Archive for Public Relations

Monkeys, Beegees and Amazon?

May 23, 2008 at 8:30 am · Filed under Public Relations

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, doesn’t need any more awards. However, I’m giving him the MediaMaster award this week. No, not for book sales, nor DVDs, nor even MP3 players. It’s for Amazon Web Services. It may not appear to be much of an innovation, but it is one of the first serious appearances of “cloud computing”. In short, it provides an enormous, cheap, data centre for software developers, meaning that they don’t have to have expensive hardware in their offices any more. It will no doubt be sending shivers around the boardrooms of companies like HP, and could make Amazon far more money than books ever will. Nice move, Jeff.

I always thought that Coldplay and the Arctic Monkeys were Gordon Brown’s favourite bands. At least, that’s what he said last year. But now comes a claim from Robin Gibb, one of the two surviving BeeGees. He told The Times “Gordon listens to our music every day. He said, ‘Your music is absolutely timeless’. Gordon likes our music and I like Gordon.” He added “The Prime Minister likes our songs because they talk about human relationships and human experience, and reach out across the decades”. That’s enough for me to give Mr Gibb the MediaMug award this week. OK, I now have an image of Gordon striding around the corridors of number 10 singing “Tragedy” at the top of his voice. Makes sense, actually.

By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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The Good Egg & The Doctor

May 2, 2008 at 10:05 am · Filed under 1, Public Relations

Alas, another posthumous MediaMaster award this week. Humphrey Lyttleton, jazz musician, quizmaster and all -round good egg, died at the age of 86 a few days ago. From being a pioneer of British jazz in the 1950s and 1960s, to the much-loved chairman of the Radio 4 Show, I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, Humphrey always delighted his audience. That’s all any of us could wish for as an epitaph. At the age of 79, he played with Radiohead, and was only recently voted one of the top three most respected figures by university students. A great bloke.

I probably should have awarded the MediaMug trophy to this week’s winner many years ago, because she’s been lecturing people for quite a while. From peering in people’s fridges and then shouting at them, to inspecting the contents of people’s toilets (sorry if you’re having breakfast), Gillian McKeith has built a nutritional empire. A few years ago, she had to drop the “Doctor” tag, when the Advertising Standards Authority pointed out that her “distance doctorate” was not to be used in adverts to suggest that she was a qualified nutritionist. Her latest book is just out. I suggest you read some of the reviews, or even flick through it in the bookshops, and draw your own conclusions. In view of her reputation for litigation against criticism, wherever it occurs, I’ll say no more here.

By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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Horror at Children’s Home

February 29, 2008 at 1:30 pm · Filed under 1, Press Releases, Public Relations

Presentation Tip of the Week

It’s a tragic story, and still unfolding – the former children’s home in Jersey, where a child’s remains have been found. Journalists and film crews from all over the world are there, and almost all interviews are being conducted by the softly-spoken Deputy Chief Police Officer, Lenny Harper. Under what must be the most awful circumstances, he has done exactly what a media spokesman should do – made himself available, answered questions in a calm and informative way, and refused to speculate. His handling of the situation is a model for anyone faced with delivering such terrible news. He fully deserves the MediaMaster award this week. Ryde Council, in Sydney, Australia, organised a screening of the Oscar-winning film, “The Queen”, starring Helen Mirren, for local deaf people. Unfortunately, the subtitling wasn’t up to par. “Buckingham Palace” appeared on screen as “Burking in Paris” while the question “did you vote?” flashed up as “dead in a boat”. Tony Blair’s character, instead of being “educated at Fettes” was described as “educated the fattest”. Council spokesman Derek McCarthy conceded the captions were bizarre. “The copy shown did have some spelling mistakes and interpretations of the script which affected the experience for the deaf community present,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. He gets the MediaMug trophy this week, or Medium Moggy trousers, as they say in Ryde.

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Record, Review and Improve

August 10, 2007 at 4:03 pm · Filed under PR, Presentation, Public Relations, Public Speaking

Here are two ways to improve the quality of your speeches –

  1. Get feedback from people in your audience that you know and trust – and act on it.
  2. Record your speeches and review them later.

