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Women In PR Celebrates 2 Years & Hosts Fundraiser Luncheon in Honor of Atlanta Based Publicist Dee Dee Cocheta

womeninpr — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:10:23 +0000

Women In PR, based out of Miami, FL, is celebrating its second year by hosting “Pamper & Rejuvenate,” a high profile beauty and shopping PR fundraising luncheon in honor of veteran publicist Dee Dee Cocheta. This event will take place on Saturday May 18, 2013 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (EST) at the Twelve Atlantic Station Hotel located at 361 17^th Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30363.
Dee Dee Cocheta is an award-winning PR and marketing professional that has coordinated publicity efforts for countless independent and major Grammy-award winning artists, fashion, and film events. A portion of the proceeds will go to the “Dee Dee Cocheta Get Rid Of Cancer Fund”. At 41, Dee Dee Cocheta has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is the Queen matriarch of her family of 7 children and 3 grandchildren. A publicist, friend and mentor, Dee is a lover and a fighter that’s constantly giving. For more information visit www.youcaring.com/deedeecocheta

The luncheon features on-site make-up application, eyelash bar, cocktails, manicures, pedicures, massages, shopping, and a mini cheesecake dessert bar.

This event is open to registration $50 before May 18th, 20013.

For more information or to register, visit www.wipr2years.eventbrite.com

About Women In PR
Launched in April 2011, Women In PR provides the highest quality in online, on-demand educational programs, and features top thought leaders and industry influencers sharing their insights at live events throughout the country. Women In PR empowers publicists to reach their optimal potential by promoting their professional growth and inspiring them to share their successes in the rapidly changing world of public relations. By helping colleagues, aspiring publicists and students learn the latest strategies in communications, effective tools to service their clients and develop methods to enhance their business as a brand. www.womeninpr.org

A Hollywood Publicist’s Six Tips for How to Build a Lasting Movie Star

womeninpr — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:07:22 +0000

By Claude Brodesser-Akner This post can be found here

Talent is God-given, and demands humility; fame is Man-given, and demands gratitude — especially to a publicist. For 40 years, Susan Patricola has seen Hollywood fame both flow and ebb. As press agent to current stars like Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner, she is especially qualified to assess what puts (and keeps) you on the right lists — like our roundup of the 100 Most Valuable Stars, for example. Vulture recently caught up with Patricola at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, where she offered up a few insights from her decades in the red-carpeted trenches. She may not pick her clients’ roles, but her advice on how they should act when off the set is just as important to figuring out how to make it to the A-list — and not fall off.

1. Train them to keep an eye on their mouths.
The first step for up and comers is media training. Without it, they should not be allowed anywhere near a reporter, because, as Patricola insists, today, “nothing is off the record.” If a publicist has done their job well, there will come a point when everyone is hanging onto every word that the client says. And that’s when you really have to be careful. “For Jeremy Renner, when The Hurt Locker came out, we were at every award show,” says Patricola. “And at one, he was having a private conversation, but someone overheard it and printed it. You have to be aware.”

2. Know the TV talk show landscape.
Generally speaking, which morning talk show you see a star on has less to do with the star and more to do with the movie they are plugging. For example, ABC’s Good Morning America “gets the lighter movies, and the comedies,” while NBC’s Today “has some weight behind it” and goes for more serious, dramatic films. Late-night talk shows, of course, have distinct demographics: Kimmel is more popular with young men 18 to 34 (which is likely why you see Ben Stiller hyping his bawdy comedy The Watch there); Leno does better in the middle parts of the country; Letterman is more popular on the coasts, etc. But which ones her clients appear on, Patricola says, has as much to do with personal chemistry between guest and host as the targeted audience. If you have a client new to the circuit, take stock of their conversational strengths and weaknesses and try to match them with a host who might best play off of them, or vice versa. This ineffable quality matters so much, Patricola says, because the late-night couches “often insist on exclusivities” — that is, doing Late Show With David Letterman means your client likely won’t be doing The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, and also won’t get a second chance elsewhere if they tank their first appearance.

3. Strike surgically, don’t carpet-bomb.
The mistake many publicists make with new movie stars, Patricola says, is trying to get as wide a reach as possible, mistaking breadth for depth. Take a gorgeous, waifish actress in her early twenties with just a few movies under her belt: “We could put you on the cover of Shape magazine in a bathing suit, but that would be a terrible idea, because while it would get more impressions, they would be the wrong impressions. There’s a big difference between being photographed on the beach in Santa Monica for Self, and getting Mario Testino to shoot you on the French Riviera for Vogue.”

4. Don’t always be afraid of tough questions.
The knee-jerk rule of publicity is that you should never let a journalist ask a client too many probing questions. But even though the reflexive approach for some publicists is to steer toward puff pieces, you should not be afraid of in-depth coverage. With big enough stars, “Their joy lies in the work; they don’t want to talk about making their last movie,” Patricola explains. “So that leaves their personal life, which they don’t want to talk about either, and the ideas that the movies are about, which they do.” Say yes less frequently, and reserve those yeses for places that will also devote column inches to exploring the ideas the celebrity wants to address — The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair. There, the star can muse on the things they want to while gaining the imprimatur that comes with the publication.

