APR 332: Public Relations Writing, an evaluation

Public relations writing has been one of my favorite classes at the University of Alabama. I have gained a cornucopia of knowledge about writing for public relations. I have taken so many classes that meant nothing to me. I have taken classes that were simply an information dump, and correspondingly, I dumped the information out of my brain as soon as the class was over. However, PR writing is totally different kind of class. Through this class I have developed my own portfolio of my own writing. In my portfolio I have an event plan, press releases, pitch letters and many more documents. I plan to use this portfolio when I have the opportunity to show it to future employers. In the class we chose one client to work for and produce documents for that specific client. I chose United Way of Central Alabama. I knew little about the organization before, but after mock working for them for a semester I have learned about their marketing strategies and how they operate. United Way of Central Alabama markets donators through “corporate employee solicitation.” This is where they hold employee rallies to pump up corporate employees from large organizations. They tell them about the mission and values of United Way. After the rally presentation, United Way encourages the employees to sign pledge cards to donate a portion of their paycheck to United Way for a specific time period. Donations received by United Way go directly to the community. I would not have learned this information without taking PR writing from Dr. Heflin. She was amazing. She gave us the freedom to choose our own clients, and she treated the classroom like a workplace. I will look back on this class and remember that this was the class where I learned the skills that I would use for my career.

In addition to pitching to journalists, public relations practitioners have many other options to get their press releases noticed.  In today’s world of social media, there are multiple resources to use to get a press release out into the world.  We have came a long way since using only Microsoft Word, or a typewriter for that matter, to develop a press release.  Today we can use these basic resources and many more to make press releases more interactive and fun to read.  We can also add other documents and projects to our press releases to give them more backup information.  Public relations practitioners can include pitch letters, media alerts, fact sheets in media kits with a standard press release.

A pitch letter is basically a letter/email that tells a journalist why they should be interested in whatever your organization is selling through the press release.  A pitch letter should be brief.  It should be targeted for whomever is receiving the letter. You are writing directly to that one editor or journalist.  The letter should include a call to action – a way for them to contact you or meet with you for more information.

Media alerts are an invitation for the media to cover whatever it is your organization is selling through the press release. It is the quick and dirty info the media needs.  Think of it as an invitiation to your niece’s 6th birthday.  Where: Gymboree When: Saturday, Oct. 15 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Why:  Ella’s 6th BiRtHdAy!  This is all the information you need to know to attend a party, likewise, this is the info the media needs to attend your event.

Fact sheets present fundamental facts about your organization and its product or event.  Fact sheets need to be easy to read. There is no standard way to write a fact sheet.  The only key is to cater it to your organization.

All of this, plus much more, is included in a media kit.  They can, and should be, very creative.  Again, it should be catered to your organization.  Media kits can be a hard copy, a CD or flash drive and they can be displayed on the web.  As you can see there are many ways to get press releases noticed.  Now its time to fire up that right-side brain and get creative!  The possibilities are endless.

 

PR and Steve Jobs

The visionary Apple co-founder died from cancer this week at the age of 56.  Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur and an innovator.  He was the picture of an American business man.  What do we think of when we hear his name?  Apple?  Pixar?  A black turtleneck?  Steve Jobs is all of these things, but how did he become a household name?  A lot of Steve Jobs’ popularity has to do with consistent public relations.

Consistency is key for effective public relations.  Organizations put an enormous amount of time and energy into hammering home a consistent key message.  This can take place through public statements, advertising, or simple branding.  Consistency gives comfort to people, and public relations practitioners are committed to providing that comforting view of an organization.

Apple had remarkable consistency through their campaigns and advertisements.  When it was time to release a new product, Apple’s public relations would shove Steve Jobs into the limelight to make a recognizable face for a very large organization. He was the brand. I can picture him holding wearing a black turtleneck while holding the brand new iPhone 4.  Maybe some folks know the name Steve Wozniak (the other co-founder of Apple), but primarily, Steve Jobs is the person we think of as the innovator for Apple.  He was the brand.

Consumers of Apple loved Steve Jobs, he was a king of technology.  Last night I went to the apple store and I was amazed by the palpable emotions I felt 30 yards away from the entrance.  It reminded me of Princess Diana’s death.  In front of the store, candles and flowers lined the entrance.  There were photos of Steve Jobs with personal, hand-written messages attached.