The first method is easy to implement (provided you can find people in your audience who you can trust to be straightforward and honest). If you rely on people coming up to you after the event and saying “great speech”, then you’ll never get better. You need to work a bit harder than that. Anyway, I’m sure you can figure out what you have to do. The second method – recording your speeches – is s bit more tricky. If you speak at an event where recordings are made, there’s no problem, though it’s worth checking in advance that you can get a copy of your speech. If you need to record it yourself, you need a good-quality recorder and lapel mike (or lavalier as it is known in the trade). I use a Roland R-09 digital recorder and an AudioTechnica ATR35s lavalier, which I find brilliant, but whatever you choose, make sure you test it thoroughly first. Incidentally, if you want advice on sound equipment, have a word with my good friend Fergus McClelland. He’s a sound and voice expert, and a great speaker too. When you have your recording, sit down somewhere quiet and listen to it a few times, stopping the recording to make notes. Try to find at least two things to improve from every speech. If you stick to this discipline, you’ll keep getting better – and your reputation will grow. DON‘T BE SHY If you want to appear on radio or TV (or appear more often, if you already do), then you need to be proactive. You may be the acknowledged expert in your field, but if reporters have never heard of you, they will never call. Some people employ publicists to help them raise their profile in the media. This can work well, but there is a lot you can do yourself. If you see or hear news about something that you are an expert in, contact the TV or radio station immediately, explaining why they should interview you. Quote books, articles, websites, speeches or whatever evidence you can provide that singles you out as the person to speak to. The important thing is to move quickly. In the immediate aftermath of a news event, reporters are desperate to file a story, and will talk to whoever they can find who is either a “witness” (even if they live a mile away from the event, and only heard a noise), or an expert. There will almost always be other experts who know more than you, but that doesn’t matter – you need to be first. So don’t be shy. When the time comes, make that call. By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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Watch The Clock

July 31, 2007 at 8:52 am · Filed under Media Coaching, Online PR, PR, Public Relations, Public Speaking

You need to have a good idea of time when you are speaking. Going on for too long will upset your audience, and may not allow sufficient time for questions. Finishing too early could be equally embarrassing, particularly if the next speaker is not ready (or worse yet, has not arrived). Always rehearse so that you know how much time you will take. Remember that when you are nervous, you may speak more quickly, so make a conscious effort to slow down and stay on schedule. Most important of all, make sure that you can see a clock or a watch while you are speaking – but don’t keep looking at your wrist! MEDIA MYTHS There are lots of misconceptions about the media. Here are a couple. I need to ring journalists to make sure they have received my press release, and see if they are going to use it<br>
Er…No. This is the first job given to a press office trainee to make them realise that it is not a good idea. Never pester a journalist about press releases. They’ll contact you if they want more information. I should ignore freelance journalists – they move around too much.No again. Freelance journalists should be cultivated, because they move around. They work for more journals and broadcasters, are more experienced, and likely to be career professionals. Aim at developing a long-term relationship with them. By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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GRAB YOUR AUDIENCE

June 12, 2007 at 10:01 am · Filed under Presentation, Public Relations, Public Speaking

The first few seconds of your speech are critical. You have to grab the attention of your audience. Here are seven types of attention-grabbing openings –

  • A quotation relevant to your topic
  • A question to the audience
  • A challenge to the audience
  • A funny story
  • A striking statistic
  • A promise to reveal a secret
  • A comparison between two unrelated things

You can think of many more, I’m sure. Worst of all, in my view, is one not listed above. It goes like this – “Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is X. it gives me very great pleasure to be here.” I’ve head lots of speeches start like that, and waste the most valuable piece of time that your audience gives you. Don’t do it. Your audience knows who you are, and will assume that you are glad to be there. Just get on with it and grab their attention.

By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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DON’T APOLOGISE

May 22, 2007 at 10:29 am · Filed under Presentation, Public Relations

I’ve seen far too many speakers who make self-denigrating opening remarks. OK, the best person to tell a story against is yourself, but don’t do it right at the start of your speech.

