Tag Archives: PR

In a Rush? Here’s a ‘Go Time’ Checklist for Sharing News

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newsSome of the most gratifying PR programs I’ve worked on over the years were for special events that afforded several months of advance planning. Time allows for many luxuries, and in the world of PR, time is something we do not take for granted. I guess that’s because we are often working on tight timelines.

We often jump into a campaign or situation allowing us only weeks, days or even hours to plan our activities.  As a group of seasoned PR pros, the GroundFloor Media team has been through the drill of announcing news in many ways and under hair-raising deadlines. For us, it’s like second nature, as we know what to put into place and how to prioritize the assets we have to make sure we reach our communications goals.

If you find yourself in a time crunch, use the following checklist to ensure you have all of your important pieces in place at go-time. Read more after the jump…

PR Filling Gap In Dwindling News Coverage

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TimesPicayunelayoffsThe news media’s freefall continues, creating both good and questionable opportunities for the PR world to deliver information directly to consumers, a new report suggests.

The Pew Research Center report, “The State of the News Media 2013,” says the power of journalism is shrinking as the news industry continues to cut jobs and news coverage.

“This adds up to a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands,” according to the Pew report released today.

The good news, at least for PR professionals, is that the public’s hunger for news holds steady and that those with information to share are getting better at using digital technology, bypassing media outlets, and taking messages directly to the public.

Read the rest of this post at Ragan’s PR Daily.

Wary Public Digest Food Labeling Scandals

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BeefThe following is an excerpt from an article written by GroundFloor Media’s Gil Rudawsky for Ragan’s PR Daily:

There are few instances that upset the public more than being lied to, particularly about what they’re eating.

In the last month, there have been several huge misrepresentations about food products, starting with the ongoing horsemeat scandal in Europe, and continuing with the less egregious, but still concerning, fish mislabeling issue in the U.S. that hit the media this week.

To offer some context, it has been just over a year since the American public was roiled by the “pink slime” beef additive revelations, prompting all kinds of traditional and social media outcry, and resulting legislation.

Read the entire article here.

It’s a New Year and a Good Time to Take Inventory of Your PR Assets

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listI love January. Partly because outdoor winter fun kicks into full gear and I get to appreciate the beauty an extreme climate brings to my part of the world, and partly because it’s the time when I conduct my annual “personal inventory.” I’m sure my family hates it because translated; this means a flurry of “To Do” lists, purging closets and toy chests, and multiple trips to Goodwill.  When it’s all done, it feels great and what you do on the home front, can certainly be done on the PR front at the office.

Read more after the jump…

As Sandy slams the East, some caveats about pitching

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The following is an excerpt from a story published by the author at Ragan’s PR Daily.

With a hurricane bearing down on the Eastern Seaboard, and a contentious national election just over a week away, any PR pitches that aren’t directly about the news will get lost in the shuffle.

Even if your pitch is somehow related to the breaking news, there is still a good chance that it will not see the light of the day. Tell your client that the news is so big that New York City closed its mass transit and school systems in preparation for the massive storm expected to blast much of the eastern third of the country.

Newsrooms nationwide, and particularly those east of the Mississippi River, are singularly focused on Hurricane Sandy and the deluge that is expected to come with it. The reporters who are not working on hurricane coverage are assigned to stories examining what the hurricane will mean for the Nov. 6 general election.

Read more at Ragan’s PR Daily.

Entertainment Tonight – Not your mama’s political media

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Last week, The Washington Post published an article commenting on President Obama’s recent interviews with the likes of People magazine, “Entertainment Tonight” and other news outlets that fall outside the standard lineup of “John King USA” and “Meet the Press.”

So why is the President carving out time to comment on the latest Carly Rae Jepsen song?

The role of the American media has shifted (or expanded) from its primary focus on sharing news and information to a broader perspective on what is going on behind-the-scenes.

It’s not enough to know the facts – there are plenty of places to go for that, start with Wikipedia. Today, we want a deeper reason to agree with one source versus another. Do we share more in common with a particular political leader or business entrepreneur, such as a love of organic vegetables or a favorite playlist on iTunes®?

Americans want to “like” individuals and companies in the news, and that’s not just on Facebook!