Because of such a heart-felt response from the American people, I’d say Apple did a darn good job with consistent public relations while using Steve Jobs as the character for Apple.

Optimizing Press Releases

Let’s face it, press releases can get lost in the shuffle of day-to-day work.  Newspaper editors receive hundreds of press releases every given day. Even though your press release has NO grammatical mistakes and is written in perfect AP style, your press release can fall to this category.  If public relations practitioners make their press releases easy to find online, editors can search for the press release, and find it right away. Just like we talked about using search engine optimization for web pages, you can also use these tactics for your press releases. 

First you must find a keyword (using Google AdWords)  that is highly searched, but with little competition.  Then you should use that keyword through your press release at a three to five percent density.  Start at the top and incorporate the keyword in the headline and the lead.  Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the body of your press release.  We know that the “spiders” that search for keywords love links, so throw a couple of links in your press release.  This is easier than it may seem.  In your organizations boilerplate, add a link to your organization’s website.  Add a link for your email in your contact information at the bottom of the press release. You can also add a link within your body copy that will go with the story.  It can be for the organization itself or how to get involved, where to buy tickets etc.  These techniques will ensure that you are optimizing your press release for a search engine.

Importance of Writing well in PR

Forbes magazine consideres writing the most important skill of a public relations practitioner.  The Advertising & Public Relations Department here at at the University of Alabama seems to agree.   To graduate with a public relations degree, a student has to not only take PR writing, but also two journalism classes and additional writing courses outside of the PR department.   Public relations students at UA learn AP style in their freshman level courses.  Public relations is very close to journalism, in that PR is the only other degree that offers extensive training in AP style.  This is what separates a PR major form a regular English or marketing major.

AP style is imperative for public relations practitioners because they write press releases to editors of newspapers.  Newspaper editors receive hundreds of press releases any given day.  If a press release has poor grammar, the editor is likely to throw that press release away.  A press release has to stand out in order to be published.

Press releases are not the only way a PR practitioner exhibits good writing techniques.  They also write for social media; this includes their organization’s website, blog, twitter and Facebook account.  Josh Ochs, a social media guru in Los Angeles, says that the more time you spend perfecting your messaging in social media, the more you will make friends and make money.  He suggests creating all messaging in a tone that is “light, bright and polite.”

So, a PR practitioner does not write about their organization, but what their organization can do for you.  Thanks Uncle Sam.

Blogging for PR

Before I got into blogging, I thought it was a nerdy thing that teenagers used to vent out their emotions.  Blogging can be a diary for some folks, but it can be a lot more.  Blogging is a great tool for public relations practitioners.  Blogs can be used to educate, inform and answer questions.  Blogs will help show a human side of an organization.  You can’t be funny or playful on your organization’s website (unless you work for Google), but you can be creative and witty through a blog.  A major key with blogging is to be personable.  If I work for home depot, I am not going to blog about what we sell.  It would be much more effective and entertaining if I blogged about DIY projects that weekend warriors could accomplish in two days.  I would get more traffic on the blog through comments and questions about the project rather than a blog that says “Buy Lumber from Home Depot”.

Here are a few keys to blogging for the PR practitioner.

You must monitor your blog.  If I worked for Home Depot, I would never blog about any racy topics, but someone could leave a nasty comment about Home Depot.  It is important that I monitor those comments so I can remove the nasty ones, but more importantly so I can get help that one person and change their perception of Home Depot.

You must participate in the blogging process.  Without any action or new blogs, you will get very little traffic on your previous blogs.

Blogging is a collaborative tool.  When I post a blog with an open ended question, I will get a lot of comments and drive more traffic to my blog.

Blogging is a great way to get the word out.  Visit wordpress.com today and create your own!

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is crucial for organizations to effectively get their web messages to an audience.  Without Google or Yahoo how would we find information on the internet?  We would probably have to know the exact web address of what we were looking for.  Thanks to search engines I can type in key words such as Entourage season 4, and with the click of a button I am bombarded with results.  I can see an episode list on imbd.com.  I can see the Entourage homepage on hbo.com.  If I scroll further down I can watch Entourage via Netflix or I can purchase it through Amazon.  Why did the IMBD link appear before the HBO link?  It is listed first because of search engine optimization.  There are a few tips that can make a webpage more popular than others.  Let’s look at IMBD for an example.  There are multiple links on IMBD and it repeats the word “entourage” more than thirty times.  Certain things like links and words counts make a web page appear high on a search engine’s result list. Naturally this is important if you want your organizations website or blog to appear high on Google’s result list.  A public relations practitioner must work with a web designer to ensure that this happens.   Good partnership with a web designer, and good concise organization and writing will ensure an effective website.  94% of internet visitors conducted a search in 2010.  How many of those searches were for your product or organization?

