Category: Press Release

  • Wrecking your chances at publicity

    Recently I got a call from one of those shameless self-promoters I always advise people to be. Except for that fact that this guy took promotion to be the same as aggression. Don’t do this. He called to tell me about his event and the conversation went like this: “Hi, my name is Dumb Idiot…

  • Let me write your articles for you

    Chances are you are good at something that is not writing. You are a marketer, a sales person, a business owner, a corporate something or other. Writing is a necessary element to what you ultimately want to accomplish, but it zaps your time and pulls you away from your other money making activities. Or maybe…

  • The Dos and Don’ts of Creating a Press kit

    As I’m gearing up for the Ask a Reporter series on How to Create a Press Kit I thought I’d give a few examples of the dos and don’ts of press kits. The video is just over four minutes but hopefully you get an idea of what works, what you can get away with and…

  • Why You Shouldn’t Count on Millennials

    The above title is a little misleading, as you will find out. If you haven’t seen the Public Relations Society of America’s post Status Update: Millennial Staffers Can Update Your Social Media Plan you need to go there and read it. Like now. Because it’s ridiculous and you may need a good laugh tonight. What…

  • How Not to Piss Off a Reporter

    I just got off the phone with a woman who represents a couple of local companies. She was not friendly. Yet she was trying to persuade me to write a story. A story that had no tie to our coverage area and wasn’t all that interesting or important as far as I was concerned. Even…

  • How to create a press kit webinar

    I have two jobs. I work with companies wanting to grow their business through social media and cyber public relations. But I am also a writer and journalist, as I have been for about 19 years. It seems, and this is not something they told me in journalism school, that reporting never leaves you. Or…

  • How to Write Amazing Copy

    I’ve heard it so many times as a reporter and freelance writer that now I find it hard to suppress my gag reflex when I hear someone say, “I can write that myself I’ve done a little writing.” Sometimes the person is smart enough to delegate to someone else who has “done a little writing.”…

  • Are you a shameless self-promoter?

    You should be. Not in the smarmy put your business cards in kids’ trick-or-treat bags way, but nonetheless at any chance you get. And especially with the media. I recently wrote a profile of a punk rock band and it must’ve been written pretty well because I had way more comments than usual. One of…

  • Never give a reporter an ultimatum

    I got a call from someone who had suggested a story to me a little over a week ago. It was a profile on someone.  Honestly it wasn’t an exciting story or person, however, the person suggesting it said the subject of the proposed profile needed to drum up business. I felt generous and agreed…