Author Archive
And the contest winner is…Paula Hubbs Cohen!
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Congratulations to Paula Hubbs Cohen of Peoria, AZ, who won the contest for worst press release opening. She wins a free copy of Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy and a Starbucks gift card for this marvelous entry:
“The members of the Board of Directors are collectively proud and thrilled to announce that it’s executive director, who already owns a yards long list of awards (LOL), recently one 3rd Place Honorable Mention for her outstanding ode regarding the new palate of colors that have been used and will be used in all the foundations’s press releases from now on, giving all recipients a huge selection to choose from.”
She earned extra points with her punctuation and spelling errors. (Can you spot them?)
Her inspiration for this noteworthy entry was “a woman I used to work for who INSISTED that her name and title be prominently mentioned in the first paragraph of every single press release I wrote for her – no matter how awkward-sounding the phrasing. I would get into major-league trouble if I did not do this, and hence, used to dream about writing the most obnoxious, superlative-filled quotes for her – the problem being, she loved them. In addition, I was required to issue press releases about the most fluff stuff simply to appease her massive ego, so thanks for the opportunity to actually put pen to proverbial paper and vent some of the verbiage I apparently had stored-up for a number of years.”
Glad to provide you such catharsis, Paula, and thanks to everyone who entered! Happy writing.
The philosophy behind social media
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There’s a certain philosophy to social media, and I’m always searching for a good summary/explanation for those clients who are new to the concept, or who have to justify their efforts to a doubtful management team.
A recent presentation by social media strategist Lon Safko in Phoenix was very helpful in that regard. Sponsored by Growth Nation, the event brought together an interesting collection of people who all wanted to learn more about how to apply social media in their businesses.
Following is a summary of Lon’s major points from the presentation, which can be found on his website at www.lonsafko.com. The only disagreement I had with the presentation was his contention that social media should not reside in public relations because PR people tend to pontificate. Public relations constantly gets a bad rap, and I admit, a lot of times it is justified. But the point I made to the crowd and will make on this blog is that you need to make sure your PR person/agency/consultant understands the difference between publicity and public relations. True public relations is not one way, but two-way, and represents the kind of relationship building and dialogue that is at the heart of social media. I am a strong proponent of making sure that social media includes team members from multiple departments, but resides primarily in the PR department. Read More→
One more week for the contest
Posted by: | CommentsYou have just over a week (August 17th) for the contest — come up with a really bad opening line for a press release. Journalists would say this shouldn’t be hard for PR people at all – prove them right for a change! 
Announcing a “bad press release writing” contest
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Business book and coffee - the perfect combo!
Now’s the time to practice your absolute worst press release opening line skills. In honor of the first anniversary of my PR Strategy Blog, I’m announcing a contest for the worst opening line(s) of a press release…
The winner will receive an autographed copy of my book and a $20 gift card from Starbucks.
All you have to do is come up with the most wretched, adjective- and superlative-filled copy you can think of to announce a real or fictitious product, event or service. You have til August 17th to do it, and submit it to me via linda at lindavandevrede dot com. You’ll earn extra points for misspellings, grammatical errors, and punctuation mistakes. Only a few lines are needed – you don’t need to craft the entire release. Just write enough that we get the gist, however painful… Read More→
Are press releases for reporters or customers?
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When you sit down to create a press release, should you write it for the media or for your customers?
The public relations purists would say you should write it for the media, in order to keep the copy at a higher intellectual level and avoid Barnum & Bailey Circus promotional ad copy. The social media advocates might say you should write it for a broader audience to include your customers, because the press release is disseminated on the Internet.
The answer is really a hybrid of both. PR thoughtleaders like Brian Solis and Deirdre Breckenridge write in their book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” that social media is reinventing the “aging” business of PR, and that yesterday’s PR techniques don’t work anymore. But, as they point out, social media gives you an unprecedented opportunity to make PR succeed more powerfully than ever before. Read More→
Facebook as a portal and website for your business
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Facebook has passed the 500 million user mark, and if ranked as a country, would now be larger than the U.S.!
Internet marketing pro Jeff Bullas recently made 5 predictions about the future of Facebook, including this observation:
#2. Portals and Websites for Businesses
I have seen companies that have actually started using Facebook instead of their website as the first digital online Gateway for customers and online visitors. This has been facilitated by vanity and user URL’s that provide a more search engine and user friendly web address. This is dangerous because you don’t own the channel, you are only renting on Facebook’s terms but this will not deter some companies and I think that this may continue to grow and you may find Facebook encouraging this by adding more features and functionality that are business focused.
