Local and national news stations have been covering a recent real estate listing out of Greenwich, Connecticut priced at 190 million dollars- the highest asking price in the country. The French-renaissance style mansion built in 1896 is on 50 acres of waterfront property with 13,500 square feet of living space.

Though the price tag is shocking, the publicity brought on by it is sure to get attention from prospective buyers with expensive taste. In the market for a 12 bedroom estate? The property is listed at davidogilvy.com.

Before the product has been made available to the public, a number of businesses are placing a pre-emptive ban on these futuristic shades. Certain casinos, like Caesars Palace in Las Vegas have prohibited them in an effort to prevent cheating. Similarly, a handful of restaurants and cafes have also put a ban in place saying that the spy-like cameras are an invasion of privacy.

Google Glass’s PR strategy was aimed at Twitter and social media, in the hopes of creating interest before the product’s release. Buzz created by over 13 billion tweets seems to have piqued the curiosity of perspective buyers. Time will tell how this new technology will be received by the public, but for now, Casinos and other businesses are sticking to their “no shades” policy.

The classic storytelling arc is a structure on which you can build many communications – including press releases.

Assuming that you need to stick to dry language and a certain format when drafting a press release can limit the appeal (and ultimately the success) of your message. Press releases have the potential to reach huge audiences, and constituents of every stripe.

“We’re kind of stuck on making an old format meet a new purpose,” notes Jeff Domansky, CEO of Peak Communications and author of the popular public relations blog, The PR Coach. “ The first social press release format came out 7 years ago, but we’re not using it. People are falling back on the old format, and complaining that it doesn’t work.” [Editor's note - Shift Communications used PR Newswire's multimedia press release ("MNR") to issue their social media release template. The MNR remains popular today.]

So what does work in crafting messages today? Building storytelling into the mix.

“Write a good story that communicates all the salient information you need to get out there, and do it in an interesting way,” suggests Steve Farnsworth, chief strategist at Jolt Digital Marketing, and publisher of the widely-read Steveology blog.“Stories are how we understand things.”

In addition to building understanding, framing messages in the context of a story makes them relatable and memorable. Stories provide contextual glue that makes key messages stick.

“You can tell the story, and press releases are a great way to do it,” says Farnsworth. “Press releases should be journalistic, not formulaic. Trustworthy content has a balanced point of view. It asks and answers the right questions. It doesn’t love itself. It tries to inform and educate.”

Adding narrative elements to your press releases

Building a story into a message as succinct as a press release can be challenging. The key is to add narrative elements to your press release, such as:

• A quote from the member of the product development team (instead of a canned exec quote) discussing the genesis of the product, and problem it solves or the opportunity it creates.
• A video clip of a customer describing a successful outcome or demonstrating the utility of a product
• An account from an employee on the service side of the business, describing decreases in support or other indications of customer happiness.
• An infographic illustrating potential savings or efficiencies that could accrue over time.

“There’s a huge opportunity for communicators who are brave enough to deviate the status quo and try new things,” notes Lou Hoffman, CEO of the Hoffman Agency, a leading Silicon Valley PR firm and author of the Ishmael’s Corner blog, where storytelling is a common theme.

But storytelling can be a tough sell to executives, who may be focused more on promoting the brand than serving the audience. Hoffman is waging an ongoing war against “corporate drivel.” He believes that a good story can fit strategically within the PR message, as long as the message answers two questions:

• Does the content deliver the “frame” that today’s journalists need to write a story?

• Does the content resonate with the target audience when reaching out to customers/prospects directly?

The storytelling arc

Putting the audience in front of the brand is one challenge when it comes to writing more engaging copy. Figuring out how to build the story into the content – especially when you’re drafting a press release – can also be difficult at first. But the classic storytelling arc, in which the scene is set, the conflict arises and is resolved in the climax, which then leads to the denouement, is a structure that works for a press release, too.

Borrowing from Hoffman’s post on storytelling techniques, this is our simplified vision of how the storytelling arc structure can work for press releases.

If you frame the message in terms of the story of the experience you would expect your audience to encounter if they bought your product used your service/read your book/ attended your event/ etc., the storytelling arc structure makes a lot of sense. To the point of the aforementioned war on drivel, it also leaves precious little space for, shall we say, the wandering narrative that folks up and down the approval chain are tempted to stick into your press release.

Though they’ve been around for decades, the press release is ripe for a re-think.

“Look at the release as the executive summary of any newsworthy things that comes out,” suggests Eddy Badrina, co-founder and chief strategy officer at BuzzShift, a digital strategy agency. “Break the formula. Dive into the value proposition, the benefits, case studies, the feature set and the CEO’s visionary take on what the announcement means to the company and the market.”

There’s no reason for any message we issue to be classified as boring, dull or dead. Taking pages from the storytellers’ playbook will help keep your messages lively, relatable … and effective.

Have you experimented with different approaches to your press releases? I’d love to your out-of-the-box approaches to press release writing! Stick a link in the comments for me to admire and tell me the story of YOUR stories! :)

The eco-friendly program will allow members to rent bikes from 100s of self-service stations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. Many cities around the country have implemented a bike-share program after the success of Denver’s large-scale B-Cycle installation in 2010.

Citi Group and New York’s Department of Transportation worked together on a campaign to bring the program to life after a number of lawsuits, and parking and safety concerns forced them to put on the breaks.

The PR team used public events and exhibits, bike safety training sessions, and social media to garner the support of an estimated 70% of New Yorkers. You can sign up to be a member at citibikenyc.com, don’t forget your helmet!

Tumblr had positioned itself as the perfect acquisition for a company like Yahoo. Unlike fellow blogging site, WordPress, tumblr is a basic, simple tool that is easily integrated as part of a larger news platform.  Now, not only can viewers get updated on the latest happenings on their Yahoo homepage, they can upload their own responses and content through the easy to use blogging platform and garner a bigger audience for their posts.

Though many tumblr users are wary of the acquisition, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises that any changes to the site will be slight and hardly noticeable. She also equates the deal to that of Google and Youtube, saying that tumblr will now have more resources at its disposal and will only get better.

