Category: Sales & Marketing

A cardinal rule in media interviews is never go off the record (and conversely, watch out for what you do say on it!). It can be dangerous for you and the reporter if you do. And you don’t have to look far in today’s news to see where setting such boundaries with journalists is a good idea. Because when they aren’t set, Generals can be forced to tender their resignations and the life of that one news story just turned into a cat with eight lives more to go.

Going off the record serves no real purpose — even though most journalists will respect it (my favorite time this happened, the reporter simply put down her pen — she wasn’t using a tape recorder — and the client told their little aside. And it didn’t really add to the telling of the main story). But some journalists won’t respect it, simply because they get lazy or careless about note taking, or forget what you said wasn’t for publication. In the rare case, an off-the-record comment can contain information that blatantly contradicts a case that you might be trying to make. Granted, this happens more in hard news stories, but even in the business world, a lot of inside information or a slip of the tongue can move things in another direction, the direction you didn’t want go.

If clients have clear messages or talking points beforehand, and even do a mock interview just to get comfortable with the process, you won’t have this problem most likely. If you are unclear of what you need to say in a particular discussion during an interview or in answering a question that seems potentially loaded, it’s okay to say, “This isn’t for attribution, but let me give some background here.” The difference between saying that and going off the record is significant. Your PR person will and can often speak for you in this framework, usually before or after the media is done talking to you and the media source needs some follow-up information or clarification.

Most clients however do not want their PR peeps speaking for them on the record. Still, others will designate them to be the spokesperson for the company, or a division, or in the case of serious family or personal matter, they will strongly need someone to handle the talking. Make sure you establish this responsibility early in your working relationship.

Looking at the public relations issues related to General McChrystal’s interview in Rolling Stone magazine makes for a pretty great case study in how not to conduct an interview — and to know when not to go on the record, let alone off it. It’s simply amazing Michael Hastings, the reporter, had as much access as he did (the military aid/flack who set this up has also filed his quitin’ papers, it turns out). As noted in the Huffington Post online today, McChrystal’s sentiments about President Obama and the perceived failure of the president’s Afghanistan war strategy were a serious negative the military media handlers should have protected against — providing they acknowledge that they are serving their Commander-in-Chief, the president elect. The Huffington Post reports:

Michael Hastings, who wrote the profile of General Stanley McChrystal for Rolling Stone, said today that he wasn’t quite sure why the general gave him the near-total access that led to the publication of explosive comments that brought about McChrystal’s resignation.

Speaking on the phone from Afghanistan to ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Hastings said he think the decision speaks to McChrsytal’s often reckless behavior:

“It was a sort of natural kind of recklessness that General McChrystal had, which has been with him through his entire career, as I understand it. And inviting me in, was a obviously a risk, as it always is when you invite a journalist in.”

DUH!

Now the military has lost a dedicated life-long general and the White House has lost another round in defense of the escalation of the conflict in, what is it they call this forlorn place with trillions of dollars in minerals and poppies, the graveyard of nations?

Reckless or candid, the McChystal comments/debacle underscore how wrong things can quickly go. The PR lessons are many and at some point, we’ll return to them again when the friendly fire has cleared and it’s safe to armchair analyze the fallout.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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Looking for new ways to promote your business?

How about trying an old tactic in a new way?

That’s what smart PR and Marketing folks are doing, with great success.

Try One of the Best PR Tactics

“While daily newspapers continue to struggle, a portion of the publishing industry is not only surviving, it’s thriving. And yet community papers are often overlooked by marketers. This year in particular, community newspapers offered a major opportunity. As resources continue to get cut, many papers are increasingly turning to outside sources for content, including public relations agencies and trusted article-placement services. Marketers who are able to deliver compelling content and story ideas can take advantage of the loyal audience, hyper-local focus and popular online presence that community papers provide.” – David Olson, ARAnet Inc.

(Thanks to Marketing Sherpa for the quote.)

Make Sure That the Paper’s Demographics Match Your Target

According the Newspaper Association of America, community newspaper readership is evenly split among men and women – a perfect 50% each. And very closely spread by age. Visit NAA’s Audience Profiles for more detailed demographics, including household income, education and occupation, among others.

How to Get Your Press Release Published

If you have local news, and can tell the story in a professional way, you may even have a good chance of getting it published exactly as you wrote the press release! Try this:

• Scan the paper for story style
• Write your piece in the style of the paper’s journalists
• Watch length – stay within their word count limits
• Include pictures!

Best wishes – send us an update if you try this. We want to hear about your experience.

