If you are like me and you hear the term tools, you start thinking about software or applications that make your job easier. Or, maybe you think about the more classic tools of a carpenter such as a hammer, measuring tape and architectural designs? Others may think of humans most important tool, the mind.
In this episode of PR Talk, Amy shares her view that the most important PR Tool is not the mind, relationships, a press release or even her favorite, the telephone. She insists that the most important PR tool is instinct.
This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon
Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.
In this episode of PR Talk Amy and Mike talk about when using a press release will provide additional value to “just” sending a pitch. They review some specific instances or topics when a press release can get you coverage or enhance a simple mention to a bigger story.
If you write about what’s new in your organization (your homework from the Forget Your Story episode), those are the topics that you may want to write a press release about. The press release provides structure and helps layout your thoughts, insert a quote and provide additional pertinent information.
“A press release can change two sentences of coverage into two paragraphs.” – Amy Rosenberg
This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon
Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.
This episode of #PRTalk is a recording from a PRSA Oregon event we did about the Ins and Outs of Podcasting. During the hourlong presentation at the University of Oregon in Portland, we spoke about why we started PR Talk, our processes and the technical requirements.
This PR Talk Podcast was recorded at PRSA Oregon’s:
We also recorded the session if you would like to watch it.
This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon
Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.
Dan Lee, from PR Talent, is back to talk about how and why members of the media are transitioning to careers in communications. Dan is a recruiter that works with agencies and companies looking for PR and communications talent. As a former journalist himself, he has great insight into transitioning from being a member of the media to communications.
Dan talks about how most broadcast journalist’s resumes he sees are a grocery list of their segments. This may be effective if they want to land their next tv gig, but it doesn’t do much for hiring managers looking for a PR pro.
He has found that journalists often struggle in PR, at least initially, because at their media organization they have an assignment editor telling them what to report on (remember Dan was a reporter, he’s been there). As communications professionals know, no one hands us assignments. What PR people do and how we do it is pretty hard to explain. All the elements that go into building a PR plan and determining what the goals. How do we do it? How do we measure it? Those are all new skills that media people will have to learn.
Dan then talks about how many organizations are creating internal newsrooms. Companies like Amazon and Starbuck are hiring former broadcast journalists to help tell their stories. To tell the companies culture stories with internal newsroom made up of former reporters and film crew folks to show the brand for positioning and recruiting. These jobs are hard to find as they typically still have traditional communications titles such as internal communications, corporate communication or content creator, but there are opportunities.
To end this episode Dan provides media folks three suggestions for breaking into PR:
Fix your resume. Sorry, there is no silver bullet. But you can email Dan directly, at [email protected], and he’ll share his insight with you. Dan has a 2-minute resume formatting video
Use a resume coach or a job coach. Dan is not a coach, but he knows some.
Have coffee with someone that has already done it (made the transition).
Dan Lee is a Managing Director at PR Talent and leads the firm’s recruiting efforts in the Northwest region. His career experience includes sports broadcasting, sports marketing, and 16 years with Weber Shandwick, where he was a vice president.
This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon
Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.
Updated for 2019! Creating share-worthy videos is easy!
The primary update to these tips is in regards to #4 below, shoot horizontally. With more and more social media (and website usage) being consumed on smartphones, it is not ALWAYS best to film horizontally. According to this post by Covideo, 94% of smartphone videos are consumed vertically…people simply aren’t willing (or able in the case of many apps like Twitter and Instagram) to turn their phones. So shooting vertically may be best when your target channel is social and your social audience consumes your content on their phone.
If you don’t want to invest in buying equipment or can’t wait for it to arrive, you can certainly create iPhone videos without any extra gear all by yourself. The video below was created without using external equipment and handheld by the speaker (me). No tripod, no external microphone, no special lighting. It’s really pretty easy to get a post-worthy video with just a little thought.
You can also view the video on YouTube for some tips on taking videos with an iPhone (or most any smartphone) including:
Be aware of your lighting. Shooting outside (be sure the sun is not directly behind you) or near windows is good if you do not have lighting equipment.
Take a sample video to see how it looks. Experiment using the phone’s flash, or the flash of a second phone.
Do not use your phone’s zoom (zoom the old fashion way by moving toward or away from your subject).
Use your “exposure lock” on an iPhone (and most other smartphones).
This is done by touching your screen to “lock” in on your subject, hold your touch until it displays “AE/AF LOCK” which will help keep the lens from changing the exposure (how much light it lets in) automatically.
Shoot horizontally.
Unless the primary purpose is for social media feeds (vertical shots do not play well on websites, but social users on mobile prefer vertical)
Have a steady hand or prop your phone on something stable.
Or you can use a tripod (you can find a great one for around $20). Check Amazon Prime for a variety of options.
Place the phone’s microphone close to your subject.
Or get an external microphone, we use a clip-on lavalier with an extension cord.
You can also easily step up your production value by investing a little (certainly under $100) by purchasing a tripod &/or external microphone. The following video was taken using a tripod and external microphone (again, no extra/special lighting). The set-up used to film the below video included a tripod, lapel microphone and extension cord, all for about $50.
Traditional PR Transformation: Maximizing PR for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I will be presenting at PRSA Oregon’s CommCon event on May 3rd to help PR and communications professionals add SEO to their marketing toolbox. With a short history lesson, the overall basics of SEO and some specific how-tos, I hope attendees will realize that they are already doing many SEO-worthy activities. A little extra work and strategic planning can pay major dividends.
Many traditional communications professionals may be surprised to learn they’ve been part of the “IT” crowd all along. In fact, we’re leading the way. Due to continued competition and Google’s ever-evolving ranking algorithms, it continues to be difficult to achieve high rankings in Google for a website. Instead of completely removing “traditional” PR’s role, now the most technical search marketer must rely on our savvy to take their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to the next level.
This presentation will offer attendees a deeper understanding of the SEO game, instilling them with the confidence, language and basic understanding to insert their skillset into any digital or website discussion. We’ll then delve into how to transform typical PR strategies to include SEO results. And finally, we’ll offer hands-on practical tips that should be infused into any digital PR campaign.
This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon
Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.
