Social Media Implications for PR

At a recent PRSA Digital Impact Conference, New York Times columnist David Carr spoke about the implications that social media tools hold for journalism and public relations. In his conclusion, Carr offered PR professionals a few helpful tips to use when working with journalists.

1. Don’t ask “Did you get my e-mail?” “Don’t have your junior deputy call and ask if I got your e-mail as another way to make contact,” Carr said. “Yes — these are all very reliable technologies — I did.” If he didn’t respond, he simply isn’t interested in the story.

2. Don’t send blast e-mails. A single personalized e-mail will be far more effective than hundreds of generic messages, Carr said, especially since it takes minimal effort to rework an individualized release for print. “We’re not lazy so much as incredibly busy,” he said. “If someone gift wraps something and hands it to you — ‘This is only for you’ — chances are you’re going to take it.”

3. Only pitch legitimate news. When telling your boss that the information they want you to pitch is not newsworthy, they may reason that making the phone call can’t hurt. “Yes, it can,” Carr said. “I’m going to think you’re a twit.” PR professionals need to educate those they work for about what should be pitched to reporters. “Don’t try to manage me,” he said. “Manage them.”

For the past 25 years, Carr has been writing about media as it intersects with business, culture and government. We found this information priceless and thought we should share it.

Media Relations on Novocaine

Okay – so, have you ever tried to conduct a media interview after being injected with Novocaine? I would definitely say that this is something to avoid in public relations! I had a few old mercury fillings removed today and I have to tell you, if I never have Novocaine again, that is fine with me.

Here are just some of the adverse reactions listed on Drugs.com almost all of which I experienced: hypersensitivity, idiosyncrasy, diminished tolerance, nervousness, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, tremors, and bradycardia … all this just to avoid pain. Who are they kidding?

So, I’m sitting here five hours later wondering to myself, “What did I say on that interview earlier today.” My media relations advice is: don’t ever talk to anyone after having Novocaine. Go home. Shut your door. And go to bed!

Buona notte.

The Believe in the Cure Cycling Tour Comes to Philly

John Ellis and Jamaal Warren, two 17-year-olds from Pensacola, Fla., have set out on a 1,100 mile journey riding their bicycles from Pensacola to Philadelphia to help raise awareness of hepatitis B. John was diagnosed with hepatitis B in 2006. Instead of being discouraged by this devastating medical diagnosis, John turned the news into an opportunity to raise awareness about the virus. With a passion for cycling and a desire to help raise funds to find a cure for the disease, John contacted the Hepatitis B Foundation with an idea to organize an East Coast bicycle ride, the Believe in the Cure Cycling Tour. Jamaal, John’s best friend and several family members are joining John on his trek to Philadelphia.

John and Jamaal’s journey began on June 2 at John’s high school in Pensacola and will end in Philadelphia on Monday, June 23 – John’s 18th birthday! On Monday morning, area cyclists and supporters are welcome to join John and Jamaal at the Philadelphia Marriott West in West Conshohocken at 8:30AM to cycle the last leg of the boys’ journey. They will ride 10 miles from Conshohocken to Kelly Drive where Foundation members, Philadelphia dignitaries, John and Jamaal’s family and friends and local supporters will welcome John and Jamaal to Philadelphia. Follow John and Jamaal as they ride up the Atlantic Coast by visiting the Believe in the Cure Cycling Tour blog or to learn about donating to John’s cause, visit www.hepb.org.

If you have any questions about joining John and Jamaal on the last leg of their journey, their journey and John’s story or would like to support the Foundation’s cause – please feel free to reach out to the Hepatitis B Foundation at 215-489-4900 or go to www.hepb.org.

Feldman Shepherd's Mark Tanner on Inside Edition

Feldman Shepherd's Mark Tanner of Philadelphia pushes for justice on Inside Edition. Three years ago, Dean O'Halloran was driving a rental truck, making deliveries, near Scranton, Pennsylvania. He crossed into the opposite lane and crashed head-on into Diane Glynn, killing her instantly. He was drunk and never charged because his step-father is a State Trooper. This is a must-read story.

Expand Your Web Site By Using a Content Management System

Craig McGuire of PR Week recently wrote an article titled “Expanding Web sites helps readership.” McGuire found that updating Web sites to offer easier and effective tools brings in a broader audience and I couldn’t agree more.

