With talk of the Patriots’ prep on every news station and website we turn to, coupled with an array of impressive hits for our clients this month, we thought it appropriate to review how PR practitioners – and their clients – should prepare for media interviews.

Whether you’re facing the “Super Bowl” of media opps or the impending interview feels more like a pre-season scrimmage, it’s always important to put your best foot forward. You never know who’s watching, listening or reading, or what kind of opportunity could emerge as a result.

Here are six tips to help you prepare for a media interview:

1. Understand what the reporter hopes to get out of the conversation: If you’re a financial expert and a reporter asks to talk to you about “savings plans,” ask if they’re interested in a certain kind of savings plan. Get as much information as possible about what they want to hear and be sure to ask what their story is about. Oftentimes, reporters know exactly where their story is headed and they have specific questions (and sometimes answers) in mind. If this appears to be the case, offer to take a look at their questions in advance so you can be prepared for the conversation and respond succinctly. In some cases, reporters may use your interview as an exploratory discussion to determine what direction their story will take. Do your best to get this information in advance – it will not only help you prepare, but it will help you stay focused in the interview and result in a better discussion (and likely more coverage) overall.
2. Know the reporter and their audience: At the very least, you need to Google them, check them out on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter and read what they’re writing about. Who is their audience? What do they care about? Do you know people that they know? What is their writing or interview style? What have they written about recently that pertains the conversation you’re about to have? When and if appropriate, reference this information in a meaningful way, but beware of the creep factor. If you’re talking to an environmentally savvy personal finance writer, “I’ve been following your stories on the elimination of tax incentives for hybrid cars” is OK. “I drive a maroon Prius, too” is creepy. Don’t get too personal, but understand what will make their ears perk up and how it pertains to the conversation at hand. This can go a long way toward breaking the ice and establishing a personal rapport.
3. Prepare some questions to help you practice: Put on your reporter cap for a minute and think about the types of questions you would ask if you were on the other side of the interview. Be sure to include difficult questions about topics you’re not as comfortable with or information that is sensitive. Even if you can’t – or don’t want to – answer them, you should be prepared to respond.
4. Choose three key messages you want to convey: It’s important to give the reporter what he or she wants, but it’s equally as important for you to determine what you want to get out of this opportunity. If you could be sure that the readers/listeners/viewers of your interview hear one message from you, what would it be? If you choose three key messages that pertain to the subject matter at hand – and study them – you’ll be more likely to drive those messages home during the interview. This will also help if you feel yourself getting lost or tongue-tied.
5. Have your notes and important information with you during the interview: First, make sure you have your interviewer’s contact information on hand so you can reach them in the event of an emergency or technical difficulty. Always be sure to get alternative phone numbers and email addresses to cover your bases. Secondly, if you’re not doing a video interview, have your notes with you during the interview. Don’t read from them, but highlight important information like statistics and names so you can quickly reference them.
6. Make yourself available for follow-ups and future inquiries: If you have a tricky name, ask the reporter if it would be helpful if you spelled it. Make sure they have your correct title and company name, too. Lastly, offer your contact information or website, should the reporter have questions or want to fact check as they’re writing.

In closing, know the opposition, watch their videos, go for the extra points, and avoid the hail Marys. More importantly, enjoy the game.

(And GO PATS!)

Two members in our Providence office, myself and Julie Sellew-Kruger, are turning 30 in the coming week.  But rather than commiserate the demise of my 20’s, I decided to celebrate the big three-oh by sharing with you what I consider to be the Top 30 Do’s and Don’ts of working in PR.  Thirty is such a nice, round number after all.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Top 30 PR Do’s and Don’ts:

1. Do read every day.  Know who is writing about your client’s industry and what they are writing about in your client’s industry.

2. Don’t leave home with an uncharged smartphone – ever.

3. Do pick up the phone.  Sending an email isn’t enough. Get on the phone and introduce yourself to the editors and reporters who are likely to cover your client.  They are more likely to respond to a friendly voice than to an impersonal email.

4. Don’t underestimate the little guys. Sure, your main objective is to get your clients in major media such as the New York Times or 60 Minutes, but don’t forget to pitch stories to the local news junkies.  Every town’s paper is eager to write good news about businesses and organizations succeeding within their own communities.

5. Do establish a taste palate for coffee.  You’ll thank me later.

6. Don’t pitch old news.  Stay current with what’s being talked about in your client’s industry and be timely in your pitching.

7. Do be social media savvy.  The PR industry is like a chameleon.  PR pro’s are able to adapt to the changing media landscape and utilize all available communication outlets to deliver their clients’ story to the masses.  You’re reading this blog on the internet, aren’t you?  More than likely you’ll be reading a news article on a newspaper’s corresponding website during your lunch break today as well.

