« March 2004 | Main | May 2004 »
April 29, 2004
Breaking Through The Chinese Wall: How To Turn Advertising Into PR
When Melanie Hammmond Clark, the pastor at the Covenant Presbyterian Church right here in beautiful Racine, Wisconsin wanted newspaper publicity to build her congregation, she did it the old fashioned way...
She bought it.
How does one do that, you ask?
Before we answer that we need to understand how media outlets work.
Traditionally, there are two groups at a media source: editorial and advertising.
Editorial reports the news, advertising sells...well, advertising.
This creates a major potential ethical problem. Couldn't one sell more advertising if they reported positively on their advertisers and negatively on those who don't advertise with them?
Probably so.
Hence "The Chinese Wall"
The Chinese wall is a an imaginary wall that separates the two sides of the business. Theoretically, advertising and editorial don't talk with each other and the editorial department isn't even supposed to notice who and what is being advertised through their media outlet.
This issue does create a challenge to us as PR practitioners. Frankly, we frequently want free publicity for something that we really should be paying to have advertised.
Posted at 01:23 PM
Building Your Personal Media List
Are you frustrated with the lack of pickup that you receive when sending out media releases?
Audri and Jim Lanford of www.scambusters.org aren't.
Scambusters.org focuses on revealing the different methods that are used by the lowlifes of the world to transfer money from our pockets to theirs without providing value in return.
And, since there seem to be no shortage of scammers, Audri and Jim have plenty of material for their site and newsletter.
Like many other businesses, one tool that scambusters uses to promote their business is news releases. What's different is that when scambusters sends out a release, that release gets run by the vast majority of its recipients.
Plus, and even more importantly, many of those releases become the catalyst for interviews and more complete articles.
So, what news release distribution service is the Lanfords using to get this high degree of success?
Posted at 01:17 PM
What's That Again? Police Assistance
From a police incident blotter:
"2:33 PM: C & I: Officer assisted a student by cutting his bike lock.
"2:36 PM: C & I: Student reported his bike stolen. Pending."
Oops!
Posted at 01:15 PM
Special Lead Generation Teleseminar
One of the questions I hear most frequently is "how do I generate new leads?" This really is a key issue that's tough for many people.
That's why, when one of the top marketing consultants in the world, Bob Serling, called me to tell me about his upcoming teleseminar, I asked if there were any way that he would let me tell you about it.
He agreed. :<)
And, now that I've seen the 65 info-packed pages of materials that attendees are going to receive as pre-seminar preparation materials, I'm even more convinced that, if you're in business, you need this information.
And I'm also convinced that this is going to be a thought-, action-, and profit-producing seminar!
Cool stuff!
Posted at 01:14 PM
April 19, 2004
Grab That Gift Horse And Ride Him As Far As His Legs Will Carry You!
What do you do when you get media mentions?
You celebrate! Depending on the quality of that mention and how frequently you get mentioned, that celebration can range from a briefly uttered "cool" to champagne flowing in the office fountains.
But then what?
That's the problem with most of us - there is no next step.
Sometimes because we don't know what to do.
Sometimes because we're too busy.
But either way - we're leaving opportunities on the table!
Here are two very different examples, one from each end of the spectrum, just to show you some possibilities.
Posted at 02:51 PM
What's That Again - Dancing In Minefields
Actual newspaper headline:
Dance will help clear minefields
Now, I took dance for many years, and am aware that not everyone likes dancers much, but this seems like it's taking that dislike a bit too far, right?
Posted at 02:48 PM
Paradigm Shifts
"I'm clueless, I have no idea."
There I was, trying to put together the portable stage for my daughter's fashion show. I had 8 stage bases, each of which consisted of a 103" steel support, with a 46" support bar hinged to each end. It was sort of like a U, with the bottom part of the U being the longest.
But my problem was that the flat stage pieces themselves were only 96" long, by 48" wide.
How in the world was I supposed to make the 103" supports go into the holes if the stage was only 96" long?
I checked, three times, to see if the long support was adjustable in any way. Nope.
I asked 4 different people to look at it, none had any idea.
We had become convinced that we had the wrong set of bases for this stage top. And dress rehearsal was coming up in about an hour.
So, I did what I oftentimes do when faced with an insurmountable problem -
Posted at 02:47 PM
April 03, 2004
News Conference Fiascoes: If You Don't Have Anything To Say, Don't Hold A Conference!
This week has brought a flurry of news from Madison Wisconsin about a girl who was allegedly (and people are increasingly beginning to suspect that "allegedly" is the right word) kidnapped from her off-campus apartment, then found several days later.
This story also brought to mind the biggest problem with news conferences.
I watched the news conference the evening that Audrey was found. Very little information was available (she'd only been back for a short while), and police were still combing the marsh with automatic weapons at the ready.
The police representative got up, gave a statement, then opened the floor to questions. His statement was understandably incomplete and contained none of the juicy stuff that the reporters wanted to hear, so the reporters immediately did their job, asking questions in lots of different ways to get the answers they sought.
Here's where the problem began. The police PR guy adamantly refused to answer any question that wasn't covered in his statement. Plus any question that was covered in his statement was answered with "as I said before, [quote from the statement], other than that, I have no comment."
Which raises the question - why hold a media conference if you're not going to answer any questions?
Posted at 12:04 AM
April 02, 2004
The Stupidest Phone Mistake People Make When Dealing With The Media (Or Anyone Else You Don't Know, For That Matter!)
I get it every day, my phone rings and the complete stranger on the other end of the line starts the conversation by asking the stupidest question they could possibly ask:
"How are you?"
Excuse me, but what am I supposed to say?
Posted at 11:58 PM
What's That Again? Everything's Intact
The following announcement ran in the San Mateo County Times On November 22, 2003:
Stolen car found
A stolen vehicle was recovered at the corner of Linden Street and Hillside Boulevard on Thursday. The car was intact except for a missing vinyl top, front and rear seats, air bags, dashboard, transmission, engine and both license plates.
Well, at least they left the rabbit's foot hanging from the rear view mirror!
Posted at 11:54 PM
Award-winning Headlines
What's the one thing that determines whether a journalist will take the time to read your news release?
Joan Stewart reminds us that it's almost always the headline. Ditto for tip sheets, how-to articles, op-ed pieces and other things you submit to newspapers and magazines.
Writing a powerful headline is tough--sometimes more difficult than writing the entire article. So I thought you'd enjoy reading a batch of headlines that took top honors recently in the American Copy Editor Society's 2003 headline writing contest. Remember that most of these headlines were written by full-time professional copy editors who are among the best in the newspaper business.
Our Special Report, How to Write Eye-Catching Headlines for Your News Releases and Articles" offers lots of tips on how you, too, can write headlines that will scream for attention. It's loaded with tips for novice headline-writers. Check it out!
Posted at 11:53 PM