McGuire used FedEx’s Online Newsroom as an example of how an organization can take regular press release, news and company background content and turn it into an interactive, Web 2.0 hub for all Web site users from the press to shareholders. FedEx used a permission-based content management system to apply such effective and descriptive tools as videos, images, social bookmarking, multimedia flash video and many more. FedEx went from having 4,500 unique visitors per month to 65,000 per month.

The Furia Rubel site is also built on a content management system foundation and we completely stand by McGuire’s analysis. Your company’s Web site is your store front or as quoted in this article, “one centralized, 24-hour official company online newsroom.” You want your store front to look good and feel clean, offer the most recent and desired goods and entice customers to keep coming back. McGuire lists some key Web site guidelines that may help you expand your Web site.

Do
- Track audience interest and allow feedback
- Lean toward simple, clean navigation
- Offer a means to subscribe to news

Don’t
- Follow the herd
- Produce a variety of Web sites
- Let your content grow stale – timely content is vital

Governor Spitzer's Indiscretions

In today's Legal Intelligencer blog, I wrote about "Legal Strategy versus Media Management: When a Governor Faces Federal Charges." I comment on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's public address regarding the his alleged patronage of a prostitution ring, the Emperors Club VIP. I ask, "Which takes priority, the legal strategy or the media management?" For my opinion, you'll have to to click on one of the two links above.

The Lawyer, The Judge and The Ascot

Today, in my blog for The Legal Intelligencer, I wrote about a Lawyer Reprimanded for Fashion Choice where a Milwaukee County courthouse, state prosecutor Warren Zier was reprimanded by Judge William Sosnay for wearing an ascot to court. His rebuke has garnered media attention from the Wall Street Journal to the Chicago Sun-Times -- which I'm sure was not his intention when he tied his ascot that morning.

To read the full post at The Legal Intelligencer Blog - go to http://thelegalintelligencer.wordpress.com.

Keep Your Press Releases Relevant

Craig McGuire of PRWeek recently shared tips on how we can all keep our press releases relevant to the rapidly changing times. According to McGuire, “In this digital age, social media and video elements are essential.”

News releases are used by 90% of business journalists as sources for story ideas and 54% of the same journalists also use bloggers for story ideas. McGuire urges his readers to go beyond simple text and to incorporate links, social media tags, images, etc., into all press materials. It is crucial to give journalists all the resources to use our releases and to offer bloggers and social media site users the same tools.

McGuire then goes on to highlight the dos and don’ts of keeping your press release relevant:

Do
- Include links to pages where multiple instances of your keywords/phrases reinforce your message.
- Place terms in key positions like headlines and first paragraphs.
- Distribute a release through a service that carries hyperlinks to downstream sites such as Yahoo Finance, AOL News and Netscape.

Don’t
- Go link crazy. Too many links will confuse journalists and draw focus away from key messaging.
- Use low-res images. Opt for high-res multimedia that can easily be used by layout pros.
- Use all tools, all the time. Focus first on the message. Use the bells and whistles to complement the campaign.

Effective Media Relations

PR Prowess Blog writer, Joe Ferry, shared some insightful tips on how to achieve “Better Media Relations in 5 Easy Steps.”

Here are some of Joe’s tips:

• Understand what the reporter/editor wants
• Don’t waste anyone’s time
• Skip the small talk
• Offer to follow up in writing with additional background information
• No need to say thank you

For more information on effective media relations strategy, click here.

Public Relations Propaganda, Hype and Fluff – Words Not to Use

I was doing some press material editing recently and read the phrase “state-of-the-art.” That’s a big red flag for me and I know it’s a media pet peeve. So I decided to come up with a list of words and phrases that you should avoid in your public relations outreach. This included press releases, media kits, pitching, blogs, etc. These words lessen the credibility of what you have to say.

• Always
• Best
• Best-of-breed
• Biggest
• Boasts
• Breakthrough
• Cutting-edge
• First
• Flexible
• Never
• Next generation
• Only
• Out-of-the-box
• Perfect storm
• Revolutionary
• Robust
• State-of-the-art
• Unique
• User friendly
• World class

David Meerman Scott hits the nail on the head. Check out www.webinknow.com, and The Gobbledygook Manifesto -- Cutting Edge! Mission Critical! An analysis of gobbledygook in over 388,000 press releases sent in 2006.
If you have words you want to add to this list, please post a comment or send me an email. Gina (at) furiarubel.com.

We thought our readers would enjoy Gina's legal contribution to the Legal Intelligencer, titled What do Aliens, Pit Bulls, Scantily Clad Adults and Children Bouncing Balls have in Common?

