Posts Tagged ‘Peter Shankman’
Powerful Strategies
The longer I’m in business, the more I realize that some of the most powerful strategies for business growth are the ones that I learned many years ago. Books have been written about this.
Fulghum gets it right. So, at the close of the year, it does me good to review these elemental lessons from early in life that he so eloquently listed.
- Share everything.
- Play fair.
- Don’t hit people.
- Put things back where you found them.
- Clean up your own mess.
- Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
- Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
- Wash your hands before you eat.
- Flush.
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
- Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
- Take a nap every afternoon.
- When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
- Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
In the business world, we get caught up in competition, but these basic laws of life remind us that we’re truly all one. We need to hold hands when we go ‘out there’. We must realize that we are all human and need on anther’s care and concern. Life and business are better when we care and show it. We can prosper and care.
I salute Peter Shankman and HARO for his reminder today of just how powerful it is to say thank you and to truly offer service to everyone.
Thank you to all who have tutored, mentored, shared, befriended, paid, consulted, recommended, trusted and worked with me during this year. I’m looking forward to 2009!
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Say no to printed media kits
I believe in facilitating a one-to-one relationship for my clients with their customers. Knowing what customers think and how they use your product is important. The only way to know this is to have an ongoing conversation and dialogue.
The same is true for the media, meaning editors, journalists, bloggers and producers. Many times I’ve have prospective clients tell me that they’d like to create press kits that they can send out broadcast style. To which I say no. I agree with HARO’s Peter Shankman whose number one mantra is “pitch on topic” to which I say, “Amen.”
The same thought is just as valid when it comes to distribution of media or press kits. Research, target and then pitch. Use a PR rifle, not the old shotgun.
These days, everyone is green. So, it only makes sense to have an online media kit to which you can direct interested journalists. It should include copies of all media releases, video releases, high resolution photos of product(s) and key staff personnel, bios/backgrounders on all key personnel, fact sheets, and links to recent clips.
When pitching, give the pitch and direct the editor to the online kit. Most can’t accept attachments. When they do accept attachments, make sure you know what type they prefer. Some don’t want PDFs because they can’t copy and paste from them as easily as from a .txt document or a MS Word document. My practice is to ask what the editor prefers and then to provide them that exactly as they request it.
Our whole job is to make the journalists’ job easier. To give them targeted information about what they want, when they want it, the way that they want it.
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Posted in public relations | 
Tags: editors, HARO, journalists, media, Peter Shankman, pitching, PR, press, press kit, public relations, release
Connecting the world of reporters and publicists
Peter Shankman has a good idea. He started a group on Facebook “If I can help a reporter out” that out grew Facebook and has gone to the internet. It’s a simple idea really, publicists are frequently charged by our clients to gain them press. We in turn create story ideas which we pitch to reporters. Reporters are charged by their editors to write stories. Stories are better with first hand accounts and supportive information. But how is a reporter in Rochester to get to Ray in Reno? It used to be through large syndicated services. But social networking has triumphed and now we have Peter Shankman who is connecting the dots.
Shankman begins his thrice daily e-mails with humor or insight into his schedule. Then gets down to the business of relaying queries from reporters. I’ve already found a couple that I’ve forwarded to colleagues who can reply to the queries.
So, I’m inviting all the rest of you to join the group. I know, that if I can help a reporter out I will!
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Posted in public relations |
Tags: Facebook, help a reporter out, Peter Shankman, pitching, query, querying, storylines
