Intro:
Every day the DC seat of the federal gov. is a PR free-for-all, with 435 congressmen, 100senators, etc
The White House created a permanent Office of Global Com.
The Bush cabinet: press conferences to keep the country apprised of developments in their spheres
the position of undersecreatry of Public iplomacy created after the September attacks
I) Public Reations in Gov:
PR in gov has increased
American businesses lobby gov. Political interest group contribute more to pol coffers than before
no gov worker today can work in PR, but only in public affairs
II) Government Practitioners:
=> Two Prominent Departments:
The STate Department
Has an extensive public affairs staff, responsible for press briefings, maintaining secretary of state homepage content, operating foreign press centers in Washington, L.A, and maintaining Public Diplomacy
United States Information AGency (USIA); federal gov. PR arms==> build institutional foundations of democracy around the world, support war on drugs, env challenges, free and open com.
Its com. Initiatives:
-radio
-film and TV
-iNternet
-Media
-Publications
-Exibitions
-Libraries and books
-Education
2. THe Defense Department (DOD)
public affairs department headed by an assistant secretary of defense
3. Other Government Agencies
ex: department of Health and Human services have PR practiciones
Dep. Of Agr, State and Treasury
CIA: 3 spokespersons
III) The President
Today, he wields unprecedented PC clout? he travels with his own media entourage, controls the 'bully pulpit' and with it a large part of the nation's agenda
Mr Reagan and his com advisers follower 7 principles to manage the news:
Plan ahead
Stay on the offensive
Control the flow of info
limit reporter's access to the president
talk about the issues you want to talk about
speak in one voice
repeat the same Msg many times
IV) The President's Press Secretary:
second most difficult position in any administration: chief PR spokesperson in administration
V) Lobbying the Government:
The bus. community, foundations and philanthropic org. have a common prob: dealing with gov
occoputaion of lobbyist has grown due to:
Rapid growth in gov
Republican control of both White House and Congress
Wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of the federal budget
The representatives have diff role:
Com with gov personel and agencies
encourage participation at all levels of gov
influence legislation affecting economy
++What do Lobbyists do?
Fact-finding
Interpretation of gov actions
Interpretation of company actions
Advocacy of a position
Publicity springboard
Support of COmpany sales
++ Do it yourself Lobbying:
Know the subject and status of legislation
Know the position of the legislator and the staff
Represent a key constituency
Be available and eager to please
Have influential backup at the ready
Keep your word
know how the system functions
===> Emergence of e-lobbying
role of the web in pol campaigns
V) Political Action Committes:
(PACs): representing labor unions, bus. groups, corporations, Non profit organization, etc
VI) Dealing with loval Gov:
Reagon called for a shift of political debate and public policy decisions to state and local levels
Sunday, November 11, 2007
chapter 16: Public Relations Writing
PR professionals: professional communicators
I) Writing for the Eye and the Ear:
PR pple are horrible writers
The chapter explores fundamentals of writing: 1) discussing PR writing in general and news releases in particular, 2) reviewing writing for reading, and 3) discussing writing for listening
writing for a reader diff than writing for a listener
a listener has only one chance to hear the msg once
II) Fundamentals of writing:
a four-part formula for writers, from the novice to the novemist
The idea must preced the expression: think before writing. The trick in coming up with clever ideas lies more in borrowing old ones than in creating new ones
Don't be afraid of the draft. an outline should precede the draft
Simplify, clarify: avoid jargon, complex words
Finally, writing must be aimed at a particular audience: avoid imprecision, ambiguity
III) Flesh Readability Formula:
Flesch gave 7 suggestions for making writing more readable
Use contractions such as it's or does'nt
Leave out the word that whenver possible
Use pronouns such as I, we, they and you
when referring back to a noun, repeat the noun or use a pronoun. Don't create eloquent substitutions
Use brief, clear sentences
Cover only one item per paragraph
Use anguage the reader undertsands
Avoid big words
avoid extra words
avoid clichés
avoid latin
Be specific
Be active
Be simple
Be short
Be organized
Be convincing
be understandable
IV) The Beauty of the Inverted Pyramid
The climax of a newspaper story comes at the begining
The lead of a story is the first one or two paragraphs=> inverted pyramid
Lead answers qst: 5W
V) The News Release
Releases are poorly written (difficult to read)
Releases are rarely localized (it is used when it is localized)
Releases are not newsworthy. what determines its worthiness? Impact, oddity, conflict, knwon principal, proximity, also human interest stories
The product announcement:
The Management change: newspapers interested in that
The Management Speech
VI) News Release Style
TYpical Style rules:
Capitalization
Abbreviations
Numbers
Punctuation
Spelling
VII) News Release Essentials
Rationale
Focus
Facts
No Puffery
Nourishing quotes
Limit Jargon
Company Description
Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation
Brevity
Headlines
Clarity, conciseness, committment
VIII) Internet News Releases
ONe reporter per 'to' line
Limit subject line headers
Boldface 'For Immediate Release'
Hammer home to headline
Limit Length
Observe 5W format
No attachment
Link to URL
Remember Readability
IX) The Media Kit:
a calling card to introduce org to the media
The biography
Fact Sheets, Q&As, Photos and So on
Etc, Etc, etc.
