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Interview with Sally Slack
How did you get your start in public relations? I actually began doing public relations work in the late '80s when my husband opened a computer repair company in Oregon. He needed someone to handle advertising, marketing and public relations, so I volunteered. I was so clueless! This was in the days before the Internet, so I schlepped down to the library to learn about news releases from the few books I could find on the subject. My first news release must have been a complete mess! But I kept at it until I got one picked up, and then I started using that basic template for additional news releases. My reasoning was that if one paper liked the format/content enough to pick it up, others would as well. Why mess with success? After I completed my first interview and saw that first news release in the newspaper, I was hooked. What kinds of resources do you recommend for a writer who wants to get into the public relations field? 1) An AP Style guide is a must! If you don’t have one, get one and start learning that style. Newspaper editors will respect your news release a lot more if you write it in their style ... news releases that need rewriting get tossed in the trash can very quickly! 2) I consider a professional network to be an incredible resource, so if you don’t have one, start working on it today. Join professional business organizations-- and be active in them! You will hook up with small business owners who need PR help but don’t know where to start... so offer your services. Always be honest about your PR skill level but understand this: Half the battle in public relations is having the guts to just put yourself out there. From your professional network, you will land some clients willing to take you on as you *both* learn public relations. As a result, you’ll build a portfolio as well as establish relationships with the media, both of which will help you down the road as you target larger clients. 3) And of course, I recommend my own book, A Public Relations Survival Kit. It spells out the basics of public relations so that you can apply the information to almost any business you can land as a client. Public Service Announcements (PSAs) can be very useful in some situations but there are some definite rules to the PSA game. First, understand that PSAs are typically used to stimulate action on local significant public issues (health, education, safety, social issues, etc.). Second, they can be in either audio or video format and most media outlets allow only limited space for them. Third, you can’t control timing of these announcements — media outlets run them on *their* schedule, not yours. PSAs are run free of charge by the media outlet according to FCC regulations, which gives some people the idea that “if I can get a PSA run on this, I got free publicity!” True... but be careful! You need to first make sure your announcement can truly be considered a public issue. Then you need to check with the outlet for their specific guidelines. Some outlets have very specific guidelines; others are very loose. Most stations want several weeks notice so they can slot the PSA into their regular programming. I once managed to finagle a radio PSA on the day of an event but that’s rare — and I learned my lesson! The PSA was barely heard by my target audience and I managed to really irritate the radio station’s management. I worked long and hard to rebuild that relationship, something I could have avoided by simply planning ahead. Once you know the guidelines, follow them... and then follow up with the outlet. If you’ve met the outlet’s guidelines, you shouldn’t have any problem getting your PSA on the air. That sounds almost too simple, but PSAs really aren’t that hard to get aired. Usually, the reason a PSA doesn’t get aired is because it didn’t meet the media outlet’s guidelines, which could be either in content or in timing. I’ve seen people attempt to get items run as a PSA that are clearly self-serving for an organization and then act surprised that the PSA wasn’t picked up. If yours doesn’t involve a significant public issue, don’t waste your time trying to land a PSA. You would be surprised at how many ways there are to turn something into a public issue, though, so don’t toss this option right off the bat. Only discard the PSA angle if you truly can’t figure out how to tie it into some sort of public issue. Let's say a company has hired me to write news releases, but the information they've given me is pretty dry. How do I dig deeper to find a human interest angle? Ask questions! Don’t be intimidated by a business owner who’s too busy for you or who isn’t willing to help you. Keep asking questions until you get the answers you need. Sometimes, you need to teach the business owner as you go along. I’ve actually written up several versions of a news release to help the business owner understand the difference that can be made by including a human interest element. Show them the boring version with the info you have; then show them the version you’d really like to run. Once they see the difference, they almost always catch on and will be more helpful in the future. But let’s assume you’re working with a business that just doesn’t “get it.” In that case, try these questions/suggestions: a. What’s happening nationally on this topic? (Have you