Archive for 'Media'
From Journo to Flack: Shedding light on the Dark Side
Posted on 02. Apr, 2010 by Creatwood.
In the “battle” contrived in the minds of journalists, there is a good side and a bad side; a light side and a dark side. I’ll leave you to determine what side journalists will claim. This “battle” starts early in the mind of a journalist, usually beginning around the second year of J-school, as they start to obtain a mutant feeling of self-importance and the ego inflates with each byline. Also, at my school, the kids in the Flack track shared the building and classrooms with us. They were typically more attractive, bubblier and seemed to have an overall pleasant disposition, which didn’t bode well with most J-school kids because we were stressed out, cynical elitists — well, most of us were. I know this, because I was/am this. I can’t say I’m not still a journo at heart, but I accept my role as a Flack, and I’m OK with that. I have worked on my disposition as well (see photo below).
I'm trying hard to be more bubbly.
So, when I left the newsroom, I braced myself for the onslaught of jabs and jokes that were sure to come. I wrote the e-mail announcing my transition from journalism to marketing, I gritted my teeth as I hit the send button and closed my eyes and counted waiting for the rest of the newsroom to react. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, — “AH! Dave, you’re joining the DARK SIDE?!” That was the first thing I heard. From there the “joke” just lost humor, and became very real to me. I was in fact joining this dark side, which I wrestled with at first. Of course, there’s no reason to fight it, because then you’re just being a counterproductive, sour bastard. Suck it up, straighten up and do your job well.
I did that, and I soon started to realize the good things that could come from being a good Flack. Journalists do appreciate this, I promise. We might be the butt of their jokes, but at the end of the day, they will appreciate and recognize your hard work and good nature.
You want to know what they won’t appreciate? Here’s a list:
• Pitching a story to them after telling them their competition wouldn’t run it – This is just bad, and it should be obvious to most of you Flacks out there why this is bad. Journos tend to have a rival, or several in their line of work. The local business journal will always consider the daily paper’s business desk their main rivals. It’s not bitter, but it’s about outdoing one another and getting better stories before they do. So if you think you’re going to entice a journo to printing your story by saying your rivals had no interest in it, you need to seriously reconsider your approach. It’s sloppy seconds, and if you pitch it that way a respectable news source will likely not print it. You might get lucky if they’re desperate, but don’t count on it. Instead, don’t mention the fact you pitched it elsewhere. If they ask, say their competition was considering it, but couldn’t devote the time to it. It’s a white lie, but if you’re a person of strong moral character, something tells me you can digest that one.
• Sending an incoherent press release with a lead buried amongst nonsensical gibberish – Most journalists don’t expect you to write a press release the reads like the Wall Street Journal, but for crying out loud, make sense. If you’re pitching a story and you don’t put the best information up top, you’re messing up your chances of a journo taking the time to read it. In my mind, if you know you want to be in PR, you should go to J-school and learn everything about organized writing, news-gathering and relevant news. Think like a journalist. It might be slightly depressing and ultra-realistic to the point where society makes you paranoid, but it’s a great way to improve your press release success. Also, if you can’t bother to spell check your document, there is a room full of journalists either mocking you or cursing the education system that taught you.
I’ll save my other tips for next week, and the weeks to come. And I don’t mean to come down hard on Flacks. There really are good Flacks out there, and some that I’ve become rather close with and trusted as a journo. But there are a lot of mistakes to be made when dealing with media, so if you stick with me and listen up, you might just get a bit of advice that can help you improve your PR approach.
Dave Strupp
Creatwood Communications
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What To Expect: Community Newspapers
Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by Creatwood.
We’ve all seen them. Sometimes they’re laid out nicely in a doctors office, stuffed in the book bags of your child, sitting in racks at your local diner, or crumpled up on the driveway having sat there for weeks.
But no matter what you think about Community Newspapers, they are a useful way to get your message and story out to a hyper-local audience. Don’t scoff at me. I know some of you are. But believe me when I say there is a good audience reading these publications, and that’s apparent because there are so many of them around. People read these publications because it’s full of relatable content. They want to know what’s going on in their neighborhood and they want to see their peers, friends and neighbors in the pages.
I’ve actually seen clients put the kibosh on the mention of sending press releases to community papers, or local trade pubs. I can understand why they would say this, because they consider these pubs to be bathroom readers, or casualties of the driveway after no one picks it up for a week. But what they fail to realize is even though they might not read these pubs themselves, there are plenty of others that do.
Not everyone leaves them out to dry...
