The Arizona Book Publishing Association hosted four members of the AP in Phoenix tonite at its January meeting.   Pauline Arrillaga, Josh Hoffner, Bob Christie and Jim Trotter gave candid advice – so if you’re hoping to work with the AP at some point, here are some valuable insights into how they operate.

Just so you understand the scope and power of the Associated Press, they were founded in 1846 and are the largest and oldest news organization in the world.   They have 4,000 employees, 240 bureaus, and more than 10 million images.   The west desk in Phoenix is one of 4 regional hubs in the U.S., including Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago.  In the past, NYC was the hub, but in the last year, the organization decided to establish editing centers closer to the regions they cover.  In addition to the 4 regional hubs, AP has bureaus in every state.

Among other avenues, the Associated Press gets its stories via satellite, via their roladex of trusted resources, via twitter and other social media platforms that display trending topics, and from relevant pitches they receive in their inbox. The staff’s job is to gauge the story for local and national interest. It’s a constant juggling act because they have a lot of information coming in – the Phoenix e-mail inbox alone has between 500 to 700 e-mails daily.

The AP is known for breaking news coverage and accuracy. As one of the panelists commented,”We’ll be a minute late, in order to get it right.”   They have developed an eye for what readers like to see.

Each bureau has its own mailbox that is monitored for stories. If you want to pitch a story to the Arizona Bureau, send it to aparizona@ap.org.   To increase your chances of getting through, don’t hit send until you can tell yourself that 1) it is a story that hasn’t been told before and is unique, 2) that it is part of an overall trend 3) your pitch is focused, 4)  the reason why this should story should be told is at the very top, and 5) it is something that would still matter if you lived in Peoria, Illinois.

Interestingly, most of the folks at the Associated Press do not use services such as HARO (Help a Reporter Out) or Profnet.  They do, however, follow twitter closely to determine what topics are trending the most, and view it as a powerful newsgathering tool.  You can also join their Facebook page (AP) as a fan to learn more information.

The writers for the Associated Press are always looking for experts. One way to get their attention is to follow the news and as soon as news breaks in your particular area, send them an e-mail with the expert for that topic and their cell phone number. That can be particularly helpful to an AP reporter who is on deadline and needs to get a story out about breaking news.   You can also send them the expert’s contact information during non-breaking news time, just so they can have it handy.

For information about licensing AP photos and related info, visit the FAQ section on the AP website, www.ap.org. 

If you see an AP story that has an error in it and you want to correct it, you can send your correction to info@ap.org.

Future predictions — newspapers will not go away.   And, while citizen journalism is a tipsheet for what’s going on, the Associated Press will always be the gold standard for accuracy.

Happy today to feature guest blogger Chris Hewitt, an Internet marketing professional with more than 12 years of experience in Internet strategy and web marketing.  Currently the senior director of marketing operations for Lumension, he has leveraged this experience to successfully create and execute eCommerce, SEO and social media strategies in large, medium and small enterprises.   He is a graduate of Arizona State University with a  bachelor’s and MBA degree in marketing. You can check out his blog here.

Chris Hewitt

Over the past several months, I have spent a lot of time with small business professionals presenting and discussing Social Media.  There is an exciting energy around social media and these professionals are eager to understand how they can leverage Social Media in their businesses.  Interestingly enough, that energy is equally matched by an awkward, nervous fear that they just cannot, and will not be able to, figure out Social Media.

Keeping Social Media At Arms Length

We [Internet Marketing Professionals] have been slowly and unknowingly (in some cases purposefully) making Social Media inaccessible to those those outside our profession.  There is so much Social Media information, opinion, and advice being generated by Internet professionals that the concept has quickly become unmanageable for many business people (even for many Internet/marketing professionals).

While social Internet tools have been around for some time (e.g. blogging), the organized business discipline of ’social media’ is relatively new.  Consequently, many Internet professionals are scrambling to assemble their concepts, applications, and products into a flag that they can plant in the fresh, newly discovered sands of Social Media.  Unlike the relatively isolated exploration of the New World, these efforts are busy, bustling ports and are creating a lot of noise for outsiders looking for answers.

Understandably, the growing Social Media noise is turning away small business professionals who feel that they:

1. Are unable to understand Social Media.
2. Cannot use/apply Social Media in their business.
3. Must pay for ‘experts’ to navigate Social Media on their behalf.