seen the topic on national news? If so, what human interest angle was used on that level?) b. How can I break this story down to a local level? (What’s happening locally in this industry? Who are the local customers? What are their concerns? What information can you include to make this news release touch those local customers? Perhaps you can highlight a customer that’s using the product in a unique way.) c. Check to see the sort of human interest stories have the local media outlets been running lately. (Take a cue from these: if the local paper likes to run HI stories with photos, what sort of photo opportunity can you set up? If the papers run HI stories with an economic twist, can you write your news release in a similar fashion? d. Read your company’s executive biographies... does one of the execs volunteer locally? Are they on a board somewhere that you can tie in? (If they don’t have bios already, this is a great opportunity for you to land another writing assignment, by the way. Reports love to have all the background information they can get their hands on, so try to convince your client that these bios are a necessary part of public relations.) e. Is there a local event that you can tie your release in with? If so, you can insert a human interest angle by showing how the company is participating in the local event and why … along with how that participation benefits the community. Should my news release read like an article? Can I expect a newspaper to print it as is? Remember, with a news release, you’re pitching an idea. Use the same tactics you do when pitching an editor on any piece for his publication: Study the outlet that you’re submitting to and write the release in that style. Tailor your release appropriately, in other words. Be professional, use proper grammar and spelling, and ALWAYS use AP style; nearly every news organization uses it. (Some use other styles but that’s rare.) I always expect a newspaper to run my release in full and as is — that’s exactly what I want! I find that writing releases with that attitude helps me ensure that I included all the necessary message points that I was hoping to get across. If you write a news release hoping to get an interview, things can backfire. Here’s what I mean: Some PR reps will write a release and leave out a few message points because they want the newspaper to call for an interview. Using the news release as a teaser, they claim that the missing message points can be shared “during the interview.” But if the editor is having a last-minute crisis and needs to fill space in the next five minutes, he’ll just grab the news release and print it. No call, no interview, no chance to share those missing message points. And now your messages haven’t been heard by the public. In my opinion, that’s a PR disaster. So write your news releases as if the editor or reporter will never contact you — that’s the only way to be sure you’ve included all the information you need
to. Quotes should be used to illustrate a point in the news release, lend authority to it and/or give a personal touch to it. There’s no rule here except to use good journalistic skills. If you haven’t taken a journalism class, by the way, sign up for one. Every public relations writer should understand the news business — if you don’t, it’s harder to do your job because you don’t have a strong understanding of the business you’re working with. Try to keep your releases to one page if possible; that’s generally around 500 words, which is a relatively easy size for editors to work
with. Ah, the battle cry of every public relations person! Don’t bother trying to pique interest until you determine why the releases are being ignored. Understanding what makes the news and knowing who cares about that news is critical to your success in public relations. If your news releases are being ignored, you need to revisit your message points with a very critical eye. Ask yourself why the editor (and her readers) should care about the news releases you’re creating. Is the story timely? Is it local? Are there consequences and/or an impact to the information you’re sharing? Is there a human interest angle? Are you targeting the right media channels or trying to slot a business story into an entertainment medium? Are you following up the release with a personal call and building a relationship with the editor/reporter? What are THEY saying about why your release didn’t run? Are you responding to media calls immediately? (If you don’t respond by a media outlet’s deadline, your release is history.) If you’ve asked all these questions and made changes accordingly, then your releases should start getting picked up. You can pique interest by offering “exclusives” to reporters or creating unique press kits and hand-delivering them but it all boils down to content: either the content is interesting, timely and impacts the community or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, you’ve got to keep working on the content! The fanciest press kit or the most innovative gimmick in the world can’t make boring content more interesting. What are some of the wackiest attention-getting public relations moves you've heard of? (Or done?) One of my favorites was the Taco Bell target in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when the space station Mir was heading back toward earth. I loved that! It was a simple idea: Where should even astronauts go for their first meal back on earth? Why, Taco Bell of course! The message points were obvious: 1) When you’re hungry, Taco Bell is right on target. 2) It’s easy to find Taco Bell. 3) No matter what your nationality (or what you’re driving), you’ll love Taco Bell. That’s public relations at its finest: messaging that’s easy to understand and remember. Purists will say that the space station didn’t actually have astronauts in it but that doesn’t matter: the message points were clear, the visual was terrific and EVERYONE was talking about Taco Bell. Heck, I’m still talking about
