who they are? You create a Google Alert for the topic.

5. Share your expertise on the social media sites. For any type of breaking news on which you can comment, be sure you write about it at your blog and the social media sites, where many journalists are looking for sources.

6. Pitch photos, not just stories. It’s the harvest season. You own a farmer’s market and you have a gargantuan pumpkin in your field. It might not be worth a story, but it’s worth a photo in your daily newspaper.

Learn more tips from a crackerjack publicist on how to contact busy journalists and bloggers, how to craft an email that gets their attention, what to offer to tip the scales in your favor, and how to follow up. Publicist Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity will be my guest on the webinar “How to Tie Your Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interviw YOU” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 21.

She’ll share tips for the best places to find breaking news quickly, a terrific free resource she found online that gives media contact information (saving you thousands of dollars on fancy media directories), and examples of emails to the media that resulted in fabulous publicity for her clients. You can use the same elements in your emails that she used in hers.

How have you tied your story idea to a breaking news event, and what kind of publicity did you generate as a result? Comment here.

Filed Under: Blogs, Celebrity tie-ins, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, Photos & Graphics, Publicity Resources, Social media marketing, TV Publicity, The Local Angle

Why holding a press conference can backfire

7/13/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

You win an industry award and you’re so tickled that you can hardly wait to call a press conference.

Problem is, you’re only one that’s excited. Your publicist, in fact, is reluctant, because she thinks a press conference sounds, well, so old-fashioned.

That’s what happened this week to a publicist who’s one my readers. Her client, whose organization got high ratings, told her to arrange a press conference to announce the good news. She turned to me for advice.

No one will come

Here’s my response:

“I suggest you NOT hold a press conference because I can virtually guarantee you that if you do, nobody from the media will show up, and you will look bad in the client’s eyes. (“How come you couldn’t get anyone from the media to show up?”)

“If somebody from the media DOES show up, they will be angry when they find out your client wasted their time and that they could have gotten the same information in a press release, especially if they battled rush-hour traffic to get there on time. And they could blackball you.

“Clients have huge egos, especially when they have good news to share. You must explain to the client why useless press conferences about topics like this can damage their reputation with the media forever.”

Better ways to spread the word

I suggested that she convince her client to:

—Write a press release and distribute it through PR Web. Dan Janal has a fabulous deal where where the client’s press release is guaranteed to make it onto more than 50 big websites like Forbes, Reuters, etc. I wrote about this in my publicity tips newsletter a few weeks ago. The client will be much happier about achieving this kind of exposure vs. spending all the time coordinating a press conference and then delivering the news in an empty room.

—Create a video (two and a half minutes) explaining what the company did to achieve the high rating. Feature clients talking about what they like about the service they received. Upload it to YouTube and other video-sharing sites. It will pull traffic to their website.

—Tweet about this and put this on their Facebook Fan Page.

—Take photos that illustrate why the company got the high rating and upload them to Flickr.

—Also do a special mailing to their email list sharing the good news.

—There are many creative alternatives to boring press conferences, like events that are open to the public, or even publicity stunts that are done well. A new florist association, for example, delivered 50,000 roses and carnations to new moms in area hospitals, generating fabulous media attention and word-of-mouth publicity.

The next time you or your PR is tempted to call a press conference, consider the disadvantages. Then think of a better way to spread the good news.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Facebook, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Social media marketing, Twitter, Video Tagged With: announce good news, news conference, press conference, write a press release

7 places to stay off the sauce if reporters are present

6/28/2010 By Joan 6 Comments

Journalists and booze don’t mix.

Just look at what happened to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was dumb enough to let an investigative freelancer for Rolling Stone into his inner circle and conduct a tape-recorded interview—over drinks.

Never, ever drink while interviewing with a reporter. That’s a lesson in Interviewing 101 and keeping the media wolves at bay.

But you need to be on your guard even if you aren’t being interviewed, and booze and reporters are present. Many people incorrectly assume that if they don’t see a reporter scribbling in a notebook, the interview, or anything they say, is off the record. Assume that everything you say in front of journalists is on the record, or don’t say it.

Loose lips sink ships.

Here are seven situations when you must stay away from reporters if you’re drinking, or stay away from alcohol if you’re talking to anyone in the media.

1. After-work networking events
The media sometimes attend these events, often hosted by the local chamber of commerce. Smart reporters know how to make nice with you and get you talking. If you aren’t holding a drink in your hand, and you’re busy prattling on about your business, they can slyly lead you to the bar and offer you a drink.

2. Events hosted by the media
Business journals and other business magazines generate a large portion of their revenue from these events, and reporters and editors are everywhere. It’s a great chance to schmooze with the media, but only if you aren’t drinking.

3. Local and national Press Club dinners and special events
Reporters and editors have a well-deserved reputation for boozing it up at Press Club dinners and awards ceremonies. I recommend that anyone who wants publicity consider attending these events, often open to the public, because you can establish valuable relationships with the media—sober.

4. Trade shows
If you’re attending a trade show, you should do your homework and touch base with reporters who you know will be at the show so you can meet them for coffee, offer your expertise and find out what they need from you. Beware, however, of evening cocktail parties hosted by the trade show’s sponsor, where food and booze are plentiful.

5. Conferences and conventions the media cover

Opportunities abound for getting into trouble, from sitting next to a reporter during dinner to joining a group of people that includes journalists at a local tavern, at the end of the day.

6. Fund-raisers and black-tie dinners

Reporters sometimes attend these dinners to cover them, and newspaper and magazine executives often attend them as guests.

7. The “lunch” or “dinner” interview.

If reporters want to interview you over lunch or dinner, that’s usually OK. And if they want to drink, that’s their choice. But don’t even think of having just a half glass of wine. You must be at the top of your game, on point, and coherent.

What situations can you add to this list? If you’re a PR person, what advice do you give to your clients?

Filed Under: How to Interview, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, TV Publicity Tagged With: How to Interview, media interviews, networking events, press club, reporter interviews, reporters and alcohol, trade show PR, trade shows

Definitions of advertising, promotion, publicity and PR

6/16/2010 By Joan 2 Comments

If you work in PR, and you’re trying to explain to somebody what you do, and they look at you with a blank stare, explain it this way:

“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying ‘Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,’ that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.”

I can’t remember where that quote originated. But I used it once in my newsletter and receive requests every now and then from readers who remember the quote, but need the exact wording.

If you work in any of these industries, tuck away this saying in a safe place and use it the next time you need something fun for a speech, White Paper, or just to make a client smile.

Does anybody know who first said this? Was it P.T. Barnum?

Filed Under: , PR Consultants/Publicists Tagged With: bt barnum, definition of advertising, PR, promotion, publicity