Worst of all, in my view, is the person who wanders on, looking hunched and nervous, handles the mike as though it’s a poisonous snake, and then says “I’m not very good at this, and my speech isn’t very good” We know you’re nervous. We know you’re not too confident. But we want you to do well. If you appear in front of us and start off by apologising, we’ll expect the worst, and that will probably be our perception. So, take a few deep breaths, walk on stage with your head held high and smile. It doesn’t matter if you are feeling nervous. We all do.

The important thing is to do your best, and the audience will support you. If you lower our expectations by hand-wringing like Uriah Heep (no, the one in David Copperfield, not the elderly rock band), than things will only deteriorate.

 By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk

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PR: Take It In Your Own Hands Or Hand It Over?

March 30, 2007 at 8:30 pm · Filed under PR, Press Releases, Public Relations

Facing facts

PR and marketing will help your business become more successful. But the obvious downside of a successful business is that you personally will no longer have as much time to devote to PR and marketing.

But handing it over to someone else is a risk – how can you be sure that they’ll communicate the passion that fired you up to start the business in the first place?

Your choices
———–

As you grow and find yourself in this position you really ultimately have four choices.

1. To grow but still retain control, personally, of all your PR and marketing. It may sound great but this is very stressful and if you’re planning on doing your PR full time, then why aren’t you running a PR company? It’s not impossible, but to carry out this option successfully you’ll need to be extremely disciplined.

2. To hand over PR and marketing responsibilities to another member or members of staff, and train them up to be responsible for this area.

3. To bring in a PR professional in-house.

4. To employ outside help from a PR company or practitioner.

Let’s take a look at what doing your own PR long-term actually involves. Whether you are planning to outsource your PR or not, this will give you a breakdown of the different tasks involved. You may find that you feel you and your business will be able to handle them no problem, or it may send you into a cold panic where you realise that you’d better start looking around for a PR company pretty damn quick!

Research
——–
 
This involves keeping up to date with newspapers, websites, trade and professional publications, magazines, radio shows and TV.

Planning your PR strategy
————————-

This includes market research into what image you need to project to your potential customers and devising a plan with a suitable timescale. To be honest, even if you have a PR company you’ll need to be on top and driving this one.

Building relationships with journalists and editors
—————————————————

This could involve lunches, networking, and going to trade events where you know they will be covering stories. The beauty of doing your own PR is that these contacts are yours and won’t be with-held by The PR company or leave with them when an account executive goes onto their next job.

Writing PR material
——————-

This could include web pages, press releases, articles for inclusion on your own and other websites (in exchange for links), articles for the press, newsletters and regular tips and hints for editors. Sometimes the clients still end up doing this even if they have a PR company.

Day to day PR
————-

Chasing up press releases and phoning journalist with a story; giving interviews; following up past “bites” or interviews to see when article are being published; arranging for photos, links, photographs etc; placing competitions; buying publications and organising cuttings to most effectively impress potential clients.

And, of course, co-ordinating all the above so that they run smoothly!

Pros and Cons
————-

Learning How to Do Your Own PR (either individually, or as a team)
————————————————————-

Pros

* You retain control of the way things go.
* The contacts you make are your own and you can build relationships with the press.
* You can portray the passion behind the business much more effectively than someone who is being paid to do so.
* You and your team will learn skills and unleash abilities along the way that will benefit other parts of your business.
* This is often the cheapest option.

Cons

* Time consuming!
* If you suddenly thrust PR responsibilities on a member of staff who didn’t sign up for this when they started it can cause bad feeling.

Bringing a PR Person In-house
————————–

Pros

* You’ll get all their abilities, contacts and skills – just for you.
* They can immerse themselves in company culture and product much more easily and hopefully be able to communicate that better than someone on the outside.

Cons

* Cost plus all the other risks associated with taking on staff.

Hiring a PR Person or Agency
————————–

Pros

* You have access to their contacts
* It frees up your time.

Cons

* This can be a very expensive option and fees can run away unless you watch them carefully.
*You could competing for their time with higher paying clients.