So instead of considering an advertisement in these pages, send them press releases and bylined articles. These are the places where you are more likely to get a story printed, and the people reading them are usually your neighbors in the area. It’s an easy way to drive more traffic to your business. And that’s the whole reason we do public relations. Start thinking about what community pubs you want to appear in, and talk to your PR consultant about it.
And if your PR consultant scoffs at it, you know they are the ones who leave those things sitting in the driveway for weeks.
Dave Strupp
Creatwood Communications
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From Journo to Flack: The Transition
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Creatwood.
This is my personal account of going from journalism into public relations. These are my personal views and experiences, so don’t get too hung up on the cynicism. That’s just me…
It’s not uncommon to see a journalist make the switch to PR. The benefits are obvious: better money, better hours, better work environment and a different kind of stress. I won’t say less stress, but I can say the kind of stress one experiences in journalism can make you want to head butt a Mac truck at top speed. I know this, because I came from the newsroom.
Yes, several years ago I decided to take the plunge into PR, leaving behind the womb that was the newsroom. I grappled with the idea of making the switch for so long, but I can recall early on as a young reporter I made some kind of vow to never join the ranks of PR. I would not become a FLACK! (And yes, sorry to inform you other PR professionals, but that is how you are referred to be journalists. It’s not necessarily derogatory, unless you suck at your job. Then it’s probably more personal because that means you waste a journalists time, and that is something they value. But yes, Flacks we are, and Flacks we shall be).
I left the newsroom for what was technically a “marketing” job, but my colleagues disregarded my title and labeled me a Flack. No matter how hotly I protested that I was not one of “THEM,” I was still considered to be a soldier on the side of PR, which is true, in hindsight. In doing so, I’m sure I lost some sort of bet I placed on a hazy after hours gathering of the newsroom. Hopefully nobody surfaces with evidence that I said I’d shave my head or something extreme for doing so.
The transition was difficult. The first thing I missed was the bond of a newsroom. You’d be hard pressed to find a closer bunch of coworkers than in a good newsroom. You don’t have that in PR because it’s more of a selfish endeavor, which sounds negative, but it’s true. I also missed the loose conversation that happened in a newsroom. It wasn’t uncommon for each staff member to go several rounds, ripping into a local politician or person of interest, or to discuss our latest reader comments and potential lawsuits. There’s a bond there, and I miss it to this day.
But slowly, over the span of several months, I started to get behind the cause of my work, which was to promote my company and all of the good things we did for people. I started to see some of the perks, and I realized how nice it was to go home at night and not have that rock in your stomach caused by deadline anxiety or performance reviews. I was pretty happy in my new venture, and it seemed my work/life balance was on point.
I missed writing though, and I still do to this day. There’s not another experience out there equivalent to the rush you get from filing a really good story. Complements from readers are great, but complements from your peers are much more valuable. We don’t get to see that in PR.
So now here I sit, several years removed from journalism. I toe the line on the battlefield for the “other side.” But I’m OK with that. Actually, I’m glad I did it. The experience of being a reporter is something I will not only cherish, but will utilize in my daily work. I learned so many things about PR just from being on the other side and watching. I got to see what works, and there were plenty of times as a reporter when a Flack saved my ass on deadline or gave me an epic story. Of course, there are a lot of bad Flacks out there. In fact, here’s a brief list of things you should NEVER DO as a Flack:
- E-mail a reporter a press release then follow up with a phone call before they even receive the e-mail. I’ve seen Flacks get black-listed for doing this. It wastes time, both yours and the reporter, and you will get the label of being an obnoxious person. Stop this. Stop it now
- Insist a story belongs somewhere it has no business being. That will most certainly label you as an incompetent fool who doesn’t read the paper your pitching too, or who doesn’t understand how journalism works. A lot of interns make this mistake. Just because you have a press release with a dollar sign in it does not make it front-page material for a business journal.
- Take control of a reporter’s interview with your client. This is actually grounds for fisticuffs. OK, not really. But there are few acts more disrespectful to a reporter than to interrupt a reporter’s line of questions to ask your own, even if you think your question will make the story better. Put your ego aside for the moment. I promise you the reporter’s ego is bigger and it will be damaged if you do this. Write it down, and suggest the information once the reporter has finished.
I’ll leave the rest for future posts about this, and trust me when I say I have plenty of advice on what not to do.
I’m a Flack now, so I’ve started to embrace it. I want to be a good one, and I want to make others better, or at least more understanding of the role and plight of a journalist and how you can be more effective at handling certain situations with them. It’s a symbiotic relationship a lot of the time, so when you can, make it an easy experience for them.
