BuzzTart

Have you ever received an invitation to one of those “FREE Publicity”  workshops?  One lobbed in my inbox today: “Never pay an expensive PR agency again!” was the headline.

I’m sure the promoter means well – to teach small business and solo operators how to generate their own publicity is a noble task. But why the need to decry the work of professional PR people? This kind of blanket statement just irks me.  There is NO WAY to “do your own PR” without working on it – there are no shortcuts, despite the promises.  More often than not, it will work out cheaper in the long run if you let a professional run the show.  Would you ask your gardener to fix your plumbing?  It pays to employ the right person for the right job.

Implying that the PR agency is duping you by charging for their services is flawed and a reflection of last-century thinking.   You see, anyone can get a story in the paper once or even twice, but PR people do it over and over and over again across all media distribution channels.  They succeed because they are trained to give journalists and news consumers what they need, and many are gifted writers and speakers.

This promotion also claimed you don’t need a “media hook”. Huh?   journalists use hooks in every story they publish to capture readers, listeners and viewers.  What you need, if you plan to entice a journalist to talk about your wonderfulness, is a story.   Or as Glen Frost from In the Public Interest says in Top 20 Trends for PR Practitioners 2011, you need to ‘drive the narrative’.

If you are a small business owner who has the skills, time, energy and patience to do this, I admire and support you, as any PR professional would!

press release, public relations

Businesses and nonprofits have thrown themselves behind the Queensland and Victorian flood support efforts.  They range from electricians to bird sanctuaries, bedding manufacturers to counselling for flood-stricken Australians.  Here are just a handful of the organisations using social networks to let people know they are ready to help.

LJ Hooker drives relief for flood victims
LJ Hooker Ltd established network-wide initiatives in response to the devastating floods first hitting Queensland and now other states.“

ALTV

I don’t want to get snarky, but sometimes I wonder if anyone is bothering to teach grammar and punctuation in Australian schools.  As I run a press release service, I often have to reject copy because of errors that could have been averted by spelling and grammar checking.  If I published it, I would be risking my own business reputation and the reputation of the company or individual concerned.   Yet I thought it was well known that when you publish content online, it could appear anywhere else on the web.  If this content is related to your business, such as a press release, how does it reflect on your brand when it’s littered with grammatical and spelling errors?  It’s really easy to solve this – just proofread, and if you don’t know the correct way to do it, ask someone who does.

Here are some common errors and the correct usage:

1.  In quotation marks, a comma or fullstop should be inserted before the closing quotation mark:  “I don’t know where to put the comma so I just leave it out,” she said. She said: “Put the fullstop inside the last quotation mark if it is at the end of the sentence.”  A comma may be placed outside the closing quote marks if it’s a “partial quote”, such as this one.

2.   A quotation should not contain several sentences before the reader know who’s speaking. Attribute  quotations as soon as you can, typically after the first phrase or sentence. “Each press release should begin with a summary of the main newsworthy issue,” she said. “Usually it answers the questions ‘who, what, where, when and why’.”

3.  Using single quotation marks instead of double is another common error; this will just annoy the journalist — as will capitalised headlines. Have you ever seen single quotation marks or capped headlines in a newspaper? Single quotation marks are used only where needed within double quotation marks. For an example see the last sentence of (2) above.

4.  Spelling mistakes; there is a massive incidence of wrongly spelled words. Instead of showing you the misspelled words, here are some correct spellings –

• “confectionery”(there’s no ‘a’)
• “stationary” (still) but “stationery” (paper, envelopes, etc)
• its = the possessive (its claws were sharp); it’s = it is (it’s well known that….the apostrophe stands for the “i” in the contraction of it is)
• hassle not “hassell” (which I think is an architectural firm)
• minuscule (it comes from the Latin ‘minus’ and not mini)

Sorry for the rant but I have much more where that came from. By the way, I have highlighted the fact that this phenomenon is Australian. Press releases from American companies seem to be written with care – in the US it is just not acceptable to send out poorly constructed corporate documents.  Editors are employed as a matter of course before distribution of releases and marketing collateral.  Press releases written by people for whom English is not the first language may be excused to some degree.

citizen journalism, free PR, free publicity, how to write a press release

IN the early hours of a Sunday morning, while Acting Premier of South Australia, Treasurer Kevin Foley was reportedly ‘king hit’ by an unknown male, for no known reason. Mr Foley says that he was seeking one of Adelaide’s “elusive taxis” before the incident.

We asked several PR professionals to provide their best advice as to how Mr Foley should handle his communication with the press regarding this painful and no doubt embarrassing event.

See one version of the story here:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/foley-incident-a-wakeup-call-xenophon-20101130-18efp.html

This is a collated version of the response from Andrew Tobin, head of PR at Mad Australia Productions:

“The first step is to find out the real story. Was Mr Foley involved in any behaviour that could be construed as embarrassing? Might he have been assaulted by a jealous boyfriend or husband? Was he under the influence of legal or illegal recreational drugs? These are the questions that media will ask and they have to be answered.

For the purpose of this exercise, let’s say the answer to all those questions was “no”.

Let’s assume Mr Foley was simply looking for an elusive taxi at an ungodly hour. The first thing I’d do is check with all the taxi companies and find out what the wait was for a taxi at that time as well as the number of taxis on the road at the time. The check would, of course, be made anonymously and if the numbers support Mr Foley’s claim, the information would be made public and if they didn’t then I’d let it slide. I’d also establish whether or not Mr Foley used his mobile telephone to call for a taxi. What time? What was he told? Is there a recording of the conversation? The answers to those questions would determine the nature of the advice.

An important question for Mr Foley. Did he know his attacker or did the attacker say anything to identify himself? Again, let’s say no.

In the final bit of detective work, I’d find out how bad the assault was. Was an ambulance called? Did Mr Foley seek medical help? What was the medical assessment?

Again, let’s assume “no”, “yes” and “mild”.

Given the scenario described above I’d advise Mr Foley to play it cool.

“My first priority is to let the police do their job. This State deserves to be proud of the men and women in uniform and I’m confident the systems we have in place will work.

“On a personal note I’d like to say that what hurt me more than the cowardly king hit was any damage this might have done to the reputation of this State. In an ideal world anyone should be able to walk down any street in Adelaide at any hour without fear of being assaulted. I would now like to step back and take the necessary time to recover and let the police do their work.

“Like any other citizen of this great State, I have made a report to the police and the matter is now in their hands. I ask you to let them do their job. Thank you for your concern.”

I would further advise Mr Foley to answer any questions in the most cursory manner. For example:

Q: “Mr Foley, what were you doing out at that hour?”

A: “I was looking for a taxi to take me home.”

Q: “Was it appropriate for a senior politician such as you to be out at such a late hour?”
A: “That’s a ridiculous question. It is perfectly appropriate for anyone to be anywhere at any time. I was not looking for trouble, I was looking for a taxi.”

Q: “Were you on a date?”

A: “I was out. I was trying to get home.”

Q: “What have you learned from the incident?”

A: “Sometimes bad things happen to innocent people.”

Q: “Has this incident ruined your chances of becoming Premier of this State?”

A: “I can only measure the past, I can’t predict the future. Ask me that question again in five years and I’ll be able to give you a complete answer.”

Lord knows we need errant politicians and eccentric celebrities or our papers would be empty, but was this good advice?  What would your advice be.

Cheers – and all the best for a pleasantly eventful 2011!

Leila

Adelaide, Australian politics