According to Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 45% of American adults owned a smartphone in September 2012, compared with 35% in the year-earlier period. But the percentage of journalists and reporters who own a smartphone or, for that matter, a new-fangled tablet, should be considered universal, says Steve Rubel, executive VP of global strategy and insights for Edelman, the world’s largest independent PR agency.
Indeed, 2013 is likely to see more and more PR execs (of all stripes) shift to a mobile-first strategy when it comes to getting their messages out. Rubel spoke with PR News about how PR pros can accelerate their mobile-media efforts.
PR News: For PR pros, what are the major priorities for developing a strategy to reach out to increasingly mobile journalists?
Steve Rubel: The most important thing is truly becoming brevity. This was always important, but now it’s really important for engaging anybody. Content is increasing and the screens, to some degree, are shrinking. This makes it harder to break through.
[Whether] it’s a smartphone or tablet mobile screens these are really designed to do one thing at a time, as PCs are multi-window experiences. So, when you look at that, there’s no doubt that brevity is of prime importance; being able to really get your point across in 140-character limits, even in your emails, is critical.
That’s the most important skill for PR pros—how would you get somebody’s attention with what could fit in an email subject line. Until you have a relationship with someone who’s going to read your email in full, the first paragraph is critical. It’s a good idea for people to think that way; a website (http://three.sentenc.es) is good starting point for that. The site suggests keeping all emails to just three sentences.
PR News: What are some of the pitfalls for PR pros in reaching out to journalists on the go?
Rubel: Mobile etiquette; it’s not new, but rather old ideas pulled through a new prism. For example, does a mutual following on Twitter allow you to ‘DM’ (direct message) somebody? The answer really depends. I would argue that this is OK only once you have established a more formal way of communicating [online].
When you look at technologies, like iMessage, where people are using short-message services on multiple devices to connect with each other, the pitfalls are you break the unwritten rule of etiquette, for devices. [PR pros] need to be sensitive to those things.
PR News: Do PR pros need to be more cognizant of the use of language and phraseology when messaging for mobile devices?
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| Steve Rubel says social channels are key in developing media relations via mobile devices. |
Rubel: I think even more so now. When email first became big in the business, there was a lot of misunderstanding (and there still is) of [messages] that couldn’t construe emotion. Now, with mobile, it’s even more pronounced. I always err on the side of formality and clarity.
For example, the sentence ‘Now can you talk?’ It’s unclear what the tone is in writing versus verbally. It might not be angry. On mobile devices, it’s more likely that tone can get lost.
PR News: What role do social channels play in developing media relations via mobile devices?
Rubel: They’re tremendous tools for building relationships, particularly Twitter because media reps are heavier users of Twitter than they are of other [social] channels.
Where I suggest [social channels] fit in is that you use them slowly to establish a two-way relationship that can eventually lead to short message communications.
Today thanks to relationships I have built up on Twitter and face to face, I can now occasionally DM journalists something that I think is immediate and of high value.
Where social networks also come into play is in your situational awareness, so where you really have an idea on where a journalist is at a given time and what his or her mindset is.
You know if somebody is offsite or onsite; you can tell through language whether they are stressed or relaxed. Mobile is another layer on top of all of that.
PR News: How can PR pros meld their efforts at reaching out to mobile journalists with traditional PR channels?
Rubel: You have to assume that every journalist is mobile. I don’t think there’s a line anymore between traditional journalist and [digital] journalists. The days of journalists just sitting at their desk and their terminal writing stories once a day are gone.
I remember 10 years ago I was doing an event and I saw a journalist file a story from his BlackBerry, and I thought it was amazing. So we have to assume that the majority of communication is now done through mobile devices.
PR News: What’s your take on adding elements (links, pictures) to mobile messaging?
Rubel: Links are totally fine; images I would think twice about because of the fact some people may not have big mobile data plans.
[PR] 101 is you don’t send attachments. The same thing goes for images. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach; you need to think through who might be on the go and where.
PR News: When is the time to bring in a human voice to what started as a digital connection?
Rubel: You should always be yourself, as journalists are. Anytime something needs explanation or it’s a vague topic that needs clarity, that’s when you want to pick up the phone.
Use mobile to initiate a quick dialogue and that leads to then saying, ‘Can we talk on the phone?’
With the phone, more emotion can come though, along with verbal body language that comes across in conversation that doesn’t necessarily come across online. This is critical, for example, when dealing with a fast moving crisis. PRN
In the Race Among PR Vehicles, Mobile Starting to Pull Ahead
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By Peter Shankman
We’re in a world of increasingly mobile journalists. Want to know how to read that? Replace “mobile” with “busy.” That’s it. Being mobile means having a million things to do, and more than ever before, journalists are being asked to do a million times more with a million times less. Here are a few tips on how best to reach this new breed of journalist.
• Forget the phone, and forget emails longer than three paragraphs. Forget graphics or files. Chances are, the journalist is reading your email on a mobile device. Remember the last time you read a long email with embedded graphics and attached files? Of course you don’t, because you didn’t read it.
• Keep emails to three paragraphs. Keep links to a minimum, and never embed a graphic. The first paragraph should draw them in, the second paragraph to have the details and the third paragraph to have your contact information. That’s it. Keep it simple, and you’ll get a reply. Too much info? Unreadable? See ya.
• Know your journalists before you pitch. Do they check in every morning at the gym at 5 a.m.? If he or she is early riser, pitch them in the morning. Do they Instagram nightclub photos every evening? Chances are you’ll want to grab them in the afternoon. Knowing your journalist gives you a much better chance of getting them to listen to you. It also shows them you took the time to do your homework. That matters.
Peter Shankman is founder of Help a Reporter Out, one of the largest source repositories in the world, with more than 250,000 sources connecting daily with hundreds of thousands of journalists (http://helpareporter.com). He can be reached at [email protected].