Jane Yao's Blog

What is the one thing that all of the best public relations agencies do every year?

They research and compile editorial calendars from publications that are pertinent to their client’s business.

You should too.

What’s an editorial calendar?

Editorial calendars are schedules of what topics a publication plans for cover for a particular month. For example, the INC. editorial calendar for July 2003 http://www.inc.com/advertise/magazine/calendar.html states that they’re writing an article on various business services.

Bingo!

If you feel that you can contribute to this particular topic, call or email the editorial department at INC. (try to “speak” to the managing editor) and find out who (which reporter) has been assigned to write the story. Email or call the reporter and explain how you can contribute. It’s that simple — it takes less time than writing this article – and is much more effective than blast-faxing a garbage bound press release to inappropriate reporters.

Final thoughts: Many publications post their editorial calendars on their Web sites — usually they’re found in their advertising media kits. Otherwise, contact the publication’s advertising departments and ask for a calendar. Check for editorial deadlines – many publications work 6 months in advance.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Jerome Cleary has established himself as a highly accomplished publicist with skills that transcend industries and media. Hes well known as a proactive professional with more than 15 years of experience and a proven record of developing innovative solutions to generate vast publicity leading to millions of dollars in new sales for clients.

Cleary has established himself with his distinctive abilities which include managing media campaigns and overseeing all aspects of reputation building programs for individuals and businesses. This is why he is launching http://www.PublicityandMarketing.com for niche market clients.

Medical experts seek out his public relations expertise too. “Jerome is easy to talk with and has always been very creative in coming up with story ideas and angles for my practice,” remarks, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, celebrity plastic surgeon.

Cleary is known as a tenacious and relentless public relations expert along with being a talented provocative writer and journalist with medical industry experience.

Many professionals agree with his strong PR work ethic. “I got more coverage than I ever thought possible. I ended up with a fantastic media reel and press kit. It was well worth the investment,” says, Dennis Palumbo, Psychotherapist, Author and Screenwriter.

Clearys core competencies include: corporate vision and mission, cultivating long-term relationships, branding and imaging, social media, team building and leadership, client/vendor relations, new services and procedures development, strategic planning/implementations, journalist/blogger/writer, and account management.

His story pitches, breaking news stories, website content writing, branding, social media and media training is what keeps his clients satisfied. “Public relations is about coming up with original stories that the media wants to feature with your clients and that is good branding and story telling,” remarks, Cleary.

For more information: http://www.PublicityandMarketing.com
Or BestPRGuy@gmail.com

For more details please visit: top colorado publicity

Think of a triangle. On the left, imagine the story you want to tell. On the

right, you have zeitgeist , or curent events.

The object of the game is to create

a unified, triangulated center…literally an “angle” for your story.

For example, if you have improved your business practices, you might utilize

the popularity of television transformations, and promote your story as an

“extreme makeover” for busy professionals.

By tying your story to something topical, you vastly improve its chances of

being heard.

A good story with a mediocre salesperson is better than a bad story told by the

most articulate salesperson. Lack of slickness is actually an asset.

If you had the greatest press kit in the world-but a lackluster story-I couldn’t

get you on the Today Show . But if you were pregnant with Osama Bin Laden’s

baby, I could get you on with a smudged fax.

In America Today, for better or worse, the way we become credible is by being

visible. These are wacky times. Where there’s no visibility, there is no

credibility. That’s just the way it works.

Sorry about my otaku with this issue (otaku = more than a hobby, a little less than an obsession).

Many of you may know me, since I run Imediafax, the Internet to Media Fax Service. I send out over a million news releases a year for people via fax and email. You probably think that I’ve got news releases failing on me day in and day out.

Actually, I don’t. The news releases I write and send out for people do quite well. My clients are quite happy with me because they are successful with their outreach efforts.

It’s the draft news releases that people send to me that are my problem.

Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes forever. It is also very painful.

I’ve seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what the key problems look like and how to fix them.