What other PR tips work for you?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

In our last installment, we left you with a closing item about General Mills having to quickly snuff out a fake news release saying that the President of the United States (POTUS — in Secret Service talk) was investigating the company’s supply chain for alleged product recalls. The makers of many mainstream cereals like Wheaties (Breakfast of Lakers, er, Champions) and many other product lines jumped on the pseudo news release with a real one of their own, stating that it was indeed false and the authorities likewise would be investigating (but most likely not with POTUS, since he’s now up to his waist in Gulf oil and up to his nose in methane gas, plus holding the feet of BP officials to the fire of the “small people” along the gulf…. Careful, there are combustible elements here…).

This issue again calls for the critical importance of having a good crisis plan in place to handle a brand’s public reputation and good monitoring systems to track it. This kind of prank news can tank the stock of a publically traded company like General Mills and others within minutes (fortunately, the New York Stock Exchange was closed when the hokum release went out over PR Newswire). General Mills, however, did all the right things by quickly refuting the news release for what it was — in so many foodie words, phony baloney.

According to General Mills spokesperson, Tom Forsythe, quoted in the Twin Cities media, “We were the victim of a hoax. We found the false release and removed it within minutes, but even false information can still spread incredibly quickly on the Internet.” Got that right. The Internet some days seems built just for jackals and jackasses only. The lesson is that in the PR management of any company’s public face whether on the stock exchange or on the Web, the m.o. must constantly be, Remain Vigilant. What kind of protection or systems do you have in place to track what’s being said about you online, in social network channels, and elsewhere offline? This part of the PR world is often a highly specialized practice area and some firms and individuals are very good at doing it.

In this case, the jackal seemed to be attempting to manipulate the company’s stock price through the very traditional means of a PR distribution service that remains blameless in the incident. Seemingly undaunted by the fraud, the food maker’s stock rose 16 cents on Thursday, June 17, 2010 — a day after the false news, so no harm done. This time.

What’s curious about the event is that it occurred in the same week the NYSE halted trading of shares of the Washington Post, when the stock doubled in price in apparent erroneous trades — on the same day that the new “circuit breakers” to prevent such hanky panky were put in place. It’s a wiggly world and getting wigglier, especially with the global economy still bursting at the beltline and surrounded by all sorts of malodorous gasses while unseen forces try to game or crash the system.

A conspiracy theorist might have a real picnic with these two seemingly unrelated events at General Mills and the Washington Post. A conspiracy factualist — one who accepts that conspiracies do sometimes happen and not just in good movies, or good Old Europe where the small people are being trampled about by the cratering Euro — might simply just go make a sandwich, and remain vigilant.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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The last blog looked at why Public Relations should never be confused with “spin” and “hype.” Today’s edition serves up something more tasty and nutritious — one of the best resources enjoyed and highly appreciated by publicists, marketing communications folks, reporters and others. I’m talking about Help a Reporter Out — fondly known as HARO — among the many HARO-ites that utilize the FREE online service that allows reporters to post stories they’re working to PR people who then have the opportunity to pitch their clients as sources. Think of it as a killer social media PR app.

Conceived by social media guru and all around marketing/PR wiz, Peter Shankman in New York City (Google him, he’s kinda famous, is in-demand on the speaking circuit, occasionally outrageous and likes to skydive, train for the Ironman and other body-punishing disciplines), HARO is only two-plus-years old and yet its ranks have swollen to more than a 130,000 users both sides of the desk worldwide!

Three times a day, an average of 20-35 queries on subjects ranging from business to technology to life and leisure and other areas are delivered to your desktop with hungry reporters, producers and others from local newspapers to top-of-the-media-food-chain network news machines (potenially) in search of your clients. Herr Shankman floats a brief advertisement for various things with each post, from new and helpful books to professional services, cool, new or undiscovered products, and other stuff. These apparently work as powerfully as HARO’s matchmaking between PR people and media mavens. Plus they are usually a fun read since Shankman has the gift of a good scribe and the gift of gab.

There was/is a big PR news release distributor that charges a hefty fee for a similar service that doses exactly the same thing as HARO, making it out of reach for many small PR concerns with tight budgets and small staff. Not any more. HARO is a gift, don’t look it in the mouth. Subscribe today. As subscriber number 3,000-something, I have been to its mountaintop and placed a client on The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, and other clients in a bunch of magazines, newspapers and websites. And I look forward to it dinging my inbox three times a day like a triple-A PR supplement that you just can’t do without.

Join the party. With the six-digit number of users, of course the competition has become fiercer — but so have the opportunities. The FREE service has been so successful that it was acquired last week by Vocus, a publicly-traded on-demand software company founded in 1992. The new buyer promises to keep it FREE and upgrade its utility even more. Stay tuned (did I mention it was FREE?!).

