We all know that great feeling when we see our name or our company’s name in print or on TV. In that moment, we think of all of the important people reading or watching with us — and the deep impact the story could have — but do we know who’s really paying attention?
While the total amount of information we take in is at an all time high, deciphering what media the average person will consume in a day has become similar to throwing darts — not knowing exactly where they’ll hit.
What started out as a customer service “don’t” for FedEx has turned into a PR “do.”
We’ve all watched—all 9 million of us!—the YouTube video of the FedEx employee carelessly tossing a computer monitor over a gate and onto the lawn of his customer. In case you haven’t, here it is:
We’re about to wrap up another successful year at Identity. 2011 was a pretty big year for us. It was the first full year we spent in our new office space. We added both new clients and new team members. And most importantly, we have tons of examples of great work that we can be proud of from this past year.
As a PR practitioner, I’ve long recoiled at hearing the term “spin” being applied to my profession. I don’t think of myself as a “spin artist,” nor do I advocate that companies and executives master the art of “spin” when dealing with the media and constituents. Rather, I prefer they speak in plain English. Audiences are people, too, after all.
Stephen Sondheim has written music and lyrics for some of the most enduring musicals of the last half a century. I have no idea if he has ever written a press release, yet the lines he wrote could have emerged in whole from the textbook for PR 101:
On a daily basis, PR professionals decide which story ideas to share with media, when to pull the trigger and which publication/reporter would make the most sense for the angle. Appropriately acting on these issues is the difference between your story or client hitting in the media or becoming the PR pro who always annoys media.
Here are some simple things to consider to avoid the latter:
