Posts Tagged ‘publicity’

Just a few weeks ago, we shared the news of Andi Mill’s search for a ride share to enable her to return to college in order to gain her degree in professional writing.

Today her story is written up in The Anderson Independent. Journalist Charmaine Smith-Miles captured Andi’s spirit and her pluck.

Once again, I am struck by the ability we have as public relations professionals to do good. Many perceive us as flacks shilling for celebrity clients. However, the vast majority of us work daily to bring interesting news to light. We frequently share our abilities with non-profit organizations whose missions we align with.

At the close of this year and the opening of the next, as marketing and public relations pros, we need to remember the power we have to make change, embrace it and work to make our world a better place.

We’re doing our part, how about you? Share your pro bono efforts with us.

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of sharing dinner with Pat Wilens, associate features editor at Southern Living. Her beat is South Carolina. Pat shoulders the large responsibility of making sure the news their readers want is included in the magazine.

Who is their reader? She is a professional or working woman in the South or who cares about the South. She is someone who enjoys caring for her family, her home including her garden and traveling across the South. Their reader retreats into the magazine at the end of a long day. She likes to dine out and to cook, to garden and to decorate her home. Pssst…Pat says we should look for more about home style in coming issues of the magazine.

At my urging, Pat agreed to share some of her pet peeves and insights into her life as an editor. Most of them boil down to the oft given advice, read the publication, and don’t waste the editor’s time.

The key to what is appropriate or interesting to their reader lies in the SL reader profile. Southern. Female. Of, by or from the South. Nothing else makes the cut. Period. You can understand Pat’s frustration when she gets calls from publicists in California hawking a California spa or restaurant.

As an editor, Pat is often up to her elbows in stories that are all written by Southern Living staff so her time is very limited. SL is one of the few publications that is totally staff produced.

“Why do PR people call, interrupt my work to ask me if I’m interested in a story?” “It’s their job to figure that out. For example, a PR person called to ask if I’d write about their client’s real estate development. Why don’t they figure out that this is not news? That’s advertising.”

Another peeve is PR people who don’t read the publication. “I have one PR person who calls me regularly to inquire how to have something listed in the calendar of events. Every time she calls, I gently remind her, ‘as it is written in the magazine…’” It’s hard to imagine that this publicist had done this more than once. From Pat’s tone I understand just how frustrating it is for her to try to school PR people in their jobs. She has her own to do.

Pat also shared her pique with book publicists. The magazine has little space for book reviews or publication notices. Occasionally they may have space for a few paragraphs about a book that might appeal to their readers. However, Pat says that publicists often send books that have no appeal to the readers of Southern Living. The fate of these books is the landfill, something that obviously distresses book lover Pat. They used to take books to the local library, but are now forbidden to bring more. There is no space at SL for all these unrequested books. So, to the landfill with them. On the rare occasion when she’d like to receive books, she’s invited publishing houses to send via e-mail or mail a few paragraphs about the book along with a cover image, but none have taken her at her word.

Recently a children’s book publicist sent an exquisite package via FedEx. Pat said, “She must have thought I’d really need to get this box overnight. It contained a beautifully printed piece about the book, a release and the book.” Pat’s voice rises as she questions, “Why did they send me that? We don’t write about things for children. We write for our readers’ interests, but not about what to read to their children.”

Pat provided a bit of insight into the changing world of magazine publishing. The downturn in the economy has changed advertiser’s frequency and placement choices making it harder to project when a story may be included in the magazine given changing page counts. She often will prepare more stories than make it into the publication, meaning some may wait longer for inclusion.

I shared with her how clients often push PR people to do things we know are incorrect, but demanded by the client. Such as send news to publications when we know that is not a target. We often are pulled between two ends-client and media.

Publicists who work in large firms have their own set of challenges as I understand it. Large firms bill for each release and so they pull large queries of media contacts from media databases and send materials to each, which increases the billing.

Pat and I enjoyed getting to know one another and coming to understand each other’s challenges just a bit better. We parted knowing that by my sharing this with you via this blog, we publicists can do our jobs better.

Many people fall into the trap of believing that PR is only about gaining earned media placement for a company’s products or news events.

There is another side of publicity and that is using the information about your leaders and staff to humanize and set your company apart.

As an example, a local video production company has a photographer who is interested in documenting a small social business which is taking medical supplies to Ghana. Sharing information about the photographer’s search for funding and the skills that he will use to document the project can support the cause and expand the image of the company in the minds of consumers.

I’m not suggesting that you exploit your staff, but that you seek opportunities to offer information that really opens up what people think of your business. If your CEO is a singer who performs at the local coffee house on open mic nights, use the angle of how a CEO with a variety of interests makes a better leader.

Gaining earned media is more than just telling us that you’ve just hired a new Director of Marketing. Seek out the interesting information about your staff and share it with the media. We are all more than just our titles and functions. We are the people who make up the company, not the human resources. So, share the interesting information about those who are the life of the company.

photo courtesy of lorri37 on flickr creative commons