Posts Categorized: Media Outreach
New Media, Old Media
I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.
Read More »
Discovery Gives Some Sound Business Advice for Handling a Real Time Crisis
As you may recall this past September 1st, a man armed with guns and explosives entered Discovery’s HQ building in Maryland and took three individuals hostage for several hours. Thankfully no employees were hurt or killed; the gunman was shot by police during their operation to rescue the hostages.
Often I am asked by PR execs from for profit corporations what protocols I feel they should put in place in the event of a crisis, whether it is fire or law enforcement that might occur on their premises.
Read More »
TSA Should Screen their own PR and Marketing Efforts
Over the holiday weekend I have had the opportunity to do some reading and investigation to attempt to put together the facts from a PR perspective of how things could go so terribly wrong in terms of the “they against us” attitude most folks now have towards the TSA.
Read More »
Responding to unfounded Complaints
We as PIO’s and PAO’s have to grit our teeth and bear it in how we answer members of the community and their perceived grievances. I know it can become tedious and time consuming but our jobs now dictates we cross every T and dot every I or else suffer the consequences of being smeared in the cyber world.
Read More »
Should we use social media as a crisis or emergency unfolds?
I am not totally convienced that reporting details rapidly on Twitter or Facebook is the most advantageous way to let the public know about an emergency. With things moving so quickly and so much at stake in giving details, social media can trap you into churning out information before we can actually put the unfolding events into perspective. A case in point took place in Singapore last week.
Read More »
Superb Public Information from the Chile Mine Rescue
As of this writing the 14th miner has been rescued from the Copiapo, Chile cooper and gold mine. I like many, especially those of us in the emergency services, were up all night watching the human drama that was unfolding before our eyes. I was riveted to the raw internet feed from CNN. To this point it has been a flawless rescue effort.
I am duly impressed by the skill and professionalism of the entire rescue team. From those at the mine shaft opening to the rescue workers who went down to supervise the efforts in the mine to the EMT’s and medical staff and mine and government administrators, everything has been done in an organized and flawless manner.
Read More »
When an Editor needs Editing
I tell the facts, give the numbers of the apparatus, give hours in military time etc. I use parenthesis around the military time, or other fire jargon to better explain, but this paper prints it all, as mentioned, verbatim.
Read More »
Yelling Down a Black Hole
In one of the more bizarre recent occurrences surrounding the amazing story of the 33 trapped Chilean miners it seems that need to express themselves clearly is towards the top of the agenda. It appears that PR types are yelling instructions down the shaft telling these guys the appropriate way to speak to the media upon rescue. If there ever was a way for the miners to get good nights sleep it would come as the result of some media consultant telling them what to say upon seeing the sunlight for the first time in months. Enough for anyone to go into a catatonic state!
Read More »
Hyperlocal News is Growing
A new form of reporting local news is taking root across America. It’s called hyperlocal and is much more nimble and reactive then traditional community news sources.
Read More »
Press Releases are not dead in our neck of the woods
There is a certain group of trend arbiters around whom I envision being skinny, wearing all black, with black framed glasses who think that when they speak the entire work of public relations will turn on a dime to do their bidding.
Over the last several years I am becoming progressively irritated when PR pundits keep saying that the standard press release is dead. Maybe the body is cold from where they sit, but in our line of work the old tried and true, boring and predictable press release is our lifeline to the media.
Read More »
Not all Public Speaking is the Same. What’s your Grade?
Often we say someone is a good public speaker. But a closer look reveals that someone might be a good public speaker in one discipline while lacking skill in another spoken area.
In my mind public speaking, in our profession as PIO’s, is segmented into a few distinct areas. Throughout the year we address many different audiences in many different venues, each requiring their own specific set of verbal commands and finesse.
Read More »
Sleazoid PR for Sleazoid Clients
A lot of what we do as PIO’s is based on standard formula and template. If we are sending out releases and working with the press at an incident scene we are pretty much like baseball umpires, calling them as we see them. There is no room for embellishment or spin in our line of work. This is one of the aspects of our job that we should be thankful for when we look at the alternatives, like choosing sleazoid PR as a career specialty.
