Media Relations

This is an invaluable resource: The Bulldog Reporter 
Another media list service is BurrellesLuce  

What is the difference between being a PR practitioner and a publicist? 

1. Research the outlet/journalist – Research means not only using a media database service, like BurrellesLuce Media Contacts, to pull a list. It  means digging deeper – looking at past stories, reading the journalists’ or outlets’ blogs. In other words, virtually getting to know the person so that you are sure your news is a good fit.  I’m not saying that you can’t include general or features reporters as long as you tailor your pitch to their interests. The more familiar you are with a writer’s work, the better your chance of success.

2. Know your story – Of course, you say, “I know my story.” But do you, really? Are you capable of presenting it in 30 seconds? It’s not a bad idea to practice your pitch with colleagues or friends. And, ask yourself: why is this story newsworthy? Be able to explain the significance of the story, the unique angle, the connection to their readers, and its relevance. Have facts, statistics, photos, quotes, back-up stories, and experts where you need them. I’ve been told that an old writers’ rule is “show the story, don’t tell the story” – remember that when pitching. One final note – never, never, ever lie or make-up an answer. It’s always better to admit that you don’t know, as you can then find out and get back to the reporter ASAP rather than to risk yours (and your client’s) reputation.

3. Be available (but be patient) – Be prepared when you’re ready AND when the journalist is ready. It goes without saying these days that you should include your cell number, email address, Twitter handle or any other way the reporter can reach you instantly. Journalists are often working on tight deadlines and may need you on the spur of the moment. However, keep in mind that it’s just as likely that your pitch may “sit and stew” for days, weeks or months. Remember, you are not likely to get a promise of coverage so don’t alienate the reporter by being a pest.  

Media training basics 

What don't we know?

We are not doing our due diligence 

What are the top five issues facing your client's industry?
What are the three things you did not realize about your client's challenges?
What three things has your client shared with you about thier specific challenges?
Think about trends and what you client might do to take advantage of what is new.

Dig Deeper with the client

Writing a Mission Statement

Some Ideas

• List the organization's core competencies; its unique strengths and weaknesses.
• List the organization's primary customers, internal or external, by type, not by name.
• Review how each customer relates to each of the organization's strengths. Ask them if possible.
• Write a one-sentence description of each customer/strength pairing.
• Combine any that are essentially the same.
• List the sentences in order of importance to the organization's vision, if one exists.
• Combine the top three to five sentences into a paragraph.
• Ask your customers if they would want to do business with an organization with that mission.
• Ask your employees if they understand and support it and can act on it.
• Ask your suppliers if it makes sense to them.
• Incorporate the feedback from customers, employees and suppliers and repeat the process.
• When you have refined the paragraph into statements that clearly articulates the way the company wants to relate to those it affects, publish it to everyone. Post it on the wall, email it to everyone
• A good mission statement provides strategic vision and direction for the organization and should not have to be revised every few years. Goals and objectives are the short-term measures used to get there.
• Revise the organization's mission statement when it is no longer appropriate or relevant.

From Entrepreneur.com

Answering the following questions will help you to create a verbal picture of your business's mission:

• Why are you in business? What do you want for yourself, your family and your customers? Think about the spark that ignited your decision to start a business. What will keep it burning?
• Who are your customers? What can you do for them that will enrich their lives and contribute to their success--now and in the future?
• What image of your business do you want to convey? Customers, suppliers, employees and the public will all have perceptions of your company. How will you create the desired picture?
• What is the nature of your products and services? What factors determine pricing and quality? Consider how these relate to the reasons for your business's existence. How will all this change over time?
• What level of service do you provide? Most companies believe they offer "the best service available," but do your customers agree? Don't be vague; define what makes your service so extraordinary.
• What roles do you and your employees play? Wise captains develop a leadership style that organizes, challenges and recognizes employees.
• What kind of relationships will you maintain with suppliers? Every business is in partnership with its suppliers. When you succeed, so do they.
• How do you differ from your competitors? Many entrepreneurs forget they are pursuing the same dollars as their competitors. What do you do better, cheaper or faster than other competitors? How can you use competitors' weaknesses to your advantage?
• How will you use technology, capital, processes, products and services to reach your goals? A description of your strategy will keep your energies focused on your goals.
• What underlying philosophies or values guided your responses to the previous questions? Some businesses choose to list these separately. Writing them down clarifies the "why" behind your mission.

Talking points are small pre-prepared arguments or phrases that political strategists issue to representatives or supporters of a party or administration to be used repeatedly in speeches, talk show appearances and debates. The strategy is to create a meme and make the idea a common assumption by sheer means of repetition. Talking points are often gross simplifications of issues, and become name calling if used too often. The most effective talking points consist of one or two words, e.g. "flip-flopper", "job loser", and "ACLU member".

The Backgrounder

Definition: A document that explains the history of a company or product.

