Media Relations

The media often points to examples of large brands failing to observe crisis-response best practices. The incident at the Topeka Zoo on Saturday (April 20) showed a small nonprofit conducting crisis PR at very high levels. The Zoo not only communicated quickly and transparently, it did so with sensitivity. Some large brands and organizations should take note.

There’s much PR pros can learn about communicating the intricacies of AI from a story this week. It seems Amazon’s Alexa indeed is listening to our conversations. In fact, the hockey-puck-looking device has an army of 1,000 humans who listen to what it picks up in homes around the world. One lesson is that communicators need to urge brands to be transparent in their AI activities.

As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Public relations professionals live and breathe this mantra for their clients, but they should also look inward when it comes to developing relationships with journalists.

PR pros are always ready with a statement for the press. Well…maybe not always. What happens when a situation occurs that blindsides you, like when someone uses gasoline to dry a wet ball field? We asked a group of communicators. Their top response: Never say ‘No Comment.’ Use the opportunity to offer your version of the story or promise to get back to the reporter when you have substantive information.

Building relationships with journalists is the lifeblood of PR pros. Yet communicators seem to make the same mistakes over and over when interacting with journalists. Here are four of the most common miscues and some simple ways to rectify them.

Veteran PR pro Arthur Solomon continues his traditional review of headlines that were instructive to young communicators. In truth, they’re good lessons for all PR pros. The first headlines offer lessons in career management, media relations and crisis response.

Google launched a $300 million news initiative just more than one year ago, including a product called News Consumer Insights. It allows publishers to crunch raw data from Google Analytics into insights around lead generation, audience segments and who’s paying for their premium content. Building on its commitment to that tool, Google just released a tool called Realtime Content Insights. While NCI is still useful for business development and looking at the longview, the RCI tool will help writers, editors, content producers and social teams make analytics-based decisions in the moment.

Asking the questions ‘So What? Why Now?’ when you’re writing a pitch or a press release was just one of many tips offered during PR News’ Writing Workshop March 15, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Others included the importance of grammar and excessive proofreading-one former journalist said she used to discard pitches that contained typos and poor grammar.

Before social media, an exchange between a PR pro and a journalist was akin to what goes on in Vegas. It stayed in Vegas. Now, though, some reporters seem to revel in exposing the miscues of communicators, writes Frank Ahrens, the former VP of corporate communications at Hyundai Motor and now a VP at BGR PR. Pro tip: Write email pitches with the understanding they could turn up on social media.

The standard line today is that it’s best for brands to practice transparency as much as possible. Maybe, though, the largest brands can get away with not being transparent. Amazon made two significant policy changes in the first weeks of March and refused to say anything about them. Nike endured a few months of crisis prior to Colin Kaepernick with nary a public word. Was avoiding comment the right call?