everyday public relations

I am a lifelong student and therefore I am always cruising for information. I love to learn and I love to read so the internet during my lunch break becomes my best friend, faithfully keeping me informed and on top of not only the news but new ideas and techniques I can apply to my own public relations work.

I have read so many good posts lately that are both informative and entertaining. So I thought I would follow my former professor’s (and blogging mentor) example and post a top ten of the best stuff I’ve seen the past few weeks.

1. Personal PR “Keeping the Conversation Going” (Tiffany Monhollon )
2. Young PR What’s in a name? “Moniker Maladies” (Paul Young)
3. The Corporate Hack (Matt and Jon)
4. Free isn’t always best (Sam Davidson)
5. Media Shift Idea Lab “Honor the Old Guard” (J.D. Lasica)
6. The Urban Muse – “Self Motivation” (Susan Johnston)
7. Modern Urbanite - “Too Quiet?”(Rebecca Thorman)
8. Dosh Dosh -”Empower your audience” (Maki)
9. Brazen Careerist – “Thanks Hacker, sort of….” (Penelope Trunk)
10. Scatterbox- “Denial to Disaster in 5 days” (Steven Silvers)

What good sites or blogs have you come across lately? How are they helping you in your everyday life, or in your career of choice be it Public Relations or something else. I would really like some feedback from both PR people and non-PR people; (didn’t I mention I love to learn?)

A special thanks to all the authors who contribute great content, keep it up!

If there is one thing Gen Y is comfortable with, it is an increasing sense of transparency. We live out more and more of our lives in a see through world, reminiscent of a crazy snow globe, which is often shaken up by the hand of controversy. It started with the advent of the Internet but with increasingly advanced technology, has grown into an entity all its own.

It started with Tylenol in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s we had the Clinton scandals, who can forget the infamous black dress, the taped phone calls? Then there was Enron, Martha Stewart, Dan Rather is resigning and Valerie Plame has to find a new line of work because Scooter has a big mouth. All of these cases represent how the new media is changing the way we live, work and practice public relations. They sparked discussions about just what real journalism is and who has the right to disseminate the “news.”

Now we have what’s called social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace so that we can remain “on” all the time, 24/7. The world is constantly surfing, checking out your profile, posting comments, making judgments. Do you know who’s looking at you?

All this transparency has changed the world of public relations. No longer can you hide behind your press release and declare “no comment” whenever you feel uncomfortable. With the media being given almost unlimited access right into the souls of industry, it is more important than ever to learn how to use this transparency as a tool, no matter if you work for an agency with multiple clients, or a small non-profit.

In this new age of PR, you must be more aware than ever before. The world is always watching, whether it is the co-worker with a new camera phone or the reporter who happens to run into you at your kid’s book fair. (This really happens).

Gen Y’ers know no other world however, and increasingly are leading the way in business. They text, carry iphones, email more than a dozen times a day and read more online news before lunch than some of our parents did in a lifetime. They blog and are not afraid to make their comments and feelings known to the world. If they disapprove, they say so, and if they think they can do something better, they start their own company.

We live in a glass world. As a PR practitioner I am my company. I represent them whether I am at work or not. As a government PR person, I am more aware of this than ever. Maybe it’s not 1984, but Big Brother is real, and he is always watching. Everything I write, say or do must be up to standard.

I probably sound paranoid, but in reality, this new transparency is a good thing. It gives us power for change. Gen Y can make a difference precisely because we live out our lives in such a public fashion. We are more informed, we vote, we care.

How do you see public relations changing? What new roads are you paving that may have seemed crazy even 10 years ago? I want to know. Keep the conversation going.

I love to write, which is helpful seeing as I am in public relations. When I started out though, I was a different kind of writer. I loved long flowery descriptions and vivid detail. I was a dramatic writer, which is great if you are writing a novel, not so much for a press release or a news story.

In college I was introduced to AP style and have been struggling with it ever since. It seemed so concise, so objective, so unemotional…. I think that my news-writing teacher, also a free lance writer, was probably ready to throw something at me by the end of the semester.

Since starting my career I have had to continue studying AP style. Every release comes back from my supervisor (remember the newspaperman mentor?) with at least one AP error. He also managed to cut a third of my words. At first I was devastated, but then I realized that you can still be interesting without being too wordy.

Recently he loaned me a book called “The Word” by Rene J. Capon. Excellent advice! If you write for news at all then this is a must read. It certainly helped me begin to understand how to get the message out without inundating the reader with trivial details.

Listed below are a few tips from the book:

1. Hold the Adjectives! -“E.B. White once observed that the adjective hasn’t been born yet that can pull a noun out of a tight spot.” Mark Twain concurs, “When you can catch an adjective, kill it.” Too many adjectives weaken the story. Not every noun needs one. Use them sparingly and then they will become more valuable, making your writing more interesting without wordiness or redundancy. For example: “It can be said with absolute certainty…..” “The man pleaded guilty to the alleged theft.” Get rid of the excess making the first, “It can be said with certainty…” and in the second, “The man pled guilty to the theft.” (If he pled guilty then you don’t need alleged.) Why inform the readers that something is dramatic or tragic? Give them the particulars and they will supply their own adjectives.
2. Trim the lead, but not too much – don’t give away the farm but make sure you keep them interested enough o continue reading. This is a tricky skill that requires patience and a good eye for what the people want. Cruise through your local paper and see which stories catch your attention by the lead alone.
3. Second hand news – how do you make old news fresh? This happens a lot when you work for an agency that has much of the same news year after year. So change it up. Look for the angle that will make it newsworthy again. Example: Maybe you have to write about the state tax check off for the 4^th year in a row, but make it new by opening with a highlight on a program that the money raised goes to funding.
4. Avoid Clichés – this is a no brainer, but often when on deadline, even the best writers fall into this trap.
5. Don’t hide behind approximations – try to be exact when you can and if you don’t have an exact figure, rethink your sentence. Example: “At least 30 people bought tickets to the show, although not all showed up.” A phone call or two could tell you the exact number. Generalities are boring.

