WHITE NOISE

A client recently told me about a fascinating new approach to television advertising. Some advertisers, she said, are producing 30 second commercials without even a hint of sound.

That approach goes counter to every rule of television advertising. Since the combination of visual messages and audio allows for the greatest probability of the advertiser’s message actually sinking in, sound is a critical element. Plus, since so many people leave the room during commercials, advertisers want to make sure those people can at least hear the ad.

So why would a television advertiser leave the audio out? Imagine it’s dinner time. Dad is preparing dinner for the kids and has the television on in the corner of the kitchen. Dad’s not really watching – he’s focused on cooking – and the programming is basically just background noise.

But you’re an advertiser, and since you’re paying good money for that airtime, you want his attention. So the television, which has been providing consistent background noise for the past half hour, suddenly goes quiet. Dad notices, and his head snaps up to see if something is wrong with the set. He might even walk over and fiddle with the volume.

The advertiser has earned his attention. The tactic worked.

Good interviewees apply the same principle during media interviews. They know that on the other end of the radio or television speaker is a person who’s cooking dinner, driving the kids to school, or multitasking in some other way. They don’t assume that the audience is hanging on their every word; rather, they know they have to reach out and grab their attention.

Seasoned pros do it by varying the tone, volume and pace of their verbal delivery. If they’ve been speaking at a moderate pace, they suddenly speed things up. If they’ve been speaking rather softly, they may suddenly become emphatic. By doing so, they’ve recaptured the audience’s attention.

Let’s give an example. You’re on the radio and are working up to your key point. You’ve been speaking at a fairly moderate pace, and your volume has been rather steady. As you work your way to your key point, you suddenly slow down and reduce your tone to that of a whisper. By doing so, you’ve signaled to the audience that something important is coming. All of a sudden, their dinner preparation takes a momentary break so they can hear what you have to say.

ANYONE? ANYONE?

If you remember the 1980s film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you probably remember the sardonic actor Ben Stein playing an economics professor. Standing perfectly still, he would face the classroom with complete disinterest and say, “Does anyone know what this is? Anyone? Anyone?”

That oft-quoted iconic role is still used as the perfect example of a ridiculously boring, monotone speaker. But how many interviews have you heard or listened to that sound pretty much the same?

Although it may seem unnatural at first to speak in varying tones, volumes and speeds, great orators have been doing it for centuries. And since the number of distractions in the modern world have increased exponentially since the time of Cicero, it’s more critical than ever to use every tool at your disposal to retain an audience’s attention.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations. He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

For more information and to sign up for free monthly media relations and media training e-tips, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.

Dear New York Times:

I’d like to be quoted in one of your news stories. Enclosed is a check for $500. Please call me to arrange the interview sometime this week. Evenings are best. Thank you.

Imagine how such a letter would be greeted in the New York Times newsroom. The recipient would likely laugh out loud and might even post it on the bulletin board so other reporters could walk by and enjoy a good chuckle.

The letter wrongly assumed that the New York Times would accept “pay for play,” or would run a news story as long as a payment accompanied the request. It’s preposterous, of course, and U.S. news organizations just don’t work that way.

Or do they?

I recently booked a client on a Washington area radio talk show. After booking the client, I spent some additional time exploring the show’s website. Here’s what it said:

“Guest Opportunities: $600 to appear as a guest, 6 minute (minimum) interview.”

Although the host agreed not to charge my client, it made me wonder how pervasive this practice is, and whether media relations professionals should ever take advantage of this type of pay for play.

It’s not as uncommon as you might think. When I headed the media department for an environmental nonprofit, I used to get calls from production companies who were purportedly interested in producing half-hour documentaries on our group. The pitch was that they would then sell the completed program to a national network like Discovery or PBS, which would happily air it.

But later in the conversation, they would inevitably reveal their less than journalistic motives – they wanted us, as the subject of the piece, to pay tens of thousands of dollars to “defray their costs.” (Could you imagine Mike Wallace, after his recent interview with Russian President Putin on CBS, asking the Premier for a few grand to help 60 Minutes recover its production costs?)

