The Benefits of Personnel News Releases

The development and distribution of a personnel news release to announce the promotion or hiring of a professional is standard practice in public relations. It is part of the process of notifying targeted media and your audiences on company developments, and it serves several purposes. The announcement of the person’s career advancement creates internal good will and indicated that your company continues to flourish. It is not meant to land the cover of the New York Times – it is meant to generate local and industry awareness.

Personnel news releases help keep the company name in front of its publics, including potential recruits, prospective customers and other influentials. Here is what should be included in the release:

-The person’s name and new title
-If the person is new to your company, include the previous place of employment, his or her title, and the city and state where the company is located
-A brief description of the person’s new responsibilities
-Prior work experience and educational background (if not included in bullet one)
-Community and professional association involvement
-Any industry awards received or publications written by this person
-If desired, martial and family status as well as place of residence
-A quote from the subject’s supervisor or company leader commenting on the expectation for his or her future performance as it benefits your clients and customers

Issue the press release on company letterhead and include a brief description or your business’ mission, headquarters and contact information.

It is essential to send personnel news releases to all the media contracts who normally receive news from your company along with a 5 X 7 headshot in 300 dpi. The use of color or black and white photography will depend on the target media.

To expand coverage, personnel news releases can also be distributed to:

-The employee’s hometown newspapers
-The employee’s alumni publications
-Community associations (in which the company or the employees are members)
-Professional, church or nonprofit organizations (in which the company or the employees are members)
-Company clients and prospects as a direct mailing

Personnel news releases are extremely useful marketing communications tools in the quest for top-of-mind awareness. They subtly promote a company’s success, help make the most of frequency and timing and expose initiating companies to other publicity opportunities.

Preparing Your Spokesperson

Here are six techniques your spokesperson can use to convey positive messages, even when questions get difficult:

- Use key messages as a base to generate fresh answers to questions. Use conversational language. Support your assertions with data and stories to illustrate why your service is newsworthy.
- Don’t introduce controversy unprompted. Avoid going off on the needless tangent by keeping answers short. When your spokesperson has finished answering, he or she should stop talking and await the next questions. Also remember to focus replies around one theme or key message.
- Good planning is vital to avoid divulging too much information. Pausing to collect thoughts is a good way to avoid confusion or raising a negative subject. Think of an answer as an essay. You need an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
- Facial expression is very important. Much credibility is judged this way. To look more engaged and professional, sit upright in the chair, make eye contact and smile. Hand gestures can convey passion for the topic and emphasize messages.
- Speaker credibility is also judged on the way you talk. It is important to be aware of tone. Make sure the topic being discussed matches the emotional quality you project in your voice.
- Building bridges is an effective way to handle negative questions. First acknowledge the topic the journalist raised. Mention the subject so the journalist knows you’ve heard the question. The second step is to use a phrase that builds a bridge from the journalist’s topic to one of your key messages. Use phrases such as “actually” or “I’d characterize that differently.” The final step is to provide a message with critical supporting data points or stories.

These tips will help to expand your spokesperson’s talents and capabilities. Following this advice will greater your chances that newsworthy, positive information is conveyed to the masses.

E-mail Signatures

Signatures blocks are useful for providing important contact information for the people you communicate with on the Internet. And they can also be effective ways of marketing. Use them wisely.

· Provide your email address. Don't assume that just because your email address can be found in the header of the message, it will be found.

· Provide your Web address in link form. This makes it effortless for your correspondents to connect directly to your site.

· Provide a mailing address and appropriate phone numbers for alternative forms of communication.

· Provide a brief marketing message. Set up your signature so that it conveys a glimpse of what your company is all about. Slogans or catch phrases that touch upon your company branding will undoubtedly make your signature memorable. Think of your e-mail signature as your virtual business card.

· Include a link to recent articles that you’ve written or news coverage about your organization. Keep it simple.

· Don’t include a signature in every e-mail reply in a chain of messages. . . .

While attempting to include the most relevant and useful information, try to keep your signature to eight lines or less. If it’s too verbose, e-mail readers will avoid it. E-mail signatures are a great way to take advantage of subtle, free marketing opportunities.

Philadelphia Bench Bar Conference – Underlying Media Theme

I attended the Philadelphia Bar Association Bench-Bar Conference last weekend in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and found it quite interesting that in many of the panels – it was publicity and the law that was a recurring theme.

Some of the myriad topics included:

o The need of the Judiciary to be more public
o The affect of blogging on Judicial elections
o The need to use the media to educate the public about the roles of the Court
o The need to control/respect the power of the media
o The role the media plays in disseminating information about cases
o The need to train the Judiciary about the media and vice versa
o The need for attorneys and judges to understand and utilize the media
o Law school does not teach students how to promote or communicate via mass media
o The cost of judicial elections tried in the media
o The ethics of dealing with the media
o The need to embrace the media
o The issues of fair and impartial trials that are “tried in the media”
o The need for attorneys to be media trained
o How not to be a jerk when dealing with the media
o The opportunities surrounding the media

I left the conference energized and excited about being a strategic communications expert in the legal industry.

It’s a growing field and there’s a lot of ground we need to make up for the last century of “no comment” answers, however, we’re well on our way to a more enlightened industry!