Multiple attempts have been made to break the alleged curse, but now, Wrigley Field’s proposed facelift may be the key to a fresh start for the team. Cubs’ ownership has started a public relations campaign called, “Restore Wrigley Field” in the hopes of gaining support for a new clubhouse, media center, video boards, fan concessions and more.

Businesses currently advertising where the proposed new video screens will be placed, have voiced their opinion against the changes, while fans seem to be split on changing their nearly 100 year old ball field. You can check out the proposal at www.wrigleyfield.com.

Photo credit: lierne

When blogs and social media rose to prominence about a decade ago, pundits were quick to declare that these innovations would likely spell the end of the news media. After all, the word “media” literally refers to being an intermediary (note the word “media” embedded in “intermediary”). If newsmakers could now reach their audiences directly via the Internet, what use would there be for intermediaries to carry the news? The news media, it was believed, would be one of the first industries to be “disintermediated,” a multisyllabic word for “cutting out the middleman.”

As you know, the news media is not dead. Besides the hundreds of channels on cable TV, newsstands are still crammed with magazines and the radio in my car still picks up dozens of stations.

Even the metropolitan print newspaper, thought to be the most likely media to disappear, continues to exist, getting a recent vote of confidence from no less than Warren Buffett, who thinks enough of the newspaper business that he recently bought his home town newspaper and expects his newspaper unit to generate 10% annual profits for the foreseeable future.

But one quick glance at your computer screen or smartphone will tell you that the news media has changed enormously in the last 10 years. What began as two separate worlds – “ traditional media” and “online media” – is now thoroughly and completely transformed into one seamless media landscape that continues to morph and change as new technologies come online and users discover new ways to engage.

At the same time, the public relations tactics needed to sweet talk editors and writers into covering your news have remained surprisingly constant. What’s changed more than anything are the pitching targets and pitchable opportunities.

Here are five things that haven’t changed about media relations, and then five things that have:

• There are still hundreds of pitching targets: While the mainstream media sector has shrunk, online-only media and blogs have risen up to fill much of the void.
• Breaking through the noise is still the biggest challenge: It has never been easier to make initial contact with journalists, and that means lots of people are pitching them. Getting through and having a real opportunity to pitch your story remains the single biggest challenge in media relations.
• Personal relationships still make a big difference: The best way to break through the clutter is to have an existing relationship with your pitching target. You just need to do a good job maintaining your media database, updating it when people switch jobs or assignments, and making the effort to get to know them.
• Writers and editors still want your help telling interesting stories with details you can’t find other places: Telling a good story that is of interest to a wide audience and isn’t just a veiled ad for your business is still the essence of PR and content marketing.
• Being accessible and meeting the deadline needs of journalists still helps your cause: Immediacy counts, perhaps now more than ever. So being responsive when approached, or being super-cooperative when working on a story with a journalist, will still earn you much more coverage than companies and PR people who are hard to reach or hard to work with.

And here are five things that have definitely changed:

• There are fewer reporters and less space in traditional media outlets, whether online or offline: The easiest journalists to find and pitch are those working for long-established media outlets, but there are fewer and fewer of them as these outlets lose audience share to newer media outlets. Those that are left are being bombarded with pitches, while their editors are telling them to ignore pitches and use their time to cover only the biggest and most important news.
• Everyone is doing everything: The ease of creating online content extends to journalists, who are now routinely writing articles, blogging and tweeting on the side, as well as creating videos and infographics. That translates into more pitching opportunities for those who take the time to learn the needs of today’s journalists and provide the information that they can use across several platforms.
• Online-only professional media has emerged as a force: In many cases, working with them is very different from working with traditional newsrooms, making media relations more challenging and data-intensive. Now more than ever, you’ve got to do your homework.
• Niche bloggers are wearing multiple hats, making them iffy pitching targets: It’s often hard to tell whether an online journalist is trying to make a living as a content creator, or whether the content is a front door for consulting gigs or other non-journalistic activities. This doesn’t mean their blog isn’t important and isn’t potentially pitchable, but it does mean that their point of view may play a big role in whether your story gets covered.
• The rise of brand journalism: Corporations are spending big bucks on in-house journalism, whether in the form of industry blogs or industry news sites. This is the essence of cutting-out-the-middleman, and it makes these sometimes influential outlets all but impossible to pitch if you don’t have strong ties to the sponsoring organization.

Finally, here’s something that definitely hasn’t changed: Businesses of all sizes are still eager to hire and employ communications and marketing professionals who know how to do media relations and generate story placements that can be leveraged across the web. In fact, demand for such services is only increasing, as companies realize that it is now taking more and more specialized skill to do media relations effectively.

I was inspired to write this post by my recent pitching forays for an interesting tech client that is moving mainframe software to the cloud. How is media relations changing – for better or worse – in your sector?

By doing one (or more) of these:

• Ending a presentation with Q&A
• Saying, “Well, that’s it.”
• Saying, “Thank you for your time.”
• Running off the stage with no real conclusion.
• Concluding with a sales pitch.

I’ve done all of these at one point in my speaking career. I blew it with my audience. I’m most guilty of ending with Q&A. Do you want your audience to remember some wing-nut question or something that adds value to their life?

The conclusion of your presentation is what your audience members remember most. This is called, “The Recency Effect.” The conclusion needs to be memorable. Leave them with a message that sticks.

We’ve discussed the BIG IDEA statement.Your conclusion is KEY to reinforcing your idea. The conclusion should contain 3 parts: Summary, Call to Action (or Pitch) and Remarkable Close.

Summarizing your speech

The summary doesn’t need to be long or detailed. It should reinforce your BIG IDEA statement and briefly recap the supporting points. Don’t be boring. Don’t say “In summary, I discussed this, that and that other forgettable thing.” First, it’s not conversational. Second, it’s not memorable. Third, it sucks. Think about how you can use a story to summarize your big idea or a metaphor. Be creative. The conclusion is not the place to skimp on creative impact.

Craft a call to action

I’m going to discuss calls to action in great depth in the next few weeks, but here is a crappy call to action. “We’ve seen the importance of not feeding Gremlins after midnight. We can sign the petition or visit the website or donate money. But we must stop the Gremlin problem soon.”