My plight as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients trying to get them to understand the psychology of dealing with the media.

The rubber meets the road in the news release because this single sheet of paper is the key nexus for all communications with the media. The importance of the copy on a news release cannot be overstated. It has to be free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media interest and response. One fatal error and it’s all over.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

The issue is that when people send me news releases, it often takes a long, long time to identify and communicate the problems, and then more time again to explain and negotiate all the word changes with the clients, and more time still to finalize the news release and have it ready and approved for transmittal.

Honestly – it can be very painful for all involved. I’m quite brutal on my clients, since their success is all that matters. I don’t pull any punches. My comment process can bruise a lot of highly inflated egos of some otherwise very accomplished people, on the way to a problem free news release that maximizes the chances of success when finally sent. Lots of people think they can write a news release. Very few of them can do it very well.

They simply haven’t followed the media response to enough news releases to learn the errors that are made when they write news releases. They haven’t yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous improvement.

This is where the blood, sweat and tears of the copywriting business is truly found. It gets even tougher when another professional publicist wrote the news release for the client. Now the client is getting opposing advice from two professionals. One says “Make it Hot” and the other says “Cool it”. What’s a publicist to do?

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients send me news releases that take less time and energy to fix. Very simply, for each and every news release that comes in and doesn’t have these problems, I’ll free myself to spend more time doing things that are more profitable for my clients and me.

The issues listed here have all been identified as reasons for the failure of a news release. This is based on over 20 years of experience in dealing with the aftermath – the actual number and quality of responses generated from the transmittal of a news release.

So here are the most common reasons why news releases fail:

1. You wrote an advertisement. It’s not a news release at all. It sells product. It fails to offer solid news of real tangible interest, value-added information, education or entertainment.

2. You wrote for a minority, not for a majority of people in the audience. You simply won’t compete with other news releases that clearly are written for a larger demographic of the media audience.

3. You are the center of attention, not the media audience. You focus on your business and your marketing, instead of things the editor and his or her audience will be interested in.

4. You forgot to put the five W’s up front. (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED). You didn’t clearly and succinctly tell the media why the audience would be interested in this.

5. You are too wordy and text dense. You focused on details and minutia, instead of the most important ideas, issues, factors, facts, and news angles. You fail to address the real significant impacts your story has on people.

6. You place too much information on one page – the one page news release has a font size so small an editor needs a magnifying glass to read it.

7. You included corporate logos and other non-persuasive low value added graphics that distract the editor from your key message. You may have also used an unusual fancy font or a file format that turns to gobbledygook when it goes through a fax machine.

8. You wrote a personally biased article for the media to publish, instead of pitching the idea to the media and the objective reasons why the media audience will be interested.

9. You wrote about features and facts, and forgot to explain what it means to real people. Tell a story about real people. Add in real life human interest.

10. You wrote about how your news ties in to someone else’s fame and glory. Forget it. Never stand in the shadow of someone else. Make your own light. Tell your own story.

11. Your news release responds to something that just happened. You’re too late. You’re behind the eight ball. Forget it. Get out in front of the news.

12. You included too much hype, self-laudatory praise, pithy quotes, useless testimonials, jargon or gobbledygook. Get rid of it.

13. You may have also identified prior media coverage, which indicates it’s no longer a new issue. Get rid of it. Let each news release stand on it’s own two feet.

14. You tried to impress and be clever or innovative but you come off naïve, less than expert, biased, flippant, arrogant, or crazy. Tone it down. Get straight.

15. You made vague and unsubstantiated claims, or wild and outrageous claims, or you included a statement that simply rubs the media the wrong way. Get rid of them.

16. You are trying to be different, just for the sake of it, but you come off eccentric. Forget it. Don’t create a false or inflated image. Be yourself.

17. You wrote a rant and rave, worthy of a letter to the editor, instead of a problem solving tips article, worthy of a feature story. Decide what you want, put your best effort into it.