My own opinion?
—————-

I firmly believe that small businesses, while they are small, are the best people to do their PR. It’s easier for them to inspire the press with excitement and the skills you pick up can be phenomenal. And once a relationship with the press has been built it’s more effective to bring in more people into the business to carry that on, and keep it yours, than hand it over to an outside party.

OUR 30 DAY ECOURSE
—————–

This has just been revamped to take account of the evolving methods of doing PR that the internet and technology are bringing. The course is delivered over email for 30 days. It covers the basic foundations of a PR campaign such as finding your market, writing a press release, how to send it out to journalists and follow up, as well as how to get on the radio, organise a press launch and put together a tip sheet.

It also includes personal feedback from me with suggestions of things you can de doing right now to kick-start your PR.

You can read more about the course here:

http://www.doyourownpr.com/EMZ%20-3900/products/ecourses.asp

And of course, even if you are considering having an agency at some point in the future, doing this course will mean that you understand the mechanics of PR, know what to expect from them and can tell if they are giving you your money’s worth!

And Finally..
———–
When the Chocolate Ecstasy Tour founder (http://www.chocolateecstasytours.com/) Jennifer Ehrle came on one of my PR workshops a couple of years ago I knew that one day I was going to have to try them out. So, two weeks ago I spent one of the most delightful days of my life on a chocolate ecstasy tour of London! It took us around 6 of the top chocolateries – with lots of tasting and goodies in each of them. I really can’t recommend it enough, especially if you love really good chocolate or know someone who does. I was amazed to find that chocolate can be just as esoteric as wine, with premier cru plantations!

Anyway, you can find out more here: (http://www.chocolateecstasytours.com/)

Until next time,
Paula Gardner
www.doyourownpr.com

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Evaluate your PR Effectiveness

March 18, 2007 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Media Coaching, PR, PR in Fashion, Press Releases, Public Relations

PR is a very effective method of gaining exposure, managing reputation, increasing sales and achieving long term recognition and customer loyalty. 

PR can make the difference between a brand being known or unknown, add positive spins to negative news and overall manage the perception people have of your company or brand.

But other than seeing the long term results for yourself, how do you evaluate your PR effectiveness?

Media evaluation should be an ingredient in assessing how your PR is working. With media evaluation you are evaluating how your company’s reputation or its
products or services are re
presented in the media and comparing this to the competition.There are a number of measurements and judgements to make when evaluating your media coverage:

  • Where and when the article and/or broadcast appeared.
  • The degree to which messages were picked up i.e. were your website or contact details
    printed?  Did the article address your key messages and summarise your brand accurately? 
  • Was the item generated by you / your PR agent?
  • The weight of the media – i.e.: circulation and audience and the relevance to the target audience.
  • The balance and tone of the publicity and the degree of favourability i.e. how positive was it?  Was it an accurate re
    presentation of your brand?
  • Impact of visual material – Did the article include an image to sell your brand visually?
  • Comment or opinion – how accurate and positive was it?
  • Size or length of article or broadcast – the space of the article can be quantified, half a page in a top magazine such as Grazia is worth thousands of pounds yet also the content is important as it needs to address all of your key information where possible.

If all of the above is accounted for,
press coverage can result in increased sales, often stock being sold out if it
proves popular and long term recognition which results in a loyal customer base for you.

The more your brand is seen and heard in the right places, the more recognition you will receive and your customers will soon think of you first the next time they look for your area of
product.

By Bethanie Lunn, Founder of Huge Promotions www.hugepromotions.co.uk

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Perfect Timing

March 18, 2007 at 1:47 pm · Filed under Media Coaching, PR, Press Releases, Public Relations

You can have the best story, but if the timing is wrong, the media won’t be interested. You need to find out media deadlines if you are to have the best chance of getting coverage. Here are some things to think about

  • Don’t give a story to a weekly if it has appeared in other weeklies
  • Check feature deadlines for monthlies – they are many weeks before publication
  • Give reporters time to write the story
  • Be available for comment around deadline time
  • If you miss a feature deadline, try a “letter to the editor”. Deadlines are much shorter.

In every case, find out as much as you can about deadlines – they can make or break your story.

By Alan Stevens, Media Coach www.mediacoach.co.uk 

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