The problem with that call to action:

• It does not address one person – remember we is the tiny word that murders persuasion and sales.
• It gives more than one action to take. Tell them exactly what you want them to do. One thing only. Giving them 3 options is a surefire way to guarantee analysis paralysis.
• There’s no sense of urgency. Soon? How soon is soon? Do we need to take action now or 3 months from now?

Calls to action need to include the magical word “you.” Give ONE clear action to take and create a sense of now or never.

Don’t end with a pitch – Leave them with a tip

Do not end with your pitch. It’s a bit sleazy. If you’re speaking to sell your wares, make the pitch and end with a memorable tip. This can be a quote, encouragement or something they will value. It should also be related and reinforce your BIG IDEA statement. The tip is a remarkable way to close your presentation.

Leaving a lasting questions. Creatively summarize the value you shared, craft a call to action that has impact and never end with pitch. Always be creating value even at the very end of your speech.

Want more help? Check out this slideshare I created about concluding your presentation powerfully!

Traditionally PR has concentrated more on earned media than paid media. We’ve used paid media for branding and positioning with advertorials or sponsored content. We placed ads to tell the brand’s side of a story when it was not getting covered by the media.

Now we have owned media: we publish our content on blogs, Facebook pages and online newsrooms. Brands have indeed become the media. Some brands and agencies are going one step further – hiring journalists cut loose by the media layoffs and publishing industry news sites (brand journalism.)

Earned media has morphed too – apart from the traditional mainstream media there are bloggers and industry influencers on Twitter with a large following who have to be included in your media relations plan. As Chris Elliott, blogger and writer for National Geographic, said to me recently: the public decides who has credibility and they choose where they get their news and information.

Paid media is definitely a shifting landscape. Branded content or native advertising is much more than the old advertorial. Wikipedia calls it a web advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing valuable content in the context of the user’s experience.

Where does paid media fit into Digital PR?

• promoted videos
• images
• articles
• promoted stories published on mainstream media sites alongside editorial recommendations
• promoted tweets
• Facebook ads and promoted stories
• Tumblr’s promoted posts

Where is all this headed?

Twitter has signed an exclusive multi-year agreement to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” for the US market. Under this agreement, Nielsen and Twitter will deliver a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter, slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season.

“Twitter has become the world’s digital water cooler, where conversations about TV happen in real time. Nielsen is who the networks rely on to give better content to viewers and clearer results to marketers,” said Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media.

Twitter has also closed deals with BBC America to display in-stream sponsor videos and Starcom MediaVest Group, a division of advertising giant Publicis. According to AdAge the implications are clear: it’s both a big vote of confidence in Twitter and a sign of how seriously marketers are now taking the platform.

The Next Web says it’s possible that the agreement is part of an effort by Starcom MediaVest Group to take advantage of Twitter’s increased presence in the media scene, which I wrote about in a recent article.

The Role of Digital PR

Native advertising is based on storytelling. Who better to tell brand stories than the PR people? We know how to tell stories well. Now we need to learn how to:

• Present stories digitally
• Tell them in 140 characters
• Add the right visual assets
• Distribute them online to best effect
• Track outcomes

Just as the lines between journalists and bloggers are blurring, so are the lines between advertising marketing and PR. PR is not only about earned media anymore. Learn to master owned media and paid media too.

In his recent trip to the United States, Prince Harry met with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to visit some of the areas severely damaged by the storm. The two played boardwalk games, shook the hands of local construction workers and lifted the spirits of residents and businesses in the area.

After a number of blows to his public image, Prince Harry’s trip is good PR for both the Royal Prince, and the once devastated tourist area. As summer approaches, the coverage of this event provides a positive outlook for the community and shows perspective beach-goers that the shore is still Jersey Strong.

In 2010, Forbes rated Harrisburg as the second best place in the U.S. to raise a family. But something is rotten in this sleepy, Pennsylvania hamlet of less than 50,000 people.

The city of Harrisburg has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with misleading investors about its financial situation. Uh Oh… If you recall, we recently agreed with the actions of Spain and other EU nations to enhance their image despite fledging financial numbers…

The action puts governments across the state and country on notice to tell the truth.

The SEC is charging that Harrisburg gave misleading or false statements about its financial problems for two years while selling municipal bonds to investors.

This is the first time the SEC has charged a municipality with fraud in these circumstances.

City officials have admitted to wrongdoing and are now settling with the SEC. The mayor has also stated that the city has revamped its policies and procedures.

So, from all of us here at Critical Mention… yeah…

Question by: Ashley

Make the Pitch

“Draw up a list of all the professional organizations in your industry, and make note of when and where their annual conferences occur. If it makes sense for you, draw up a proposal for a panel or other type of presentation that would provide value to conference attendees. Once you get a recording or two up on your site, you can start getting paid for your appearances.”

- Steph Auteri | career coach, writer, and editor, Word Nerd Pro

You Gotta Start Somewhere

“The best advice that I can give is offer to speak at no monetary cost to a well-known organization. In exchange for you speaking, the organization will need to provide you a professional recording of your speech. While there, record video testimonials with your phone. A quality demo video and testimonials will take you a long way in nabbing other engagements that are paid.”

- Lawrence Watkins | Founder & CEO, Great Black Speakers

Host a Telesummit

“By bringing together a variety of accomplished speakers around a particular topic, you build your own list by capturing the email addresses of the people who want to access your calls. Also, as host and as one of the speakers, you establish your credibility through your association with the other participants. And, when people search for your speakers in the future, your name will pop up!”

- Alexia Vernon | Communication and Leadership Author, Speaker, Coach, and Trainer, Alexia Vernon Empowerment LLC

Go Off the Beaten Path

“You don’t keynote at SXSW or speak at a commencement for your first speech. Every great speaker started out speaking to small audiences off the beaten path. Look for opportunities to speak to student groups and university classes locally; they’re always looking for people willing to come share their experiences and knowledge. As a plus, a mistake while you’re learning won’t trend on Twitter.”

- Jason Evanish | co-founder, Greenhorn Connect

Something Old, Something New

“Start with new conferences in your industry, these are easier to break into and have fewer applications from prospective speakers. It’s good to keep a running calendar of all events and submission deadlines. Just remember, you have to pay your own hotel and flight 90 percent of the time.”

- Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designs

The Ultimate DIY

“What do you know better than anyone else? Host a workshop — in-person or virtual — where you can share about that topic. Get quotes from people who thought you did a great job and set up a speaking page on your site or blog. You build your speaking legacy one speech at a time. Get to work!”

- Sam Davidson | President and co-founder, Cool People Care, Inc.

Make It Happen on Meetup

“Creating a community on Meetup around a topic that is relevant to your business is a great way to get practice speaking in front of an engaged audience. Start by moderating panels with professionals in your industry. Eventually, you’ll build up the credibility and skills to be a panelist yourself.”

- Emily Miethner | Founder, President, NY Creative Interns

Just Face It!

“I suggest looking at the different places you would like to speak, and creating opportunities to talk face-to-face with someone who can give you a chance. The more we are connected via the web, the more rare it becomes that people connect face-to-face. Be the one to do just that.”

- Michael Bruny | Conference Networking Speaker | Coach | Author, The New Art of Conference Networking

Note What’s Necessary

“As a former top salesperson for a speakers bureau and someone that has a speaking management division at their company, I can tell you that there are a few keys factors: create a quality sizzle reel with market materials, and develop a quality database of the organizers of the events you want to do. Email them, send direct mail, and even consider on site visits.”

- Raoul Davis | CEO, Ascendant Group

Grab Your Pens!

“I do a lot of public speaking on behalf of TalentEgg on topics related to youth employment. But it didn’t come from nowhere. I started out by writing as much as I could about the topic — on the company blog, for industry publications, etc. Eventually, someone in the industry took note and asked me to speak at a conference. If you do a great job at one event, it spirals from there.”

- Lauren Friese | Founder, TalentEgg

BarCamps and Unconferences

“Start attending BarCamps (such as WordCamp or PodCamp) and other unconferences. Many include tracks where people can offer to speak the day of the event. That means that you can get some chances to talk just by showing up. It’s an easy place to start, even if that means that you need to be able to think on your feet. Several of my early speaking gigs were at unconferences!”

- Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Start Local to Go Global

“Find local organizations that have speakers on a regular basis, and send in a speaking proposal with a few topics and bullet points. You won’t be an expert in your backyard, but you can use these smaller gigs to pitch bigger events and conferences over time, and fine tune your message and speaking skills.”

- Nathalie Lussier | Creator, The Website Checkup Tool

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

All three sizzle with sex appeal.

What? What’s that you say? Organization is not sexy. Organization is the Danny DeVito of speech writing (sorry Danny). If you don’t want to completely lose your audience, you need to hike up your granny-panties (or boxers for the guys) and get down and dirty with organization.

You are armed with your big idea statement and now it is time to sit down and write your sizzling, tantalizing and highly-organized body of your speech.

Why don’t you curl up by the fire and put some Barry White on the turntable for the spicy topic of speech structure?

Step 1: Find a hot presentation date

You were asked to speak because you’re an expert on whatever topic you are talking about and that is awesome. It’s also a curse for organization. As what makes perfect sense in your expert brain, may not make any sense to an audience who does not share your knowledge. Get your tell-it-like it is friend and ask them on presentation date. Bring wine, chocolate or tulips (not roses..I don’t think your presentation date is ready for that level of commitment).

Step 2: Pick an organizational structure for your speech

This is the point where I was going to provide links to great articles about organizing presentations. You know what – great articles on this topic don’t exist. Trust me I looked. Luckily, they are all pretty self-explanatory.

First, look at your big idea statement. Second, pick one of these thrilling organizational structures that fits with the big idea.

• Logic – there’s nothing that quickens an audience’s pulse as a speech that makes logical sense. It’s the speech structure that every presenter has dated at one time or another.
• Chronological – This structure likes to take it slow and in a linear fashion of how things happened. Great for how-to speeches. Like how-to drink a bottle of Bordeaux while writing a blog post about speech organization. Also groovy for historical accounts.
• Problem-solution-action – Ok cowboy, you can figure this one out on your own, right? This structure is super-hot when you want to flex your persuasive muscles.
• Cause-effect – Need to explain the why behind a phenomenon – take a cause-effect structure out for a spin.

Now is the time to make your relationship with your organizational structure exclusive. Pick one and don’t look back (unless it doesn’t work and you have to break-up).

Step 3: Write that pesky presentation

That speech won’t write itself.

Step 4: Presentation date night

Show up with your chocolate, roses (what did I tell you about roses now this is serious date), and your newly minted presentation. Run it by your date. See what make sense. Are there any questions that are not answered? Confusion about where this relationship speech is going? Drink all the juicy feedback and then….

Step 5: Rewrite, revise and revamp

Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have a presentation until you have a presentation that leaves your audience hungering for more and NOT lost wanting to dump you in the trash.

Do you need help transforming your presentation from boring to white-hot blazing? Find out how you can work with me.

photo by: Daniela Vladimirova

There are three things to aim at in public speaking:

first, to get into your subject,

then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly,

to get your subject into the heart of your audience

Alexander Gregg

When someone asks you to speak, do you look and/ or feel like that guy in the picture? Jerry Seinfeld has a bit about public speaking: “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

Fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears that people have. Although this task appears to be rather simple and straightforward to many, there are several factors that can come into play for those who are not comfortable with it. So before you blow it off realize that this is a legitimate type of fear for the people who have it.

People whose job requires that they speak in public are not immune to this. For some people, this fear is so great that it can cause a great deal of stress. This is an issue that must be attended to because people who experience fear of public speaking end up not delivering the quality speech they would otherwise be capable of. Indeed, this feeling of looming fear can cloud your ability to focus on the task at hand. After all, an effective public speech should produce a satisfying experience for both the speaker and for the audience.

This is not an easy fear to deal with, so let us look at the issue by trying to modify our perspectives and behavior toward this and hopefully be able to help you overcome this type of fear.

Public speaking is not supposed to be stressful

Fear of public speaking is quite common, and for some, is inherently stressful. Communicating with others is an activity that you share with other humans everyday. So, how and why is public speaking different? One way to challenge your perception of public speaking is to imagine this activity just like any other regular communication that you do everyday. The only difference with public speaking is that you are addressing more people than you normally would.

Acquiring this new perspective is not something that you can achieve overnight. However, just focusing on what you need to share during your public speaking and less on the actual delivery process will help to begin to lift the burden.