If your star is a little quirkier, this approach can also work well … with the right person. Know your star. If they can handle an in-depth piece, let them go for it. In 2005, Patricola agreed to let Phoenix be interviewed by the notoriouslyprobing Lynn Hirschberg for the New York Times leading up to Walk the Line.Addiction, recovery, and deeply held personal religious beliefs are all commonly avoided in polite conversation and celebrity profiles — which is why they made for a riveting read in the penetrating (and glowing) interview that resulted. “After I put Joaquin with Lynn Hirschberg for that New York Times profile, [his William Morris Endeavor agent] Patrick Whitesell said to me, ‘You’re either a genius, or insane.’ But I knew Lynn, and I knew Joaquin, and I knew they’d get along great.”

5. When an actor can’t follow the rules, adjust the rules.
Some actors, no matter how much media training they receive, are simply intractably bad interviews. In that case, Patricola pairs them with publications with which they can’t fail, often because the interview isn’t really about them. “You put them with someone who’s not going to skewer them, like InStylemagazine,” she says, adding, with mock enthusiasm, “‘Show us what’s in your closet!’”

And what about an actor who can’t stay out of the clubs and is constantly popping up in unseemly paparazzi photos? “I never say, ‘You can’t party anymore,’ but I have told clients that there are certain places and events where they just can’t go. You have to find your space within fame,” she says.

6. Tell your star to be a star.
“Clients sometimes don’t want to look the part of a movie star, but if you want to be a movie star, you have to care about appearances. You can look good, or not. That’s truly your choice. But do we want an actor who looks like he hasn’t taken a bath? Why should people care about you if you don’t care? Look like you care.”

Even more important? Don’t speak ill about the downsides of fame. Yes, celebrity comes with its downsides — being unable to go out for groceries or dinner without being hounded by paparazzi — but dedicated fans can’t relate to that, and never will. All they see is someone glamorous and wealthy, and there’s a form of aspirational adulation there that you shouldn’t try to quash, no matter how well-intentioned you may be in trying to show people we’re all the same. “People want to revere their stars,” says Patricola. “I tell clients, ‘They don’t want your money, but they do want to revere you for a certain amount of time; let them. They can’t do it if you’re whining all the time.’”

9 Things Every Publicist Does (Differently) That You Should Do, Too!

womeninpr — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:03:52 +0000

By: Penny C. Sansevieri Post can be found here

People will ask me all the time, “Why do I need a publicist?” If you have to ask the question, chances are you probably need one. Why? Because there are too many stories, too many angles, and too many opportunities you might miss by not knowing the rules of the game, so to speak. Authors, speakers, small business owners (turned authors) often launch headlong into their marketing campaign with little or no regard for the steps and the process of getting media. Some authors stumble into success after success, and that’s great, but it’s often not the norm. Why? Because in our zeal to tell the world about our story, we often stumble over our own efforts. We send pitches that are too long, or send them to the wrong person. Or we get a media person on the phone and fumble our elevator pitch. All of these things can rob authors of the chance to get some coverage for their book .

Over the years, a lot has changed in publicity. Players have come and gone, pitching windows have narrowed, and with so many stories vying for airtime, your 15 minutes of fame often seems like 15 seconds. To be successful, not just once but continually, you need to understand how publicity people view each facet of their job (and the pitch) and how they garner the media they do. Generally it’s not one thing, it’s a collection of tasks publicity people do over and over that gets them traction on a story.

Let’s look at some of the things we do on an ongoing basis and how you might be able to apply them to your own marketing efforts:

Think like a journalist: This is probably the most important and the most difficult. When I say “think like a journalist” what I mean is thinking objectively and not thinking about yourself, your book, or your pitch because those don’t matter. The only thing a journalist cares about is “Will this interest my readers.” If you can work using that objectivity, you’ll gain greater access to media, both online and off, than you could have ever imagined.

Know the rules: When I say rules, I mean not just the rules of your industry but the rules of pitching. When to pitch, who to pitch, how to pitch. A good publicist knows this, updates her information constantly (because media changes, moves, etc.) and lives and dies by these rules. Why? Get a reporter angry and you’ll see what I mean. Turn in a story late and see how much media coverage you end up getting. A lot of authors think they are special and different, and the rules don’t apply to them. Yes, you are special and different and yes, the rules still apply to you.