Read More »
The Intricacies of “Off the Record”
I’ve been burned a number of times over the years trying to be a nice guy, covertly helping a journalist get what I feel is the essence of a story without my direct quotes.
Read More »
PIOs can learn from others Mistakes
I’m not a big reader of the New York Times; our politics are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. A colleague recently emailed me a link to a Times story about what not to do in case of a crisis communications emergency. I’ll admit it, it’s a great story by Peter Goodman and I encourage you to read it.
Read More »
PIO Help Wanted
Due to the interest in the site, I figured the media would be all over this one. Little did I know that the media would be all over me.
Read More »
360 Degree Social Media
There’s been a lot of talk recently at conferences I have attended about whether websites have outlived their usefulness and are merely dinosaurs left over from 1990s.
I think in our line of work where fact and not hype are the foundations of our websites, a no frills approach is warranted and the website model fits quite well thank you. Whereas a consumer product or service might look to gain interest through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube first, most folks who want fire and EMS information will visit our websites as the main source of information. With that said though our websites should still serve as portals to assist in integrating our traditional website and social media marketing efforts.
Read More »
What’s in your Email Subject Line?
Since we all send the vast majority of our PIO press releases via e-mails these days I wondered what many of you write as your subject line copy in the e-mail.
Read More »
Access Denied
I wrote a post awhile back where I discussed that I banned a news outlet for life for distorting a story that they did not vet properly. Now I see the US Army has also in a way sent a reporter into purgatory for his dealings with them.
Read More »
Taking your own PR Advice
Instantiations PR is a 24/7/365 job, even for volunteer PIO’s. We must always be on our toes listening to what the community, bloggers and press are saying about us.
Read More »
Newsroom Boot Camp
I just read an interesting story posted on Yahoo News about a unique program lead by CNN and the Chicago Tribune that allowed military public affairs officers to do a reverse-embedding of sorts.
Normally journalists and media outlets request from the military credentials to embed with an active combat unit to share and report on the experience.
Read More »
Media Friends
As PIO’s most of us are constantly working to position our departments in the most positive public light possible. Much of this effort involves interaction with the media to spread the word about our professionalism and efforts. While it is great that we can create cordial working relationships with the press, it is not beneficial to either party to become “friends.” Sooner or later tough questions are going to have to be asked by the media and on the opposite side we may find a story to have erroneous facts or flawed opinions.
Read More »
Watching My Own Back
This past Friday we had a fully involved barn fire in Smithtown, NY where I serve as PIO. Fortunately horses stalled in the barn and other livestock where turned out in paddocks when the fire erupted so fortunately no animals were lost or injured.
In Smithtown, most property zoned for livestock has the family residence at the front of the property and the barn area set to the back.
At Friday’s fire the barn was about 100 yards set back from the access street. Incident command was also set up close to the barn. On the access street was one Engine supplying the water source from a hydrant, Fire Police and Suffolk County PD.
Read More »
Public Relations Links Galore
I was just cleaning up my favorites sites on Internet Explorer. I have not updated my links section on this blog in awhile. I use these favorites for both my work as a fire department PIO and as a marketing and public relations professional for a national not for profit organization. Over the weekend I will hopefully add some of these sites to my links page that have not appeared in the past.
I present to you the most often visited PR sites that I rely on for information.
Read More »
Angle needs a new Angle
One of the more hotly contested Senate races taking place this fall is in Nevada where Sharon Angle is trying to unseat majority leader Harry Reid. I think it is safe to say that Angle, who was leading Harry Reid and is now trailing slightly in the polls, is starting to be looked upon as a “wingnut.” She certainly is not making any new friends in the media. Angle held a so called “press conference” recently in which she invited the media but bizarrely refused to even acknowledge their presence when they tried to ask her questions after the event ended.
Read More »
Rotten Apple?
I was driving to the airport a couple of hours ago after attending the Maryland State American Legion Convention in Ocean City.
Great place to hang out for a couple of days!
Read More »