For more information, click here.

Free Teleseminar for Public Relations for Lawyers and Law Firms Co-hosted By Gina Rubel and Rich Klein

We are pleased to announce that Gina Rubel will be co-hosting a Public Relations for Lawyers and Law Firms Free Teleseminar on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2 PM.

The free teleseminar will provide public relations advice targeting lawyers, chief marketing officers, law firm executives and all law firm marketing and public relations directors / managers to enhance their public relations knowledge.

The following topics will be discussed:

• How to know what's news and what isn't
• Best practices for getting news out about your firm to the various media
• Do's and don'ts of media interviews
• Communications for law firms and their clients

For more information or to register online for FREE, go to http://tinyweblink-001.com/?pid=3532046.

Improving Your Pitches: E-Mail Etiquette

Here is an article on pitching etiquette our team came across that can be a helpful guide for recognizing important aspects of pitching a story to a reporter or responding to a query through e-mail. This article, Tip of the Month: Improving Your E-mail Pitches from Top to Bottom is written by Aliza Sherman, a freelance reporter from Entrepreneur Magazine. In this article, Sherman provides tips on how to improve your chances on getting your client’s story published. The topics include:

1. Focusing Your Subject Line
2. Directly Addressing A Query
3. Creating An Interesting Client Bio
4. Avoiding Clichés
5. Placing Press Releases In An E-Mail
6. Making Follow-Ups Clear And Concise
7. Attaching Files To Reporters

For more information, go to the article Tip of the Month: Improving Your E-mail Pitches from Top to Bottom.

"Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" - KYW 1060 Christmas

If you haven't heard it before, the KYW 1060 Newsradio reading by former Philadelphia anchor Vince Lee in his December 1976 recording of ''Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus,'' is just wonderful. I heard it tonight while my husband and I were driving home from my mother's house. It is so beautiful and truly captures the spirit of Christmas. Her'e the link to the KYW page http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/1375695.php and here's the link to the audiocast: http://www.kyw1060.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=1241068.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Cole Silver Launches Legal Expert Audio Series on FindCareerSuccess.com

Cole Silver, the Legal Marketing Secrets blogger, announced today that they will be launching an expert audio series through http://www.findcareersuccess.com/. He says the audio series will feature

interviews from world renowned experts and advisors that will provide you profitable and incisive information, secrets, and tactics that will help you create the legal career you desire.

The line up includes:

• Dan Janel, member of the public relations team that launched America Online.

• Harry Beckwith, one of the world's most respected marketers and author of What Clients Love.

• Gerry Riskin, world renowned expert in law firm management and rainmaking.

• Jim Hassett, founder of LegalBizDev and author of seven books and more than 70 articles on legal marketing.

• Margaret Grisdela, the author of "Courting Your Clients: The Essential Guide to Legal Marketing”.

• Trey Rider, one of the country’s premier legal marketing experts.

• Hindi Greenberg, author of the best selling, The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook.

• YOURS TRULY . . . Gina Furia Rubel, Esquire, a communications expert, attorney and publicist, is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications (We'll be talking about the advice in my book, Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers, due out mid-December)

• Mike Schultz, Principal of the Wellesley Hill Group and Publisher of RainToday.com.

I'll keep you posted about my audio interview. Be sure to check out Cole's blog too!

Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine Blocks PR People

This past Monday, Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail, wrote, a blog entry titled, “Sorry PR people: you're blocked.”

In the blog entry, Anderson has this to say:

I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam
(Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press
releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find
out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're
pitching. Fact: I am an actual person, not a team assigned to read press
releases and distribute them to the right editors and writers (that's
editor@wired.com).

So fair warning: I only want two kinds of
email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time
to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that
(I love those emails; indeed, that's why my email address is public).

Everything else gets banned on first abuse.

Anderson went on to publish a list of people and companies who had been blocked from his Outlook during the last 30 days. Just reading the comments took me 45 minutes so, as you can see, see this is a touchy subject.

Anderson posted a follow up yesterday which is well done and a good read for anyone planning to pitch media – especially Wired Magazine. One of the musings struck a personal cord with me. He says:

Amusing secondary effects include people pitching their business in the comments (which I thought was fine, btw), and even PR companies emailing the clients of people on the list and encouraging them to switch firms. "We're not on the list!" is their marketing tactic. Wow. [UPDATE: holy crap!]