Read outside of your market: They say that, eventually, everything ties into everything. This may or may not be true for all industries, but when it comes to promotion you’d be surprised how much a ripple over there can affect what you’re doing here. Reading outside of your market, mostly related to changes affecting other markets, serves a couple of purposes. First, the importance of creativity when you’re pitching can’t be overstated and sometimes to be creative, you have to look through your world using a different lens. By digging into and outside of your market, you’ll be able to gain access to information that could affect your message long-term, or perhaps give your brain enough juice and insight to bring a new set of ideas that will create some great pitches.

Google Alerts: You can’t possibly follow every thread of discussion around your topic, or know where and when it’s being covered, but you do need to stay up on all of it; that’s where Google Alerts comes in. Yes, there are more elaborate tracking services, but Google Alerts is a great way to know when and where your topic is being featured. Also important, you’ll see who’s getting quoted and which media is covering your industry.

Understand the importance of local media: Many times clients want to overlook local media. It’s not as glamourous or as big as national media. Well, that may be true but there’s gold in your back yard. We love local campaigns and local media loves their regional “celebrities.” If you haven’t done a local outreach you should. Additionally, network with local media by going to media events like Press Clubs (which anyone can register for). You never know where this will lead you, and you never know where your local contact may wind up on the media food chain. Years ago I worked with a producer for a local (small) Los Angeles station. We stayed in touch over the years and now she’s one of the head producers at CNN.

Local vs. National: And speaking of local publicity — local media loves a local angle on a national story. If you can hook your book into something that’s going on nationally, then I suggest you pitch it to your local market. Good publicity people are always on the look-out for regional tie-ins, they make for great media!

Media leads: I subscribe to several media leads services and I scan them, not just for existing clients, but to note trends nationally. Doing a quick scan of leads is a fantastic way to see what’s piquing the media interest. As you start doing that, you will also find that you’re responding to more and more stories because you’re starting to see tie-ins that you may not have seen previously (which is helped along by #3).

Realize the importance of a subject line: I know that the topic of subject lines in email pitching has been covered (a lot), but I can’t state enough how important it is or how much time a good publicist can spend agonizing over it. Don’t just willy-nilly point and click your way through your media pitching — subject lines are extremely significant, and most publicity people I know spend a lot of time crafting, redrafting, editing and tweaking them. You should, too.

It’s all about relationships: Once you start getting media, remember that staying in touch with the person who interviewed you is important. Find them on LinkedIn, thank them for the story they did on you (I still send hand-written thank you notes) and then stay in touch a few times a year. Perhaps you can comment on a story they did or send them a quick update or a copy of your latest book. If you can become a reliable media source for someone, you’ll likely always be in their rolodex even when they move on. Just like the example I gave above, media can move, and if you’re lucky, your information will keep moving with them.

Being a publicist is more than just knowing how to craft a snazzy email, it’s a process and an ongoing effort. If done right, you can really pull in a lot of great mentions, features and even reviews. Building media relationships takes a while, and there are no shortcuts, but if done effectively, these relationships can grow and flourish throughout your career. And remember: Media loves media. The more you get, the more you’ll get. Know the rules, honor the rules and perhaps if you’re lucky, the media will beat a path to your door.

How To Respond To HARO/ProfNet Queries Without Pissing Writers Off

womeninpr — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:49:03 +0000

This post can be found here

Think your peach defuzzer is the greatest product in the known universe, or rep a doctor who’s on the road to curing a formerly incurable disease? Then you’re probably signed up as an expert source on services like Help a Reporter (HARO)and ProfNet.

I use these services as just one of many tools in my arsenal to find expert and “real life” sources, but often I end up frustrated — and without usable sources. To be fair, sometimes my requests are kind of crazy — like I’m looking for a Hispanic woman in her 40s who lives in the Midwest and drives a Suburban. But many times, it’s the people who respond to queries that make a writer want to drive flaming daggers into her eyes.

Don’t get me wrong — I love and appreciate these services. They’re free to journalists, and I often find good sources through them, like the beautiful bridal entrepreneur-slash-cage fighter I ended up profiling for Fortune Small Business and later for Inc. But the successes are tempered by avalanches of off-point e-mails from PR reps and expert sources.

If you use these services as a PR rep or a source, here are some tips for boosting your chances of a reply when you respond to a writer’s query. (Yes, writers, these requests confusingly are called queries.) I’ll use some examples from recent queries I sent in.

1. Read the Freakin’ Query!

Lat week I sent out the following query:

Are We Detoxing Too Much?
I’m looking for experts such as MDs who can discuss whether the detoxing trend is going too far, in terms of detoxing our homes, our bodies, and our food. Magazines and books are telling us to purge everything from house dust to bleach to non-organic foods, and more and more people are going on fasts and detox diets. How do you know if you’re going too far? And how much do we REALLY need to detox? I do not need to hear from vendors about detoxing products.

You get it, right? I’m looking for information on the negative side of detoxing — how much is too much and how to know if you’ve gone too far. And yet, almost 100% of the responses I received were from medical professionals who offered to talk about why we need to go on detox diets and how to do it. It’s like they scanned the query, saw the word “detox,” and blasted off an e-mail about the wonders of detoxing. If you can’t (or won’t) read, how can we trust you as an expert?