X) The Pitch Letter:
A sales letter, pure and simple
XI) Other Print VEhicles:
The case History
The Byliner
The Op_Ed
The Roundup Article
XII) Writing for the ear:
evry spokespercson possesses 5 main characteristics:
it is designed to be heard, not read
it uses concrete language
it demands a positive response
it must have clear-cut ibjectives
it must be tailored to a specific audience
XIII) The importance of editing:
an editor must be judicious, get rid of passive verbs, must be gusty enough to use bold strokes
I) Writing for the Eye and the Ear:
PR pple are horrible writers
The chapter explores fundamentals of writing: 1) discussing PR writing in general and news releases in particular, 2) reviewing writing for reading, and 3) discussing writing for listening
writing for a reader diff than writing for a listener
a listener has only one chance to hear the msg once
II) Fundamentals of writing:
a four-part formula for writers, from the novice to the novemist
The idea must preced the expression: think before writing. The trick in coming up with clever ideas lies more in borrowing old ones than in creating new ones
Don't be afraid of the draft. an outline should precede the draft
Simplify, clarify: avoid jargon, complex words
Finally, writing must be aimed at a particular audience: avoid imprecision, ambiguity
III) Flesh Readability Formula:
Flesch gave 7 suggestions for making writing more readable
Use contractions such as it's or does'nt
Leave out the word that whenver possible
Use pronouns such as I, we, they and you
when referring back to a noun, repeat the noun or use a pronoun. Don't create eloquent substitutions
Use brief, clear sentences
Cover only one item per paragraph
Use anguage the reader undertsands
Avoid big words
avoid extra words
avoid clichés
avoid latin
Be specific
Be active
Be simple
Be short
Be organized
Be convincing
be understandable
IV) The Beauty of the Inverted Pyramid
The climax of a newspaper story comes at the begining
The lead of a story is the first one or two paragraphs=> inverted pyramid
Lead answers qst: 5W
V) The News Release
Releases are poorly written (difficult to read)
Releases are rarely localized (it is used when it is localized)
Releases are not newsworthy. what determines its worthiness? Impact, oddity, conflict, knwon principal, proximity, also human interest stories
The product announcement:
The Management change: newspapers interested in that
The Management Speech
VI) News Release Style
TYpical Style rules:
Capitalization
Abbreviations
Numbers
Punctuation
Spelling
VII) News Release Essentials
Rationale
Focus
Facts
No Puffery
Nourishing quotes
Limit Jargon
Company Description
Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation
Brevity
Headlines
Clarity, conciseness, committment
VIII) Internet News Releases
ONe reporter per 'to' line
Limit subject line headers
Boldface 'For Immediate Release'
Hammer home to headline
Limit Length
Observe 5W format
No attachment
Link to URL
Remember Readability
IX) The Media Kit:
a calling card to introduce org to the media
The biography
Fact Sheets, Q&As, Photos and So on
Etc, Etc, etc.
X) The Pitch Letter:
A sales letter, pure and simple
XI) Other Print VEhicles:
The case History
The Byliner
The Op_Ed
The Roundup Article
XII) Writing for the ear:
evry spokespercson possesses 5 main characteristics:
it is designed to be heard, not read
it uses concrete language
it demands a positive response
it must have clear-cut ibjectives
it must be tailored to a specific audience
XIII) The importance of editing:
an editor must be judicious, get rid of passive verbs, must be gusty enough to use bold strokes
Chapter 14: Consumer Relations
I. Consumer Relations Objectives
Building sales is the primary consumers relations objective. A satisfied customer may return, an unhappy customer may not.
• Keeping old customers.
• Attracting new customers
• Marketing new items or services
• Expecting complaint handling
• Reducing costs
II. Consumer-Generated Media
• Consumer-generated media: encompasses the millions of consumers-generated comments,opinions and personal experiences posted in publicly available online sources on a wide range of issues, topics, product and brands.
• CGM is also reffered to as “online consumer word mouth” that originated from a variety of sources:
1. blogs
2. message board andforums
3. public disscussions
4. discussions and forums on large e-mail portals
5. Online opinion/review sites and services
6. online feedback/complaint sites
III. Office of the Ombudsperson
• Research indicates that only a handful of dissatisfied customers will ever complain.
• But there are many with the same complains that who never say anything.
• The term ombudsman originally described a government official appointed to investigate complaints about abuses commited by public officials.
• In most companies the office of the ombudsperson office investigates complaints made against the company an dits managers.
• The ombudperson office monitors the difficulties customers are having with products.
IV. The consumer Movement
• Kennedy proposed that consumers have their own bill of rights, containing four basic principles:
i. The right to safety
ii. The right to be informed
iii. The right to choose
iv. The right to be heard.
V. Federal consumer Agenda
• Today a massive gov bureaucracy attempts to protect the consumer against abuse: more then 900 different programs administrated by more than 400 federal entities.
• Key aggencies include the :
1. Justice Departement
2. Fedearl Trade Commission
3. Securities and exchange Comission
4. Food and Drug Administration
5. consumer Product Safety Commission
6. Office of Consumer Affairs
VI. Consumer Activists on the internet
• The consumerist movement has attracted a host of activists in recent years.
• It most significant activity is to keep companies honnest has occured in the interner.
• The best known testing group is Cosumers Union that was founded in 1936 to test products across a wide spectrum of industries.
