THINKing » Media Relations http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog My CreativeTeam Thinks About Creativity, Marketing, PR & Social Media Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:12 +0000 en hourly 1 Media Continues Self Destruction http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/media-continues-self-destruction/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/media-continues-self-destruction/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:07:36 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2528
Photo credit: Grafixar from morguefile.com

The US media aren’t trusted by Americans, and the self destruction continued this weekend with the incessant drumbeat of impending doom ahead of so-called Hurricane Irene. As Kendall Allen tells us in her piece Fools In Raincoats,

I was not at all helped along by the sensationalized, character-driven coverage on the major networks and even on the Weather Channel. In all these segments, the slapstick reporter standing IN the surf getting hammered was the story. Does that not break some journalistic principle: thou must not make oneself the story?

I saw video of one reporter excitedly talking about the wind and rain, that obviously was light. I’m sure his producer had told him to hype it up. When I was a reporter back in the 20th Century, we were told to cover the story as it was. No editorializing, no hyperbole. That day, sadly, appears to be gone.

Untrustworthy mainstream media are looking for something – anything – that will bring back their days of dominance.  This was not their finest hour. It was clear before the storm hit the NC coast, that the weakened hurricane was not on the order of 1989′s Hugo. As Irene moved up the coast, it brought a lot of rain and produced serious flooding, but she just couldn’t live up to the hype. Poor Anderson Cooper was clearly disappointed that NY was not about to be wiped out.

I am not saying that there was no responsible coverage of the storm. But the national broadcast and cable networks did not cover themselves in glory. Like the dinosaurs they are, today’s media outlets are one meteor strike away from extinction. Let’s hope some agile mammal is in the wings to take their place.

Did you see any responsible coverage? Wade in to the conversation, but watch out for that deadly hurricane-driven surf.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/media-continues-self-destruction/feed/ 0 Creativity 2011 – Week #34 http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/creativity-2011-%e2%80%93-week-34/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/creativity-2011-%e2%80%93-week-34/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:03:53 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2518 creative ad agency

9 Ways To Keep Innovation Alive In Your Organization - When your company has an existing, proven method of conducting business, it can be a struggle to keep innovation alive.

How Good Stress Breeds Creativity – Those of us in the trenches know a little “good stress” can actually help boost creativity and innovation.

Failing To Innovate While Surrounded By Ideas - We have an inexhaustible source of creativity, ideas and innovation, which if applied correctly can create solutions to many challenges.

How To Thrive In A World Of Elusive Creativity - Very few companies actually know how to develop, retain, and unleash creativity to drive their business.

Clever Bench Advertising – Interesting ads on public benches.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/creativity-2011-%e2%80%93-week-34/feed/ 1 Generate Your Own Infographics http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/generate-your-own-infographics/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/generate-your-own-infographics/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:59:20 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2423

Above is an infographic generated using Visual.ly, a service that allows users to create their own infographics. These visual representations of data are a great marketing and public relations tool. Are you using them in your marketing and PR?

Here are a few infographic resources you may want to investigate.

Use Infographics To Kill Press Releases

Daily Infographic

The Infographics Showcase

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/generate-your-own-infographics/feed/ 0 Bad PR Firm, Naughty PR Firm http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/bad-pr-firm-naughty-pr-firm/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/bad-pr-firm-naughty-pr-firm/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 20:33:06 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2307

Well, here we go again. You’ll remember back in 2006 when Edelman PR was caught flogging for client Wal-Mart . It seems that we have another PR debacle. There now are stories about Facebook hiring PR firm Burson-Marstellar to discredit Google in the press.

As we say in the South: that just ain’t right. Robert Noltenmeier, Clinical Assistant Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, agrees.

Noltenmeier claims that Google’s slogan,

“Do no evil,” certainly applies in this case—but to Facebook not Google.  Regrettably, this issue is another example of a public relations firm—and a leading one at that—behaving unethically and reinforcing the perception and stereotype that public relations is sinister and misleading. This action violates the profession’s codes of ethics, from PRSA to the Arthur Page Society to IABC. A firm like Burson-Marsteller, whose namesake, Harold Burson, PRWeek called “the century’s most influential PR figure,” certainly should apply PR ethical principles. This incident likely will damage the firm’s and the profession’s reputations because of the public’s renewed distrust of both of them.