Jeff is right – you are only renting space when you create a portal on Facebook. If this enables companies to engage more with their customers, however, I believe this is a good thing. More and more people are gravitating to Facebook rather than to company websites and using Facebook as a one-stop platform in which to engage.
Yes, you run the risk of depending on Facebook and being left high and dry if anything goes wrong with the service. But there is great value in engaging with customers where they want to be. It’s similar to the number of Arizonans who have property in Mexico, where they can only lease the land for 99 years – they can never own it.
If you’d like to engage with me on Facebook, check out the Press Releases are not a PR Strategy page. I post updates on how press releases are being used and abused in PR 2.0, and seek feedback from fans in order to gather info for the next edition of the book. I’ll also be sponsoring a press release contest and book giveaway soon.
Photo credit: Ross2085, Creative Commons License
10 tips for creating a better white paper
Posted by: | CommentsWhite papers are wonderful tools for helping educate and enlighten your target audiences. The reason they have not been very successful in the past is that too many people use them as brochure-like advertisements, forgetting what the true goal of a white paper is. Created properly, they serve as a document that provides timely information about your industry and which contains valuable knowledge that positions your company in a positive light for being so helpful.
Here are 10 tips for making the most of this kind of public relations tool:
- Choose a topic in your industry that is a timely or hot one, and pick a side. For example, if you are in the petroleum industry, a timely white paper right now would be the value of proper drilling equipment.
- Choose a title and subhead that clearly describe what your target audience will learn as a result of reading the white paper. Will they learn the pros and cons of a current industry issue? Will they learn how to do their job better?
- Leverage a lot of outside research, both paid and unpaid, to substantiate your position – industry articles, independent consultants, and analyst groups are all good authorities to quote.
- Also as part of the research, conduct a survey of your customer base to get a read on their opinions or where they are at on a particular project. For example, as part of a white paper on Y2K when the issue was uppermost in people’s minds, we surveyed the customer base to find out how far along they were with their Y2K assessment projects. Your customers always want to find out where they stand in terms of other people in their industry, and analysts as well value this customer base data. Read More→
Life transitions are like striking a theater set
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My friend Dan Sussman, like me, lost his mother recently, and over coffee today he made one of the best analogies I have ever heard to describe the weirdness you go through when you are dispersing of your parents’ belongings. “I felt as if I were striking a set, like in the theater,” he mused. “You look at the objects, and then you move on.”
If that doesn’t completely describe what it’s like to go through a major life transition, I don’t know what does. Whether you’re packing up your office and leaving a job behind, or going through boxes of your mom’s belongings to figure out what to donate and what to keep, it’s exactly like taking down the set from a play. The little dramas that played out over time were intense and very real, but after the play is over they seem out of place and in many instances, sadly, just way too specific to that particular play to be of use in another story.
This isn’t to diminish their value in any way. Dan’s analogy just reminded me of how our lives are really only a series of different ongoing vignettes.
I hope whoever takes down my set saves and treasures my Topo Gigio key ring.
Photo credit: Nic’s events, creative commons license
Does anyone really know what PR is?
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With apologies to one of my favorite 70s bands, Chicago, does anyone really know what PR is? Stop whatever you’re doing right now and jot down your best one-line definition. But don’t tell me what it is, because chances are, you’re wrong. If you’re a good friend of mine, I’ll be especially crestfallen that you don’t get it.
One of the noted textbooks on public relations by Cutlip, Center and Broom defines PR as “the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends.” Read More→
When conflict resolution isn’t your bag – check out this book
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Who among us has sailed through work environments without being part of or witnessing some sort of conflict, whether it is bullies, wet blankets, micromanagers, or troublemakers? Win at Work!/The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution by Tucson-based author Diane L. Katz delivers an eight step “Working Circle” concept to problem-solving at work.
It’s a flexible, non-linear approach to solving issues in the workplace. The process gets you to think, rather than follow a prescribed formula to conflicts, and that is the power of the concept. One of the key themes that Katz emphasizes in the book is that you should not go into conflict resolution with a pre-determined idea of what the other person will say, but rather with an idea of what your game plan should be and what is personally negotiable and non-negotiable.
This is a powerful way of approaching conflicts, because you focus on a different area than on trying to prepare for a debate or trying to anticipate their reaction. In order to understand one’s personal style, Katz includes a simple questionnaire that helps categorize people into one of five different styles: attacking, confronting, problem solving, compromising, and withdrawing. Read More→