VII. Business Gets the Message:
• Few campanies can afford to shirk thier responsabilities to consumer.
• Consumer relations divisions have sprung up, either as separate entities or as part of public relations departement.
• In many companies, consumer relations began as a way to handle complaints, an area to which all unanswerable complaints were saints.
Building sales is the primary consumers relations objective. A satisfied customer may return, an unhappy customer may not.
• Keeping old customers.
• Attracting new customers
• Marketing new items or services
• Expecting complaint handling
• Reducing costs
II. Consumer-Generated Media
• Consumer-generated media: encompasses the millions of consumers-generated comments,opinions and personal experiences posted in publicly available online sources on a wide range of issues, topics, product and brands.
• CGM is also reffered to as “online consumer word mouth” that originated from a variety of sources:
1. blogs
2. message board andforums
3. public disscussions
4. discussions and forums on large e-mail portals
5. Online opinion/review sites and services
6. online feedback/complaint sites
III. Office of the Ombudsperson
• Research indicates that only a handful of dissatisfied customers will ever complain.
• But there are many with the same complains that who never say anything.
• The term ombudsman originally described a government official appointed to investigate complaints about abuses commited by public officials.
• In most companies the office of the ombudsperson office investigates complaints made against the company an dits managers.
• The ombudperson office monitors the difficulties customers are having with products.
IV. The consumer Movement
• Kennedy proposed that consumers have their own bill of rights, containing four basic principles:
i. The right to safety
ii. The right to be informed
iii. The right to choose
iv. The right to be heard.
V. Federal consumer Agenda
• Today a massive gov bureaucracy attempts to protect the consumer against abuse: more then 900 different programs administrated by more than 400 federal entities.
• Key aggencies include the :
1. Justice Departement
2. Fedearl Trade Commission
3. Securities and exchange Comission
4. Food and Drug Administration
5. consumer Product Safety Commission
6. Office of Consumer Affairs
VI. Consumer Activists on the internet
• The consumerist movement has attracted a host of activists in recent years.
• It most significant activity is to keep companies honnest has occured in the interner.
• The best known testing group is Cosumers Union that was founded in 1936 to test products across a wide spectrum of industries.
VII. Business Gets the Message:
• Few campanies can afford to shirk thier responsabilities to consumer.
• Consumer relations divisions have sprung up, either as separate entities or as part of public relations departement.
• In many companies, consumer relations began as a way to handle complaints, an area to which all unanswerable complaints were saints.
Chapter 11: Employee Relations
I. Strong Employee Relations Equals Solid Organizations:
• The wave of downsizing and layfoffs that dominated business and industry worldwide after the high tech bubble burst in the early years of the 21st century has taken its toll on employee loyality.
• The widenning gulf between the pay of senior officers and common workers is another reason organization must be sensitive to employee communications.
• The move toward globalization, including the merger of geographically dispersed organizations, is another reason for increased focus on internal communications.
• Research indicated that companies that communicate effectivly with their workers financilly outperform those that do not.
II. Dealing with the Employee Public:
• There is no signle “employee public”
• Employee public is made of numerous subgroups: senior managers, first-line supervisors, staff and line employees, union labours etc....
• A smart organization will try to differentiate messages and communications to reach these diffenrnt segments.
• Management should ask these tree questions about the way it conveys knowledge to the staff:
1. is management able to communicate effectivly with employees?
2. is communication trusted, and does it relay appropriate information to employees?
3. has management communicated its commitment to its employees and to fostering a rewarding work environment?
• The lack of understanding leads to dicounts, frustration, miscommunication, problems, and eventually to the feeling that the grass is greener elsewhere.
III. Communicating effectively in a Sea of Doubt:
• An organization that is concerned about getting though its employees in an area of downsizing,displacement, and dubioud communications must reinforce five specific principles:
1. Respect:
2. Honest feedback
3. Recognition
4. A voice
5. encouragement
• Milton Moskowitz: gave the six criteria for a company to succed:
1. Willingness to express dissent
2. Visibility and proximity of upper management
3. priority of internal to external communication
4. attention to clarity
5. friendly tone
6. sense of humour
IV. Credibilty: the Key
• Management must be truthful.
• Employees want managers to level with them and they want facts and not wishful thinking
• Research indicates that trust in organizations would increase if management
1. communicated earlier and more frequently.
2. demonstrated trust in employees by sharing bad news as well as good.
3. involved employees in the process by asking for their ideas and opinions.
V. S-H-O-C the troops:
• How does management build trust when employee morale is so brittle?
• Part of the answer lies in an approach to management communicatrion built around the acronym S-H-O-C.
• Management should consider a four step communication approach:
1. all communications must be strategic: where is the organization going? What is my role in helping us get there?
2. all communications must be honest.
3. all communications must be open.
4. all communications must be consistent.
VI. Employee Communication tactics:
• Once objectives are set, a variety of techniques can be adopted to reach the staff. The initial tool again is research:
1. Internal Communications audits
2. Online communications : blogs and wikis
3. The intranet :
a) consider the culture
b) set clear objectives and then let it evolve
c) treat it as a journalistic entreprise
d) Market, market, market
e) Link to outside lives
f) Senior management must commit
4. Print Publications
5. Employee annual Report
6. Bulletin Board
7. Suggestion Box and town Hall Meetings.
8. internal Video
9. Face to face communictions
• The wave of downsizing and layfoffs that dominated business and industry worldwide after the high tech bubble burst in the early years of the 21st century has taken its toll on employee loyality.