When we asked the production companies what they could guarantee, they told us the show would appear on at least 80 PBS stations – but they couldn’t tell us in which markets and at what airtimes. In other words, they wouldn’t tell us if we would be buying a 3:00 A.M. timeslot in a small town or primetime in New York City. Something seemed off, and we decided to walk away from it.

A few months ago, I met someone who tried it. According to the president of a well-respected cultural nonprofit organization, the producers promised her that for $60,000, they could guarantee her that the show would air in at least 80 markets. After the show started airing, she asked the producers repeatedly for a list of the markets in which the piece was running. She never heard a word. She suspects the number was closer to 12 than 80.

So what should you do if you’re ever confronted with a pay for play opportunity? In general, I’d advise you to walk in the other direction. There are many news outlets that will report your story the right way – for free. Plus, the public is savvy enough to detect the difference between a balanced piece of journalism and an infomercial, and is more likely to regard the former with more credibility.

Is there ever a time to say ‘yes’ to pay for play? Well, perhaps. If, for example, the pay for play offer allows you to own the rights to any raw video footage the production team shoots and you can use that material in other ways, it might make sense. Or, if the venue is a direct hit on your target audience and you have no hope of getting coverage with that outlet in any other way, it might be worth it.

But in general, be wary. Pay for play has a way of making its customers pray for pay – in the form of a refund check.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations. He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

For more information and to sign up for free monthly media relations and media training e-tips, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.

If a reporter was writing a story about you and your company and she visited your website, could she find anything useful and interesting about you to use in her story? And could she find it quickly? Or would she immediately abandon your site and look for one of your competitors to write about?

Make it Easy for the Reporter
Every website today should have a "Media Room" (also known as an online press room) with everything a reporter needs to write a story quickly. Not only should you include information about your company history, the management team and owners, your products and services, and so on, but today you should also provide links to industry trade groups, information about industry trends, and maybe even a list of your competitors.

Why would you include your competitors, you ask?

Because just like you, a reporter is very busy and often overwhelmed. If you were the reporter and you visited a website that handed you the perfect story and all the sources to write an objective article about widgets (which just happened to be something your publication’s readers, and more importantly your boss, would love to read), wouldn’t you be thrilled? Of course you would. And so would I.

Besides, every time a prospect searches for your competitors’ products and services, your website will come up in the search, too. Maybe the prospect will click on your website link instead of your competitor’s.

The Top 20
So let’s consider what you should include in your new website Media Room. Here’s a list to get you started; each of these would be a separate "sublink" within your Media Room:

• Owners and management team bios (one short and one long bio for each person)
• Photos: downloadable, scalable, in 300 dpi (suitable for print publications) and 72 dpi (for online outlets), named/labeled, one for each member of the management team and any products you promote
• Company description and history, including dates, facts and sales figures (or percentage of growth by year)
• A list of products or services and brief descriptions of each one
• Customer demographics
• List and description of any awards you or your company have won
• List of story ideas with 4 to 6 talking points for each one
• Audio and video clips with sound bytes about important issues
• List of media experience for key company players
• Issues and opinions page, including position papers, articles you have written, White Papers, links to industry resources for both sides of the opinions (all opening in a new browser window, of course)
• Statements or quotes by key personnel regarding your business philosophy, hot industry topics, or comments about community issues.
• Industry trends and news
• Calendar of relevant trade shows and industry events
• List of your key competitors and links to outside sites that may contain opposing or even negative views (opening in new browser windows, of course!)
• Company and product news (with all your releases listed/summarized and linking to the full story)
• In the News section (links to actual published articles, opening in new browser windows)
• Contact information for key company players: day, night, cell phone, pager, fax, email (make it easy for the reporter to get in touch with you!)
• Email alert service to notify reporters of news
• Forms for reporters to order videos, photos, samples
• Ability to search the site for information, keywords, topics, etc.

And don’t forget to put an obvious link to your Media Room, right on your home page … and every page. Don’t worry if you can’t do all of this immediately. Just keep chipping away at it, and soon you’ll have a terrific Media Room. Then watch how your publicity grows.

