Some Communications Guidance for Weathering the Financial Crisis
As much as anything, what people are craving right now is some guidance on what to say to employees, customers, partners, the media and others about how the financial crisis is impacting their business. Unless you work on Wall Street, what’s been going on is largely a mystery, and unless it has walloped you directly, [...]
Bad Journalistic Skills Are the Flip Side of Bad PR Pitches
The bad PR pitches highlighted in yesterday’s post about the new Dear PR Flack site are half of the equation. What about the other: bad reporting and writing skills? Just as in any profession, there are some good journalists and a lot of mediocre ones. And just as in any profession, the good ones tend [...]
Key Tactic in a Crisis: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Luckily for most of us, the global financial crisis is affecting us indirectly. Sure, home values may be down and our 401(k)s may now only be “201(k)s,” but those are paper losses. Thus far, the rest of the economy hasn’t really caught Wall Street’s flu. Nevertheless, it’s an edgy time, a near-crisis that any date [...]
This Is Not the Time to Delay PR and Marketing Programs
With all the financial and political news dominating the headlines, there’s a school of thought that marketers should consider delaying announcements until a better time. My verdict: there will be no better time. Not because I think the current crisis will not end, but because you can’t stop doing your job and keeping your business [...]
Is McCain Working the Traveling Press Better than Obama?
Interesting post by CBS’s Dean Reynolds comparing his experiences serving in Barack Obama’s traveling press corps and then recently switching to John McCain’s. It gives you a little insight into how at least one journalist views the the treatment the press corps has received from the two camps, and serves as a little insight into [...]
Getting Media Coverage The Easy Way
There are basically two ways to use PR to get a story in the media: pitch an idea to a journalist and have them do a story, or respond to a journalist seeking information for a story. The latter, of course, is somewhat easier and infinitely less stressful. Within the category of responding to queries, [...]
Email Pitching Mistakes to Avoid
Planning to send an email pitch to generate coverage? Here are some things to avoid: The #1 thing journalists hate is being misled or lied to. so make your pitches honest — we have this spokesperson available, we are the leader in this field, etc. The more puffy and unbelievable your pitch is, the less time [...]
Some Simple Language About the Financial Crisis
As I said a few posts ago, I’ve been surprised that the powers-that-be haven’t tried harder to explain the financial mess to the country in terms we could all understand. Maybe they didn’t want to — maybe that was the strategy all along. But even if it was, it was a mistake. We would all [...]