• The widenning gulf between the pay of senior officers and common workers is another reason organization must be sensitive to employee communications.
• The move toward globalization, including the merger of geographically dispersed organizations, is another reason for increased focus on internal communications.
• Research indicated that companies that communicate effectivly with their workers financilly outperform those that do not.
II. Dealing with the Employee Public:
• There is no signle “employee public”
• Employee public is made of numerous subgroups: senior managers, first-line supervisors, staff and line employees, union labours etc....
• A smart organization will try to differentiate messages and communications to reach these diffenrnt segments.
• Management should ask these tree questions about the way it conveys knowledge to the staff:
1. is management able to communicate effectivly with employees?
2. is communication trusted, and does it relay appropriate information to employees?
3. has management communicated its commitment to its employees and to fostering a rewarding work environment?
• The lack of understanding leads to dicounts, frustration, miscommunication, problems, and eventually to the feeling that the grass is greener elsewhere.
III. Communicating effectively in a Sea of Doubt:
• An organization that is concerned about getting though its employees in an area of downsizing,displacement, and dubioud communications must reinforce five specific principles:
1. Respect:
2. Honest feedback
3. Recognition
4. A voice
5. encouragement
• Milton Moskowitz: gave the six criteria for a company to succed:
1. Willingness to express dissent
2. Visibility and proximity of upper management
3. priority of internal to external communication
4. attention to clarity
5. friendly tone
6. sense of humour
IV. Credibilty: the Key
• Management must be truthful.
• Employees want managers to level with them and they want facts and not wishful thinking
• Research indicates that trust in organizations would increase if management
1. communicated earlier and more frequently.
2. demonstrated trust in employees by sharing bad news as well as good.
3. involved employees in the process by asking for their ideas and opinions.
V. S-H-O-C the troops:
• How does management build trust when employee morale is so brittle?
• Part of the answer lies in an approach to management communicatrion built around the acronym S-H-O-C.
• Management should consider a four step communication approach:
1. all communications must be strategic: where is the organization going? What is my role in helping us get there?
2. all communications must be honest.
3. all communications must be open.
4. all communications must be consistent.
VI. Employee Communication tactics:
• Once objectives are set, a variety of techniques can be adopted to reach the staff. The initial tool again is research:
1. Internal Communications audits
2. Online communications : blogs and wikis
3. The intranet :
a) consider the culture
b) set clear objectives and then let it evolve
c) treat it as a journalistic entreprise
d) Market, market, market
e) Link to outside lives
f) Senior management must commit
4. Print Publications
5. Employee annual Report
6. Bulletin Board
7. Suggestion Box and town Hall Meetings.
8. internal Video
9. Face to face communictions
Chapter19: Crisis Management
I. Issues Management
The term issues management was coined in 1976 by public relations counsellor W.Howard Chase, who defined it this way:
Issues management is the capacity to understand, mobilize, coordinate, and direct all strategic and policy planning functions, and all public affairs/public relations skills, toward achievement of one objective: meaningful participation in creation of public policy that affects personal and institutional destiny.
Issues management is a five-step process that:
1. Identifies issues with which the organization must be concerned,
2. Analyzes and delimits each issue with respect to its impact on constituent publics,
3. Displays the various strategic options available to the organization,
4. Implements an action program to communicate the organization’s views and to influence perception on the issue,
5. Evaluates its program in terms of reaching organizational goals.
In specific terms, issues management encompasses the following elements:
Anticipate emerging issues
Identify issue selectively
Deal with opportunities and vulnerabilities
Plan from the outside in
Bottom-line orientation
Action timetable
Dealing from the top
II. Emergence of Risk communication:
Risk communication began as a process of taking scientific data related to health and environmental hazards and presenting them to a lay audience in a manner that is both understandable and meaningful.
Seven steps are helpful in planning a risk communication program:
1. Recognize risk communication
2. Encourage management to join the “communication loop”
3. Develop credible outside experts
4. Approach the news media
5. Research perceptions
6. Understand your target audience
III. Managing in a Crisis
As any organization unfortunate enough to experience a crisis recognizes, when the crisis strikes, seven instant warning signs invariably appear:
1. Surprise
2. Insufficient information
3. Escalating events
4. Loss of control
5. Increases outside scrutiny
6. Siege mentality
7. Panic
IV. Planning in a Crisis
The key to crisis management is being prepared.
Heightened preparedness is always in order, with four planning issues paramount:
First, for each potentially impacted audience, define the risk.
Second, fro each risk defined, describe the actions that mitigate the risk.
Third, identify that cause of the risk.
Fourth, demonstrate responsible management action
Simple but appropriate watchwords for any crisis plan are the following:
Be prepared
Be available
Be credible
Act appropriately
V. Communicating in a Crisis
The key communications principle in dealing with a crisis is not to calm up
when disasters strikes. Lawyers traditionally have advised clients to either
(1)say nothing, (2)say as little as possible and release it as quietly as possible,
(3) say as little as possible, citing privacy laws, company, or sensitivity, (4)
deny guilt and act indignant that such categories could possibly have been
made, or (5) shift or, if necessary, share the blame with others.