As for Facebook, given its alleged sketchy origins as described in “The Social Network, ” its founder’s gratuitous PR efforts—the Newark, N.J., education donation timing and amount—and its frequent user-privacy issues, this incident once again raises the question of its business practices. It will likely affect Facebook’s reputation, as the Wal-Mart-Edelman false blog posts did in 2006.

According to Noltenmeier, this incident also shows how social media businesses, no matter how free, democratic and popular, fundamentally work like traditional businesses: it’s all about beating the competition, attracting and retaining customers and boosting revenue. Like traditional businesses, social media firms must follow ethical business practices—and in their case ethical privacy practices—or suffer reputational damage and business losses.

He is dead on. What do you think?

Addendum: Facebook says no smear was intended.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/bad-pr-firm-naughty-pr-firm/feed/ 0 Playing Both Sides Of The Table http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/playing-both-sides-of-the-table/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/playing-both-sides-of-the-table/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:58:34 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2118

Editor’s Note: this is a guest article from Danny Wong, who manages Media Relations for Blank Label Group, and he helped to co-found the group’s startups Blank Label, Thread Tradition, and RE:custom. He’s also played on the other side of the table writing for outlets like the HuffingtonPost, ReadWriteWeb and TheNextWeb.

How to Become a Member of the Media & Play on Both Sides of the Table

The marketers that have adapted to the times are the ones that are empathetic to all parties when it comes to messaging, meaning the businesses and their customers, the sponsors and their audience, and especially the companies and the media. Marketers that look to leverage the media in more creative ways than the out-dated press release have decided to join the ranks of the writers and have learned to appreciate the media more, understanding how they could better handle their interactions with the media.

Marketers Become Bloggers

In marketing, one of the hotter trends is strategic content creation for the purposes of education, engagement and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But when marketers become the content creators, they start to understand some of the basic principles of writing, which include knowing your audience and creating relevant and useful content for them. With those principles in mind, they’re more careful in how they pitch the media to try to garner stories and attention for their business, making sure, more often than not, that their pitching a writer whose audience would appreciate the reading the story.

Marketers Join the Media

After marketers establish their business’ blog with build credibility with quality content, they can be considered “thought leaders” in their space, giving them leverage, making it easier for them to then start writing for niche blogs. Then after building a writing portfolio, they can move onto write with more established websites and news outlets to further demonstrate their extensive knowledge for the industry they work in, adding more credibility for their business since external contributors are always afforded a nice little byline to plug their bio including detail about their associated companies.

It’s All About Networking

So after getting yourself established as a thought leader through your business’ blog, then writing posts with niche blogs, and then authoring stories on more established and widely read publications, you become connected with the influentials in the media who are more receptive to you because you’re “one of them.” Of course, you try to stay very professional, making sure your efforts to grow your business don’t interfere with you contributing value to the publications you write for. But you will have valuable connections that will be more willing to help you in growing your business because of the relationships you have. There will also certainly be disclosures noting your association with a publication if they decide to publish an editorial story on you, but in most cases, that’s purely just standard practice and readers enjoy the story nonetheless.

Getting Better at PR

While now you’ll have all this established credibility and a stronger network, you’ll also have improved your communication skills with the media because as a writer yourself, you’ll know how to craft better messages to get your point across and sell the better points vs. the weaker ones. As mentioned earlier, you will be more empathetic to what audiences want to hear and what writers write about, so you’ll know how to craft stories to be relevant in a pitch for a writer, and when it’s at all appropriate to pitch a story.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/playing-both-sides-of-the-table/feed/ 2 Content Focused http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/content-focused/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/content-focused/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:20:14 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=1586 Blog content

Blogging experts often tell you to hyperfocus on a topic if you want to build a following. We have been thinking a lot recently about our blog’s content. (We’d love your thoughts, as well. So, feel free to jump in.)

As you know, we write about creativity, marketing, advertising, PR, social media strategy and tactics, and throw in a little self-improvement for good measure. That’s sort of broad, don’t you think?

Until we took a close look at the Analytics, we thought so, too. But we’re beginning to think that – after five years – this approach may have staying power.

Our home page gets the most traffic, but when we drill down to top landing pages, we find something interesting.