Lois Carter Fay’s brainy ideas and resources can help you get better results from your marketing. She is the author of Marketing Plan Essentials: Online & Off and co-author with Jim Wilson of Sales Success! Strategies for Women. Her free "BRAINY Tidbits" email newsletter is filled with tons of marketing ideas and resources and is distributed weekly to a growing list of subscribers. Learn more and subscribe at http://www.marketingideashop.com and receive "67 Ways to Promote Your Business" free by return email.

The media (newspaper, radio, television) can be of enormous help to the small and home based business. So, it is very important that you develop a relationship with them.

When you first start your business, inform your local newspaper by using a press release that you are starting a new business. Almost all newspapers have a section which announces new businesses. So check out that section, call the newspaper and ask who you would send your release to and in what format they want the information.

When your business is doing something special for the community be sure to inform the media. Newspapers and radio stations love to get local stories. Just be sure it is newsworthy, and don’t overuse it. Always check to see who to send your information to and what format they need. Never blindly send out a release.

Are there trade magazines in your business area? If so, do up a release on your new business. Or if you are an existing business, send a press release on a new product or service.

Another way to work with the media is to write a column. Go to a local paper, no matter how small, and offer to write a column on your area of expertise or on business in general. Don’t ask to be paid for it, and promise not to promote your company. You won’t need to - your byline, words (and maybe even photograph) will do that.

Just recently we did a review for a former newspaper publisher on his book on how to write a press release and generally dealing with the media. He’s promised us a finished copy. Once we get it and re-read it, we’ll let you know more.

So develop a relationship with the media, and watch your business soar.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2002

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, it’s like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

Would you advise clients to buy a stock based on the say so of an investor relations person, or something you overheard at a restaurant? Of course not. You want to see at least some independent research before suggesting it be added to your clients’ portfolios.

Media people are just as protective of their "clients," the reading and viewing public.

Your word about a new trend in investing or the latest tip for retirement planning might be enough to get a media person interested, but it usually won’t be enough information for them to write a whole article or create a television segment.

Most times, they’ll need more than your timely information and juicy quotes to complete their story. They’ll need some background information such as:

• Pertinent statistics
• Real-life examples
• Photos of you or of clients who have benefited from your advice
• Confirmation from other experts

Sure, you can leave it to them to do the additional research, or dig up the photos they need to flesh out your story.

And just as sure, they may decide to move onto another story – one that requires less heavy lifting. The more you help a reporter, the better the odds your story will fly. Make it easy for them, and they’ll come back to you again and again!

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

PR, that is public-relations, leads the way to effective advertising; opening the channel of communication and allowing the advertising to be acceptable. Public-relations is really all the different ways of communicating that enable society and individuals and groups and organizations to better function and more understandably communicate with each other. Marketing is composed of the different forms of communications, such as words and pictures on music and shapes and colors that make a person or group more willing to receive a communication that communication usually being an advertisement. In the advertisement is to induce a consumer to purchase a good or service. The more a public-relations and marketing expert knows about various goods and services, the better that person is that marketing, advertising and selling them.

To be good at PR marketing, advertisement, and sales person must be good at counseling. And they must be good at counseling, whomever is providing the good and service, as well as whomever is purchasing it. In order be good at marketing, one must be good at researching evaluating establishing goals setting priorities designing programs and implementing all the activities necessary to get a product or service from the producer and provider to the consumer.

To be good at public-relations marketing, advertising and sales; you need to be good, professionally good at writing, speaking, art, management, psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science, economics, and the basic principles of science and engineering and physics. And in the final analysis, one must be able to achieve the goal. That is a sale and a payment as a result that sale, no matter what. That’s about all there is to it.

Copyright 2005 by Jody Hudson www.JodyHudson.com and www.Kate-Jody.com

Jody Hudson has been a realtor in America and Delaware for over 35 years.

E-mail is becoming the preferred way to receive media releases. Although it can sometimes be harder to get valid e-mail addresses for media contacts, e-mail releases are more likely to be read than faxes and faster than snail mail.

Collect e-mail addresses for your preferred media contacts from the web sites for publications and broadcast outlets. For example, many newspapers list e-mail addresses of their editors, columnists and reporters at their web sites. They may also print e-mail addresses in each section of the newspaper.