VI. Engaging the Media
Handling the media is the most critical element in crisis. Dealing with the media in crisis demands certain “battle-field rules”; among them:
Set up media headquarters
Establish media rules
Media live for the “box score”
Don’t speculate
Feed the beast
Speed triumphs
Cable Rules
The term issues management was coined in 1976 by public relations counsellor W.Howard Chase, who defined it this way:
Issues management is the capacity to understand, mobilize, coordinate, and direct all strategic and policy planning functions, and all public affairs/public relations skills, toward achievement of one objective: meaningful participation in creation of public policy that affects personal and institutional destiny.
Issues management is a five-step process that:
1. Identifies issues with which the organization must be concerned,
2. Analyzes and delimits each issue with respect to its impact on constituent publics,
3. Displays the various strategic options available to the organization,
4. Implements an action program to communicate the organization’s views and to influence perception on the issue,
5. Evaluates its program in terms of reaching organizational goals.
In specific terms, issues management encompasses the following elements:
Anticipate emerging issues
Identify issue selectively
Deal with opportunities and vulnerabilities
Plan from the outside in
Bottom-line orientation
Action timetable
Dealing from the top
II. Emergence of Risk communication:
Risk communication began as a process of taking scientific data related to health and environmental hazards and presenting them to a lay audience in a manner that is both understandable and meaningful.
Seven steps are helpful in planning a risk communication program:
1. Recognize risk communication
2. Encourage management to join the “communication loop”
3. Develop credible outside experts
4. Approach the news media
5. Research perceptions
6. Understand your target audience
III. Managing in a Crisis
As any organization unfortunate enough to experience a crisis recognizes, when the crisis strikes, seven instant warning signs invariably appear:
1. Surprise
2. Insufficient information
3. Escalating events
4. Loss of control
5. Increases outside scrutiny
6. Siege mentality
7. Panic
IV. Planning in a Crisis
The key to crisis management is being prepared.
Heightened preparedness is always in order, with four planning issues paramount:
First, for each potentially impacted audience, define the risk.
Second, fro each risk defined, describe the actions that mitigate the risk.
Third, identify that cause of the risk.
Fourth, demonstrate responsible management action
Simple but appropriate watchwords for any crisis plan are the following:
Be prepared
Be available
Be credible
Act appropriately
V. Communicating in a Crisis
The key communications principle in dealing with a crisis is not to calm up
when disasters strikes. Lawyers traditionally have advised clients to either
(1)say nothing, (2)say as little as possible and release it as quietly as possible,
(3) say as little as possible, citing privacy laws, company, or sensitivity, (4)
deny guilt and act indignant that such categories could possibly have been
made, or (5) shift or, if necessary, share the blame with others.
VI. Engaging the Media
Handling the media is the most critical element in crisis. Dealing with the media in crisis demands certain “battle-field rules”; among them:
Set up media headquarters
Establish media rules
Media live for the “box score”
Don’t speculate
Feed the beast
Speed triumphs
Cable Rules
Chapter18: Public Relations and the Internet
I. Defining the Internet
The internet, technically, is a cooperatively run, globally distributed collection of computer networks that exchange information via common set of rules.
The Internet began as the ARPANET during the Cold War in 1969, developed by the department of Defense and consultants who were interested in creating communication network that could survive a nuclear attack.
The World Wide Web, the most exciting and revolutionary part of the Internet, was developed in 1989 by physicist Tim Berners-Lee to enlarge the Internet for multiple uses
By 2005, the Internet was used by 15 percent of the world’s people, more than 972 million.
The new Internet explosion has taken new forms: blogs, podcasts, wiki sites, RSS feeds, social networks, and others. This time, unlike the first time around, the Internet as a communications and commercial vehicle is here to stay.
II. The Internet as Communications Medium
The Internet has transformed the way that people communicate and make contact with each other, Virtually all organizations, from the largest corporation to the smallest non-profit today has a Web site.
Most of the time today, it is the Web site that serves as an organization’ “first face” to the public.
Journalists, meanwhile still the primary customers for most in public relations have also embraced the Internet as their primary source for research and reporting.
III. Public Relations Internet Challenge
Use of the Internet by public relations practitioners inevitably will grow as the century proceeds, for three reasons:
o The demand to be educated rather than sold
o The need for real-time performance
o The need for customization
Public relations has become prominent in several other areas:
o E-mail
o Web sites
o Blogs
o Online media relations
o Online monitoring
o Product promotion
o Investor relations
o Webcastes
IV. E-Mail: The Dominator
E-mail has become far and away the most pervasive organizational communications vehicle. In most organizations, e-mail is the internal medium of choice for newsletters, bulletins, and internal announcements.
E-mail has also unseated the traditional employee print newsletter. Online newsletters are both more immediate and more interactive than print counterparts.
E-mail newsletters for external use-to customers, investors, or the media-are equally popular and valuable. These differ from their print brethren in several important areas:
1. No more than one page
2. Link content
3. Regular dissemination
V. Developing a Winning Web Site
In many ways, the organization’s Web site is its most important interface with the public.
The aim of any Web site is to provide information that visitors are looking for. The more you achieve that objective, the more “sticky” your site becomes.
