michael smart prsa 2014 slides

© Copyright 2014 MichaelSMARTPR, LLC © Copyright 2014 MichaelSMARTPR, LLC

@michaelsmartpr

Secrets of new media relations superstars—what will work in

2015

© Copyright 2014 MichaelSMARTPR, LLC

What’s changed in how media function in the last few years?

• Discuss with your neighbor


Good news!

• It’s harder than ever to reach media influencers . . .

• . . . but easier than ever to land big coverage once you do.


Challenges we’ll overcome in this session:

1. Media fragmenting

2. Journalists have no time for relationships

3. Straight-up news angles don’t work

4. Journalists have no time to develop stories

5. Customizing pitches isn’t enough


Examples you deserve:

• 11 successful pitches that landed NYT, WSJ, USAT, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Today show and more

• From in-house, agency, and solo pros

• From Fortune 200 to Inc. 5000 to non-profits


For each challenge, you’ll get:

• An immediately actionable takeaway

• A specific next step you can implement on your flight home

Copyright 2014

MichaelSMARTPR LLC


Challenges

1. Media fragmenting into a million pieces.

• Contacts getting laid off

• Outlets changing focus

• Broader beats, if any beats at all

• Outlet reach and prominence changing fast


Ranked by unique visitors (comScore)

Traditional media

• NYTimes.com

• USAToday.com

• WashingtonPost.com

• WSJ.com

• CNNMoney.com

• Time.com

Merge the two columns and re-rank

Digital-first media

• HuffingtonPost.com

• BuzzFeed.com

• Forbes.com

• BusinessInsider.com

• Slate.com

• Mashable.com


HuffingtonPost

NYTimes.com

Buzzfeed.com

USAToday.com

WashingtonPost.com

Forbes.com

WSJ.com

BusinessInsider.com

CNNmoney.com

Time.com

Ranked by unique visitors (comScore)


Kim Ward, Michigan State

• Pitching physics

• Extinction of science writers

Subject Line: Black Holes Don’t

Entirely Suck….

…because, Elise, Michigan State

University Professor Chris Adami believes

he has plugged the hole in Stephen

Hawking’s black hole theory — the

information paradox hole. Here’s the link to

the release and study: [link].

[continued]


Olympics tie-in

Luge contestant and BYU student Kate Hansen


Jon McBride, BYU


Caught dancing to Beyonce


What’s the takeaway?

Find new outlets – even non-media – that are already reaching your audiences


Flight-home action item

Identify one new outlet that’s reaching your key audiences that you aren’t pitching.

• What’s the IFLscience in your niche?

• What non-media personality reaches your audience?


Challenges

1. Media fragmenting.

2. Journalists and bloggers too busy to take calls or meetings. No time for relationships. Where do you start?



“Read & React”


Read & React


“Read & React”

• Consume their content

• Let them know you did!


“Read & React”

• What channels can you use to let them know?

• Twitter – “quote tweet” or “@ message”

• Comment on story or blog post

• Go old school:


“Read & React”

• What channels can you use to let them know?

• Twitter – “quote tweet” or “@ message”

• Comment on story or blog post

• Go old school: email them!


Laura Crovo, Euler Hermes


Flight home action item

• Who thinks doing this consistently would increase media responsiveness to your pitches?

• Schedule 10 minutes a day to Read & React


Challenges


2. No time for relationships.

3. Traditional straight-up, company-focused news doesn’t fly anymore. Fresh angles required.


Jon Sullivan, Aflac


Story opportunity • Aflac field agent had registered as a

potential bone marrow donor

• Strangers’ baby needed a transplant


Story opportunity

• Aflac then supported program to add employees to bone marrow registry

• Strategic because Aflac offers policies related to bone marrow diseases



Whenever possible, focus pitch on “real people,” not corporate achievements

Broader takeaway:

Reframe pitches into the way journalists present their stories.


The only thing better than real people?

• Real animals

• Vicki Robb, DC solo pro

• Area’s first workout facility for dogs: Frolick Dogs


Pitch includes: “Dogs of all sizes and breeds will be using equipment such as:

- Dog Tread treadmills

- FitPAW balance balls - standing atop a large peanut-shaped ball that provides a great visual - which help improve a dog’s core strength, balance, and body awareness

- Agility equipment in a competition size ring.”


Matthew McWilliams

• Longwood U.

• 4,800 students

• Overlooked in DC market


Professor of medieval history

Studies time period depicted in HBO’s Game of Thrones


Creating pop culture angle

• Identified subject of next episode, epic duel between two main characters

• Enrolled professor to write essay on historical realities similar to the duel

• Pitched BEFORE the episode aired

From: Matthew McWilliams

Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 10:52:55 -0400

To: (HuffingtonPost TV writer)

Subject: Upcoming Game of Thrones Duel Echoes Medieval History

(Writer),

I read HuffPo's Game of Thrones episode recaps each week. As you may know, this

Sunday's GoT duel promises to be one of the bloodiest and most intense television

events of the year.

What many viewers don't know is that the fight has echoes upon echoes of actual

history.

Dr. Steven Isaac of Longwood University has researched these parallels, which are

eerily similar to what viewers will see this weekend. I've summarized the highlights

here: (4 highlights)

If you're interested in more, here's a link to the full essay.

Let me know if you're interested in using it—and please feel free to use pieces in

articles you have planned.