8. Don’t forget to include the Who, What, Where, When and Why of your client’s story.  The more you’re able to think like a reporter, the more likely you’ll pique their interest in what you have to say.

9. Do have passion for the work that you do.

10. Don’t send out an email blast.  Rather, state the editor’s or reporter’s name when sending an email.  They are more likely to respond to you when you make it personal to them.

11. Do have a thirst for knowledge.  The more inquisitive you are about your client’s mission, the more information you’ll have to tell their story.

12. Don’t send a pitch to a publisher, ever.

13. Do subscribe to publications that cover your client’s industry, and read them.

14. Don’t take yourself too seriously.  A little humor goes a long way to brightening up your work day.

15. Do have your business card on you at all times.  You never know when you’ll meet your next connection.

16. Don’t forget to eat.  It’s easy to blast through lunchtime when you’re busy brainstorming pitches and meeting deadlines.  A productive PR pro is better able to service clients on a full tummy.

17. Do own a least one good suit. In PR, image is everything.

18. Don’t harass editors and reporters you’re pitching.  Follow up as appropriate if the story still has life, but know when to walk away or when to rework the pitch angle.

19. Do tailor your pitch to the specific needs of each editor and reporter you’re contacting.

20. Don’t call an editor or reporter without knowing your story.

21. Do keep a dictionary and thesaurus nearby at all times (or if you’re web savvy, bookmark www.dictionary.com).

22. Don’t skip out on sleep.  It may sound silly to mention, but the more alert you are during working hours, the more you’ll produce for your clients at the end of the day.

23. Do proofread, proofread, proofread! Nothing lessens your credibility more with the media than a typo in an email subject line.  Likewise, your clients will lose confidence in your ability to deliver their messages professionally.

24. Don’t warm up smelly food in the company microwave.  Your colleagues will thank me later.

25. Do establish good coworker relationships.  You spend a considerable amount of time with the people you work with every day.

26. Don’t call editors and reporters when you know they’re working on deadline.  They’ll just hang up on you (sadly, I learned this one from personal experience).

27. Do know when to tell your client “no.” You’re there to provide your clients with the professional advice they sought out in you.  Sometimes you’ll have to tell your client when their idea just might not make the best sense.  You know what the media wants, that is your job after all.

28. Don’t miss deadlines.

29. Do repost this blog on your Facebook and Twitter pages.  I’ll thank you later.

30. Don’t ignore your mistakes.  Learn from them and move on.

From a PR perspective, it’s hard to blame McDonald’s for going out and trying to engage consumers in a way that would stir up nostalgia or charming anecdotes.  However, for a brand that has struggled with its brand perception and with America’s obesity rate higher than ever, it becomes easier to blame them for not being more thoughtful about the channel.  I’m not saying things wouldn’t have run amok if this was only done on Facebook – but I do think they would have had more control on their own page.  I find it hard to believe that no one brought up the possibility of a Twitter campaign going negative, fast.  And, if that’s the case and they thought it was worth the risk – well, then, they are probably realizing now the risk was far greater than the reward.

McDonald’s has had a ton of people piling on them for this – but I do see a bigger lesson here for brands on social media and their strategy for each channel.

It’s easy to say that every consumer brand should be on the biggies: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.  But it’s not the “where” in social media that is the most important, it’s the “what” and “how” they engage on each channel that is critical.  Brands need to realize that every channel comes with its own risk and it’s important to weigh the pros and cons before embarking on a campaign aimed at engaging a large number of consumers.

On Twitter, the negative campaigns and social media missteps “go viral” in the blink of an eye.  People want to be in on the joke – so they pile on – even if they don’t necessarily have a negative perception of the brand.    With hindsight being what it is, I can confidently say it would have been far better for McDonald’s brand not to be on Twitter at all than to have this campaign go the way it has.

So, what should brands do? Research and identify the channels that make the most sense for your brand. Weigh the risk vs. the reward of running a campaign on each channel.  And, listen to skeptics who bring up the “what if” scenarios.

Chances are, if you have one skeptic on your team, you’ll find a million of them on Twitter.

Let’s face it, a PR person throwing up her hand in protest when a CEO comes up with a crazy idea to split up the company and raise prices without adding value (*cough cough, I have a Netflix stuck in my throat) might not keep the CEO from pulling the trigger, but a good PR person would have to have a response in mind, right? Unfortunately, no matter how much a PR person prepares, something unexpected could happen, and like the article says, how you react is more important than how to avoid bad things happening.

The article rightly discusses an example of an insider trading scandal that could have been much, much worse than it ended up, simply because the firm reacted the right way. While it was traditionally a secretive and close-to-the-vest organization, it adapted to the problem at hand, demonstrated some transparency and avoided a very bad PR backlash.

It will be interesting to see what horrific PR goofs 2012 will bring. Hopefully CEO’s and celebs have taken note of the fumbles of others and will consult their PR reps before making any big moves.