Let go of the idea of perfection

This is another insidious culprit in the mix of why people fear the idea of speaking in public. Sure, the idea of embarrassing yourself in front of many people is frightening. But the content of your speech is what is these people have come to hear and will remember. They won’t be focused on how flawlessly you delivered the speech. Once you are able to get rid of this anxiety about perfection, then you should be able to find the whole idea less frightening as you speak to larger groups.

Focus on the why

One of the most common “hidden” causes of the stress that is often associated with public speaking is related to the need to perform perfectly. This amounts to trying to impress the audience with your delivery. Focus instead on what value the audience is meant to get from your speech delivery, instead of trying to make them come away being impressed with how you did. Although delivery will boost your success at a public speaking, the most important thing to remember is that your primary goal is to communicate effectively. If this offers any consolation to you, most public speakers do not get 100% approval from their audience most of the time. And as you hone in on the why, the purpose of the speech, you can begin to…

Find your voice

Most of the time, when you are delivering a speech, or asked to do one, it is something that is important to you, something that you feel passionate about. Make the words yours. It is all too easy with internet access to pick up bits and pieces of other people’s speeches, instead of constructing your own. Getting ideas from other sources is a great thing. But you will have less fear and deliver better quality when what you have to say sounds like you, expresses the feelings in your heart and uses words from your own well-spring.

Becoming a Good Public Speaker

Now that you have can begin to recognize some of the major causes of your fear, you can move from working to overcome your fear, to doing a better, and eventually good job at your speech, as well.

• Study your subject matter thoroughly so you can be confident when the time comes for delivery.

• Polish your speaking skills. This will help you relay the information clearly and authoritatively.

• Prepare all of your presentation materials so you can deliver your speech in an organized fashion.

• Practice your delivery. Even the pros do this.

Next time you are called upon to deliver a speech, take your time and prepare. Get the words into your voice. Breathe, drink lots of water. And start walking through this one step at a time.

Thoughts?

Photo Credit: Joaquin Villaverde Photography via Compfight cc

For years, the Salt Lake Valley has been a refuge for man and now – fish.

The movement of concrete tilt walls signifies the rapid expansion for the 136 thousand square feet – 24 million dollar additions to the Living Planet Aquarium.

The aquarium, located in Sandy, Utah, will soon include a shark tank, a penguin exhibit, and a special theater for aquarium guests.

One of the biggest public draws of the expansion is a special theater, which will be similar to a 4-D experience. According to the official public relations release, the theater is essentially a 3-d movie that has special added sensory effects like mist and smells and how they all come together to complete the experience. Time will tell how the local PR team will market the special theater, but a great case study of a unique aquarium experience can be found with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Winter the dolphin.

These are places, for both man and fish.

It takes more than just good speaking skills to give a top-notch business presentation. Good writing speaks volumes about the person and company behind the presentation. No matter how strong the content being presented, if it’s littered with grammatical or spelling errors, it will come off as amateurish and unprofessional.

Your presentation is the blueprint to the work you’ll be doing if you’re hired, and they’re not just judging it. They’re judging you. Follow this guide to achieve perfection in the language that you use.

Always Revise

Your first draft is never your best work. There are no exceptions to this rule. No matter what it is you’re writing, and no matter how much time you invested in writing it, a second draft will always improve your document.

Image courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A good presentation requires both good speaking and writing.

It’s easy — even beneficial — to get lost in the flow of writing. But it’s also easy to gloss over grammatical errors while you’re in the zone. Write until you’re finished, step away to eat or work out or whatever it is you do, then take a long, objective second look.

Sleep on It

Put some space between your first and second drafts — preferably a good night’s sleep. A new day gives you a truly fresh perspective on not only grammar and spelling, but content. It’s common and admirable for the ambitious to burn the midnight oil, but what seemed like a brilliant stroke of genius at 3 a.m. might present itself in a whole new light in the morning.

Don’t Rely on Spell Check

Without proper grammar, even the flashiest presentation won’t impress.

Spell check is a valuable crutch, but like any crutch, it can make you weak if you rely on it too often. While spell-check programs are excellent for catching egregious errors, grammatical slip-ups can and do slip through. Software is especially susceptible to missing homophones like “sea vs. see” and “reign vs. rein.” Use spell check, but rely on your intellect.

Hire a Proofreader

If you know that grammar isn’t your strong suit, be honest about your flaws and put a second pair of eyes on it. Ask your office’s wordsmith to give it a read and — if it’s really important — hire a proofreader on eLance or Craigslist or any other number of venues that pair editors with people who must have clean copy.

Take it Slow

Perhaps the most obvious yet overlooked trick to writing well is to leave yourself enough time. Whether you’re writing a business plan or chopping down a tree with a chainsaw, you’re much more prone to make mistakes if you’re rushing. Don’t leave it until the last moment, and plan your project in chunks to leave time for revisions, reworking, and the inevitable writer’s block.

Bad grammar is never OK in business. Unless you’re purposely trying to be folksy in your vernacular with a “say it ain’t so” or some similar casual parlance, the way you speak and the way you write speak volumes about who you are. If you can’t even get your ideas across without making mistakes, then why should anyone expect perfection when it’s time to put those ideas into practice?

Your presentation represents you and your company. Take the time to write it right.

First, a little background. When we’re talking about web site user experience, we’re referring to all the different aspects of content, structure and navigation that enable a site visitor to do the things he or she wants to do, whether that means reading a white paper, registering for an event, browsing information or purchasing things. Poor UXD means that something on the site prevents the visitor from doing what he or she intended to do.

This blog post was actually inspired by a press release I reviewed for a client last week. It was long, wandering from topic to topic. It tried to tell the story of a new product along with the story of the product pipeline as well as the story of a successful acquisition. It tried to achieve too much, and as I read through it, I really wanted to stop reading. And that is exactly what we don’t want our readers to do.

As we’re drafting press releases, we should be thinking about what exactly we want our readers to do, and then structure the content accordingly. But how do we design press releases (and other content, for that matter) to encourage readers to move forward, to the outcome we want them to take? Here are a few ideas.