18. You are simply not credible. It could be your ideas are simply not well thought out, or that you’ve offered old well-worn material, or that you are too extreme or controversial, or not qualified. You may not be expert enough, or sufficiently qualified, to make the statements, compared to others in your field. You need to present information that qualifies you properly and adequately.

19. You provided poor contact information. You need to identify the best single point of contact and the correct phone number so interested media can reach you and get the best possible attention and response from you to meet their needs. One key person, one phone, no fax, one email address, and one URL (with no long string addresses).

20. You did not include a clear media call for action. You didn’t tell the media what you want them to do with your news release. You need to tell them what you are asking for or suggesting or offering. Then you need to offer the media incentives value-added reasons to do so, like free review copies, free test samples, interview questions and answers, media kits with story angles and stats and data, relevant photographs, etc.

21. You did not incorporate and integrate a primary response mechanism. You need to include a value-added reason, which motivates the editor to publish or mention your contact information, which will generate calls, traffic, interviews, or requests for more information. This usually means something unique and of special value to the audience, that the editor feels good about mentioning. Use an offer for a free problem solving report.

22. You sent the release to the wrong media. Target the media that your clients read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood, that is, receptive to hearing about your news, and willing to take action when they get your message. Work with your publicist to target the right media.

23. You rely on a single fax or an email to produce an avalanche of media calls. You conduct no follow up. Get real. Follow up properly and you can triple or quadruple your media response rate. Better still, you can ask the editors “what can I give you to support a feature story and meet your needs”.

Finally, the biggest reason for news release failure is one of attitude. How do you define success or failure? It’s called unrealistic expectations.

Get real. You won’t get rich off one news release. You’re chances of getting famous are just about as slim.

You might be able to break even.

Look at your investment and compare it to what you need to break even on your investment. If you need to sell 100 books to cover the costs of a $500 outreach effort, you need ten articles because each article only produces ten sales. So that’s your breakeven goal. More books per article, means less articles will satisfy your needs.

You may simply have to be realistic and understand that while you are wildly interested in the topic, it may not have the broad general public interest that you have for the subject. If you wrote an article that has local interest and you expect national media to pay attention, think again.

If you want to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, then you’d better pray because chances of doing it off one news release are very slim, near zero in fact. Get real. If she calls, then congratulations are in order. But don’t count on it.

If you wrote an advertisement and wanted a feature story and interviews, don’t be surprised if the only media to call is the advertising manager offering you a package deal. You get what you ask for. What you offer is often times what you will get.

Even if you do get publicity, it may not come out exactly the way you want it. More often than not, the bigger the media, the less likely they are to run contact information.

Often times, the quality may be there while the numbers are not.

One or two quality media responses may be what you want or need. If you get that, it’s a success.

One article in USA Today may out perform ten articles in small dailies and weeklies in the mid-west.

On the other hand, it may not. The small high quality articles may outperform the small mention in the big media.

Similarly, one quality 30-minute interview on a well-liked talk show on a radio station in the middle of nowhere out in the mid-west, will likely outsell a five-minute interview on an Arbitron rated radio station in the middle of the morning talk show in a major metropolitan area. You can’t tell the listening quality of the audience.

So when you write a news release please review it against these criteria to see if you’ve made any of these errors. Then fix each and every one of them yourself, and when you are done, feel free to send me your final draft. I’ll be happy to take a look at it.

So listen to your publicist. Heed these warnings and reduce the risks of failure. Fail to pay attention to these issues, proceed at your own risk.

HOW TO BE RELAXED AND EFFECTIVE ON-AIR

How does one stay calm, relaxed, and focused while being interviewed on the

radio?

I’ve been both a guest and a host, and I’ve heard the nervousness in the voices

of many callers, and seen it in the eyes of some first-time guests.

But I also know that it goes away with experience-even though that might be

small comfort to newcomers who have the jitters. But until you have that

experience, here are some tips for making the most of your time on the air.