Now, from a fortified PR Tip to a real PR rip, in this “developing story” as they say in the real world that we will explore more on Friday: Someone today, June 16, 2010, put a phony news release on PR Newswire saying that the supply chain of General Mills — a publically traded company — was being investigated on orders from President Obama after several food product recalls. The phony news was reported by several large media orgs and later withdrawn. Talk about helping a reporter out. NOT.

Read the story here:

http://www.startribune.com/business/96474569.html?elr=KArksUUUU

We’ll chew on this more right after our Breakfast of Champions (go Celtics!) come Friday morning.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders spin webs. Young kids sometimes spin to make themselves dizzy. Whirling dervishes definitely spin toward a higher power, and fitness clubs are fond of offering spin classes. But is PR spin?

Most of the public relations professionals that I know consider “spin” to be a pejorative term in their profession. It connotes fabricating something to influence public opinion. Facts, the troubling things that they can be, can’t be “spun” although they can be interpreted differently depending on how they are presented.

I think when people use the term spin, they really mean “position.” For example, a client once called and had an annual environmental report to release, complete with letter grades. “How do you want to spin these this year?” the client innocently asked.

What he really meant was, in what context should we put the grades out to the public, given that there were many variables that determined the grade score and numerous geographic locations that were being graded. The answer to his real question — How should we position the grades that reflect the realityof the environmental regions in question? — was relatively simple.

We would describe what each grade meant, but we would also (and more significantly) put the overall grade totals within the context of the region’s wider environment health. By positioning these markers against the larger issue, the public could get a genuine understanding about the general state of the environment, plus a good snapshot of which specific areas needed improvement, which ones had improved and which ones showed no change. Moreover, in the same news release, we would offer proven tips on how people could take personal responsibility on their own property, in their neighborhoods and their community to help make improvements in order to maintain a good grade, or to bump up the grade.

If we had approached this issue using the “spin” mindset, it would have given us license to play fast and loose with the facts and made the organization look disingenuous, if not duplicitous. Using spin, we could have resorted to subterfuge to gloss over the areas with lower grades, and we could have used hyperbole to inflate — or hype, another word often mistakenly used to describe PR — the area with strong B and A grades. The result would have been a much muddier environmental assessment that did not reflect the true status of the areas in question.

Still, pop culture continues to malign PR by equating it with spin or hype, most likely out of naïveté and general ignorance. The new “reality” show with celebrity Kim Kardashian reported today at PR Newser — a great little newsy and insightful PR trade website — is a good example of why I’m feeling a little dizzy at the moment.

The headline, “E! Launches PR Reality Show ‘The Spin Crowd,’ Produced By Kim Kardashian,” pretty much says it all. The show, allegedly about how to set up and manage red carpet events in Hollywood, readily falls so far from the realm of what most PR people do in many different capacities each day that it barely merits mentioning. And now that I’ve accidentally hyped it in this hallowed space, it’s time to go for a real spin and get some fresh air.

A quick show of hands: Who knows what an Editorial Calendar is?

Thought so. Nearly every magazine and many business newspapers produce an editorial calendar each year, targeting subjects that they will cover generally in any given week or month for the entire year— from regularly scheduled standing features and shorter stories to columns and other editorial content. Plus many, like the weekly Business Journals that are in many major cities, also feature a Special Focus section each week in which stories are assigned on the pre-selected topics. These can range from banking to health care to Human Resources to technology to green companies to minority-owned businesses to you name it.

The calendars are generally available as early as November and sometimes earlier in any current year. So, for example, for those reading this over the clang, sprits and gossip of your local coffee hang and having a hard time following my direction here, if you wanted to start planning for 2011 coverage, you could start it well before the new year rolls around.

These “edit cals,” as many of us call them in our breathless PR-speak (BPRS), present any company or PR practitioner a precise road map to follow. Follow it. Editors are always in search of companies to profile, experts to quote, or ideas to share about the many topics listed in the edit cal for any week or month. Pitching your story or expert two-to-four months in advance is recommended (although some magazines have lead times as long as six months or more!).

Most publications will post their edit cals online. But sometimes the myopic minions who post these magnificently helpful tools (MMWPTMHT) will place them NOT in or under any editorial section online, but in the Advertising section. Maybe they like to make a “Where’s Waldo?” sport of it, Where’s That Edit Cal?! Other publications will solicit your email address for you to obtain it. Go ahead, give it to them. You need the calendar more than you don’t want the aggravation of having your email sucked up by another online entity and having it bought and sold like so much college student information.

Edit Cals can be of great value as you execute your public relations line of duty. It is the print world’s way of saying, as the monster plant in “Little Shop of Horrors” says over and over again,” “FEED ME” (I prefer the 1960 Roger Corman-directed black-and-white movie version, featuring a very young Jack Nicholson as the masochist), if you’re following me here…