Despite these perceptions, I have found that small business professionals are in the best position to understand and leverage Social Media.

The Small Business Advantage

While Social Media can be a seemingly daunting concept, small business professionals have strong foundations of flexibility, courage, and culture from which to build successful and, most importantly, sustainable campaigns.

1. Start With Simple Definitions, Not Tools

While it is easy to make Social Media tangible through tools like Twitter or Facebook, that is the wrong focus for a business of any size…and can be particularly frustrating for small businesses.

Begin by honestly defining how and why you are going to use Social Media:

1. What is your business case and goal?
2. What defines success?
3. What opportunities do you have through Social Media that aren’t available in other media?

 The most important component of this step is honesty.  If you want to share knowledge, then share knowledge.  However, if you want to generate direct revenue, then your actions should clearly be designed to generate direct revenue…do not try to generate direct revenue through the guise of ‘knowledge share’.

You may find through this exercise that Twitter is not a useful tool for your business.  That is okay, you don’t have to be on Twitter (or any other Social Media tool for that matter).  

2. Understand The Target Audience

After defining what you want to do and accomplish through Social Media, small businesses need to determine who they want to, and based on their goals should (e.g. customers or prospects), reach with those messages.

Here is where the small business advantage is so powerfully demonstrated; knowledge of the business, its customers, and prospects creates a true understanding of the audience.  Often the individuals within a small business have intimate, rich knowledge of the organization’s products, services, and operations.  That first-hand knowledge can be crafted into highly relevant and engaging Social Media campaigns.

Understanding the target audience requires that we think about the:

• Motivations of our potential audience.
• Needs of our potential audience.
• Ways that they like to receive, and respond to, communications.
• What the audience expects to hear from you.

3. Continually Return Value

Lastly, and most importantly, is the responsibility we have to return value to our audience.  A recipient of our message has taken the time to follow a link, watch a video, read a post, etc. and it is our responsibility to have invested the time to make that action valuable.  

Returning value is more of a commitment than a labor; information and knowledge (especially at a small business level) are often extremely valuable but overlooked.  

Examples of things that are valuable:

• Special offers that are targeted, specific, timely, and relevant.
• Exclusive content.
• The ability to connect with a knowledge leader within the organization (access to knowledge).
• Perspective that educates (industry, solution, product knowledge).
• Openness to feedback and passionately supporting the voice of the customer.

 Examples of things that are not necessarily valuable:

• Information already freely found in your marketing/Internet vehicles.
• Other information that you did not create and have not enriched with your own perspective (e.g. just sharing a link).
• Non-personalized, empty corporate messages and campaigns.

Social Media Is Small Business

Leverage the small business advantage to create dynamic, rapidly shifting Social Media concepts.  Introduce the Social Media concept to your entire organization and allow them to participate.  You will have dynamic, collaborative strategy that is consistent and authentic, while creating an engaging and sustainable dialog with your audience.

So harness that excitement, ignore the noise, thoughtfully try a few things, and become more of an expert than the ‘experts’.

I’ll be taking a break from all things PR 2.0 this week  and celebrating Thanksgiving. 

This is always a special holiday for me, since I’m a direct descendant on my father’s side of half a dozen Pilgrims who were on the Mayflower.   Someday I hope to celebrate Thanksgiving in Plymouth, where it all began.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!   Stay tuned for next week, when I continue the series on how to take on the competition.

Chris and Manny, my SW flight #1952 seatmates

I had another great return flight to Arizona on Southwest Airlines last night, and in addition to meeting flight attendants Dallon and Cindy, spent time with my two very cool seatmates, Manny Ferreira and Chris Lima, members of the Mens Senior Baseball League.   They were traveling to Arizona with former Red Sox starting pitcher Oil Can Boyd to play in the SMBL championships.

To make the six hour flight go faster, I handed out snacks to Southwest passengers and talked to Manny and Chris about baseball.   Before I developed  piriformis syndrome, I would spend most flights reading a book and not talking much at all, other than to say “pass the peanuts.” 

Manny and Chris were a pleasure to sit next to.    We talked about New England, Arizona, baseball, and I watched on as they played several card games, during which Manny was clearly the winner.   They joked with each other as well as with Oil Can Boyd, who was two rows behind us.  They asked about my mother, my public relations business, and the presentations I was working on during the few times I actually sat down during the flight.

