Politicians Passing the Buck – a PR Disaster

There’s a stand out news story in the UK at the moment. Members of Parliament have been ‘playing the game’ with exorbitant and frivolous expense claims. Worse, they have then used this taxpayers money to fuel property investments totalling millions of pounds.

My father-in-law is fizzing about this. We had an animated discussion about how politicians preach to us on the way we should behave before plumbing the depths of greed themselves. They levy ever-increasing taxes only to squirm their way out of paying there own dues.

It’s no wonder people are hacked off.

We know that the facts are that it’s just the way things have been for MPs. And since everyone has been doing it – none of them wanted to miss out on their own unscrupulous pay day.

But the startling fact is that out of the hundreds of MPs motivated to change public life for the better – it didn’t occur to any one of these lowlifes to blow the whistle.

They stumbled on a proverbial cash machine mistakenly churning out tenners – and have kept schtum while they filled their pockets.

It stinks.

How would a PR advisor deal with this? It’s a tricky one. I certainly wouldn’t even consider pleading innocence or apportioning blame. And no amount of baby-kissing will appease directorate baying for blood.

People say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Perhaps this exception proves the rule.

The Ten Best Ways To Get Noticed By Media « Sarah Gilbert Fox

When I look at how P.R. companies come to me with product information during these hard economic times, I’m often left scratching my head, because what I’m being sent is information that’s not helping me to help them.  And then it occurs to me that they, too, must be scratching their heads, because everything is changing so fast these days that any industry standard that held steady in the past is just gone, gone, gone —- we are, all of us, scratching our heads.

How different is it now? Smaller newspapers all over the nation are closing down. The Washington Post has announced it will stop using freelancers.  Newsweek has reported it’s worth is 70% less than what it used to be.  Even the New York Times is struggling to keep its head above water.  All print publications have been forced to cut back on their page count, because the public is buying less, the advertisers have stopped purchasing, and the money just isn’t there.

What’s a P.R. company to do?

This article continues here …

http://sgfoxportfolio.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/the-ten-best-ways-to-get-noticed-by-media/

10 Reasons Your Small Business Should Have a Blog

This posting sums it up perfectly (follow the link below)

One of the first questions I get from my clients is “what type of website should I have?” The answer is, “it depends,” but for virtually all websites, getting people to your site and engaging them on some level is of primary importance. So, regardless of whatever else you do with your website, you absolutely need to have a corporate blog. The next question I receive (especially after delivering the “blog” message) is: “I don’t have the resources for a blog. Do I have to have one?”

The answer is Yes. And here are 10 reasons why your small business should have a blog.

via Marketing Ideas! » Blog Archive » 10 Reasons Your Small Business Should Have a Blog.

Stephen Fry now has 100,000 Twitter Followers

One man using the gift of 140 character updates to manage the perceptions of more people than read many successful UK consumer magazines.

This new media age is revealing some powerful new tricks.

Scary really.

Twitter / stephenfry.

http://www.stephenfry.com/blog/2009/01/29/twitter/

Twitter Ye Not

The latest to need a congruency conference are the senior leaders at Ketchum and a PR account executive/VP named James Andrews.

It seems Andrews over-tweeted his Twitter on a recent trip to Memphis to teach a social media class to one of Ketchum’s biggest clients, FedEx. According to online author David Henderson, the tweet said, “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”

Oops. Big oops. Big Tweetin’ oops

More here http://tinyurl.com/cxfede

How Do Journalists Use Press Areas of Websites?

The Web is one of the most important research tools for journalists. When asked how they would get basic information about a company or organization, all journalists in our studies said that they would begin by doing some Web research.

Most journalists started by searching an outside service — mainly Google, but also traditional services like Dow Jones Interactive and Lexis-Nexis — after which they visited the company’s own website. This finding emphasizes the importance of having a clean corporate website with a clearly labeled Press or PR section that can quickly provide information for journalists. It also emphasizes the need to be well represented in external search services (again, mainly Google at the time of this writing).

via PR on Websites: Press Area Usability.

Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog

Every PR practitioner should understand how journalists source stories.  Shock horror – ‘waiting for the next press release to land in your email in box’ didn’t make this excellent list.

Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog.

YouTube – Hot Tips for PR Buzz

Some good advice from our American cousins for ‘Entrayprenoooers.’ Pronunciation aside – a good watch.

How to Attract Journalist Attention using Personal Pitches with YouTube

Imaginative way to use YouTube for personalised pitches.

More info here http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/guide-to-pitching-a-blogger/

Top 10 Tips for Approving Releases and Media Information

Press releases and media info generally can be like like football – everyone has an opinion. But that can make approving a press release a tortuous path. It’s amazing how much time can be sucked and how many deadlines missed by to-ing and fro-ing.

In-house PR, agencies and clients might all benefit from the following tips for smoother-than-smooth, rapid approval.

1. Keep the number of people invited to comment on media information to a bare minimum.

2. If you absolutely must have more than one person approving a news release (in large organisations this is unavoidable) seek amends in stages. By that I mean one person at a time if possible with the most senior person
   offering amends last.

3. If you forward a release to two or more people at once you’ll rarely get the same amends back from each person. And they can conflict leaving a decision over which amend to action. The answer? See number 2 above.

4. If you have PR support – let them handle the approval process. They should make it a priority to field opinions, chase feedback and action amendments to get approval. It’s a time sucker but this should be part of any self-respecting PR support.

5. Make sure quotes are written before the approval stage. Don’t ask for quotes to be added by the person approving the release. This way, the writer can control the flow of the copy and ensure key messages are delivered. It also
   avoids delays waiting for non-writers to supply quotes. It’s much easier for people to tell you what they don’t want to say than what they do!

6. Consider online approval using applications like Google Docs. This way everyone in the approval chain can keep track of
   how the changes are going.

7. To those amending the media information: try and remember why the media information is sent. It’s to generate editorial coverage! Will your amendments really help to generate more coverage? Would the information be less likely to generate coverage if the amendments weren’t made?

8. And try to avoid making amends based on style. Media information is written in a layered format. It doesn’t need to be stunning prose. It does, however, need to deliver a quick sharp fix of fascinating news irresistible to journalists.

9. Do amend factual innacuracies and add more facts if you can. The more newsworthy information the better.

10. Make and communicate amendments
    promptly.