Who Stepped In It

News Releases Should Be Bright and Brief:  That crackling and clicking sound you hear in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and across the nation is the sound of paper being crumpled and the delete button being hit by busy reporters and editors quickly clearing their enormous workloads of long, unclear news releases.

Every business or public relations agency that writes a press release longer than one page will soon find they’ve stepped in it.  How will they know? Their competition keeps getting the media coverage, and they keep making the excuses.

There are many formats to press releases — TV, radio, blog, web site, consumer, and more — but this PR tip will cover press releases to newspapers.

The most important thing to understand about your news release has nothing to do with your news release.  It has to do with understanding who you’re sending it to — the reporter or editor. 

A busy, overworked reporter on a daily deadline has no time to sift through your two-page news release, especially when your main point is buried on page two.

Your boss may really like the press release because it talks about all the wonderful things the company is doing or is about to do.  Your client may really like it because you’ve included every detail under the sun that they think is important.  But the person in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, or Chesapeake who decides what’s a story and what isn’t, does not have the time or inclination to read your brag sheet.

Understand a reporter’s world and you’ll understand how to write your press releases.

Good news releases:

- Respect a reporter’s time.  You exert the effort so they don’t have to.

- Have a headline that quickly and clearly tells your story.

- Get to the point in a single page or less.  Take the rest of the information and create a background or tip sheet.  When the reporter asks for more information, it’s already prepared.

- Pique a reporter’s interest; don’t tell the entire story.  The reporter will write the story.  They don’t need a public relations agency doing it for them.

- Shouldn’t be about turning 25 years old, holding a fundraiser, launching a new product, or opening a new location.  If you want to announce that, buy an ad.  Reporters will not find this newsworthy.  Do some digging, ask some questions and find something unique in that 25-year history, or about your upcoming yearly event.  Your angle could be about a huge obstacle overcome, the evolution of a product, a twist of fate — something emotive, amazing, interesting.  There’s always an intriguing story behind the story if you take the time to dig for it and craft it into a pitch.  It should take the reporter less than 15 seconds to say, yes, my readers will find that interesting, important, or entertaining.

- Are written from the reporter’s shoes, not the boss’. 

- Contain contact information at the beginning and the ending so a reporter can quickly make a phone call or send an email to the public relations professional who sent it.

- Never have a company logo on it.  Reporters are not in business to promote your business.  They report newsworthy items.  Making your news release look like an advertisement is a quick way to miss out on some outstanding media coverage.

How long were your last five news releases?  Did each generate media coverage in Virginia Beach, Norfolk or Chesapeake?

April 24, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 2 Comments 

Who Stepped Up

Public Relations Campaigns Must Be Inclusive:  Public relations campaigns have changed faster than most CEOs and leaders would like to admit, but the quicker they get onboard the more success they’ll have.  The day of mass communications tools being owned or controlled by the government or corporations are long gone.  The fast rise of easy-to-use Web sites, blogs, podcasts, social networks, chat rooms, email campaigns and more have taken control from the elite and given it to the masses, and changed public relations communications forever. 

Public relations professionals can learn a valuable lesson from the U.S Navy’s challenges in this area. Every effort to secure a location for an outlying landing field for Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach has been met with well organized protesters, which generates media coverage.  But most importantly, key politicians are being pressured by these large citizen alliances that are Internet-driven.  And once politicians sense a group can cause harm, the group gets its way.

Citizens 1 - Navy 0.  However, the Navy isn’t done trying.  According to a recent article in The Virginian-Pilot, which covers Virginia Beach, Rear Adm David Anderson has convinced Navy leadership that there’s a better way to achieve their outlying landing field goal — with a consensus building campaign.  Hummm, now we’re getting somewhere.

The admiral said, “When you completely disregard and disrupt communities’ and individuals’ lives, with this air of arrogance, they’re going to call their elected officials now in a way they have never done in the past.”  And those elected leaders respond by cutting off federal funding, he said.