Can’t find the e-mail address for the person you want to reach? Often, you can guess what the address is if you know the e-mail address convention for that publication. For example, if others there have addresses that are firstname.lastname@magazine.com, you can try contacting columnist John Jones at john.jones@magazine.com.

Keep the release short. There shouldn’t be more than a couple of screens worth of text.

Use text, not special formatting such as HTML. What you thought was a beautifully formatted message with special fonts and graphics will show up on some systems as a bunch of garbage code. Also, with all the viruses, worms and trojans out there, some people will not open HTML e-mail.

NEVER send an attachment. Some systems will automatically strip them out, but even if they reach the addressee, many will not open an attachment because of the possibility of viruses as well as the inconvenience.

Your subject line is your headline. Use it wisely. Don’t leave it blank, or put a generic subject such as “Hi!” or “Something for you.” Most will delete it believing it to be spam or just not interesting. Don’t try to be cute with a subject line such as “Guess who?” or “I dare you to open this,” for the same reasons.

Make the FROM field meaningful. Put your name, company name or other identifier there. If all that shows up is that the e-mail is from a meaningless series of letters and numbers, it looks unprofessional or like spam.

Don’t use the CC: field to send the e-mail release to dozens or hundreds of media. All of the addresses will show up on each person’s e-mail, meaning they will have to scroll through pages of header to reach your message—and they won’t. Your e-mail will be deleted unread. It’s annoying and unprofessional to send e-mails this way.

E-mail releases can be an effective, free way to get publicity. Use them wisely.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. Learn more about how you can attract customers and make yourself famous with free publicity at http://www.IdeaLady.com/pr.htm.

There is something newsworthy happening at your organization right now. Here are some tips on how to tell your story.

First, make sure your story contains all the relevant facts. Ask yourself: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?

Next, make your story readable. Here’s how:

• Use short sentences. (Best single thing you can do…and easiest.) Research shows sentences of 15-20 words or less are easiest to comprehend. If you must write a long sentence, punctuation — like colons and dashes — can help the reader.

• Use short paragraphs. Usually one or two sentences per paragraph is enough. Otherwise, the reader sees a solid, gray mass when looking at a narrow newspaper or magazine column.

• Use easy words. Avoid multi-syllable and/or technical words that are hard to understand. If you must use them, explain them with simple definitions or by using analogies.

• Use personal words. These are human interest words: e.g., “I,” “you,” “me,” “they,” names, quotes.

• Use active verbs. These are words that show action. Examples are easily found in recipes or on sports pages (mix, stir, blend, whip, hit, run).

• Get to the point…fast! Readers and editors don’t have the time or inclination to wade through a bunch of words before finding out what a story is all about.

• Use an “inverted pyramid” style. Most editors usually chop stories - to make them fit available space - from the bottom. So put the most important points first, second most important next, and so on down to the least important.

Now, alert the media.

About the author: Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR, http://www.hoover-ink.com. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Duke Energy, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX and Verbatim.

A reporter’s job is to get the most accurate and interesting story he or she can. Whether journalists make you look good or bad in the process is inconsequential to them – their loyalty is to their story, and their goal is to elicit the most dramatic quotes possible from you.

This is not to suggest that you should view every encounter with reporters as adversarial. In fact, most interviews are quite straightforward. But a good journalist will try to steer you “off message." He or she will use well-established tricks of the trade to get you to say things you didn’t intend to say, and some of those things might prove embarrassing when you see them in the newspaper the next day.

By knowing some of the tricks of the reporting trade, you can maintain control of the interview and get the quotes you want. Below are three ways to avoid falling into a reporter’s trap:

1) Never Repeat a Bad Question in Your Answer — It usually starts innocuously enough. A journalist will tell you that because his or her questions will not be included in the story, you should answer the questions in complete sentences.

For example, if a reporter asks, ‘Are you pleased with the number of donations your organization received this year?" he or she would ask you to answer by saying, "Our organization is pleased with the number of donations we’ve received this year." It makes perfect sense, and is a legitimate way of conducting an interview.

But occasionally, a reporter will ask a negative question without warning. You have to break the rules here, and answer the question as a positive.