OK, I’ve rambled enough for this Friday’s edition. But keep your eyes open for more on this series, From Journo to Flack….
From Journo to Flack
Dave Strupp
Creatwood Communications
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What To Expect: Bylined Articles
Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Creatwood.
Every Wednesday, I’d like to write about what clients can expect from different services a PR firm can offer. Hopefully, this insight will give you a better understanding of the different components of PR, and also to help you realize just how valuable some of them can really be for your company.
For the first installation of this running theme, I’d like to talk about what you can expect from a byline article. First, let me explain what a byline article is. Obviously, it’s an article with your byline on it that the PR firm has created on your behalf. These articles can be submitted to many different online and print publications, especially trade pubs and magazines.
It might seem like a dishonest thing to do, but that’s only if you do it dishonestly and don’t contribute much to the article and instead let the PR consultant do research and write an article on your behalf. That’s irresponsible of the client, and dangerous if the consultant isn’t familiar with the topic.
The whole point of the article is to get your name out there as an expert on a particular topic to a targeted audience. Obviously you’re going to be providing a vast majority of the information, but it’s likely that the PR consultant will be handling a great deal, if not all, of the writing. This process will take a good bit of brainstorming and collaboration, but the more preparation the client and consultant are able to do, the better the article.
Once the article is created and you have the good fortune of getting it published, there obviously needs to be a bit more promotion of the article. Of course you’ll reach that targeted readership of the publication the article appears in, but it wouldn’t hurt to promote the article as well. This is when you can toot your own horn and show people you are the expert they want to have speaking at their next engagement, or providing them consultation on their next business venture. It will also aid your reputation among media as a reliable source on a subject.
Byline articles really are one of the best ways to posture yourself as an expert. But, in saying that, it does help to be fairly knowledgeable on the subject. You’ll be hard pressed to find much good fortune coming from an article that you and a PR consultant have scrapped together and punted to an array of different publications. That is not the kind of byline article that does any one much good.
So, plan it out, collaborate with the PR consultant and be certain you know exactly who you’re hoping to reach. From their, your PR consultant will be able to create an article that will do you proud.
–DS
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So your company got a media hit. Big deal
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Creatwood.
Well, it is a big deal, actually. Getting your company’s story in the news is always a good thing and can really have a positive impact on your business if done well. In order to make that positive impact much bigger, though, you’ll need to leverage that media hit, and that is where the PR process truly takes shape. Now it’s time to really emphasize results in your PR campaign.
Part of our job as PR consultants is to get you as much targeted exposure as possible. Actually, wait. That’s a really big part of our job, in fact. In order to do that, we first take a look at what kind of exposure you’re currently getting from your past media hits. Simple search engine queries will give you a pretty basic view of just how often your company’s name will pop up around the Net. From there, we can see the reach of the impact those media hits have drawn.
OK, so you have a new media hit. Now you can take that and run with it. Run where? There’s all sorts of places. Here are a few ideas for you:
1) Get social with your media – It’s a great big interactive world out there, and with social networks you can reach out to many different audiences — specifically the one you’re hoping to reach. Take your media coverage and post it on the proper networks. There are social networking tools you can use to actually track the interest in your link, which is a good way to determine how valuable it is for you.
2) Buy your rights – Most publications and stations will allow you to purchase the rights to the story online, so you can legally put it on your Web site and use it for promotional purposes. These reprints, as they’re known in the industry, are usually reasonably priced for local media publications, so it’s not a bad investment for your company’s reputation. Think of it like a trophy. Display it with pride. Use it in your collateral materials. But be certain you can make it visible on the Web.
3) Build relationships from the exposure - While the process of putting the story together is underway, make an effort to let the reporter see you as an expert on a particular subject and let it be known you are available for commentary in future stories. While it might not be the most measurable tactic, it will prove successful if the reporter automatically thinks of you to talk about a particular subject.
4) Transfer your momentum to new markets - Once you’ve received media coverage in your immediate area of business, perhaps now you can take that coverage and use it as an example for a similar story in a different market. While many reporters and editors will tell you they don’t do copy cat stories, they are most likely not telling the truth. As a former reporter, I would look to other markets and see what they were covering and if any of it had a local angle. Well, save the reporter some time and pitch the story with an angle specified to that particular market. More times than not you will get somewhere with them, but you can at least drum up attention for your efforts as well.
You have to realize your results, and also realize how to maximize those results to achieve the most coverage possible. The PR process can be very delicate with these kinds of results, but be certain you are doing everything you can to get the most out of your media campaign.
– DS