So please…READ the query!

2. Sell Yourself

Every once in a while I get a response that says something like, “I can help you with your article. Call me.” Yeah, I’ll get right on that. Please, tell me who you are and what makes you an expert in the topic I queried.

3. Remember That Our Job Is Not to Sell Your Product

Of course, people who respond to writer queries have something to sell, whether it’s a product, a viewpoint, or something else. But you need to use some smarts to determine when it’s right to make a blatant product pitch. For example, here’s a query I sent out yesterday:

For a national health magazine, I’m looking for beauty news that’s NOT product-specific and that is backed by studies. For example, I don’t care that Jane’s Sun Kissed Skin Lotion was proven to prevent wrinkles, but I do care that a recent study published in the Journal of Dermatology concluded that the antioxidants in pistachios were proven to whiten teeth. Please, no product pitches.

I’m guessing you noticed that I did not want product-specific pitches. I mean, I made it pretty clear, right? So why do I get replies from people telling me, for example, that the FatBlaster Brand Laser Machine has been proven to reduce the look of cellulite? I guess the reps think, “Well, it can’t hurt to send it along anyway.” But guess what? Itcan hurt, because I’ll be sending very negative vibes your way, and I will remember you when you contact me again.

4. Don’t Add Us to Lists Unless We Ask You To

I can’t even count how many PR reps add my address to their press lists after harvesting it from a HARO or ProfNet query. I know this because I have a special e-mail address that I use only for queries on these services, so when I start getting press releases at that address, I know how I ended up on the list. Many people see I’m a writer — what type? who cares? — and decide that maybe I’d like to write about their clients who run a cracker factory in Boise. But even if a PR rep groks my specialties, I don’t want to be added to press lists unless I ask for it. Just because I wrote about safe web surfing in 2001 doesn’t mean that I want to receive press releases on that topic for the rest of my days. I get enough e-mail as it is.

Now HARO has a special feature that hides your e-mail address on your queries so this is less of an issue, but as soon as you respond to a PR rep they have your e-mail address and can add it to their press lists, so the problem hasn’t been completely eradicated.

5. Make Sure Your Client Is Available

It sucks when a PR rep responds to a HARO or ProfNet request with what sounds like the perfect source, but when you try to set up the interview the source goes AWOL. Check with your source to make sure he’s interested in doing the interview before you respond to a query.

2 Tips for PR Pros to Add Vine to the Communications Mix

womeninpr — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:16:57 +0000

by Matthew Schwartz This post can be found here

Vine, a mobile app by Twitter that enables its users to create and post short video clips, is the latest shiny new thing in the social-media gestalt.

The service, which launched in January, features a video clip that’s just six seconds. While that’s less time than it takes to clear your throat, it may still be enough time for PR pros and communicators to convey a quick message or, at the least, supplement an existing message on another media channel.

As Vine starts to weave its way into the marketing-communications compendium, what’s the video platform’s potential for PR? So far, it’s encouraging.

In an informal poll conducted by PR News, nearly half of the respondents (45%) said they are now using Vine, while 19% of the respondents said they were not using the service.

About a quarter of the respondents (24%) said they were considering using Vine and 12% said they were not familiar with the service.

Our guess is that that last percentage will soon whittle down to virtually zero. With that in mind, we offer a primer for PR execs on how to find their inner Fellini in six seconds or less.

Jason Woodward, a research and social/digital media associate at Hunter Public Relations, provided two key tips that PR pros need to know about Vine:

1) Brands can tell stories on Vine that they know their viewers will watch all the way to the end.

Research abounds on the optimal video length for the Web’s modern viewer, with recommendations varying from 30 seconds to four minutes. But by capping its videos at six seconds, Vine asks for a virtually insignificant time investment from the viewer.

This all but guarantees that if someone starts watching your Vine, he or she will watch the whole thing. Since Vines loop endlessly, most consumers will probably watch them through multiple times. Instead of worrying about the video’s parameters, the lightweight nature of Vine enables brands to focus on what they should do best: tell a compelling story.

2) Content is still king, but creativity has become the prince.

More important than any medium, budget or featured celebrity is the actual quality of the marketing messages you create and produce. In other words: content is king. However, the quality of your content is fueled by the distinctiveness of your creativity. And the less you have to work with, the more creative you’re forced to be.

In other words: constraints drive creativity. Such is the case with Vine. It now offers videographers a very limited toolkit. To wit, all video must be shot on an iPhone (for now); it must be shot within the Vine app; it can’t be cropped, edited or touched up after the fact; you can’t add any text or special effects and external videos that were taken somewhere else cannot be imported into the app.

What’s your take on Vine as a PR tool?

Don’t miss PR News’ Vine Webinar on April 30.