The Backgrounder will be a description of specific products or services. You may also need a backgrounder for your company, as a whole. Here are some aspects you may want to include in your product and company backgrounders:

1. Product Backgrounder:
1. What your field or industry did before your product came along.
2. Explanation of any scientific terms or jargon of the industry.
3. The problems your industry or field has had.
4. What your company discovered - results of that discovery.
5. What your specific product can do, how it can resolve previously unresolved problems.
6. Your products advantages over existing products.
7. What the future holds for your product or where your product may lead the industry.
2. Company Backgrounder:
1. Where your company is located, when company started, why company started.
2. Explanation of your product.
3. The kind of company that you have and what the company does.
4. Information about the key people in your company.
5. Information about your industry.
6. The accomplishments of your company.
7. Any "firsts" your company has achieved. Meaning, was your company the first to achieve recognition for a product or service in your field?
8. The future of your company.

Go to your favorite search engine and do a search for "backgrounder." You will be able to read many examples of various types of backgrounders. The more that you read, the more you will begin to get a feel for what you should include for your specific product or company.

You will find that some are very complex and contain a great deal of information. Others are more down-to-earth and contain easily readable information.

You will need to consider your product and your company and determine the "mood" or the "image" that you are trying to convey. If you are developing an Online Press Center, people other than the media are going to read your backgrounder. If you are developing a Press Kit to send to the media, you may want to get into more specific details and industry jargon.

FOR YOUR GROUP
Must write your own mission statement based on the questions you all know about yourselves. 

The assumptions of this working arrangement

The Team
1. Sends status reports each Monday
2. Keeps up with the client and tracks all client interactions (never go more than four (4) days without checking in with the client) (Ask me about doing a client check-ins = justifying your existence)
3. Keeps up with other groups about their needs and what they may know about your client.
4. Make an Excel (Google) spreadsheet for all of the tasks and dates and share in the drive.

Individuals
1. Send timesheet every Monday to your Google Folder (make a folder for yourself in the shared folder) If you are not spending 3-5 real hours per week on these projects you should reevaluate your interest and commitment to the craft of PR.
2. If you miss a class you call off. Not showing up is not cool. If it happens again (you know who you are) consider dropping the class.
3. This class is a group project but lack of individual participation will be obvious. You will create your own portfolio of work and there will be no place to hide. Be better now or be sorry later.

All of your clients will fill out evaluation forms. All of your clients will look at the portfolios of each team member to confirm the work that has claimed to be done.

What does a social media strategist do?

• Work closely with your already existing marketing staff to understand your marketing strategy and goals.
• Research the most appropriate social media channels for your business.
• Help you set up your accounts.
• Determine with the best tools to manage those accounts.
• Train internal staff how to manage those accounts using the tools.
• Develop metrics and institute tracking devices to gauge return on investment.
• Advise on how to deliver promotional content and campaigns through the channels.
• Monitor changes in social media technology, channels, and tools and make adjustments and provide training.

Think about this job description and how you can apply it to your client(s). You should develop a strategy and a social media release for each of the clients for your portfolio. 

First, think about where are the conversations about your brand happening? 

Okay, this is an ad but it says some things I think you should hear about storytelling. 

Listen to this guy. 

The Social Media Press Release

What is the difference between traditional press releases and social media press releases?



And how have things changed?
Here is the restaruant.org now.

Social is now embedded in it fully and wholly, and it’s one and the same with your traditional press release. Tools for sharing have made distribution of news and media much simpler than they were in the first version, back in 2006. Most important: every piece of the new social media press release must be independently shareable! Let’s look at some of the core features of the content.
(Thanks, Shift PR!)

1. Simple sharing buttons have been replaced with up-to-date, modern sharing tools, many of which can be pre-configured to share specific content, or share with specific text so that your message gets out the way you intend.

2. Headlines need to be kept less than 55 characters. Why? Because you want them to be retweeted and reshared, leaving room for people to add in your Twitter handle or other social network identifier, as well as be mobile-friendly.

3. YouTube video. YouTube is the platform of choice for three reasons. First, it’s got the largest audience that loves to share if something is share worthy. Second, the YouTube player is fully mobile-compatible on many different platforms and devices, so you can be sure that your press release will be available to journalists and content creators no matter how they see it. Third, nearly every social network recognizes YouTube URLs and allows YouTube videos to be played natively on the individual social networks.

4. Mobile-friendly shareable audio. Services like SoundCloud are recommended because they’re mobile-compatible. If you checked out our mobile-friendly press release, you know why this is important. It’s also important for the audio itself to be shareable.

5. Photo gallery set. You can likely use any photo sharing service here, but Flickr is an excellent choice for its strong defense of intellectual property and high share ability.

6. Social commenting. Integrated social discussions using common plugins like Facebook Comments, Disqus, Livefyre, or other systems.

7. Selected contact information. In the first version of the social media press release, we encouraged all forms of contact info, but we now recommend you use your best judgement for what to include. If you’re not active on Twitter, don’t include a Twitter handle or you’ll just give the impression of not understanding social.

8. Invisible to you but known to the company publishing it, the entire press release is embedded inside a marketing automation system. If you’ve got a cadre of reporters, content producers, and journalists that you’ve engaged with in the past, you can see from the back-end data who has found it interesting and who has shared it.

For Wednesday and Friday

As a group write a SM press release for your client in general. 

Individually, write a SM press release for a specific topic for your client. 

Each press release must include ALL aspects of sharable social media:

• Video

• Audio

• Photo gallery 

• Written quotes from newsmakers

Plus all of the correct information a news outlet needs to create content about your client. Use the suggestions from Shift Media to create a checklist of what you need.