05.20.08
Posted in Professional Development at 10:09 am by Donnie Turlington
Read Jim Sinkinson’s article and checked out Gina’s blacklist and thankfully did not see anyone from PRSA Tar Heel on the list — nor did I expect to! I think it’s important to take pride in the work that we perform as PR professionals and media relations is no exception. Bottom line, is that to be effective in media relations the pitches have to be on target. I can’t imagine spammers are getting any results to begin with, so why anyone is still randomly firing off hundreds of e-mails is beyond me.
For those of you who are actively involved in the art of media relations, check out Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (HARO). You can sign up to receive daily e-mails from Peter with queries from journalists around the country looking for expert sources on a wide variety of topics. I’m a relatively new user and have already found this process to be worthwhile. Only catch, and it’s a good one — if your pitch is off target, you’re officially canned from the e-mail blast. Happy pitching!
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Posted in PRSA News at 7:41 am by Leslie Brooks
… posted an interesting article this morning about journalists blacklisting individual PR practitioners and PR firms for sending them unsolicited email. Interesting, and Jim makes some good points. Here’s a link to his article.
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05.16.08
Posted in PRSA News at 10:36 am by Leslie Brooks
… to a complicated question? Or rather, a series of questions.
I received an email from someone asking for some quick enlightenment on how to get the most for herself and her clients out of social media sites like stompernet and twitter. She wrote, “I’ve joined several but I’m just not sure what to do with them. how can I advise clients when I don’t get it?? Who in the world has time to sit on these sites and browse for other people you know or want to know or to write what you’re doing in a blog everyday?? And there are so many sites that seem to be “a must” how do you choose where to go? Last question.. how do people find you on these sites? Blog directories?”
Does anyone have insight they’d like to share with her? I’m sure lots of us would find it very helpful.
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05.05.08
Posted in PRSA News at 10:03 am by Tamara McLendon
I always learn new things at the PRSA Tar Heel luncheons, but I’m especially looking forward to this month’s “Green PR” topic. My agency has a client in the environmental technologies field, and that’s really forced us to get up to speed quickly, but I suspect that as time passes, we’re going to need to apply that knowledge for all kinds of clients — B2B, consumer packaged goods, whatever.
These last few years have really shown a growth in awareness and concern of environmental issues in the public eye. Many years ago, I was a reporter in DC covering the environment, and I remember how left-field most people thought the topic was back then. Not anymore. It’s clearly a hot topic these days.
And when the public starts to think something is important, so do the companies that are selling to them. The other side of the coin is that there’s a growing realization that environmentally wasteful practices also tend to be financial wasteful ones. in many cases, companies that adopt environmental plans will save money in the process.
So as the voice of those companies, we need to know how to talk about “green” for our various audiences, whether its driven by consumer demand, cost savings, or just doing the right thing.
Thanks to the Professional Development committee for bringing us such a timely topic.
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