Follow Matthew Schwartz: @mpsjourno1

Working In PR Is More Stressful Than Being A Police Officer

womeninpr — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:59:02 +0000

by Ruth Graham This post can be found here

Almost everyone in modern America claims to be “stressed out” at work once in a while. And by “once in a while” I mean “once an hour”: In many circles, stress is a badge of honor. But not everyone can claim to be working in one of the most stressful jobs in America. CareerCast published its list of the 10 most stressful jobs recently, and some of its selections are obvious: Enlisted military personnel claim the top spot, and for good reason. But right up there with them are a group not that might surprise you: PR executive.

The #2, #3, and #4 spots on the list are taken up by traditionally male, physically daring jobs: Military general, firefighter, and commercial airline pilot. But in at #5 is PR executive. As the list-maker puts it, “Public relations executives are masters of damage control, thus need to be able to think and act quickly under stress. The profession lives in the public eye, and it’s also one of the professions attracting the most college students, which makes landing and keeping a good job that much more difficult.” The median salary, according to CareerCast, is about $58,000, significantly less than generals and pilots.

The job is often thankless, as NBC News points out: If you do something right, clients are always searching for the next big hit, and meanwhile you’re the one they call when a scandal breaks over a holiday weekend.

The list-makers use 11 “stress factors” to assemble their list, including the amount of travel a job requires, deadlines, and working in the public eye. PR ranks high on those measures, although they’re off the hook on things like “own life at risk” and “hazards encountered.”

So take comfort, underappreciated PR pros of America: You officially have a more stressful job than taxi drivers, police officers, and even the newspaper reporters who dread taking your calls.

12 PR MISTAKES THAT PISS FASHION BLOGGERS OFF

womeninpr — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:38:32 +0000

By: YAZMINA CABRERA This post can be found here

“Fashion Bloggers are a necessary evil”, or so they say. Fashion PR people should be aware of that fact when starting collaboration lines with them and should take them seriously, even when they do not always agree on bloggers’ explosive success.

When I created my first Fashion PR Guide for Girl with a Banjo, I got in touch with an Italian Fashion Blogger called Lucia del Pasqua. Lucia, better known for her overwhelming rhetoric and her acclaimed blog The Fashion Politan, came up with a post about the worst Fashion PR profiles she has found in her blogging career (which I personally found hilarious). However, this post showed me that there were some huge (but common) mistakes that were affecting our “PR name” negatively, reaching the point in which fashion bloggers were starting to make fun of Fashion PR people. Boo!
But wait, there’s always time to learn from mistakes! So here come 12 things you should definitely avoid when connecting to Fashion Bloggers, as experienced by blogger Lucia del Pasqua.

1. Sorry, but who are you?
Lucia has encountered that sort of Fashion PR who invites you to an event, calls you to talk about &%$Ç@, sends you an email to check if you’re coming… and then makes the horrible mistake of showing that she does not know who the hell you are through these two awkward ways:
1) At the end of a phone call she asks you: “…who were you exactly? Which blog do you write for?”.
2) When you show up in the event, you see that she asks her PR colleagues who you are because she has NEVER seen your face. Like ever. Then she doesn’t even come say hello.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Always make sure you triple-check who you are communicating with. I mean, go visit her blog (just saying)! Create a bloggers catalogue with pictures and names, if it helps! Just show them that you really care and that you know who they are.

2. Obsessively-communicative.
Mailing is fine. Meeting is cool. Making phone calls is alright. But Lucia has found a couple of Fashion PR girls who were CRAZY about communicating at all existing levels and going beyond the traditional means.
She’s been contacted by Whatsapp and Facebook chat for important (and very long) issues, obviously getting lost in the middle. “Just send me a damn email, who are you, my best friend?”, says Lucia.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Checking with the blogger you are intending to pitch which way he/she desires to be pitched is key for not becoming an overwhelming and invasive PR person. Never use Facebook or Whatsapp unless it is completely necessary or urgent. Visit PR Couture by Crosby Noricks to find out more aboutpitching.

3. Shampoo.
Lucia has suffered the “Shampoo-girl Syndrome”, occurring when a random Digital PR ignores basic things as the “target audience” and invites the wrong people to a certain event instead of or with you. “The risk of being photographed with a girl who’s wearing an acrylic leopard printed skirt and white cowboy boots is high”, says Lucia.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Controlling the theme and target audience of the blog you want to work with is very important. Put the right people in the right places and just let the magic happen. A beauty blogger (and her audience) may not be interested in your new bags collection. Don’t waste your client’s budget!

4. B for Brandetta.
Lucia wrote a post about a fashion brand she loved just because she wanted to, no PR involved. Some months later, she was contacted by the Fashion PR representing that brand who maliciously told her: “oh, too bad, we could have collaborated under an economic agreement”. “Bulls*$&!”, Lucia thought.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Avoid this sort of… how to say… 360º-uncomfortable-situations? Be FAIR.