How should you create a winning Web site? By first asking and answering several strategic questions:
1. What is our goal?
2. What content will we include?
3. How often will we edit?
4. How will we enhance design?
5. How interactive will it be?
6. How will we track use?
7. Who will be responsible?
Blogs: The Latest Phenomenon
o Blogs, Weblogs that communicate personal views on any topic imaginable, are proliferating at the rate of 70,000 a day
o There are two categories of blogs. One is the traditional Weblog in which a web surfer shares his online discoveries. The second is the Web diary in which a person shares his or her thoughts of the day.
o In terms of public relations use of blogs, organizations can use them to deliver information-product uses, sales data, consumer tips, and so on- in a more personal way.
Blogs also can be useful as an internal communications vehicle. Among possibilities for internal blogs are the following:
o Projects
o Departments
o Brainstorming
o Customers
Dealing with the Media Online
The basics of online media relations include the following:
Web site newsroom
News release
Executive speeches
Annual/quarterly reports
Annual meetings
FAQs
VI. Monitor the Internet….or Else!
The internet is free, wide open, international, and anonymous-the perfect place to start a movement and ruin an organization’s reputation. Public relations people monitor the internet consideration of the following:
Discussion groups and chat rooms
Rogue Web sites
Urban legends
VII. Product Promotion on the Internet
The Internet provides a virtual laboratory to mesh public relations, advertising, and marketing techniques to promote products.
On the positive side, buyers and potential buyers can access your information directly, without interface. On the negative side, you are competing with hundreds of thousands of other information providers for visitor’s attention.
One popular product promotion device is the adlink. The adlink is a small display advertisement that promotes another site or page.
Online discussion groups provide another potential source of product promotion.
Web-based integrated marketing can create a new relationship with customers.
VIII. Investor Relations on the Internet
The Internet also plays a significant role in investor relations, the public relations activity that deals with a company’s stockholders and the communities-brokers and analysts-serving them.
Public companies increasingly use the Internet as a more controlled communications mechanism to reach potential investors.
The government that watches over securities markets is less convinced that the Internet is such a blessing fro investors.
IX. Of Intranets/ Extranets, Wikis; Prodcasts, and RSS Feeds
Public relations practitioners should at least be conversant in the following Internet vehicles:
Intranets
Extranets
Wikis
Podcasting
RSS
The internet, technically, is a cooperatively run, globally distributed collection of computer networks that exchange information via common set of rules.
The Internet began as the ARPANET during the Cold War in 1969, developed by the department of Defense and consultants who were interested in creating communication network that could survive a nuclear attack.
The World Wide Web, the most exciting and revolutionary part of the Internet, was developed in 1989 by physicist Tim Berners-Lee to enlarge the Internet for multiple uses
By 2005, the Internet was used by 15 percent of the world’s people, more than 972 million.
The new Internet explosion has taken new forms: blogs, podcasts, wiki sites, RSS feeds, social networks, and others. This time, unlike the first time around, the Internet as a communications and commercial vehicle is here to stay.
II. The Internet as Communications Medium
The Internet has transformed the way that people communicate and make contact with each other, Virtually all organizations, from the largest corporation to the smallest non-profit today has a Web site.
Most of the time today, it is the Web site that serves as an organization’ “first face” to the public.
Journalists, meanwhile still the primary customers for most in public relations have also embraced the Internet as their primary source for research and reporting.
III. Public Relations Internet Challenge
Use of the Internet by public relations practitioners inevitably will grow as the century proceeds, for three reasons:
o The demand to be educated rather than sold
o The need for real-time performance
o The need for customization
Public relations has become prominent in several other areas:
o E-mail
o Web sites
o Blogs
o Online media relations
o Online monitoring
o Product promotion
o Investor relations
o Webcastes
IV. E-Mail: The Dominator
E-mail has become far and away the most pervasive organizational communications vehicle. In most organizations, e-mail is the internal medium of choice for newsletters, bulletins, and internal announcements.
E-mail has also unseated the traditional employee print newsletter. Online newsletters are both more immediate and more interactive than print counterparts.
E-mail newsletters for external use-to customers, investors, or the media-are equally popular and valuable. These differ from their print brethren in several important areas:
1. No more than one page
2. Link content
3. Regular dissemination
V. Developing a Winning Web Site
In many ways, the organization’s Web site is its most important interface with the public.
The aim of any Web site is to provide information that visitors are looking for. The more you achieve that objective, the more “sticky” your site becomes.
How should you create a winning Web site? By first asking and answering several strategic questions:
1. What is our goal?
2. What content will we include?
3. How often will we edit?
4. How will we enhance design?
5. How interactive will it be?
6. How will we track use?
7. Who will be responsible?
Blogs: The Latest Phenomenon
o Blogs, Weblogs that communicate personal views on any topic imaginable, are proliferating at the rate of 70,000 a day
o There are two categories of blogs. One is the traditional Weblog in which a web surfer shares his online discoveries. The second is the Web diary in which a person shares his or her thoughts of the day.
o In terms of public relations use of blogs, organizations can use them to deliver information-product uses, sales data, consumer tips, and so on- in a more personal way.
