The Tactic a PR Professional Should Never Fear J:4460

In a world where journalists rely on public relations consultants for newsworthy stories, public relations consultants must build well-working relationships with reporters. Public relations consultants must use a multitude of strategies in order to actually do this. Sometimes public relations consultants do not do their due-diligence to build these connections, which can ultimately harm the news stories public relations consultants would like to provide to the public.

One of the strategies most public relations consultants fail to acknowledge is researching the reporter’s previous works. PR consultants must do this in order to know if a reporter would be interested in a possible story the public relations professional may have. If a public relations consultant calls a reporter with a story that the reporter doesn’t usually do work on, they could ultimately blacklist that public relations consultant. This would ultimately harm the client the public relations professional is doing work for.

Also, many public relations professionals fail to recognize the importance of getting to know the reporter. Public relations professionals must do this in order to build a well-rounded relationship with the reporter. Once a relationship with a reporter is made, the work of a public relations consultant can be made easier. If a reporter likes what the public relations consultant has to offer, sometimes the reporter will end up calling the public relations professional for more stories. In turn, this will bring better business to the client the public relations consultant works for.

There is one thing that many public relations consultants should always do: Never rely on an email to build a relationship with a reporter. If a public relations consultant has an awe-inspiring story about their client, they should 1) research the reporter thoroughly and 2) pick up the phone and actually make the connection with the reporter. Once the public relations consultant has contacted the reporter by phone, sometimes the reporter may have more questions about the story. The phone pitch is a very important tactic the public relations consultant must utilize and become comfortable with doing.

One of the biggest no-no’s in the field is calling a reporter or media outlet to check and see if they have received the press release that was sent through email. This is very frowned upon when trying to build a relationship with a reporter in the public relations field. It is quite obvious the media outlet or reporter has received the email, but if they do not feel that the story is for them then they’re obviously not going to follow up on the story. Public relations consultants should always start with who they are, which client they are working for, and what story they have for that reporter for the day. If the public relations consultant is thorough in pitching the story through email, they should have no problem pitching the story to the reporter over the phone.

If you think telephone pitching is not for you, then you have chosen the wrong field to work in. It is important to pick up the phone and make the initial connection with the reporter. Always remember to research the reporters work and always be prepared with the story you’re interested in pitching. Knowing all of the facts about the event or product will make pitching the story through the phone a much simpler task, rather than a hassle or something that you fear to do.

As public relations consultants, we rely on reporters to get our stories about our clients to the public. We should always be trying to network with them and always trying to build a deeper connection with them. 

The Differences Between Advertisers and PR Professionals J:4460

Recently, I have been asked to collaborate with advertising majors on a project for a class. This project consists mainly of a written assignment about advertisement flubs in the past. As I have been working closely with these advertising majors to write this assignment, I have noticed something very unsettling. These advertising majors are having issues writing a simple paper. So I’ve decided to wander into the differences between advertisers and public relations consultants.

Advertisers and public relations consultants alike must be able to get straight to the point when it comes to writing advertisements or press releases. Although, we both must get to the point immediately, advertisers have a different way of going about it. As I have noticed, each of my advertising group mates know how to get to the point but have no idea about how to expand on their thoughts.

Maybe it’s because advertisers write a brief amount of information about how a product works or what a product is, while public relations practitioners have to research a product and write something for a product’s launch. These are not the only differences between advertisers and public relations consultants.

We, as public relations consultants, have to get our clients free press, while advertisers have the budget to advertise anywhere they’d like. Our clients pay us to get them free press, while advertisers are paid by our clients to advertise their products as efficiently as possible. Advertisers also have the luxury to run their advertisements for as long as their budget will allow them to, while the media will only accept a press release once.

The media expect public relations consultants to have new material every time we want to publicize something, whether it’s an event or a press release about the advertisers new product. I believe it is because the media relies so heavily on advertising that they give advertisers so much leeway when it comes to their advertisements.

While public relations consultants have to be careful about how they promote a product or an event to the public, advertisers can use anything from puppies to sex to sell their products. This also delves heavily into the ethics and morals of the media. The media expects public relations professionals to give uncontroversial material, while advertisers can be as controversial as they’d like. If they’re advertisements stir controversy in a community, they may have to pull the ads but they will still profit off of the negative coverage that we as public relations professionals or journalists give them.

Throughout time, advertisers have been able to become more racy while us as public relations professionals have always had to stick to our ethical and moral values in a situation. Although advertisers are able to get by with scandal, we’re the ones who get to write about it. This is why we learn about how to delve more in depth into our stories and our work while advertisers are trying to cut to the chase without any explanation. They cut to the chase in their line of work to hook more people onto their products, while public relations professionals are pressed with questions about why the advertiser/client chose to do something a certain way. But I guess, without advertisers we wouldn’t have a line of work and without us there wouldn’t be someone to tell their story. 