5. Sweetheart.
Love, honey, baby, cupcake-frosting, darling. Just… don’t. OK? You are not the blogger’s mum. Nor her hairdresser.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Be respectful and always maintain a professional tone when talking to a blogger, unless you really get to a point where the blogger becomes your friend. Then you can both sing the Macarena together if you want to.

6. The pseudo – digital.
Lucia talks about a funny situation in which she asked a Fashion PR: “so, what hashtag should I use for this press event?”. And the Fashion PR replied: “(what do you mean by) hashtag?”.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Get fully informed about the blogging mumbo-jumbo and learn to talk to them in an appropriate, digital-savvy way. CD-ROM is not a word any more.

7. As you wish.
Lucia explains that some Fashion PRs have invited her to press events to specifically get coverage from her in Style.it (where she has a blog). She seemed very angry about the fact that they didn’t want her for The Fashion Politan instead, and sort of obliged her to not write on her blog about the event.
NOTE TO ASPIRING FASHION PRs: Oh, come on, SERIOUSLY? Don’t try to limit bloggers’ freedom. Ask in advance in a kindly manner and NEVER force things or you will get the opposite result (like the blogger writing a post about how awful you are as a Fashion PR). And if you finally decide to work with that blogger accept the consequences.

8. Goddesses.
“Oh, like if you were Juno, Minerva or Elena. Don’t be that smug!”, says Lucia ironically. Period.
NOTE TO ASPIRING FASHION PRs: Yes, you are working for Prada, how awesome. But that doesn’t make you a superior person, ok? Be humble AND professional at all times, at all levels, with every single person.

9. The far-too-clever.
According to Lucia’s experience, some Fashion PRs do not even hire photographers for their press events and pretend bloggers to make all the pictures and get them sent to the PR Agency the day after the event. Even the Instagram pictures. “Well, Copy+Paste. Thank you”, chuckles Lucia.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: By acting like this you are inevitably giving the image of 1) a lazy PR and a 2) Ebenezer-Scrooge Brand. If you are short of budget, analyse if it is still a good idea to do a press event. Talk to your client about the importance of not being cheap when it comes to public events.

10. What do you think I am, a scratch card?
Lucia admits that some Fashion PRs have sneakily asked her to send them her mailing lists with all the contacts she has. “Those have an economic value”, she admits. And how right she is.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: By any mean you should ask something like this to a blogger. First of all because it is just not fair and you will be seen as a stealing raccoon, but also because it is supposed to be illegal to traffic with personal-details. Just saying.

11. Come on, Cheesus Crackers. If I say no, it is NO.
“Some Fashion PRs think that Fashion Bloggers have nothing else to do in the world but trying the new Zara collection every day and eating cupcakes”, says Lucia.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Some Fashion Bloggers have really busy agendas (some of them may even have a day-job!) and you, as a Fashion PR, have to understand when to get a NO to an invitation.

12. The day before.
Some Fashion PRs have called Lucia only the day before the once-in-a-century event just because nobody wanted to assist and they were in need of patching-guests.
NOTE TO FASHION PRs: Don’t be that obvious. Simply that.

(Special thanks to Lucia del Pasqua for allowing me to use her picture and this amazing ranking of the most awful PR profiles she’s encountered. For her original post in Italian, click here).

Spread the word so that all the Fashion PR people out there stop doing these things!

HOW TO CREATE A PR CALENDAR

womeninpr — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:53:09 +0000

By :YAZMINA CABRERA This post can be found here

Is creating a PR Calendar among your New Year’s Resolutions? It should be!
Now that we have covered important aspects of your PR plan such as conducting a PR research, setting up goals, strategies, objectives and tactics or creating a media database for your blog, we are ready to start planning your PR thingies for 2013!
Scheduling your PR activities and media exposure will contribute to the growth of your blog improving your outreach. It is a useful tool that will save your culo with deadlines, make you save efforts, help you manage your time in advance in a more organized and efficient way and will allow you to look ahead.
“But I already have an editorial calendar!”, you will say. However, a PR Calen is NOT an Ed Calen (sounds like Edward Cullen, huh?). They are complimentary! So please, use both: their contents and purposes are completely different.

Here are some advantages of creating a PR Calendar for your blog:

You won’t miss important deadlines: Find out what journalists, other bloggers and media outlets are intending to publish soon and be on time to propose editorial ideas.
You will plan your work several months ahead: Anticipate to deadlines contributing with an article or suggesting a feature. Have 15 minutes now? Write a post that may be interesting for the September issue of Glamour!
You will identify PR opportunities and be ready for them: Get recognized by the right people in the right time! Introduce yourself as an expert source for speaking engagements, pannels and workshops before the expiring date. Or maybe, just saying, participate in THAT contest and try to win a Blogger of the Yearaward.