Opportunity comes with adversity.     If I were still the old “healthy” sitting Linda, I doubt I would have made three new friends.  Now I know all about the Mens Senior Baseball League and that ash bats still break easily, and that Tony Conigliaro unfortunately died in 1990.

Chris – you owe me that picture of me standing in the aisle with Oil Can Boyd!

“Please welcome our ‘flight attendant in training,’ Linda, as she comes through the cabin to collect your trash.” 

The great crew on my Southwest flight from Phoenix to Providence today thus announced me as I learned what it’s like to be on the OTHER side of the aisle.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve had a sitting challenge for the last two years.   It’s called piriformis syndrome, and basically it’s a form of sciatica.   The piriformis muscle gets compressed if you sit too long over time, such as sitting at a computer or even long-distance truck driving.   It tightens around the sciatic nerve that runs through your leg, and presto!   You are in agonizing pain.   I’ve had to baby it with pillows, and lots and lots of standing.   Say goodbye to long restaurant dinners, movie theaters, and all-day conferences.  Great way to lose weight, by the way.   Standing all the time.

Anyway, I needed to fly back to RI for personal family business, and I was dreading the flight.   Being couped up in a seat for 4.5 hours would definitely set back the progress I’ve made so far.   So I decided to make lemonade out of lemons.  

After boarding, I went up to the flight attendant in the back of the plane (my new friend, Garry), and told him about my sitting issues.   “I need to keep mobile, so I’d like to help you out with passing out snacks, anything.”   From the glint in his mischievous eye, I knew I had found a really cool flight attendant.    “No problem,” he said.   “I’ll come get you after we take off.”

And sure enough, about 15 minutes after takeoff, I was put into action.    For the next few hours, I passed out peanuts and pretzels, collected trash and newspapers, and chatted in back as a member of the “crew.”   I got to meet Gina, Linda and Garry – all seasoned employees who epitomized to me the great Southwest brand.   I felt 10 feet high when they pinned Southwest wings on my shirt to make it official. 

I learned so much about human nature and the airplane business in just a few hours.    Ironically, I was wearing an outfit that made me look like one of the crew – khaki shorts, navy blue polo, and white socks and white Keds (I always travel on planes with sensible footwear – you just never know!).  Some of my observations:

• People on planes are either great, grumpy, or sleeping.  
• There’s a lot of work to getting the snacks and drinks out on time and to the right people – you get interrupted constantly down the aisle with requests, and it’s tricky to maneuver without hitting sleeping passengers or tripping on bags that spill into the pathway.
• A lot of passengers just don’t listen to instructions – must be that “I’m American so I’ll do it my way” mentality.
• There’s a lot to remember and the job is much harder than it looks.

I give myself a “C” for execution, an “A” for attitude.    One dark-haired woman asked me for a can of water, as I passed by with my trash bag.   When I got the water, I couldn’t remember exactly where she was sitting, so I walked up and down the aisle to find her.  No luck. 

A couple of people asked me what state we were flying over.   No clue, but I hazarded a guess:  “New York.”  Guess they thought I really looked “official.”

A few people were very gracious and smiled big smiles at me when I handed out snacks or went by with the plastic gloves and trash bag.   Thank you to those people – a smile goes a long way when you’re trying to hustle your butt, I realized.

How cool to have an airline whose brand is so consistent from its on-time arrivals to its positive attitude and superior customer service.    I heart Southwest.   Next time you fly, be like me and put yourself literally in their shoes.

Two years ago this August, I entered the blogosphere when ValleyPRBlog invited me to join their team.  I’m still blogging for them, and now am entering new ground with this one-woman perspective on PR 2.0.

When I first wrote my book, Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy in 2005, it was a protest against what I saw as the misguided mindset of companies that viewed the act of issuing press releases every few weeks as a successful strategy.

With the publication of the 2nd edition in 2007, thankfully things had changed.  Social media had proved that not just press releases, but a lot of the other traditional concepts in public relations needed to be re-examined as well.  If I embark on yet a 3rd edition of the book, it will have to move even faster to address the future changes in store.

I’d like to send a shoutout to Brian Solis, a thought leader for all things PR 2.0,  for helping me refine the tagline for this blog.  If you’re fascinated by the people, technology, events, and books that define the new world of PR 2.0, then you’ve come to the right place.   Welcome!