From a categorical perspective, our top 6 landing pages are:

  1. Creativity (Self Improvement)
  2. Social Media (Blogging)
  3. Advertising
  4. Marketing (Self Improvement)
  5. Social Media (Blogging)
  6. PR (Journalists on Twitter)

What do you think? Are we too broad? Are there topics you’d like to see us give more focus in 2011? We would love to hear from you.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/content-focused/feed/ 4 Forgotten Gems http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/forgotten-gems/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/forgotten-gems/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:36:53 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/forgotten-gems/ Undiscovered Gems

Through no fault of their own, sometimes really good posts just get overlooked. Here are a few forgotten gems you may have missed.

Grandma Says -  Southern grandmothers have often said, “there are only three times a respectable person’s name should be in the paper: when you are born, when you are married, and when you die.” This is the one area in which I part company with my grandmothers.

Brand Euthanasia -  Some brands should be allowed to die, or if that fails, then we owe it to them to kill them.

New Business Tip: Do Great Work For Current Clients -My marketing mentor, Bill Loeffler, once said the the best new business program is doing great work for current clients. He was right.

The Value Of Connections – As we have discussed before, the value of connections in business cannot be underestimated. I’m talking primarily about tight connections that you use ruthlessly to help you achieve your personal and professional goals.

To Market, To Market… -  What does buying a fat pig have to do with your business? Stick with me and all will be revealed.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/forgotten-gems/feed/ 2 Top 5 PR Posts http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/top-5-pr-posts/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/top-5-pr-posts/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:45:26 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/top-5-pr-posts/ Our PR-related posts are among the most well-read. So, I thought we’d bring to the forefront some evergreen features on PR.  Now, let’s review.

Communications Planning 101 - Developing a communications plan requires a disciplined approach. Your first order of business is reviewing your current program for impact and efficiency.

How To Be A Great Radio Guest - Radio – despite changes in media habits – still is a great way to get in front of a lot of people. As a radio talk show guest on a national program, millions could hear your message.

Pithy Pitches - Your painstakingly crafted email pitch is completely customized and ready to send to the in box of that carefully targeted reporter. There it goes! Did you hear that? That was your email pitch being deleted.

Six Tips For Perfect Email Pitches - Your media pitches can go straight over the plate. With a little forethought, and a few tips, you can throw fewer balls and more media relations strikes.

Slow Day? Create News -  Sometimes there seems to be no client news worthy of coverage. That’s when the savvy PR pro digs deep into the old bag of tricks and pulls out one of these ideas to perk things up.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/top-5-pr-posts/feed/ 1 How To Be A Great Radio Guest http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-radio-guest/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-radio-guest/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:57:54 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-radio-guest/ Radio – despite changes in media habits – still is a great way to get in front of a lot of people. As a radio talk show guest on a national program, millions could hear your message. Talk radio listeners tune in about 20 percent more than the average radio listener.

Being a great guest takes some work on your part. Let’s review what you must do in order to attain great guest status.

Be Available. Journalists of all stripes complain about not being able to reach sources when they need them. With radio, it is not just a 9 – 5 job. The great radio guest will show up whenever he or she is needed.

Be Conversational. This goes beyond your ability to carry on a good conversation. You must speak clearly, concisely and in terms the average listener understands. Start throwing around business-speak like “that’s not in my wheelhouse” and get booted off the show before it starts. In fact, don’t talk like that when you are not on radio!

Be Ubiquitous. It was true when I was in radio and it is still true today, radio people follow their print brethren. If you have been quoted by a news magazine or newspaper, radio producers are more likely to have you on. And, help producers locate you. Make sure you have an online presence and that you have your media clips accessible so producers can determine if you are the right source for them.

Be In The Moment. If you are out pitching yourself, take advantage of the news cycle. If there is nothing happening currently that ties your expertise into the topic of the day, then wait. Your day will come.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-radio-guest/feed/ 0 Front Page Coverage – That’s What I Want! http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/front-page-coverage-thats-what-i-want/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/front-page-coverage-thats-what-i-want/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:41:32 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/front-page-coverage-thats-what-i-want/ Does everyone in business seem to think all you have to do is call the local daily paper and they come out to do a page one profile of your business? With all the downsizing, it’s hard enough just to get the media to open your emails or take your calls. Getting a front page story just because you want it: priceless.

I was talking with a prospect once who tossed this off as if it was no big deal, “of course we’d like to have the paper come down, meet our principals and do a profile of our business.” Another one wants to become a “rock star-type celebrity” in his industry.

Well, I’d like to win the lottery, but at least I know I have to buy a ticket first in order to be in the running.

Got any thoughts on this subject?

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