How can you create a PR Calendar? Simple! Open Ms Excel / Numbers or Ms Word / Pages. Create a table on your worksheet and include the following categories at the top bar: date, activity, tools, steps, contact, status, deadline and importance.

Activity is the category where you will write down the name of each one of your PR activities or projects.
The Tools category includes a list of all the PR tools (sorry for the repetition!) you will need to work: newsletters, pitch to editors, social network updates and so forth.
A detailed to-do list will be included in the Steps category.
The Contact category must include all the contact details of each and every person needed to accomplish the PR activity.
Status: Tbc? Ongoing? Finished? You name it.
Deadline is easy, right?
Give a rate to your PR activity in the Importance category. Use stars. Or hearts. Or smileys. Or words. Anything you like!

Need some extra tips? Here they are.

Don’t know where to start from? As with editorial calendars, PR calendars can be divided into different months, seasons and holidays. Start by writing down all these details in your calendar so you can see the important dates in just one sheet and get an overall look.
Revisit your calendar several times. Make proper corrections and update it.
Check out which posts, angles and pitches have worked best in the past. Use this information to schedule similar activities.
Are you going to be featured anywhere? Write it down in your PR Calendar and make sure you spread the word.

Am I missing anything? Do you have any questions? Need personalized advice about this subject? Do not hesitate to contact me!

Taylor Swift needs to rethink her PR strategy

womeninpr — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:44:56 +0000

By Michael Sebastian This post can be found here

Taylor Swift’s PR machine might be running out of gas.

The 23-year-old pop star, once described by The New Yorker as radiating “unjaded sincerity,” is facing a speed bump: The public is turning on her.

“I hope Taylor Swift’s publicist is working overtime to get the world to like her again,” Alisha Ramos, a brand consultant in New York, tweeted last month.

Ramos’s tweet seems almost prophetic. It came weeks before the April edition of Vanity Fair, in which Swift graces the cover. The story is a disaster for Swift.

“Instead of coming off sweet and humble like her public persona so desperately wants you to believe she actually is, the interview is aggressive and very defensive,” Aly Weisman wrote on Business Insider.

‘Losing her title as America’s sweetheart’

One part of the VF interview with Swift gained notoriety this week. The singer called out comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for not supporting women because they cracked a joke during the Golden Globe Awards in January about Swift’s many romantic relationships. Fey joked: “You know what Taylor Swift? You stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son.” To which Poehler added: “Or go for it. No! She needs some ‘me’ time to learn about herself.”

Swift wasn’t amused.

“You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people,” she told VF contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales. “Because she said to me she had heard a quote that she loved, that said, ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’”

Fey’s response: Lighten up, kid.

“It was a joke, and it was a lighthearted joke,” she told Entertainment Tonight, “and it’s a shame that she didn’t take it in the crazy-aunt spirit in which it was intended.”

All joking aside, PR practitioner Anje Collins says Swift and her PR team had better be careful.

“I don’t think they realize that she is losing her title as America’s Sweetheart … by saying anything and not thinking about what she is saying,” said Collins, who is agency director at The Luxe Group and co-founder of Women in PR. “I would advise her to keep her opinion to herself. Trying to morph yourself into the good girl gone bad only works if your name is Rihanna.”

PR executive Dorothy Crenshaw echoed this notion of thinking before you speak.

“I’d tell her not to play victim this time and to respond with humor,” she said. Swift “can win points if she shows that she doesn’t take herself so seriously.”

If Swift was going to fire back at Fey and Poehler, she should have done it immediately—like the day after the awards show, Crenshaw said. She said responding a month later in a magazine interview “brought the story back just as everyone had forgotten it.”

Swift’s publicist Paula Erickson did not respond to PR Daily.

The remarks about Fey and Poehler elicited a chorus of boos from media outlets and bloggers. On Thursday, The Washington Post published a story telling Swift to “lighten up,” and explaining the true meaning of sexism—it ain’t a couple of female comedians cracking wise during an awards show, the Post’s Patricia Murphy wrote.

“Actual sexism, in the workplace for example, is being as good as a man at a job, but being passed over for a promotion because you are a woman,” Murphy explained. “Or being told directly, as I once was, that I would have been paid more for my work if I was ‘a high-powered man. Instead, we got you.’”

The blog Celebitchy put it more harshly (as you might expect given the blog’s title): “Amy and Tina have done more for women in the industry and in life than you will ever know.”

Steal a page from Kanye West?

Swift should know the power of the press—her renown is partly a result of a wild incident tailor-made for the media.

At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Swift won for Best Female Video. When she accepted the award, the combustible rapper Kanye West leapt on stage, snatched the microphone from Swift, and held forth about the woman who he felt truly deserved the award, his pal, Beyoncé. Swift stood by doe-eyed and helpless. West was the Big Bad Wolf, Swift the Little Red Riding Hood clad in sparkles. The media ate it up, and overnight she was cast as America’s sweetheart.