it! The most common problem in speechwriting is that often, the writer is writing in a vacuum. It’s difficult to get an executive to sit down and talk to you for ten minutes, yet that’s exactly what must be done if you’re to write the speech in that person’s style and include the correct messages. So the most common mistake, then, is writing the speech in YOUR style and not the speaker’s style. The speaker will stumble over words they don’t usually use and the entire thing can wind up a mess. If you can’t get time alone with the executive and are just given the assignment with basic facts, do whatever you can to listen to the executive speak. Do they like to tell stories or just stick to facts? Are they good at small talk or do people around them suffer when the executive tries to be conversational? The closer you write to the speaker’s personal verbal style, the better off you’ll be. Remember, it’s THEIR speech, not yours. Another common mistake occurs in the structure of a speech: Structure is often absent. We all know how to outline — we’re writers! But some people don’t outline a speech before they begin writing it. I’ve heard some say it “takes away from the spontaneity”... give me a break! Put yourself in the listener’s shoes: Have you ever heard a speech where you think “What’s the point? When is this going to end?” If you have, you’ve been part of an audience listening to a speech that was poorly constructed. There’s no beginning (“Here’s what we’ll talk about and why”), way too much middle (“We’re talking … you may not know why or how this affects you, but we’re talking!”) and there’s little, if any, wrap up (“Here’s what we talked about and here’s the impact on you. Go forth and act on this information.”) A third mistake is in the visual presentation of a speech. Some speakers use visuals as a crutch and wind up caught in a storm of charts, numbers, and graphs. Keep visuals simple and break up dry information with something fun or creative. If you must include 20 charts, find a way to break up the charts every few pages with a quote or photo. Your audience will thank you and so should your
executive. Public relations writing is, in my opinion, business writing. To be effective in public relations, you need to understand the business and industry you work with, be strategic with your planning, and be able to bring results to the business. Some, however, prefer to lump PR writing into advertising and marketing writing. The best way to determine rates is to find out what the hourly PR rate is in your area (East coast rates, for example, are about 40 percent higher than the Midwest) and then determine your skill level next to those average rates. Also, take a look at Writer’s Market — it’s a great resource for determining rates on a variety of writing projects. As your expertise increases, so will your rates. What are the best and worst parts of your job? The best part is when a plan comes together! Public relations is an inherently elusive beast, primarily because you’re dealing with perceptions and those are simply impossible to control, although they can be managed for the most part. But after you work out a PR strategy and spend hours, weeks or months implementing it, the best part is seeing results that meet the goals you’ve set. The worst part is dealing with the businesses that only half-heartedly believe in public relations and what it can do for them. Those businesses are the ones that will complain the loudest — and you’ll just never make them happy! Anything else you'd like to add? I’d just like to add that small business public relations is a great market for writers — there are millions of small business owners out there who have never written a news release in their life, who need a good speechwriter or who need help defining their message points, among other things. Take the elements of public relations that you’re comfortable with and get out there and market yourself. Your clients are looking for you! One last comment: I believe every writer should view him/herself as a small business. All too often, we forget that writing is a business... if you want to make a great, steady living as a writer, put public relations to work for *you*. Watch the top freelancers out there — you’ll find they practice PR on a daily basis, whether through networking, the media or other aspects of public relations. ORDER "A PUBLIC RELATIONS SURVIVAL KIT" BY CLICKING HERE. Visit Sally's web site at http://www.grendelpress.com.
She also publishes an e-zine for small businesses: ABCs of Business. It covers a variety of topics-- everything from public relations to how to deter shoplifters to landing government contracts.
Sign up for it on the main page of the site.
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