Think on Your Feet

If someone asked you five years ago “What is an OtterBox?” what would you have said?  I probably would have guessed that it was a way to trap a wild otter.  If I went out to the quad today and asked a student “What is an OtterBox?” someone would probably pull out their iPhone or Blackberry and show me exactly what I was asking for.  Businesses can spurt out of nowhere these days.  Suddenly a need can arise; a need that we never knew existed.  Five years ago the average American did not have a need a fancy protective case for their phone.  Now that phones cost as much as rent, we have a need to protect them.  When new products hit the market, public relations professionals are immediately in demand.  The link I have posted is a mini-interview with Kristen Tatti, a public relations specialist for OtterBox.  Kristen worked for the Northern Colorado Business Report, which reported the advancements of the OtterBox Company.  She became familiar with the product and saw the innovation within the company and soon after became an OtterBox employee.  Kristen says, “OtterBox is working in a very fast-paced industry, which is truly a blessing. It can be personally overwhelming to stay on top of the trends.”  Public Relations is often about staying on top of the trends.  A public relations practitioner must think on their feet and be ready move when the new craze hits the market.  Kristen says it simply, “There is just so much going on.” 

 

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110910/BUSINESS/109100349/PR-specialist-move-fast-paced-industry

Building Relationships

Last blog I said that communication is the most important quality for a public relations practitioner to have.  Having good communication skills can benefit you in multiple ways.  However, the most important use of communication skills is using them to build relationships.  You should build relationships with certain publics you want to reach.  A public relations practitioner should know his or her audience.  Just like it is easier to talk to a friend than a stranger; it is easier to talk to a client you know rather than one you’ve never met.  One example of this is to take your client to lunch.  Encourage them that you want to be easy to get in touch with, and easy to talk to.  I have a real life example for you.  Today I woke up, went through my morning routine only to go downstairs to find my Honda with a flat tire.  It had enough air so that I could drive to Warren Tire on University Boulevard.   Warren Tire said they may or may not be able to get to my car today, and that there were eighty other flat tires in line ahead of mine.  I called my dad who is a salesman for a tire distribution company in Birmingham.  I think sales and public relations share a lot of their core values.  Salesmen know a thing or two about building relationships with customers.  My dad called a tire distribution and service center in Tuscaloosa named Stephens and Sons, which a previous client of his now owns.  Stephens and Sons had my tire fixed within the hour of the first phone call.  Not only did they fix my tire, but they gave me a ride from campus to my car.  Building relationships gets things done.  You never know who can help you out down the road.  As Garth Brooks says, it’s good to have friends in low places.

What is public relations?

So what is public relations?  Is it putting a spin on a message to try and sell something?  No.  Is it organizing events for corporations so they can donate a certain quota of their earnings to charities?  No.  Is it trying to pull money out of people so a University can build a new dormitory and recreation center?  No.  Is it running around like a chicken with your head cut off?  Maybe.   

Public relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing plans of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest.  That is the definition you will get from a textbook, but what does that really mean?  Public relations is having a critical eye, knowing what consumers will want and using the right medium to get that message out.  Public relations also is having the communication skills to meet with clients to create a plan.  Communication is THE MOST important quality for a public relations practitioner to have.   A public relations practitioner has to communicate with clients, coworkers, and most importantly audiences.  A goal is an end result.  The goal for a pr practitioner is to effectively get your message out to the public.

Public relations is found in every industry you can imagine.  Everyone needs press releases and communication.  Me?  I would love to work in the food industry with public relations.  I love food, and I love to cook.  If money were no factor, I would be in culinary school.  I know the food business can be intense.  A meal can go wrong in the blink of an eye, and it is part of the public relations practitioners’ job to make sure that problem does not occur.  Stay tuned over the semester for fun pr stories, links and advice.