Tweet
It seems that  journalists hate when PRs ring to follow up on an email according to a survey conducted by Iain Fleming as part of his CIPR (Chatered Institute of Public Relations Diploma) course at Queen Margaret University (thanks to Neville Hobson for pointing the story out).
The key finding: “The project also reveals that the practice of making ‘follow-up’ calls by PR practitioners is intensely annoying and ultimately counter-productive…”
This is nothing new; I’ve heard it time and again from news professionals all over, many of whom get more than 50, …

Tweet
After an embarrassingly long absence due to family and business circumstances too numerous to mention, we finally have the return of the PR Top 5.  Here’s what I’ve been loving this week!
1. When PR 2.0′s Brian Solis talks, people listen. And when he talks about news release embargoes (always favourite link bait subject), people comment and retweet.  In this longish post, he explains the mechanics of an embargo and references a lot of current thinking.  He says, “Embargoes are powerful and effective for all parties when coordinated properly and centered …

Tweet

Image via CrunchBase

What’s all this we’re hearing about the death of the embargo, thanks to Michael Arrington of Techcrunch?
IMHO the much touted embargo has always been a  myth.  I’ve been in this biz for more than a few years and have worked in different global markets and in all that time, I’ve only ever once issued a release under embargo. That one involved a major international celebrity and, of course, it was broken.
Rule number one of human communication?  If you don’t want anyone talking about something, keep it yourself.  It’s …

Tweet
Yesterday we accidently sent a news release about a Microsoft compatible product to a reporter that covers Linux exclusively.  Almost immediately we got a reply that more than a little sarcastic along with a threat to block our email.
Some might say there is no reason to be rude or hostile over a genuine mistake — a box left unticked.  That’s probably true, but when you put yourself in the reporter’s shoes, you can understand.  He likely gets dozens, probably hundreds, of badly targeted stories pushed to him every day.  Especially …

Tweet

I’ve just put the phone down from a bizarre conversation.  Some ranting woman just tore a strip off me for a blog post I wrote in July 2006. It was hard to understand what she was saying because she was in full rant and not really explaining her self too well, but it seems that she takes exception to my negative opinion of her PR agency’s news releases. She demanded I take the post down.
How fascinating!  It’s interesting that it took her almost 2.5 years to notice this post!  Doesn’t …

Tweet

A couple of sleepless nights means that I’ve had time to catch up on my reading. Here’s some stuff I really liked.
1. Some excellent advice for PR newbies from Matthew Stibbe. Don’t ring and say, ‘Did you get the press release?’ Sound familiar anyone?
2. More good advice. How to write headlines that pop, from Flack’s Revenge.
3. Leo explains to company directors what social media can do for them.
4.  Todd Defren explains why sacking the PR agency to save money during tough times is such a bad idea.
5. Seth Godin explains …

Tweet

Image via Wikipedia

On Friday I attended the Don’t Panic Guide To Social Media event in Marble Arch, London. On the whole it was a worthwhile outing because I learned a lot and got to meet a some very interesting people.
The event was chaired by Neville Hobson who opened with a discussion of the possibilities offered by social media in PR and a look at how individuals now have the power to make change.
Edelman’s Marshall Manson then took the stage. He advised that we ‘fish where the fish are’ and …

Tweet
I found myself blasting out an email to the team today to remind them of some fundamentals.  It occurred to me that I should wrap it into a blog post for future reference.
If the target publication is a broadsheet, a news release can have up to 500 words.  For a tabloid, keep it to 300 or 400 words at a push.
For trade or technical media you can let it run up to 800 words if there is a lot of technical information that you need to include.
Sometimes a client wants …