This year’s PRSA 2010 International Conference was my 11th in the past 12 years. As the date approached, I found myself wondering if it was going to be worth it. Would I really learn something new?  Now that the Conference is over, I can report a resounding, “Yes!”

One of the sessions I attended was led by my BurrellesLuce colleague, Johna Burke (@gojohnab). She offered so many great tidbits of social media/media relations-related information that it would be impossible to include them all in this blog post. However, there’s one point that stood out the most to me.

Continue reading " Everyone’s a Journalist: Beyond the Beat "

This PRSA conference session was packed! With good reason. All of us have seen the countless examples of blogger relations gone bad. This panel wanted to set the record straight about how to build mutually beneficial relationships within social media.

The panel consisted of:

If you want to see the back channel chatter of this session, research #digit.

Key Take-Aways:

Continue reading " Building Relationships with the Digerati "

This PRSA International Conference Workshop was led by Rebecca Rose-Markarian, APR, and my BurrellesLuce colleague, Johna Burke. 

The session began with Markarian demonstrating a real-life example of a successful media relations campaign — for the 2007 Jaguar XK. Rebecca discussed the details behind the public relations strategy and why it was successful. The takeaways include some of the same items I included in a recent blog post, along with some great additions:

• Do your homework; research the outlet and the journalist.
• Role play your pitch.
• Give the journalist an angle; offer multiple exclusives if you can, each with a different slant.

Continue reading " Persuasive Media Relations: The Key to Reaching All Your Publics "

[Part II of II]

Click here to read Part I

Self-Coaching

For the really resistant, brittle individual who is impervious to almost any suggestion that he or she could use some coaching, I’ve developed a brief self-coaching list. These 12 items often lead to good conversations, but this is something you send to the executive, ask for 10 minutes to review it, be turned down, but wait for the phone to ring.

Lukaszewski’s Twelve Quick Performance Tips for Spokespersons:

1. Use positive declarative language. Avoid using negative words and phrases. They cause confusion, generate negative follow-up questions and make you feel defensive.
2. Talk about the future rather than the past. Everyone remembers the past differently. Going there often causes confusion and disagreements.
3. If you must talk about the past, speak only about the lessons you learned there that will help you build a better tomorrow. Generally, the past holds very few, if any, useful lessons for tomorrow.
4. Be constructive. Make suggestions or give helpful advice rather than criticize. Criticism creates critics and victims and is remembered forever.
   

Continue reading " No Time for Coaching — How Can I Still Help My Busy Boss Get Ready for the Media? (Part II) "

[Part I of II]

As individuals move higher in an organization, two phenomena occur. The first is the belief that they are pretty good communicators. The top person in an organization usually assumes that he or she is the best communicator of all (that’s why he or she is at the top). The second is that their skin gets thinner; meaning, of course, that fools are less readily suffered the more senior an individual tends to get. Avoid using the word training with senior people. They don’t believe they need any. Always use the word coaching. Senior people know they can always use some coaching.This advice also goes for senior staff people.

There are two techniques I use to get to the busy boss:

Catch Him or Her Doing Something Right or Wrong

Routinely begin videotaping and audio taping presentations by very senior people. It doesn’t matter what the presentation is about; you need the videotape. Analyze the presentations for things the executive or manager did that you like and things that he or she could improve on. Then assemble clips of video or audio with examples of something he or she did that you really like and something that you can make one or two constructive suggestions about to improve.

Continue reading " No Time for Coaching — How Can I Still Help My Busy Boss Get Ready for the Media? (Part I) "