Presenter: Christie Keith. Yes, OUR Christie Keith.
Polling whether attendees’ orgs have PR departments. Vast majority do not.
Alienation with the media happens needlessly, and can be prevented. If you don’t like what the press is doing, perhaps it’s your message that isn’t being pitched correctly.
Think about who you’re talking to. Not just who are you targeting, but also consider sportcasters, media entertainment reviewers, meteorologists, etc. These people have pets, too, and they haven’t heard your message yet. If you’re looking for adopters, donors, volunteers, they are the people you’re trying to reach that you may not have already reached.
Expand who your message is being delivered to, but rethink what your message IS. The ask shouldn’t be re-layered with cluttered extraneous stuff. Ask for ONE thing. The point of your request should be crystal clear. The reporters, bloggers, broadcasters, editors and other columnists who get your issues are a tiny sliver of the media people who have pets.
As Ryan Clinton says, develop relationships. Dan Rather once said the most difficult challenge for people trying to do investigative pieces is when you know the names of the your target’s grandchildren. Take media figures out for coffee. Media figures are people, too. Become a human being to them, not just someone shilling the issue you care about.
Some media markets are tougher than others, but the basic rules still apply. The difference is New York has MORE media outlets, and more choices to disseminate the message(s). Sometimes small publications like the Village Voice can have a larger impact than the size of their readership/viewership might suggest.
In meetings Christie attends of the Dog and Cat Writers Association of America, folks trade war stories about the truly awful press releases they’ve seen. Incomprehensibly bad. Poorly written, misspellings, you name it. If you’re going to write a press release, please:
Make sure you include:
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Are you having a cat adoption event? Make sure you include the address. The time, too. Why are you doing it? Give us the reason, and make it ONE sentence, not War & Peace. If they want to know more, they’ll ask you. Make it succinct.
Additionally, there’s one element that needs to be included that gets wasted the most. It’s the first sentence. We journalists call that the lede. We don’t know why we spell it that way, we just do. The lede has one purpose only: to make the reporter want to read the rest of your press release!
If you’re going to use statistics, you’d better know where they came from, and that they’re TRUE. Never throw out a number if you can’t prove it. Your integrity will be undermined immediately.
Spellcheck is mandatory. Grammar check, too. Have a second person read it over before it goes out the door, if necessary. Read it backwards, if you have to. That always works… very old journalist trick we all learn in J School or our first reporting job.
Political advocacy isn’t as hard in smaller towns than it is in big cities. The people involved are your neighbors. If there’s a press release that’s inaccurate, respond with a directly focused press release. Direct it to the audience who responded to the first press release. Set the record straight with concise, well-researched facts. Take emotion out of it. Don’t recount the history of your struggle. Don’t rant. Address the issue head on, from a position of power – you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing a larger audience.
In New York, they violated the state’s open meeting law by holding a critical meeting in a room too small for the audience. That’s the issue, not “OMG, puppies are dying! Mobilize!” Hysteria is badly counter-productive, and will turn people off. You become the crazy cat lady, and little more.
Stay professional. The “From:” line needs to be from an organization, not a person. You’re representing an organization, not just you and your best friend.
The subject line might not always be as important as you might think. Just be factual, not cutesy. Your lede will still always be what counts. That’s your hook.
Relationship building also includes writing thank you notes (emails) to reporters for giving them coverage. Liking the facebook page of that news station or reporter and thanking them on facebook for their coverage is also beneficial.
Creating media lists one at a time. Start on Google, and enter “[issue] [name of town]” and as you search google news on the issue, you’ll find reporters who covered your story, determine whether or not they’re sympathetic to your story, and the story will routinely include an email address for followup. If it’s an old link/story, perhaps make sure the reporter is still with the outfit, first. There’s lots of movement in the news industry.
There’s a time and place to pitch an emotional response to a reporter on a hot-button issue (see: any story involving the name Michael Vick), but as a rule, that’s not what works the most frequently or the most effectively. The list of media contacts you build should include a notation of whether they have pets. You might not watch the news on TV much, but if you do, you watch the weather, don’t you? And when it’s hot, the first image they show is a dog running through a sprinkler. When the weather guy mentions his Golden Retriever Sammy has been sitting in the back yard wading pool all day because it’s so hot (with a picture of Sammy), write him a note telling him how great it was to see Sammy’s picture on air, how adorable he was, and that on behalf of your Golden Retriever Rescue you love that he was mentioned. Signed, Joe Smith, president, local Golden Retriever Rescue.
Make that connection. Telling someone, even the news guy, that you like their dog, is like saying you love their kids. It’s always good.
Old media vs. new media
Bloggers don’t have traditional “deadlines.” We need the response NOW. You can’t get back to us later. Think creatively, but don’t forget traditional media as well.
“Wake me when something happens”…Be newsworthy: When you send a press release, make it important. Make it immediate. And make it enthusiastic. When you have a press release, there has to be a real story behind it. You can’t continue to get a story out when it’s done. It’s all immediate. History isn’t going to get attention.
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