The admiral is correct and the Navy is smart for letting him work a customer-based public relations campaign to help the Virginia Beach master jet base.

Some PR tips for this type of public relations campaign include:

- It is easier to build bridges than put out fires. 

- The days of holding your cards close to the vest and hoping a poorly informed public will be duped are over.  The collision between technology and the Internet saw to that.

- Communities have learned how to join forces, pool resources and use political forces to their benefit.  Determine your allies and enemies.

- Develop a PR plan that creates a tailored communications loop with all of them.

- Bring residents, local officials, environmental organizations and others to the table early to start building a relationship and to help mute some of the criticism.

- These challenging cases do not have to be David versus Goliath, with the large government organization being perceived as an enemy.  Explaining why these issues are important for the greater good and making the community part of the process through smart public relations communications is critical to long-term success.

- Identify which reporter covers that beat and keep him or her in the loop too.

- Pinpoint the naysayers reporters like to use for their fiery opposition quotes.  Reach out to them early.

- Don’t be fooled into thinking that your open communication and building goodwill will guarantee your organization’s success. 

- Come to the table with compelling reasons for your requirements and fair compensation for people who will be impacted.  In this case, the Navy would be wise in its public relations communications to put the face of young aviators and their families on the front of this issue.  These brave young people are the ones who will pay the price with their lives if they can’t get the appropriate training before they take on the difficult challenge of landing a 160 mph aircraft on a small landing strip moving through the water.

- Actions of the organization in working with impacted communities are far more important than the words they use.  Public relations professionals will be wise to point out to their leaders the value of open communication and fairness.

What product, service, issue or cause are you about to launch that will meet with resistance from concerned groups and harm your business?

April 16, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 1 Comment 

Who Stepped In It

Reputation Management:  When blind fury gets in the way of solid thinking, bad things can happen.  For instance, according to a USA Today story on Monday, independent truckers planned this week to clog highways and call in sick to protest diesel fuel costs and shrinking profits. By mid-week, the story was big news in all the major media.  This public relations strategy is earning truckers the publicity they sought, but unfortunately, it’s negative publicity.  The backfire they hear isn’t their engines, it’s an angry public reacting to their careless public relations plan.

When everyone is in the same boat, it’s not a good idea to raise your head high and claim you’re special.  That’s a quick way to hurt your reputation for a long time.

The trucker’s beef is with their elected officials.  They should let their lobbyists, political contributions, and voting power handle it.  Stomping on hard-working people who are trying to get to work or needing to buy items to take care of their families is a poor public relations strategy.

Here are some PR tips to consider on a campaign like this:

- Identify your target audience.  Who has the ability to help you accomplish your objectives?  Focus your campaign on them.

- Develop and communicate a message that resonates.  Don’t pull a stunt that seems to have no relation to your desired endgame.

- Opportunities for PR exposure are limited; don’t waste your opportunity without a well developed message and concrete objectives.

- Think through your strategy and make sure there are no unintended consequences.

- Discuss it with people outside your industry bubble.

- Use a PR tactic that makes the public take your side, not side against you.

- Just because you can generate a story doesn’t mean you should.

- Don’t give bloggers a reason to make you the meal of the day.  You don’t need the blogoshere on fire with negative comments painting your industry black.  Stories live forever on the Internet. 

- Don’t give your competition an easy “remember when …”

- Don’t blatantly give people who regulate your industry a reason to dislike you.

- Build allies not enemies with your public relations plans.  Allies will come in handy the next time someone tries to move in on your territory or unnecessarily alter your livelihood.

- It takes tons of time, effort and money to rebuild an image damaged by a PR tactic gone awry.  Strive to enhance your organization’s reputation with PR tactics that endear fans and appeal to new audiences.

- Reputation management is a day-by-day, methodical process to continually gain and retain inches.  Businesses that maintain their ground do so because they avoid reckless public relations plans.

Can you name a strategy that would have made the independent trucker’s voices heard, and benefited the public?

April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | Leave a Comment