Later, West apologized and tried his best to be contrite. It didn’t work. Ultimately, he buried himself in work—while continuing to unleash a diatribe here and there—releasing several hit records that were also critically acclaimed.

Strangely, Swift could learn something from West’s example, not from his screeds, but from his dedication to music. According to Matt Ragas, an assistant professor in the college of communication at DePaul University, the best PR play for Swift is to continue to release hit songs and strong performances. If she does so, her current problems will “fade away,” Ragas said.

“Part of PR is words and messaging, but a huge part of is also actions and behaviors,” he explained. “If she continues to put out hits and stays out of trouble, she’ll be fine.”

Believe it or not, organizations can learn from Swift—good PR is as much (if not more) about actions as it is words, Ragas said.

“Public opinion is shaped by words and images, but lots of time those words and images are grounded in some sort of reality,” he explained. “Whether it’s a pop star or a conglomerate, actions and policies are a big deal.”

That’s why PR people deserve a seat at the table with other top executives, said Ragas. And it’s why Swift should continue writing hit songs.

5 tips for new grads entering the PR and marketing field

womeninpr — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:17:24 +0000

By Allen Mireles This post can be found here

It’s April.

They say April showers bring May flowers.

April also brings waves of students about to graduate, filled with anticipation, pounding the pavement in search of that first job in PR and marketing.

But this year, finding that first job will require a combination of digital and practical skills.

The competition is fierce. The economy is just now beginning to turn. You have to stand heads and shoulders taller than your peers to even get an interview.

Here are five tips to help new grads land their dream job:

1. Create content

Your ability to create compelling content is integral to your success. Be a storyteller. In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, companies are desperate for content and for the employees who can create it quickly and well. Content creation is not limited to writing, but your portfolio should include blog posts, case studies, news releases, and articles.

If you don’t have those examples yet, it’s not too late. As PR recruiter Lindsay Olsen explains, you can easily start your own blog and write about your industry, professional topics, and current events. Read the leading bloggers in PR and marketing and comment on their posts. Volunteer for smaller non-profits that need help with content creation. Help them tell their stories. Write a news release for an upcoming event. Develop a case study for them. Create a short video that illustrates what they do.

2. Display digital proficiency

Working in PR and marketing today requires a level of digital proficiency that goes beyond simply using Facebook or YouTube. You need to be able to conduct online research efficiently, understand search engine optimization, show proficiency with tools that monitor and measure online communications, create and manage an email campaign, build a spreadsheet in Google Docs or Excel, and perform simple video editing.

Your level of digital proficiency must also include a solid understanding of what not to do online. Don’t have social network profiles that show you in unprofessional or compromising situations. Don’t use social tools to spam people or buy followers to pad a social network account. Don’t send texts or images that slander or defame anyone.

3. Showcase leadership skills

Employers are looking for recent graduates who can demonstrate a level of leadership and common sense. They want to know that you can be trusted with tasks that call for judgment or leadership. Are you someone who is willing to pitch in and help? Can you take a task and run with it without much supervision? Do you listen well? Are you organized? Are you honest and forthright?

Few of us have all of the traits of a leader, but most of us possess some leadership skills, even if we aren’t always aware of them. Take some time to do an analysis of who you are and list your strengths and weaknesses. Doing a personal SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) will help you identify your own leadership skills and understand how to showcase those skills in action.

4. Highlight creative problem-solving abilities

A highly sought after “soft skill” in today’s economy is creative problem-solving. This is a process that involves identifying a goal or objective, gathering information, clarifying the problem that you are trying to solve, generating ideas, building a solution, identifying how results will be measured, and then creating the plan of action for its implementation.

Think outside the box. Connect the dots. How have you done this?

Go back through your experience to date. Where have you exhibited creative problem-solving? Is your résumé lacking? It’s not too late to change that. Look around your school or community. Who needs help? What problems could you help solve? Follow the creative problem-solving process and document that experience as an example for prospective employers.

5. Demonstrate ability to translate technical information

You don’t have to be highly technical to be successful in today’s digital world. However, you become extremely valuable to an organization when you can demonstrate your ability to work with technology experts and translate information you get from them into language the client or manager can understand.

If you haven’t done this yet, do some research online. Learn about the basic language used in building technical solutions and work to understand what is involved in creating a website or developing an app. What is the process and how can you provide a programmer or technical expert with the information he or she might need? Look around you. Go to your school’s technology department and start asking questions. Listen.

The fact you are even thinking along these lines and able to discuss this in an interview will make you stand out. If you are able to demonstrate instances where you have acted as a liaison or translator between technical experts and the less informed, so much the better—for you and for your prospective employer.

It’s April. It’s not too late to take these five tips and apply them to your situation. Building out examples of your abilities in each of these areas will make you stand out above other candidates and help land you that first job in PR or marketing.

Allen Mireles is vice president at Arment Dietrich. This story first appeared on the firm’s blog Spin Sucks.