For more information on AP writing you can check here or simply read the book. Your writing will improve and you’ll laugh so hard you’ll cry when you see yourself in the text. Happy writing!

Ever hear the phrase, “You just had to be there”, well now I know exactly what that means.

When you think about public relations, chances are you don’t think about taking part in setting fires to the sides of mountains. Well there is something to be said for the PR practitioner who takes chances by going out into the field.

My public relations work involves educating the public about various programs that benefit the environment and the flora and fauna, which inhabit it. Since I am by no means a science major, some of the work I cover seems completely foreign to me.

Therefore, sometimes the only way to get a good idea about something is to experience it first hand.

I took part in a “Prescribed Burn” this past week at the Sprewell Bluffs Natural Area near Thomaston, GA. It was nothing short of amazing.

Working alongside a highly trained crew, I never once felt like I was in any danger, despite being only a few feet away from waist high flames.

According to the Georgia DNR “Prescribed burning is an important technique used by wildlife and forestry managers to stimulate the growth of grasses and forbs, set back the growth of small trees and shrubs, improve access, provide habitat for threatened and endangered species, enhance populations of fire-dependent plants and animals and reduce high fuel levels that can contribute to dangerous wildfires.”

It is a safe way to apply a natural process and to ensure ecosystem health by reducing the risk of wildfires.”

In fact much of the damage on private lands from last summer’s wildfires in the Okefenokee area was due to fire suppression, or in layman’s terms, lack of fire.

I got the opportunity to get right up there with the team as the slung drip torches (flaming cans of accelerant) along a predetermined fire line. We burned well into the night, which was an incredible sight to behold. I inhaled a lot of smoke and discovered just how out of shape I really am but it was well worth it to get a mountaintop view of fire both above and below us coming together in a sort of crazy V formation in the dark.

After it was all said and done we had burned approximately 550 acres, which sounds huge but is actually considered a pretty small burn.

A special thanks to the burn crew for allowing a lowly public affairs officer to tag along, it was awesome. Keep up the great work!

“There’s always a story. You just have to find it.”

My supervisor is fairly new to public relations. He’s an old newspaperman who has a true “nose for news” as they say.

There have been times on the job that I was unsure of myself, hesitant to write fearing that maybe I was the only one who cared if a foreign beetle killed every red bay tree in existence. That is the nature of my job though. I am supposed to make people care by finding the news nugget. Without a good mentor I couldn’t do it.

I am thankful for people like my boss because he knows what will get released and what will end up in the circular file. He is always bouncing ideas around and cruising Google to see what interest is out there. Having worked for years with the newspaper he has this sixth sense almost for what the media is looking for. That experience is invaluable for the rest of us on staff.

Every person new to PR knows just how important it is to have a mentor. Sometimes they pop up in the most unusual places and when you least expect it. I came into my job with a lot of confidence. In this industry you have to or you will quickly burn out. Maintaining that confidence is the tricky part and when you have someone on your side, your path becomes a lot smoother.

The funny thing is that he considers himself a dinosaur. He doesn’t realize just how relevant his experience really is.

So with his help I have been able to make people care about beetles, rare plants, frogs and the importance of fire. I have found the news and disseminated it to the public, which after all is what public relations is all about. Thanks.

When I decided to go back to school to get a graduate degree I was full of optimism. I thought the timing was right, as I had just graduated from college. I was currently unemployed so I had plenty of time to devote to a great application and to study for the required GRE. Well fast forward a few months and you will see how insanely loopy I must have been at the time. (Personally I blame the new mommy hormones.)

First of all I am a mother of three, one of which is a new baby. Actually she is now six months old, but she hasn’t gotten any easier! I also have a toddler in the throws of the terrible two’s (which he should have outgrown two years ago but I am still waiting…) and a ten year old in baseball and boy scouts. BUSY doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Second of all I have a full time job that requires long hours and weekends on occasion.

OK, so when to study?

Well If I was as well put together and organized as I claim to be I would have scheduled some time each week. I had the software, the books. I should have been prepared. Long story short, I procrastinated. I put it off for kids, work, sleep.

I waited until the week of to even take a practice test, which I did miserable on. I thought I had a fairly decent vocabulary so it was quite a shock to see so many words that were absolutely foreign to me. Were they even actual English? I have my doubts.

Now I am wondering: What was the purpose of all that anyways? Will this test really help me in my chosen career?

I probably should have rescheduled, but having failed to read all the paperwork I missed the cancellation window so I was in fact stuck. Needless to say my scores were not pretty but I take heart in the fact that I can re-take the test next month. This time I promise to study! Well right after I write this press release, oh and then I have an exhibit to work downtown, and that interview has to be scheduled and then I am chaperoning a field trip and the baby needs her shots….ok so maybe grad school will just have to wait after all.

The point of all this? The world will not wait for you to catch up. Time management is the PR professional’s best friend. LEARN IT. USE IT. SUCCEED.