Make the Media Your Friend

“One of the big problems is that people see the media as adversaries,” says Joe

Merica of the Merica, Burch and Dickerson public-relations firm in Las Vegas.

“We tell our clients that the media are their friends. An interview is an

opportunity to share your company’s views with the public.” It is just as much

an opportunity for the nonprofit service provider. Seize the opportunity.

Prepare for it. Let it work for you.

Breathe Deeply.

You have probably heard this advice a million times, but honestly, it works.

Before going on the air, inhale a few times very deeply, close your eyes for a

moment, roll your head slowly around and relax your muscles-let them fall

limp for a moment. Then tell yourself that this is just a conversation with a

host and perhaps a caller or two talk to them as friends, not as a demanding,

judgmental audience.

And keep the big picture in mind: If you are going on the air to talk about a

worthwhile philanthropy, that powerful purpose should give you a special

confidence and keep your thoughts focused on what it is you want to get

across. When you’re thinking about how important your message is, you don’t

have as much time and energy to spend thinking that ought to be nervous.

Media consultant Peggy Klaus uses an interesting metaphor. She counsels her

clients to think of the microphone as a fan of theirs. “I tell them to imagine

someone they love and who loves them is sitting there just dying to get the

information, she says. This helps elevate the enthusiasm in the voice.”

Learn to Be Brief

“Radio obviously focuses very directly on what you say,” says reporter Sharon

Katchen with KFWB radio in Los Angeles. “Your words and the sound of your

voice define you for the radio listener whereas appearances can be more

central to the impression left with people watching you on television.”

For this reason, one of the central pointers for radio interviews is learn to be

brief and to the point. “Radio demands that you cut the fat out of your

language,” says Katchen. “Make it lean and lively-get in with a point quickly

and get out, and on to the next point.”

Learn to Use Sound Bites

Perhaps more difficult than simply being brief, the electronic media demand

that be witty in what you say. There is a well, known phrase for this type of

word-nimbleness: It’s called talking in sound bites. These are phrases that

encapsulate a big thought in a small, memorable kernel.

A politician who wants his budget plan to make a lasting impression doesn’t

say, “We’re going to survey the appropriations schedule with an eye to

increasing efficiencies, maximizing economies, and identifying and hopefully

reducing areas of redundancy and overspending.” He says, “We’re going to

perform liposuction on the budget.”

Susan J. Douglas is a Hampshire College professor, media critic for The

Progressive, and author of “Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the

Mass Media.” She is also something of a master of sound-biting, an art that

helps her promote her book and her feminist philosophy. Here are a few of her

sound bites.

o Concerning the mega hit book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus:

“It sounds to me like a big apology for men not taking out the garbage-women

have to try to understand men, they all came down from a spaceship.”

o On the thin, waifish look that became popular for a time in modeling: “The

image we’re all supposed to conform to is that of a thirteen-year, old anorexic.

I don’t begrudge Kate Moss the chance to make some money, but go eat some

pizzas. My God.”

o Concerning her five-year-old daughter: “She’s still angry that a girl didn’t

free Willy.”

Learning to speak in this kind of colorful language is not easy for many

people. The approach to take is to think how you can convey your message in

shorthand, with a sassy zing. “You can be more discursive and detailed when

you’re doing a print interview,” says Sharon Katchen, “Because there is room for

more facts to be spread over the page, and the reader has time to ponder

them. In contrast, quickness and brightness are the keys on radio.”

Roger Ailes, chairman of Ailes Communications, Inc., and a communications

consultant to corporations and their CEOs, illustrates the point by setting side

by side several thoughts expressed in two ways: one way is deadly boring-the

other, filled with life. Which would you rather hear?

DULL

A. The two leading ways to achieve success are improving upon existing

technology and finding a means of evading a larger obligation.

B. To construct an amalgam, you have to be willing to split open its

component parts.

c. Capital will not produce great pleasure, but it will remunerate a large

research staff to examine the questions proposed for a solution.