1. Resolve to know your audience.

This has been ingrained in my head from all of my mentors here at Matter. Pitching a massive list of contacts with the same pitch is ineffective, and quite frankly, rarely garners results. Taking that extra step to get to know exactly who you’re pitching and why they would be interested is important, and something we all need to make priority in the New Year.

2. Resolve to stay ahead of the game.

In an agency, there are so many things going on at once that if you don’t stay organized and on top of things, you’re bound to forget something important. Although it may not seem possible some days, taking that extra minute to make sure you write something on your to-do list or finish up a task that has been on your to-do list forever can make all the difference.

3. Resolve to slow it down and clean up your act.

At Matter, we have professional development meetings that are meant to help the junior members of the team improve our skills and learn best practices. I chose to include this resolution because it is one that Matter takes pride in, and even had an entire development meeting dedicated to just this. Attention to detail is effective, saves time AND people (especially clients) notice!

4. Resolve to clear your head.

Even though, according to PR Daily, PR moved down on the list of most stressful careers from number two to number seven…it’s still number seven. Taking a moment to go for a walk with a colleague or grab a coffee can help you clear your head and make that to-do list look a lot more manageable. Matter’s employees are extremely hard workers, so we all know (or need to realize!) the importance of a quick breather to re-focus.

5. Resolve to be a storyteller.

This one was great to see on the list because inevitably, it’s our creative minds that help us drive great client results and think outside of the box. Using our brains to make facts and figures relevant to each publication we are pitching is an important skill for all PR professionals. Taking the shortcut and just relaying the facts may sometimes seem easier but really hinders your ability to create an idea for a good story – and hey, that’s one of the fun parts of our job!

What are some of your PR resolutions for 2012?

Yet in this age of multi-channel, fragmented media I still believe that sending a personalized letter or card in the mail is a great way to make a lasting impression.

To prove my point, think of the last time you received a correspondence by mail that wasn’t a bill, bank statement or promotional ploy to “Buy Now and Save Big.” Even if it’s been years I bet you can still remember how it made you feel. Do you remember the image, the text, the message? Perhaps you even saved the card or letter somewhere for safekeeping?

As the Holidays approach, I’ve been busy signing cards and stuffing and stamping envelopes. I actually enjoy the process because I believe this type of correspondence is much appreciated by the receiver and it also gives me time to reflect on the relationship I have with them.

In an age when all the talk is on one-to-one communications, personal branding and points of difference, I think businesses of every size can make a meaningful impact on those they care about by simply taking the time to send a note of thanks or card of goodwill.

And while I’m an advocate for sending more traditional tidings, I’m not naive to the fact that others will disagree with this approach as more and more businesses and consumers are flocking to text, video and e-mail to deliver their holiday cheer. I also can not ignore the fact that the U.S. Postal Service recently announced their plans to reduce services next Spring, so I’m left wondering if I am alone in my belief.

So in closing, I’m asking for your help!  Do you think that holiday greeting cards or personalized letters have become passé or do you still find joy in sending and receiving personalized snail mail? I’d love to get your thoughts!

And on behalf of myself and the entire team at Matter, I’d like to wish all our readers a healthy, happy new year!

So, no marketing exec could pass up a celebrity endorsement, especially if there were measurable results attached, right? I guess it depends what type of return you’re willing to accept.

According to a recent AP story, for $3,500 Lindsay Lohan tweeted to her 2.6 million followers about CampusLIVE, a Boston-based surge marketing company that connects brands with college students…and a Matter client BTW. The post yielded 4,500 click-throughs to the company website.

We love our celebrity drama, and it seems the more embattled the celebrity the more social media sway they carry!

At the height of his award-#winning melt down, Charlie Sheen started a Twitter feed that has now attracted more than 5 million followers. At the time, his incented tweet drove more than 95,000 Tigerblood-juiced followers to an internship nexus site!

Both of these examples seem to match the expected click through from a standard tweet. According to Mashable’s unscientific polling, a 1.7% click through rate is pretty realistic. In these cases, the return rate from that found by Mashable’s quickie research proves pretty accurate, so the huge volume these pop icons reach makes mathematical sense.

So why isn’t every brand diving into the celebrity endorsed Tweet game?

First off, with estimates ranging from $16 to $70 bucks per letter (for the examples above anyway) far-reaching celeb tweets can be pretty costly for a smaller brand. Let’s not forget Twitter content like this has a very short shelf life. Sure it can be compounded by re-tweeters and extended virally through other social networking sites but, let’s face it, it’s not too often that a tweet, even one from a celebrity, lives beyond the same day…unless there has been external backlash about it.

This last point leads us to the most compelling aspect of the celebrity tweet consideration, why we all follow these celebs to begin with. We want to be the first to see them say something crazy and be among the select 5 million that were there the day they started their “Charlie Sheen spiral.”

