If you're pitching your local TV stations and not having much luck this month, it might be because we're in the middle of May sweeps. Newsrooms everywhere are broadcasting their big investigative stories designed to boost the all important Nielsen ratings. Unless your pitch is time-sensitive, hold off pitching for another few weeks. Use this time … [Read more...]
How an author/therapist piggybacked onto runaway bride
As I was writing last week's tip about how to piggyback off the runaway bride story, my friend Barbara Bartlein was doing just that. Barbara, a professional speaker and author of the book "Why Did I Marry You Anyway? --12.5 Strategies for a Happy Marriage," saw all the attention the Runaway Bride was getting and fired off [Read more...]
People behind the events make great stories
She arrived in Milwaukee at age 24 with less than $40 in her purse, learned to speak English and took the streetcar to work. Today, at age 75, Magrit Heitmann still logs up to 1,500 hours a year doing what she loves best--organizing the hundreds of volunteers for Germanfest, one of the signature festivals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was a clever … [Read more...]
These email faux pas show you’re clueless
Some time ago I wrote about nerdy websites. If you email anything to the media, make sure you aren't guilty of these nerdy email blunders: --A subject line that says "News Release" with no clue what the release is about. --A generic greeting such as "Dear Editor." Always use the editor's name. If you don't know it, don't send it. --Subject lines … [Read more...]
12 worst mistakes PR people make
It was difficult to pare them down to a dozen, but we did. Of all the mistakes PR people make when working with the media, Jon Greer of Bulldog Reporter's PR University and Liz Miklya of Weber Shandwick joined me in whittling down the list to 12. We presented them the Media Relations 2005 conference earlier this month in San Francisco. Here's our … [Read more...]
Hospitals should show how they pamper patients
Hospitals throughout the U.S. are pampering patients like never before. You can now recuperate after your heart bypass or gall bladder removal in upscale units with suite-sized rooms, gourmet meals, high-thread-count sheets, attentive security, and smiling staff ready to cater to your every whim. A Forbes magazine survey of the [Read more...]
Think graphics when pitching
Maps, pie charts, bar charts, illustrations, clever photos and a whole host of other graphic elements that can help readers or TV viewers better understand your story can be part of your pitch to reporters. But don't suggest graphics right away until you know whether the reporter is interested in your idea. If the reporter bites by saying … [Read more...]
When being cute works and can result in publicity
Cute headlines on news releases. Cute lead paragraphs. Cute story
pitches.
It's enough to make a reporter gag. Unless, of course, they crave
cute. But how do you ever know?
When pitching a story or sending a news release, err on the side
of caution. Don't send anything that smacks of cute to reporters
who … [Read more...]
Use computer worms, viruses for publicity
A virus has infiltrated my email, and about two dozen messages, all written in either German or Dutch, keep pouring into my emailbox. I'm sure some kind of virus has plagued you. The next time that happends, see if you can get some publicity from it. In the days after major worms hit, I read story after story about local businesses that are … [Read more...]
Piggyback off the weather
The spring's unseasonably cold weather here in Wisconsin--complete with wool socks, furnaces at full blast and hot soup for lunch--is a good reminder about one of the easiest ways to gerate publcity--by piggybacking your story idea off the weather. After sweating through a week of 100-degree temperatures a few summers ago, Publicity Hound John … [Read more...]
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