1. Identify the specific outcome you want your primary audience to take. In most cases, you’ll want other constituents to read the story, too. But trying to serve all audiences in one message is tough to do. Focus the content on one audience, and one outcome, such as getting industry media and bloggers to write a particular story, generating social shares of an image or getting readers to click on a specific link.
2. Focus the content of every paragraph on leading the reader to that outcome. If your writing starts to veer from the path, so will your reader. Stay focused on the key message. Other messages will need their own separate vehicles, whether that means another press release or something else, such as a blog post or inclusion in a customer newsletter.
3. Structure the content to enable the reader to get to the desired outcome. It’s important to assume that most readers do not read all the way through a piece of content, unless it is meeting their needs and hooking their interest every single step of the way. This means that in addition to keeping the message focused, you need to put links where people will click them – such as right after the first paragraph, rather than at the very end of the copy where they could be easily overlooked. Weave links and access to supporting information throughout the content.

As writers, we need to think first about what our readers want to read and accomplish, rather than what messages our organizations want to convey. Press releases should march the reader straight to the key points of the story and wrap up with an inevitable conclusion. Just as marketers strive to prevent their sales funnels from leaking, and webmasters focus on increasing the time visitors spend on the site, writers need to be thinking about maintaining reader attention as they author content.

Usually, when the show’s medical content strays from reality, I don’t let it bother me. After all, it’s fiction. But a few weeks ago, “Grey’s” ventured into hospital crisis communications – or rather, a fictionalized version of it – and I couldn’t keep myself from feeling agitated.

Here’s the short version: The hospital discovers that one of its surgeons has unknowingly passed a fatal infection to several patients. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has investigators on site who pinpoint the source of the problem and provide oversight for eradicating the issue. One hospital leader suggests putting out a press release explaining why the CDC is in town, but his colleagues nix the idea. Viewers are left to believe the hospital sits on its hands in terms of communications (and does a bad job of dodging patient questions) until it simply issues a press release after the crisis is over. And by “issuing a press release” I mean handing it to a young patient who wants to be a journalist so she can scoop the other media in town.

Are you ripping your hair out yet? The show completely ignores the communications steps that a hospital should, and hopefully would, take during such a crisis. In fact, nobody even seems that concerned with developing a crisis communications plan to answer questions from patients, staff and the general public. There’s no talk of how the news could negatively impact the hospital’s reputation and admissions if it isn’t handled properly. Who knows what was in that press release handed over with such nonchalance, but I guess the hospital thinks it says enough to avoid the likely storm of negative press and frightened calls from patients.

Of course, as anyone who has ever seen public relations portrayed in mainstream media knows, it’s highly unlikely that a medical drama would take the time to give crisis communications the airtime it could consume. But it made me wonder why, if it was going to get such flippant treatment, was communication strategy mentioned at all.

You may not be a “Grey’s” fan, but I know you know what I’m talking about. What is your favorite – or least favorite – television portrayal of public relations?

Have you ever seen someone lose their cool during a television interview – (Joe Biden, maybe?) Perhaps you remember an interview where the person struggled to answer a question, or answered it badly – (Sarah Palin springs to mind.) Think back to some of the presidential candidate interviews, as well as interviews with high profile celebrities and business executives discussing various controversial issues and happenings. We’ve seen all kinds of interviews and reactions – good and bad – but usually the ones that stand out and are most easily remembered are those that have gone terribly wrong.

You don’t want that kind of negative publicity for your company and executives, so it’s really important that your professionals are properly media trained. There’s a big difference between knowing a subject and being able to express your knowledge successfully. Effective media training will help you define and refine your key messages and determine how to deliver them succinctly, with poise and confidence.

Think of media training as an extensive preparation for any interview situation. It incorporates analyzing key messages and how to communicate them with supporting facts or anecdotes, as well as staying on message point by using blocking and bridging techniques when an interviewer may interrupt an expert or tread into unwelcome territory. It also involves crafting appropriate responses to fit the specific media outlet/interview format and story angle, as well as well as how to dress and what type of body language to use.

While it’s absolutely necessary to prepare and practice prior to each specific interview opportunity, media training in general will help executives think about the bigger picture and how the messages they communicate reflect on them and the company as a whole.

There’s a great deal to think about in advance of a media interview, but remember that the main goal is to focus the reporter on a few key messages that are accurate, clear, concise, and memorable.  And, if an interview is well-executed, the chances that those messages will make it into the final news story are much greater.

Here are just a handful of the many tactics involved in a media training session that can benefit your firm and your executives:

Refine corporate messages. What are the top three key messages that you want the interviewer (and audience) to remember about your company? These messages should tie in to your overall corporate communications and marketing strategy. During the media training session, ask your executives to share what they believe are the top three corporate messages, and then discuss as a group to refine them. They need to be comfortable with these “approved” messages and should practice weaving them in naturally during practice interviews.

Know the reporter/media outlet. A little bit of studying is necessary here. Part of preparing for the interview is taking a look at other interviews and stories the reporter/journalist has done in the past. Get a feel for his/her style and make sure you know what you’re getting into. For instance, who is the publication’s audience and what messages would be relevant for them?  Also, make sure the focus and direction of the interview is clear, as well as the format.  Is it live or taped, are there other experts being interviewed, and if so, from what angle?

Anticipate feared questions. If you dread it, you’ll get it! Don’t let difficult or uncomfortable questions sabotage the interview. Your executives should be ready to tackle tough questions just in case they arise. Each person should make a list of his/her top feared questions, and prepare sample answers.  These should be open for group discussion and refinement.

Master blocking and bridging. Let’s say that one of your executives is asked a question which falls outside of his/her comfort zone. Rather than the “I can’t comment on that,” try another approach – blocking the unwelcome question and bridging it back to a message point. Bridging is a powerful means for taking charge of and controlling the interview.

Below are some examples of bridging statements. These should be followed up with an appropriate message point in order to redirect the interview back to what is most important to communicate.