For example, if a reporter asks you, “Is it true that your organization has committed fraud?" you probably don’t want your quote the next day to say, “It isn’t true that our organization committed fraud." Such a quote links your organization to the word “fraud," an association you’d probably rather not make.

Assuming, of course, that your business did not commit fraud, you should answer that question in a positive manner, such as, “In our 35 years of business, we have always taken great pains to ensure that our business operates within the word and spirit of the law. We have operated ethically in this case, as we strive to in all of our dealings."

2) Shhhhh! — During most interviews, reporters will ask a steady stream of questions and you will answer them. No surprises there. But remember the goal of the journalist – he or she wants to steer you off message in order to elicit a more interesting response.

Sometimes, after you finish answering the reporter’s question, the reporter will just sit there, as if he or she wants you to continue speaking. The silence usually flusters the interviewee, who tries to please his or her interviewer by speaking again – and usually strays far off message in the process. Don’t fall into this trap! If you find yourself in a “reportorial stare down," simply ask whether the reporter has another question and move on.

3) Don’t Assume the Reporter Knows What He Says He Knows — For this one, I’ll turn it over to Eric Nalder, an investigative reporter for the respected San Jose Mercury News. In his article, “The Art of the Interview," Nalder writes, “Play like you know. Ask the official why he fired the whistle-blower rather than asking whether he did the deed. The question presumes you already know even if you don’t have it confirmed. They’ll start explaining rather than denying."

In other words, by falling into this trap, you may be the person who confirms a negative story about your own organization. If the reporter has made a false assumption, speak up. If not, don’t help the journalist confirm it unless you’ve made a conscious choice to do so.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations (http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com). He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and also headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

Media relations is a great profession.

On good days, I earn my living speaking to and learning from knowledgeable experts who ask for help in raising the profile of their cause through the media. In the past few years, I’ve worked with billionaire philanthropists, a Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist and a world famous actor. Mostly, though, I work with unknown but equally impressive professionals regarded as experts in their fields.

When I speak to them, I’m always listening for “the story.” Some of the time, the story is immediately apparent. But the most gratifying moments come when a story seemingly devoid of news value suddenly leaps out and surprises me.

Two years ago, for example, I was doing media work for a Washington DC-based environmental organization. Scientists from the group would regularly contact me regarding their latest field work, hoping I could convince a reporter to shine a spotlight on their project.

One day I met with a charismatic field biologist to discuss his project while sipping coffee in a depressing restaurant. As he told me about his project, I quietly became more convinced that he didn’t have much of a story. I felt bad, but suspected no reporter would bite.

The West African forest elephant, he told me, was in trouble. The problem was largely one of capacity – no West Africans had been formally trained in protecting the 7,700-pound mammals, which were being killed by the farmers who feared them.

To help correct the problem, he said, they had established a program three years earlier to train six West Africans to conserve the majestic beasts. In a month, they would end their training and begin working to protect the animals full-time.

That’s when the idea hit.

I asked the scientist if we could call the group the first-ever graduating class from "Elephant University." When he agreed, I knew we were in business.

I drafted an e-mail with a few highlights to a reporter I had recently met from The Wall Street Journal. The story pitch suggested that this story was the perfect fit for the quirky daily front-page “Column Four” feature. The reporter quickly wrote back. He agreed.

Two weeks later, the reporter was off to Accra, Ghana to report the story firsthand. When the story ran on November 27, 2002, the words “Elephant University” – the ones we had happily stumbled upon over coffee – were emblazoned on the front-page.

This story worked because we didn’t pitch it “head on.” Remember – the heart of this story was that West African scientists were receiving training – not exactly front-page material. But by giving the reporter an unusual hook, he was able to convince his editors that the story deserved to be told.

If you’re speaking to an expert to assess a story’s newsworthiness and it doesn’t seem immediately obvious to you, keep talking. If they say something interesting, stop them. Ask them to slow it down and provide more detail. Paraphrase their response into something resembling a headline by asking, “Would it be correct to say it this way?” Finally, look for the nuggets. Ancillary parts of the story often jump out and become your lead.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations (http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com). He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and also headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.