I’d like to know how many of the practitioners telling their clients that they’re not on the list have never pitched a story to Wired in the first place?! I’d also like to know when Anderson is going to publish his next book on the crappy conundrums of PR practices. . .

Flat Rate vs. Billable Hours – Lawyers and Public Relations Practitioners

Sacha Pfeiffer of the Boston Globe reported in Beat the clock – that the Boston law firm of the Shepherd Law Group says no to billing by the hour, and its clients say they are pleased.

According to the article, The Shepherd Law Group has abandoned the billable hour all together. Pfeiffer reports that,

Shepherd, a five-lawyer firm that specializes in employment law, charges its
clients a flat annual fee or flat price per task. Clients can call the firm as
often as they want to discuss legal issues, although some services, such as
training and litigation, cost extra. The new approach helps clients determine
legal costs in advance and often prevents legal problems from escalating because
clients are no longer reluctant to seek advice out of fear of incurring a hefty
bill, said Jay Shepherd, the firm's founder.

The abandonment of billable hours has a small following in the U.S. with law firms and public relations agencies alike. It’s a refreshing shift but is it “the answer?”

I don’t believe the answer lies in determining “which form of billing is better” as a standard of practice – rather, “which form of billing is better in the individual situation and which will help deliver the best services to the client.” Clients do need options and as a recovering attorney, I agree with Pfeiffer that most people don’t like the billable hour but the key in that term is “most.” “Most” does not equal “all.”

I do find it both amusing and refreshing that Shepherd’s PR agent is quoted in the article since many firms are making the shift as part of their public relations and marketing strategy.

The bottom line: law firms and public relations agencies should offer options to their clients. When you entertain, it’s customary to offer coffee and tea.

Quality Not Quantity of Media Placement is Key

I am reminded that quality not quantity is what we really need in today’s media after reading an article in the New York Times written by Richard Pérez-Peña, “Why Big Newspapers Applaud Some Declines in Circulation.”

Pérez-Peña notes, “As the newspaper industry bemoans falling circulation, major papers around the country have a surprising attitude toward a lot of potential readers: Don’t bother.” He later goes on to report that this decline is due to a variety of reasons: the migration of readers to the Web, pressures from advertisers, marketing and delivery costs and the expense of finding, serving and keeping readers.”

Although in the end everyone is happy…

Advertisers are moving toward the Web as a way to reach a more narrowly targeted audience. And newspapers are content with the quality of readers that continue to read their traditional papers, ridding themselves of subscribers who cost more and generate less revenue.

Quality over quantity. In public relations, it is key to always do the research. By targeting the right beat reporter or trade publication, networking group, or client you will ultimately increase the quality of your results. It’s not how many media hits you get – it’s how many good media hits you get that reinforce your goals and objectives.

Staying on Top of Your Game: WSJ, Drudge Report, Law.com

There is so much information out there that we’re constantly on overload. I tell all my clients to stay on top of the news and the reporters that cover their topic. Get a news aggregator and pull the RSS feed from your favorite blogs, and so on. Here are three more great places to start your morning: The Wall Street Journal’s The Morning Brief by Joseph Schuman which you can subscribe to online by going to “My Online Journal,” Law.com and of course The Drudge Report, known as one of the leading places for breaking news.

There’s a great piece today by Tony Mauro on Law.com titled, Supreme Court Heads into New Term. Among the issues to watch this year is that of Internet Free Speech.

Using Editorial Guidelines When Submitting Articles for Publication

A great way to get ink is to submit article for publication to industry trade magazines, e-zines and other sources of information. It’s important however to research and stick to the editorial guidelines. Some of the common matters addressed by editorial guidelines include:

• Length of article: The minimum and maximum word count. An optimum number of words per article might also be listed.
• Editorial calendars which include topics, themes, article types and required submission dates broken down by publication date
• Preferred format of articles for submission
• Topics accepted by the publication
• Copyright rules
• Use of illustrations and photographs
• Editorial style such as compliance with the Associated Press Stylebook for abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Inclusion of an authors’ biography and headshot
• Compensation
• Query and submission requirements
  

It is important to comply with the editorial guidelines of your target publication in order to maximize your chances of publication. And if you’re not sure about something, contact the editor and ask. It’s a great way to open the door to conversation and to offer yourself as available for commentary on similar issues while getting the editorial information you need to submit your article. You should also remember not to boast or overtly promote your firm or your services. Such behavior is extremely frowned upon.