Blogs also can be useful as an internal communications vehicle. Among possibilities for internal blogs are the following:
o Projects
o Departments
o Brainstorming
o Customers
Dealing with the Media Online
The basics of online media relations include the following:
Web site newsroom
News release
Executive speeches
Annual/quarterly reports
Annual meetings
FAQs
VI. Monitor the Internet….or Else!
The internet is free, wide open, international, and anonymous-the perfect place to start a movement and ruin an organization’s reputation. Public relations people monitor the internet consideration of the following:
Discussion groups and chat rooms
Rogue Web sites
Urban legends
VII. Product Promotion on the Internet
The Internet provides a virtual laboratory to mesh public relations, advertising, and marketing techniques to promote products.
On the positive side, buyers and potential buyers can access your information directly, without interface. On the negative side, you are competing with hundreds of thousands of other information providers for visitor’s attention.
One popular product promotion device is the adlink. The adlink is a small display advertisement that promotes another site or page.
Online discussion groups provide another potential source of product promotion.
Web-based integrated marketing can create a new relationship with customers.
VIII. Investor Relations on the Internet
The Internet also plays a significant role in investor relations, the public relations activity that deals with a company’s stockholders and the communities-brokers and analysts-serving them.
Public companies increasingly use the Internet as a more controlled communications mechanism to reach potential investors.
The government that watches over securities markets is less convinced that the Internet is such a blessing fro investors.
IX. Of Intranets/ Extranets, Wikis; Prodcasts, and RSS Feeds
Public relations practitioners should at least be conversant in the following Internet vehicles:
Intranets
Extranets
Wikis
Podcasting
RSS
Chapter 9 : Print Media Relations
Number One Medium:
Despite the rise of the Internet and electronic media, print still stands as the number one medium among public relations professionals?
Many departments at newspapers and magazines use news release and other publicity vehicles compared to the limited opportunities on networks TV
The Internet and YouTube generations have become dominant members in the society
Public confidence in the media dissipated as time wore on
Media Malaise
Power of Publicity
Mass media have lost relative influence to other proliferating alternative communications vehicles,
the fact remains that securing positive publicity through the media still lies at the heart of public relations practice
Publicity is more credible than advertising
A primary responsibility of a public relations professional vis-à-vis the media is
to help promote the organization when times are good and defend the organization in times of attack
This requires ready working knowledge of what drives the press
Objectivity in the Media
Total objectivity is impossible
By virtue of their role, the media view officials, particularly business and governments spokespersons, with a degree of skepticisms
Journalists should not be expected to accept on faith the party line
The reporter wants the story whether bad or good
The organizations, on the other hand, want things to be presented in the best light
Because of this difference, some executives consider journalists to be the enemy
The Internet Factor
The Internet has complicated this relationship
Dealing with the Media
It falls on public relations professionals to orchestrate the relationship between their organizations and the media
They can be confronted in a honest and interactive way to convey the organization's point of view
An organization must establish a philosophy for dealing wit the media
You should keep in mind the following dozen principles:
1. A reporter is a reporter
2. You are the organization
3. There is no standard issue reporter
4. Treat journalist professionally
5. Do not sweat the skepticism
6. Do not buy a journalist
7. Become a trusted source
8. Talk when not selling
9. Do not expect news agreement
10. Do not cop a tude (do not have attitude with reporters)
11. Never lie
12. Read the paper
Attracting Publicity
Publicity through news releases and other methods is eminently more powerful than advertising
Publicity is most gained by dealing directly with the media, either by initiating the communication or by reacting to inquires
Publicity differs from advertising
Advertising costs money
Since you pay your ad, advertising allows you to control the following:1. Content: What is said and how it is portrayed and illustrated
2. Size: How large a space is devoted to the organization
3. Location: Where in the paper the ad will appear
4. Reach: The audience exposed to the ad, how many papers the ad is in
5. Frequency : How many times the ad is run
Publicity is by no means a sure thing:
1. Publicity is not free
It costs only the time and effort expended by public relations personals and management in conceiving , creating and attempting to place the publicity effort in the media
2. publicity which appears in the news carries the implicit – third party – endorsement of the news sources that reports it
Publicity is not perceived as the sponsoring organization's self-serving view, but as the view of an objective, neural and impartial news sources
Value of Publicity
For any organization, publicity makes sense in the following areas:
1. Announcing a new product or service
2. Reenergizing an old product
3. Explaining a complicated product
4. Little or no budget (frequency)
5. Enhancing the organization's reputation
6. Crisis response
Pitching Publicity
The activity of trying to place positive publicity in a periodical - converting publicity in to news is called pitching
The following hints may help achieve placement:
1. know deadlines
2. Generally write, do not call
3. Direct the release to a specific person and editor
4. Determine how the reporter wants to be contacted
5. Do not badger
6. Use exclusives but be careful
7. When you call do your own calling
8. Do not send clip of other stories about your clients
9. Develop a relationship
10. Never lie
Pitching Online
1. Start with a techno-savvy media database
2. Avoid sending spammed e-mail, first send a brief e-mail identify your
3. The more personal the pitch, the better
4. Links
5. E-mails newsletter in publicity efforts
6. Do not ignore Internet-based news websites
7. Reuters should not be ignored
8. Web Libraries are but another publicity tool
9. Do not forget discussion forums
10. Consider the cyber media tour
Dealing with the Wires
Wire services are compulsory vehicles for distributing news
In preparing copy for paid wires, public relations professionals must consider the following
1. Always include headlines
2. The lead is critical
3. Identify the stock symbol. This is the key to database entry (Nasdaq for Microsoft)
4. Include contact names and numbers at the end
5. specify timing
6. specify target
7. check for accuracy
Measuring Publicity
After an organization has distributed its materials, it needs an effective way to measure the results of its publicity.