•  “I think the more important question is …” 
• “Here is what’s at the heart of this matter …” 
• “And what this all means is …”
• “Before we continue, let me emphasize that …”
• “What’s most important to remember is …”
• “This is an important point because …”
• “As I said before …”

Role-play in mock interviews. Reporters and journalists have very different interview styles, and depending on the context of the interview, you’ll want your executives to not only be prepared, but also expect the unexpected. Have each person participate in a few role-playing interview scenarios, switching between playing reporter and interviewee. Even better – record these practice interviews and play them back for group feedback and discussion. Did the interviewee appear nervous? Did he/she answer the questions well, incorporating company-specific key messages?  Did he/she provide too much or too little information?  It’s good to offer constructive criticism as a reality check.  Not everyone will hit the mark on the first try, but after several of these practice interviews, it should become easier.

Media interviews can be nerve-wracking, but using professional media training tactics and techniques will help your executives be better prepared and feel more confident in interview situations.

Has your firm worked with a media training partner or agency to conduct a session for your executives and/or spokespeople? Or have you created your own internal media training program? Tell us about your experiences and success stories in the comments section below. We’d love to hear what aspect of media training was most interesting and beneficial to your employees!

Since then, American politicians have shied away from singing on camera and for good measure. Singing in front of the American people isn’t good for your public image. But singing in front of children or a small group is. Take the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, who was recently filmed singing with children, immediately before an important budget decision. Her filmed singing is not only well-timed, but puts a personal touch on her budget plans as part of Ontario’s Liberal Party.

This is a great example of public relations and a public image politicians dream of.

In just May alone, the maternity center is expected to see over 140 babies born. In just 2012, the Medical Center delivered nearly 1,500 babies. In the last 10 years, the population in Rexburg, Idaho has grown more than 50%.

The goals at the Madison Memorial Hospital are ambitious and exceed the expectation to deliver babies, but to enhance the mother, baby, and family experience. That’s an important community relations goal, especially in a small town that houses Brigham Young University-Idaho and an estimated 95% population of Latter-Day Saints. Happy birthing!

Guess what? The speaker didn’t earn the standing O she forced me to give. In fact, she turned me off immediately. I spent more time play Bejeweled on my phone than listening to her.

The most precious gift you receive as a speaker is the audience’s attention. Research shows that audience remember most what they hear FIRST. (This is called the primacy effect for you theory nerds). Just like dandruff shampoo mogul’s, Head and Shoulders, reminds us – “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

The problem is that most introductions suck because their challenging to craft. It’s the time where you are most nervous in your speech and couple that with the added pressure of needing to shine, it sets you up for failure.

Purpose of an introduction

An introduction needs to accomplish the following:

1. Capture your audience’s attention
2. Build rapport with the audience (also know as establishing your credibility or showing goodwill)
3. Overview of where you are going in your presentation (remember the sexy organization post this is when your preview that juicy goodness).

Here’s the trick you need to accomplish these goals in a short amount of time. The rule of thumb is that an introduction should be less than 10% of your total speech.

The trick is to avoid the time sucks and the pitfalls.

5 ways to blow your intro

Last year I wrote a series of articles about openers that lose your audiences in attention is less 30 seconds. Here are 5 openings to avoid:

• The dictionary defines – if I wanted to know how the dictionary defined something, I’d look it up.
• Tell a joke - don’t put more pressure on yourself. If your joke bombs that is what the audience is going to remember.
• Me, me, me – no one wants to hear how awesome you are in the intro. Make it relevant to your audience.
• The startling statistic – “Wow that statistic scared the crap out of me.” -Said no audience ever.
• I’d like to talk about – you’re complete lack of creativity for not coming up with a more interesting intro.

The truth is that I’d bet every single one of us (myself included) have used one of these speech introduction techniques.

Begin with a win

Creativity is key when captivating your audience. My advice is to brainstorm many openings and be relentless in your pursuit for the best attention-getter. If it doesn’t feel right to you, keep revising. Here are some types of attention-getters to get those creative juices coursing through your brain.

• Stories – captivate and engage. Human are storytelling creatures. We get lost in stories. Storytelling invokes emotions and lets your audience seem themselves in your speech.
• Quotations – Brilliant minds have come before you have written about your topic. Use a quotation to captivate and inspire thought.
• State the importance – related to storytelling, but telling your audience why this topic is important to them at this exact moment is a great way to intrigue and establish goodwill.

Make a lasting, memorable impact on your audience with a well crafted introduction. Begin with a win. Need more help? Check out the slideshare below.

photo by: familymwr

For me, a lot of the advice I call upon in my adult life revolves around what my parents taught me. I use their advice in parenting, how I treat my loved ones, family and friends and everything in between, and even in my career as a PR exec. In honor of Mother’s Day I wanted to share my thoughts, and those of my teammates, on how Mom’s early lessons stick with us and still help us in our careers today.

For my lesson, it starts when I was struggling with math in my formative years. Words always came much easier to me. As the daughter of two parents who worked for a national newspaper you could say it was in the blood. How did I get through this math monkey on my back and change my perspective? My mother taught me that we all have to do things we don’t want to do. We all have to tackle the hard things. Part of life is this yin and yang of easy and hard. So with the assistance of kind teachers, patient parents, and most importantly a change in me, I began to change my thinking and use the mantra, “ I will not give up.” I started to think of my mother’s tough advice. She didn’t have a ton of sympathy, just told me over and over, “keep at it, be tough, and not give up.”

I am no longer tackling Pi or the Pythagorean Theorem, or cringing after being called up to write on the blackboard in math class — but each day as a PR professional, I am faced with challenges just like my fellow PR colleagues that call for mental toughness and confidence. This is when the parts of my job that are harder, and grittier, than others call for my mom’s good old “don’t give up” mantra. This mantra makes for happy clients, solid journalistic relationships and a constant quest for me to deliver top results while striving to do better.

My PerkettPR colleagues like to invoke their own motherly advice as well. Here’s a collection of the awesome advice they carry with them into the PR workplace.

From Christine Perkett

My mother taught me not to undervalue myself – which comes in handy when negotiating. My grandmother taught me that men are like subway cars — a new one will always come along. I say the same for clients.

From Susan Sweenie:

My mom taught me that even when dealing with someone tough or not interested, just kill them with kindness.

From Crystal Monahan:

I’ve had the privilege of having two moms in my life – my actual mom and my stepmother. Although different in innumerable ways, they both share one admirable trait that I have tried to emulate in my life and career. They both possess a remarkable work ethic. They work dawn to dusk if necessary. They have held multiple jobs to provide for their families. Nothing is beneath them – if it needs to get done, they do it. They both understand that nothing in life comes free and great pride comes from a job well done.