Twitter can be a very powerful, sometimes dangerously powerful, communication tool. Ashton Kutcher, once the Twitter darling extraordinaire recently handed his feed over to his PR team after making some poorly-timed comments about the horrible events unfolding at Penn State.

So where do you fall on the risk v. reward expanse? Would you hire a celeb tweeter to represent your brand? With the numbers leading us to believe that a celeb tweet is equally powerful as that of any brand in itself (assuming like numbers of followers), what criteria would you need to see to make this investment?

Google Alerts:
You can set up the alerts by location, which helps target your results.
Make sure to search for the names of the competitors’ spokespersons.
Trial and error – if your results aren’t exactly what you are looking for, adjust your search terms to find what works.

Critical Mention (or another broadcast monitoring service):
This is great for keeping track of your client and their competitors broadcast coverage.
You can set up email alerts, if you don’t want to continuously check the website.
You can build clip reports to share with the team or your clients.

ProfNets and HAROs:
These are reporter and blogger queries that give you information about stories the reporter is currently working on. This is a great way to get your client into a blog post or article, if they fit into the query. However, many times the query isn’t a great fit, but your client would be perfect for a similar story. In this case, you can add the reporter to your media list for future pitching. This is a great way to research bloggers because most of the time they will give you background information about their blog.

Morning News:
Listen to the radio on your way to work or watch the morning news. This sounds pretty simple, but it really helps. By listening to NPR or a local news station, you might hear about something that directly affects one of your clients.

Newswires:
Check the newswires for press releases in the morning to find out if any of your client’s competitors have made any announcements. Most of the time press releases cross the wire around 9am, but sometimes they are released early in the morning and you can easily miss them.

Twitter:
I recently learned about this method of researching bloggers. When you are looking for a specific type of blogger (ex. tech bloggers), you often can find similar bloggers by checking the lists the blogger is in and who they follow on twitter.  There are several websites such as WeFollow, which can help twitter research as well.
As many already know, you can also use twitter to stay up-to-date on trends and breaking news. Tweet Deck or Hootsuite can be helpful with this.

There are many other tools for research and scanning, these are just a few that I use the most.

Sometimes, the overlap between what I’m reading and current news is so outrageous that if it were supposed to be a Venn diagram, it wouldn’t be – it would just be a big circle with words in it.

Here’s a great example: I’ve been re-reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, for our Matter book club. The book is an attempt to throw a net of scientific understanding around the phenomenon of social movements, enthusiasm and how things become wildly popular. At the same time, I read the articles last week about Smith College and the Logic experiment that two professors undertook which started a campus-wide protest.

I was immediately struck by the connection that the Smith College story could be one of the examples in Gladwell’s book.  Just like in Gladwell’s subtitle, it was a case study in ‘how little things can make a big difference.’ This experiment was just one in a series that the professors have set annually over the last decade (this one sought to convince people that Smith was going vegan and locovore). What was it about this rumor that made it so successful? What was it about the half of the class who was assigned to make people believe it was true, that they were so persuasive? A mix of context, personality, and audience made the rumor take flight. In both the Smith College story and The Tipping Point we can glean lessons about the varying levels of influence different people have, and why the timing and receptiveness of an audience matters, and the art of storytelling using compelling and persuasive facts. 

For me, the connection between the current event and the book I was reading made for a great reminder of why, in our busy, transactional lives, where we spend lots of energy making the proverbial trains run on time, it is so useful to take a step away and read something that takes us out of the everyday, forcing us to make observations, and ask questions that might not occur to us otherwise. Whether it’s a novel, a business book, or a biography, seizing the opportunity to read something new is one of those ‘little things’ that makes a huge difference – arming us with questions, information, and insights that can be our own tipping point, raising the level of our PR work, and ultimately yielding better results for our clients.

So make that first line a great one. Here’s how:

Be excited. Your tone matters, maybe even more so than the specific words you use. Find an angle that gets you pumped – a trend, a statistic, a new product or feature – and build from there.

Be clear. Go ahead and get to the point. Know what’s important to your client and why readers would care. Be sure to prioritize the messages so that the most important point comes first.

Be succinct. Cut unnecessary words. Use good verbs (don’t run quickly. Sprint!). If you get stuck, think about how you’d write each sentence for Twitter.

Be genuine. Think for a moment about another kind of opening line, the pick-up line: bad ones are notoriously bad. They’re funny because they’re slimy. If your opener makes you want to run away, chances are the reader will have a similar reaction.

For some inspiration, pay attention to openers that work for you in books (here are some famous ones), articles, and even when striking up a conversation with a stranger. It won’t take long to pinpoint what bores you and what hooks you.

Tell me, what are your favorite first lines?