As PR professionals, we often counsel our clients about these changing dynamics and how important it is to “humanize” news and put a “face” on even the most banal topics. It’s no longer good enough to share what your widget does – even if it’s a first of its kind –the media wants to know how it makes an individual’s life better (and it often helps to have that individual sitting side-by-side with your executives in media interviews).

In addition, traditional media outlets are no longer the only way we work with clients to reach key influencers – experiential marketing events that create a unique branding experience are equally, if not more important than a cover story sharing all the ins and outs of the latest new thing.

Brand building and media relations have never been more entwined, which is why the Obama Administration knows it is as critical to position the Obamas as “The First Couple of Fitness” as it is to share news about the President’s health care initiatives and economic policies.

People and “Entertainment Tonight” join “Saturday Night Live” and the “Late Show with David Letterman” as prime outlets to connect with Americans in a format that is both engaging and disarming. The breadth of the President’s outreach efforts reinforces all that continues to change about the news media – what makes news and what breaks news.

~ Kimmie Greene

P.S. I have no idea who Carly Rae Jepsen is!

Lance Armstrong’s crisis PR is best-case scenario

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Is Lance Armstrong opting for the least-worst option as part of a damage control campaign?

After fighting allegations of performance enhancing drug use for most of his career, the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor and his PR team made a tactical decision to back away from the latest investigation, this time by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

He released a statement on Thursday night that says he’s not going to fight the latest “witch hunt.” The result will likely mean he will be stripped of the titles and banned from the sport. In the statement, Armstrong did not admit guilt. Instead, he said, “enough is enough.”

Read more at Ragan’s PR Daily.

Can savvy PR can rescue Groupon and Facebook?

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Leading up to their IPOs, Internet sensations Groupon and Facebook could do no wrong. Everyone wanted to ride the public relations wave of exciting news.

But along comes the mundane world of finance, where high-flying Groupon and Facebook are met with dismal ledger sheets and waning stock prices.

Now it seems everyone is jumping off, forcing the PR teams to change direction from managing positive buzz to stopping a crisis of confidence.

Find out how by reading the entire post at Ragan’s PR Daily.

Career Makeover: GFM’s Gil Rudawsky
discusses his switch from journalism

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At a recent new business pitch, a client asked me if I missed being in journalism.

I stumbled over the question before getting my footing. The short answer is yes, but it’s more complicated than that. I miss journalism from 20 years ago, when reporters had the time and resources to pursue good stories, and when our audiences expected nothing less.

Do I miss the journalism world of the last five years? No way.

Read the entire post at Ragan’s PR Daily.

5 bad PR practices that will frustrate journalists

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When I was a reporter covering the skiing industry, I was assigned to write a story about how an avalanche had blocked the main highway leading to several ski resorts.

I called to get a comment from a resort PR representative and was told that the avalanche wasn’t having any impact, the parking lots were full, and people could still get around the snow slide. After I hung up, I caught a live television report from the same ski area. Parking lots were empty, and traffic was being turned around.

I was deliberately misled, apparently so the ski resort could avoid “bad press,” although I’m still at a loss at how an act of nature could be considered bad. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t making any negative judgments, but simply reporting what happened. In response, I quoted the PR representative, and in the same breath offered several eyewitness accounts to the contrary. I then took the PR representative off my “trusted” list, and went out of my way not to quote this person again.

I use this example in message and media training sessions to illustrate how spinning a story will most likely have negative repercussions, particularly in crisis scenarios. Here is a list of the top five bad PR practices:

1. No one home. Sending out a media release and then not having a spokesperson prepped and available to talk about it.
2. Spinning the news. A common example of this is how some companies disguise terrible earnings by highlighting one piece of good news, even if it is irrelevant.
3. Flat-out lying (see skiing example above). Remember, some reporters will actually make follow-up calls to check out information.
4. No homework. Following up on a story pitch or idea that already ran in the media outlet. It’s an easy rule, and it takes several minutes.
5. Sly pitching. Pitching a story to two reporters at the same outlet and not letting either know about it. Trust me, they will find out about it, and good luck getting them to return your calls afterward.
Yes, these are all common-sense rules that should be easy for PR pros to follow, but having been on the other side, I know they came up time and time again, and journalists and editors ended up frustrated. It isn’t worth burning a bridge.