I’ve always tried to do my best and work my hardest, and have always appreciated the sense of accomplishment at seeing the results of my efforts whether it’s completing monthly status reports on time, writing a solid press release, or seeing my clients in the media.

Whenever I’m feeling lazy, I think about my two moms and I know they’ve probably already accomplished more in a day than many people do in a week, and I’m inspired to get back to work.

From Susie Dougherty:

“Mind your manners…” Something my mom was a stickler about, much to my benefit. I think most of us (well, maybe not as many as I’d like to think) grow up to be mindful of the simple words and gestures that help make us respected adults. But with today’s email and social media – suddenly a lot of those manners have gone out the window. Thanks to my mom for somehow making those words stick –even as the Internet has fundamentally changed in so many ways how we communicate. I’m still using my manners behind my laptop or iPhone or tablet screen – and I know that stands out to clients, reporters and even my own colleagues.”

From Jennifer Hellickson:

My mom’s a big proponent of the Golden Rule – treat others as you’d like to be treated – and this goes a long way in PR. Going that extra mile for both our clients and our colleagues in the media means trying to not only think from their perspective, but also anticipate their needs, as well. This creates a better working environment for everyone and ultimately allows us, as PR professionals, to better serve the company’s mission.

From Heather Bliss :

Mom taught me so many amazing lessons, but one of the most valuable was to be a good listener and problem solver. She has an uncanny ability to be able to listen to ANYONE, and I mean anyone. Whether it’s a family member, friend, colleague or a stranger on the park bench next to her — if they have a problem my mom has the time and patience to listen and to try and help solve it. I learned how to translate some small part of this gift of hers to my work in PR to really listen to clients and understand the issues they face and try to problem solve solutions as my mother would with quickness and calm.

And, fellow PerkettPR staff member (and new mom herself) agrees:

Johanna Lucia adds:

My Mom always taught me the importance of being a good listener. She helped instill this very powerful life skill in me, and when it comes to PR– we need to hear our clients. Listening to our clients’ wants and needs is a vital part of our role and in helping develop effective PR strategies.

What inspirational mom lessons can you share with us? Do you have a favorite piece of advice learned in childhood that still remains a part of your work habit today? Please share your stories in the comments.

“The shorter and the plainer the better.” –Beatrix Potter

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” – Shakespeare

Minute by minute, a dizzying amount of data is created in this content-driven world. (Don’t believe me? Check out this infographic from DOMO )

And as PR folks, we’re under the gun to get the message across – clearly, thoroughly and correctly on behalf of our clients.

More often than not, this takes the form of a press release, the worth and future of which has become an annual debate. (But that’s another blog post entirely… For our purposes here, rather than dispute its inherent value, let’s focus on a few ways in which we can improve upon the content of future announcements we’re putting out into the ether).

I found a great article by Bill Stoller, The Ten Commandments of a Press Release, where he outlines his top ten “shalts” and “shalt nots.” In it, he argues that “when the recipient of a release focuses only on its content — and not on its creation — the writer has succeeded.”

Stoller’s point is an important one: Good writing allows the reader to focus on the message versus the medium. Although we’re taught to write one way growing up, I tend to think that the most effective press releases today follow these five guidelines:

1. K.I.S.S. “Simple” works, but “short” is even more impactful in our content-crazed world.
2. Sell the story, not your company. Yes, we know who is paying for the release, but that doesn’t mean anything if no one wants to cover it, correct? Take the time to create context.
3. Remember your audience. Resist the urge to use marketing speak or pepper in industry acronyms. B2B or B2C, it’s doesn’t matter; keep it straightforward and interesting.
4. Do the legwork. Again, know your targets and how they like to receive content. Social media savvy? Try tweeting a link to the release. Very visual? Scrap the words and make an infographic with your information. Make it easy for journalists to do their job, and they may just reciprocate.
5. See number one. We’re following our own rules here.

Do you have any other principles for better press releases that you’d like to see added to the list? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

There’s been a lot of buzz in the communications industry around the idea of using paid placements (also referred to as “strategic placements), yet misconceptions persist about what this term actually means and when they are appropriate to use. In a nutshell, a strategic placement is a 30 or 60 second stand- alone video in a newsbreak format that is used to provide news content during breaks in scheduled programming for TV or radio. Video produced from B-roll and Satellite Media Tours (SMTs) as well as Radio Media Tours (RMTs) can also be repurposed into scripted packages for strategic placement on national or local TV and radio.

When to use a paid placement?

To increase the audience for a broadcast campaign: Impressions are often king in the broadcast world, but in some cases, satellite or radio media tours (“SMTs” and “RMTs” respectively) may not garner the number of impressions that clients often like to see. To increase the return on the investment in broadcast production, we always advise employing a multi-faceted approach so that content can be seen and heard on a variety of mediums. Paid placements can often help get air time on cable and network affiliates that are often unattainable otherwise, and can be a great way to increase your audience ‘footprint.’ For example, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, Headline News, and The Daily Buzz are just a handful of typically coveted networks where content can be easily placed with the paid approach.

To Target Local Markets or Demographics: Some initiatives have a local focus, with coverage wanted regionally, for example a bank that has only east coast branches. By utilizing paid placement, content can be placed in specific cities, states and/or on major national networks – adding a niche targeting approach. Add a statewide radio distribution and impressions skyrocket.

Targeting a specific demographic? A cluster of cable outlets can be selected to further refine goals. For example, content geared toward women can be placed on ABC Family and Lifetime, video devoted to entertainment can be placed on Comedy Central and Discovery, and Lifestyle related content can be placed on networks such as Food Network and HGTV.

THE BOTTOM LINE?

Broadcast paid placements can be a great addition to add to any multi-tiered broadcast approach. In addition to helping to boost impressions, paid placements can be used to target specific cities, states and regions and deliver the message to the right demographic.

Want to explore new ways to tell your brand’s story and to reach new audiences? We’d be happy to chat with you about creating a video or a designing multimedia distribution strategy that will increase discovery of your brand’s messages. We’d love to hear your ideas, and help turn them into reality. Contact us for more information.