Best,

http://www.longwood.edu/gotduel.htm



Brainstorm “real people” or “pop culture” tie-ins to upcoming pitches


Challenges



3. Company-focused news doesn’t work.

4. Journalists/bloggers have scarce time and resources to research and create stories. But audiences demand fresh info by the minute.


Nancy Crowley, San Francisco



• Don’t be a mere pitcher – create content for influencers to share

• Tip sheets

• Infographics

• Videos, photos

• Lists


Kristy Kennedy, rbb PR


U.S. Department of Labor

• Carl Fillichio runs public affairs

• Dept.’s 100th anniversary

. . .Here's something else: it's fun but hope you'll take a

serious look at it. See release below on a project we

launched called "Books that Shaped Work in

America." I'm willing to bet that this is the FIRST TIME

Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" and Keynes'

"General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money"

appears on the same list as "The Day the Crayons Quit"

and "The Devil Wears Prada."

I think you could have some fun with this in the

Economix blog . . . do hope you will consider. Let me

know if you have questions. Thanks muchly, -Carl


Books that Shaped Work . . .

• Washington Post

• Wall Street Journal

• Parade

• NPR

• 40+ other placements



Change one upcoming pitch into a piece of content to share.


Challenges



3. Company-focused news doesn’t work.

4. No time to produce necessary content.

5. Influencers hate mass pitches. Wary of semi-targeted pitches with too much flattery. Emails get ignored.

6.


Jason Maderer, Georgia Tech

• Study about online restaurant reviews

• Pitching NYT Atlanta correspondent

• Saw that she used to cover dining/food

Hi Kim,

I know you cover larger-issue stories, but

wanted to send this just in case b/c it's

about food (!) and we're in your backyard. We have a release going out next week that shows that the weather significantly affects

restaurant reviews. Our researchers looked at 1.1 million reviews all over the country (in

a 10-year period) and found that reviews written when it was snowy, rainy, very cold or

very hot are more negative than reviews written on nice days. Reviews are generally

more negative in July and August compared with the rest of the year. Restaurants here

in the south get fewer reviews than those in the Pacific or Northeast.

There's a long list of findings, but I didn't want to send a long email.

Any interest in seeing the study? If it's best for someone else, anyone you'd suggest?

Many thanks!



• For cold-contacting top targets, personalization needs to be:

• Specific

• Sincere

• Spend 80 percent of your time pitching the top 20 percent of your media list


Harry McCracken, Fast Company


Customization is not enough

• Not merely:

• “Love your stuff on consumer tech . . .”

• I saw your story yesterday headlined “With Its New Gizmo, Highfive Wants to Democratize Business Videoconferencing”


Leigh Gibson, Intrepid

• Near miss with Today and nat’l AP

• Perfect target was at USAT

• WSJ pitch:

From: Leigh Gibson

Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2014 9:04 AM

Subject: New Survey Shows why Breast is Best

Hi [name],

Your recent article about infants receiving formula at

hospitals caught my attention, especially the statistic of

only 18.8 percent of infants being exclusively breastfed

for six months.

Based on your extensive reporting on breastfeeding, I

wanted to talk with you first about a new breastfeeding

survey of 13,160 moms or moms-to-be in in nine

countries.

[continued}


Brad Plothow, Method Communications


Difficult sell at first

• Client announcing acquisition

• Third and smallest acquisition of the year


Journalist reaction:

If you're interested, I wanted to offer another exclusive to you (embargoed until next week).

This is another story that signals something bigger than the actual announcement, and it has

implications for Silicon Valley, so I wanted to share with you first since you have such a knack

for capturing nuance.

Here's the gist: next Tuesday, the online developer training company Pluralsight will

announce its acquisition of Tekpub. The acquisition will be Pluralsight's third this year,

following deals to buy Seattle-based Peepcode and Chicago-based TrainSignal, and makes

Pluralsight the Lynda.com for computer programmers, developers, coders -- basically

everyone under the CIO/CTO umbrella. This matters to Silicon Valley because Pluralsight is

now essentially a one-stop shop for all the technical skill development required to fuel hot

high-tech startups.

In terms of background, Pluralsight grew organically for about a decade before taking a

$27mm Series A from Insight Venture Partners earlier this year. With that investment, they've

gone on a buying spree to dominate the online training space for technical pros (which is

becoming more relevant amid the talent crunch). Sarah Lacy did a profile on Pluralsight's first

millionaire instructor earlier this year, but nobody has really told the story behind Pluralsight's

recent moves and what they mean for the online training industry and the future of training

high-tech talent. This acquisition is an impetus for telling that story.

If this sounds useful, I would be happy to send a press release for more info and get you a

briefing with Aaron Skonnard, founder and CEO of Pluralsight (he's a cool guy – I think you'd

like him ;).

Cheers,

Brad


Almost to Q&A

• Takeaways

• Next steps


5 takeaways

1. Find new outlets that are already reaching your audiences.

2. Read & React

3. Reframe pitches into the way journalists present their stories.

4. Create content for influencers to share.

5. Customization must be specific & sincere.


Final takeaway:

We win by helping insanely busy influencers grab the attention of their crazy-busy audiences.

And when we do that . . .


Bonus tips

Drop your card in the box so I can send you:

• Slides from today

• My weekly pitching and PR writing tips

• Starting with: 5 templates for email pitch subject lines that get your pitches opened

• And then: more empowering successful pitches you can mimic every month


Q&A, then some final words


Keep in touch

[email protected]

@michaelsmartpr

michaelsmartpr.com