The first session of SES San Jose that I’m attending is “Public Relations Train Wrecks in the Interactive Biz”. I’m looking forward to the presentations, as I’ve given a couple of speeches on this topic myself. The speakers for this session are Rebecca Lieb and Brad Berens, with the incoming Global Content Director of SES, Kevin Ryan moderating.

9am… The start of the session has been delayed by 5 minutes to allow those who arrived late to registration to pick up their passes…

This session will be a completely powerpoint free, interactive session…

First up is Dr. Brad Berens of iMedia communications. He says that we are all in the story telling business, and the difference between PR and Journalism is how the story should be told. His list of issues with Public Relations firms:

1. Boilerplate PR Spamming - When releases are sent without any real understanding of the aims of the firm that they’re pitching to.
2. The “Bazooka approach to his masthead” - Multiple people from the same PR firm contacting multiple people in the organization that they’re pitching to, and having the same meetings with these different people.
3. Set Up a Briefing - PR firms tend not to do this, but it would allow them to understand the audience.
4. CEO’s that won’t break from their sales pitch mode, and won’t engage in a real conversation.
5. Pick up the phone, don’t just assume that an email will get the story read.
6. Your CEO sneezing is not a news story. A real news story is something that actually makes a change within your organization.
7. Know your customers, and who they read. If you don’t know, ask them. That’s who you should be pitching your stories to.
8. Don’t exaggerate or lie. You will be found out, and you will then no longer be a trusted source.

Rebecca’s list:

1. PR firms do not understand that Search Engine Watch (SEW) runs news stories, they do not run press releases.PR firms do not always realize that when PR firms put out press releases they are in fact breaking their own news. If they instead want to do a better job they should talk to a site like SEW rather than push is out themselves. News companies do not get their news from the wire…
2. The concept of the ‘Exclusive’ appears to have vanished. Exclusives will get pushed more by sites like SEW.
3. Embargoes are great, it gives them time to research and prepare a great story. Which doesn’t mean sending out an embargoed release at 7pm the night before it’s to be released…
4. Make executives and PR people available for comment, don’t expect a story to be published if the release is the only source material.
5. Copying a news story into a press release is a copyright violation
6. Subject lines such as “Please post this to your site”, don’t get a story written.
7. Don’t always focus all efforts on one editor, people aren’t always at work, you may lose a story if the one person you have a good relationship with is out.
8. Look for the right person to pitch to, don’t just pitch to the top person (i.e. Rebecca) treating them as a receptionist / traffic cop.
9. If you pass on stories about other firms rather than just pitch about your company, you’re going to be viewed as more of a trusted resource.
10. Don’t hide from the news people. Understand that journalists will look at both sides of a story.
11. Understand that ClickZ & SEW style organizations are looked on by the print as trusted sources. They may be asked to provide context on your story, rather than you. Make sure you keep them as informed as you can, so that the facts that you want out there have more of a chance of getting out there.
12. A rumor is not a news item.
13. Understand who the industry experts are.

The best business blogs are those that aren’t trying to sell you all the time.

Brad had a person working on a story for 6 weeks, the day before the story was to be released, the company put out a release. The story was pulled from the schedule and did not run.

If there’s a chart or graph, make sure that the chart is sourced, and the methodology behind the data is clearly stated. Context counts, make sure any data you have is statistically valid, especially if you’re basing a primary argument on that data.

Remember that bloggers as a whole aren’t editorially reviewed, fully researching journalists. Bloggers will not replace news outlets, just as TV didn’t replace radio. They will coexist though, and the shape of news has and will change. Blogging is a different context for the news.

WSJ was doing a profile of a company, a meeting was scheduled with the CEO and the WSJ. The executive didn’t want to prep for the meeting, and just decided to ‘feel’ out the reporter. The reporter was looking for the story… This was setting the company up for failure. Preparation is important, talking points need to be known and understood.

Be Relevant, and forge Relationships. It is a heavy relationship business.

Filed under: Education and Training, Reputation Management on Monday, August 20th, 2007 by Simon Heseltine |
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