A variety of outside print and online services can help:
1. Media directories
2. Press monitoring bureaus
3. broadcast transcription services
4. Media distribution services
5. Content analysis services
Handling Interviews
The following 10 do’s and don’ts are important in newspapers, magazines or other print interviews
1. Media directories
2. Press monitoring bureaus
3. broadcast transcription services
4. Media distribution services
5. Content analysis services
Despite the rise of the Internet and electronic media, print still stands as the number one medium among public relations professionals?
Many departments at newspapers and magazines use news release and other publicity vehicles compared to the limited opportunities on networks TV
The Internet and YouTube generations have become dominant members in the society
Public confidence in the media dissipated as time wore on
Media Malaise
Power of Publicity
Mass media have lost relative influence to other proliferating alternative communications vehicles,
the fact remains that securing positive publicity through the media still lies at the heart of public relations practice
Publicity is more credible than advertising
A primary responsibility of a public relations professional vis-à-vis the media is
to help promote the organization when times are good and defend the organization in times of attack
This requires ready working knowledge of what drives the press
Objectivity in the Media
Total objectivity is impossible
By virtue of their role, the media view officials, particularly business and governments spokespersons, with a degree of skepticisms
Journalists should not be expected to accept on faith the party line
The reporter wants the story whether bad or good
The organizations, on the other hand, want things to be presented in the best light
Because of this difference, some executives consider journalists to be the enemy
The Internet Factor
The Internet has complicated this relationship
Dealing with the Media
It falls on public relations professionals to orchestrate the relationship between their organizations and the media
They can be confronted in a honest and interactive way to convey the organization's point of view
An organization must establish a philosophy for dealing wit the media
You should keep in mind the following dozen principles:
1. A reporter is a reporter
2. You are the organization
3. There is no standard issue reporter
4. Treat journalist professionally
5. Do not sweat the skepticism
6. Do not buy a journalist
7. Become a trusted source
8. Talk when not selling
9. Do not expect news agreement
10. Do not cop a tude (do not have attitude with reporters)
11. Never lie
12. Read the paper
Attracting Publicity
Publicity through news releases and other methods is eminently more powerful than advertising
Publicity is most gained by dealing directly with the media, either by initiating the communication or by reacting to inquires
Publicity differs from advertising
Advertising costs money
Since you pay your ad, advertising allows you to control the following:1. Content: What is said and how it is portrayed and illustrated
2. Size: How large a space is devoted to the organization
3. Location: Where in the paper the ad will appear
4. Reach: The audience exposed to the ad, how many papers the ad is in
5. Frequency : How many times the ad is run
Publicity is by no means a sure thing:
1. Publicity is not free
It costs only the time and effort expended by public relations personals and management in conceiving , creating and attempting to place the publicity effort in the media
2. publicity which appears in the news carries the implicit – third party – endorsement of the news sources that reports it
Publicity is not perceived as the sponsoring organization's self-serving view, but as the view of an objective, neural and impartial news sources
Value of Publicity
For any organization, publicity makes sense in the following areas:
1. Announcing a new product or service
2. Reenergizing an old product
3. Explaining a complicated product
4. Little or no budget (frequency)
5. Enhancing the organization's reputation
6. Crisis response
Pitching Publicity
The activity of trying to place positive publicity in a periodical - converting publicity in to news is called pitching
The following hints may help achieve placement:
1. know deadlines
2. Generally write, do not call
3. Direct the release to a specific person and editor
4. Determine how the reporter wants to be contacted
5. Do not badger
6. Use exclusives but be careful
7. When you call do your own calling
8. Do not send clip of other stories about your clients
9. Develop a relationship
10. Never lie
Pitching Online
1. Start with a techno-savvy media database
2. Avoid sending spammed e-mail, first send a brief e-mail identify your
3. The more personal the pitch, the better
4. Links
5. E-mails newsletter in publicity efforts
6. Do not ignore Internet-based news websites
7. Reuters should not be ignored
8. Web Libraries are but another publicity tool
9. Do not forget discussion forums
10. Consider the cyber media tour
Dealing with the Wires
Wire services are compulsory vehicles for distributing news
In preparing copy for paid wires, public relations professionals must consider the following
1. Always include headlines
2. The lead is critical
3. Identify the stock symbol. This is the key to database entry (Nasdaq for Microsoft)
4. Include contact names and numbers at the end
5. specify timing
6. specify target
7. check for accuracy
Measuring Publicity
After an organization has distributed its materials, it needs an effective way to measure the results of its publicity.
A variety of outside print and online services can help:
1. Media directories
2. Press monitoring bureaus
3. broadcast transcription services
4. Media distribution services
5. Content analysis services
Handling Interviews
The following 10 do’s and don’ts are important in newspapers, magazines or other print interviews
1. Media directories
2. Press monitoring bureaus
3. broadcast transcription services
4. Media distribution services
5. Content analysis services
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