The Youth of Today Will Always Affect Our Tomorrow J:4460

In an ever-changing world of technological advances, the public relations field has had to evolve with it. According to PRSA, public relations is defined as “help[ing] an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” (http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined/) As our publics change their ways of educating themselves, we, as public relations consultants must stay tuned to how they are doing it.

            In a video released by Mashable as the Youtube Video of the Day, a one-year-old child plays with a magazine like it’s an iPad. (http://mashable.com/2011/10/13/baby-magazine-ipad/) Now you are wondering how this video involves us as public relations professionals. As the video shows, a child cannot discern a magazine from an electronic. This child is a representative of our future and how we must evolve to keep them (our publics) in the know.

Children today are more concerned with technology than ever before. This means that as public relations professionals we must change our ways of doing our job. Public relations tools are now converting to online rather than the customary tools that would have usually been sent through traditional mail. Newsletter’s can now be sent to our publics through their email address as opposed to traditional mail as it was in the past.

The ways in which we contact journalists and the media have also changed as technology continues to expand. Now, pitches and media releases can be sent to journalists and the media through e-mail as well, instead of faxing them to people on our client media list.

            Mailers and brochures, I feel are a thing in the past. They can help market our clients, but when everything is converting to online it doesn’t make much sense to use old marketing strategies to reach our publics. For example, if a person is interested in finding out more information about an organization they can visit the organizations website, rather than fiddling with traditional mailers or brochures that they receive in their mailbox.

            As technology continues to expand, there will be more ways of communicating with our publics than there are now. More and more magazines, newspapers, and books are converting from paper to online. As they continue to convert their products online, we will have to learn to convert our information to keep up with our publics as well. Today, we are focusing more on social media, online opinion editorials and newspapers, rather than the traditional methods public relations consultants used to employ. We have social media releases to reach our publics through outlets such as Facebook and Twitter as well as the traditional press release that we send to our contacts. We also have the ability to inform the media of our organizations events through email, rather than sticking to the traditional phone pitch.

            Throughout time, public relations consultants have had to continue to educate themselves on new technological advances in society. I believe that we will have to continue to learn how to inform our publics in this ever-expanding market. If our children are continuing to stray away from traditional media, our thoughts and practices are going to have to sway that way as well.

Steve Jobs: Inspiring Passion and Innovation Even After His Death J:4460

On Wednesday October 5, 2011, the world lost a creative genius and one of the best advertisers of our time. Steve Jobs, the brains behind Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, and iTunes, suffered from pancreatic cancer for eight years. He could be considered the most known spokesperson on the planet to this day.

Although losing him is a sad time for Apple, there are some people out there benefiting from his death. One person created a malware page on Facebook soliciting to people ignorant enough to believe Apple would give away free iPads in memory of Steve Jobs death. Once the link was clicked, the person would be sent to a survey that they would have to complete in order to receive their free computer. According to All Facebook, 15,000 people completed the survey allowing the spammer to profit off of the death of Steve Jobs. (http://www.allfacebook.com/warning-facebook-malware-alludes-to-steve-jobs-2011-10)

It is not all unhappy news though. According to the online news site, Taxi, the news stirred emotions through blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts. The most astonishing news, there was a record of 10,000 tweets per second commemorating the creative genius. Not only were there a massive amount of tweets on Twitter feeds, there happened to be 13,284 blog posts about the breaking news of losing another creative and innovative mind. Let’s just consider that these numbers are growing by the day now. (http://www.designtaxi.com/news/350748/Steve-Jobs-Death-Breaks-Twitter-Record/?page=2)

Steve Jobs was a true inspiration to our generation. It has also been made clear that a great spokesperson can really define a brand. It is possible that without Steve Jobs there would be no Apple, which would have ruined the technological generation that we are today. He was truly passionate about what he was doing and has inspired many to go on and pursue their passions.

In the advertising/public relations world that we live in, we must take into account how huge brands define themselves and motivate our clients to do the same. We must encourage our clients that they must be passionate about what they are selling, because without passion no one will buy the product. Passion is not just something to motivate more sales for our clients; it’s also something that public relations consultants and advertisers must have. We must be able to find what we’re passionate about or else we can’t write the best content for our clients.

In a passionless world we must find our niche, grab onto it, and never let go. Steve Jobs has really put into perspective the importance of passion and desire to build something you truly believe in. The world has really lost someone who will never be forgotten, because his products will always be growing and making our generation into better people.  Steve Jobs was full of strength in order to be fighting cancer and still be able promoting a product he believed in. As advertisers, journalists, and public relations consultants, we need to find our strength to continue fighting for what we believe in and make an impact on the world just as Steve Jobs did into his last days.