INTERESTING

A. “The two leading recipes for success are building a better mousetrap and

finding a bigger loophole.” EDGAR A. SCHOAFF

B. “To make an omelet, you have to be willing to break a few eggs.” ROBERT

PENN WARREN

C. “Money won’t buy happiness but it will pay the salaries of a large research

staff to study the problem.” BILL VAUGHN

Tell Stories

Another key to radio savvy is to be able to tell your message in the form of a

story. We all love stories; we all urged our parents to tell us stories when we

were little, and the human urge to hear a good story never goes away.

Struggling smaller charities often have great stories to tell, but just as often

aren’t getting their stories out on the modem electronic media.

Whenever possible, you should therefore seek to find a personal story to relate

in your radio time. Keep your story short, but make it as moving and emotional

as possible.

ADDITIONAL RULES FOR DEALING WITH THE RADIO

Here are final pointers for dealing with radio stations, adapted from the

National Association of Broadcasters and the Defense Information School, as

reported by Kenneth Jarvis, executive director of West Virginia Public

Broadcasting.

o Accept suggestions from any radio station people you deal with. Remember,

they are experts in a field that is alien to you. Listen to what they say.

o Planning an appeal for funds or support? Check with the station first. Many

have a policy against this type of program or broadcast. Also check your local

statutes for the legal requirements for fund-raising. Many require that your

organization be licensed before beginning a fund drive.

o Treat all stations fairly and equally. Do not favor one station, even if the

others do not favor you.

o Respond cheerfully and completely to any station’s request information,

advice, or assistance.

o Keep a file of the “hot line” number for each station-a number that is to be

used for providing news and giving telephone “beeper” reports. A beeper is so-

called because of the beep sound required on all recorded telephone

messages, including recordings made over the telephone for later replay over

the air.

o The best people for you to know at radio or television stations are the public-

service director, the program director or manager, and the news director.

Whether you are trying to get time on a program, spot announcement, or hard

news or feature story, the backing and support of the station manager is

invaluable.

The program director (or public service director) in turn is ultimately

responsible for finding a place in the broadcast day for such programs or

announcements.

Accept the fact that no matter how important your chairperson or board thinks

a particular story is, it must stand on its own merits-being newsworthy to the

audience the station serves-and that decision rests with the news director.

Excerpted from “Selling Goodness- The Guerrilla PR Guide

To Promoting Your Charity, Nonprofit Organization, Or Fund Raising Event”

Whether you are making a pitch over the phone or in person, whether to a

newspaper or magazine journalist or a reporter or producer in the electronic

media, there are fundamental rules to follow. To some extent, they coincide

with universal rules that apply to all human relations-courtesy, honesty,

respect, integrity-but some of them are relatively unique to media relations,

such as the advantage of having a topic that grabs by the collar and won’t let

go.

Here are my ten commandments for pitching the media:

1) Underlying everything should be the five F’s: You must be fast, fair, factual,

frank, and friendly. These words spell credibility, a currency worth its weight

in platinum.

2) Never be boring. Never.

3) Know the media you contact. Watch, listen, read.

4) Know your subject thouroughly.

5) Don’t just take yes for an answer. Follow up. Follow through.

6) Always keep your temper in check and your composure cool.

7) Don’t be intimidated in designing your pitch. You have to make the first

move, or no move will be made. The media won’t come to you.

Turn any nervousness to your advantage by emphasizing your genuineness,

the fact that you aren’t a slick, insincere salesperson.

9) Make yourself understood. Do not use jargon and technical language. You

won’t be making yourself seem less intelligent by doing so. Quite the contrary.

Some of the most brilliant people I know speak with disarming simplicity.

10) Be prepared for a dialog once you’ve made your pitch. A simple “yes” or

“no” is less likely than getting a series of follow-up questions from the

journalist. This is an opportunity for you to expand on your case and build

rapport with the person you’re pitching to.

And the eleventh commandment: Keep a healthy, reasonable perspective. This

isn’t nuclear weaponry negotiation. Keep cool and have fun.