AMPED 10 Logo
blog

We are people people.

We’re excited about what we do
and have passion for our profession

Relationships matter when working with the media

relationships

Not long ago, I noticed a Twitter post from a business reporter in search of a candidate for a story. I recognized it as an immediate fit for a client. Within a few hours, we confirmed an interview. A week later, our client was part of the feature story in the magazine. After a month, the reporter circled back to us asking if we had additional candidates for her profile. 

This shows why every opportunity should be taken advantage of to build relationships with the media.

Whether an association is searching for news opportunities or pitching stories on a daily or not-so-daily-basis, there are ways to develop a media connection. The following includes our suggestions and insight from editors and writers we work with on a regular basis.

Reporters are human. Remember that.
An editor once told me that news reporters may seem less-than-human, but they are flesh and blood like everyone else. And human nature plays a role in how they like to work. Respect their needs just like you would any business professional. Don’t be afraid to reach out and let them know you have something to offer.

There are deadlines.
If a reporter calls to ask for an expert for a story—even if it’s not breaking news—respond right away. A well-organized PR staff should already have a list of experts on hand. Can’t help this time? Reach out and offer to be a source in the future.

Thomas Wilk is editor in chief of Plant Services, a global publication targeting the industrial manufacturing industry.

“For me, the biggest challenge is to keep expectations aligned for content, deadline and publication schedules,” says Wilk. “It helps when a PR or marketing team is familiar with the subject matter. We appreciate when they understand our questions and can quickly referee changes and approvals by their clients.”

Newsrooms are under pressure. There are constant obligations for breaking news, website updates and social media posts for their audiences.

Alysha Schertz is a former reporter at Biz Times Milwaukee and now a freelance journalist and consultant for business and industry publications.

“Today’s reporters are responsible for two, sometimes three industry beats that were once covered by several people,” says Schertz. “Understanding that and the other changes taking place in the industry will help you work better with us. It all goes back to establishing that relationship.”

Make the right connection.
Not all pitches are a good fit, so it’s important to be familiar with reporters and their beats. Follow the stories, publications, blogs and other social activity related to your industry and theirs.

“When I'm familiar with your clients, what accounts you work with, and who you may know, you become someone I call on regularly for sources and industry expertise,” says Schertz. “Likewise, if you are familiar with my publication and the stories I write, it makes your job easier.”

Follow-up. Period.
So you pitched a story idea and there was little media response? That was just the start. Now it’s time to follow-up.

Send an e-blast or a friendly reminder. Provide a link with more information or a new angle to pique media interest. Say something specific about a recent story that you read. Reporters receive hundreds of emails each day, so this will help you stand out.

How much time before following-up? Three to four days is not an unusual amount of time for reporter response. If you know the reporter well enough, consider how you’ve worked with them in the past. Perhaps you should give them a call.

Follow-up is among the most important tasks in media relations. Make it a habit. Develop a checklist of media contacts and over time you will realize how effective it can be.

Final thoughts.
From your initial story pitch to the final publication, working with the media involves good planning.

“When things are well-planned, there’s a reasonable level of flexibility for the project to evolve and change,” says Editor Tom Wilk.

“I like it when PR and marketing contacts are approachable. Five minutes on the phone can save a dozen back-and-forth emails.”

Making a connection with the media is an investment of time and effort, but when carefully cultivated, it will pay dividends. Stay interested in what the media want and need and they will return the favor by reaching out to work with you.

Adds Wilk, “These are long-term relationships built over time and multiple projects.”

Continue reading
  4255 Hits

When your disaster preparedness plan fails you

Dilbert cartoon

As a meetings assistant I have been to a fair number of meetings and have seen a lot of things happen that were not planned for. This happens because its life and nothing is perfect. Simple as that. Meetings have many moving parts and it is not uncommon for something to go wrong. I have been to meetings where the sponsored registration bags had mistakenly been printed with the previous year’s date. Or the registrant badges were shipped to the wrong state! So what do you do when something like this happens? 

I find it best to come up with a solution, or ideas to reconcile the problem before anyone has a chance to over react to the situation at hand. How do you do this when you’re short on time and in a different city? You have to put your thinking cap on. It’s easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Use your contacts! Depending on your situation, stop and think who can help with this issue. I have found that the convention and visitors bureaus are amazing resources. When you are having a meeting in another city, CVB’s are crucial. They can help with providing so much information for you and your attendees. Other contacts could be your hotel, AV Company, and show decorator. They are all there to help!

2. What’s around you? When you’re having a meeting in another city and something goes wrong, be aware of nearby resources. Do your research before your meeting. Know where you can get last-minute copies and signs made, look for office supply stores and supercenters.

3. Ask for help! If you find that something has gone wrong at your meeting and can’t come up with a solution on your own, ask for help from your co-workers or superiors. I sometimes find it’s better to ask for help then struggle with finding a solution for something that I am not knowledgeable about or have little time to solve.

When a problem arises it is all about keeping your cool and working through the situation to ensure an amazing meeting. There are a bunch of ways to overcome obstacles that come our way, it’s all about finding what works best for you.

Continue reading
  4630 Hits

Pinky up! Email etiquette from a correspondence snob

ettiquette

I attended a baby shower this weekend at which guests were asked to pre-address their own thank you note envelopes. What? I may as well have been asked to write the thank you note, itself. In my book, this is tacky and a major etiquette no-no. If a guest has made an effort to show up at the shower and bring a present, the least the recipient can do is send a personalized thank you card.

Am I a correspondence snob? Probably. When it comes to business correspondence, there are a lot of us. Dozens of business etiquette resources and websites point to the same bothersome trend: that writers have gotten lazy. The days of hand-written letters, even printed business letters, are fading, replaced by email and further degraded by phone texts.

To set you, the sender apart, I suggest the following email tips culled from my own experience and some pretty awesome etiquette websites.

  1. Include a courteous greeting and closing. It’s just a nice thing to do.
  2. “Please” and “thank you” are common courtesies that will take you far.
  3. Initially, address your recipient formally: Dear Mr. Pitt, Hello Ms. Jolie. Use first names after a few interactions.
  4. Know your fields: The “to” field is for those from whom you would like a response. The “cc” field is for those who you are just FYI'ing.
  5. When replying to an email with multiple recipients noted in the “to” or “cc” fields, remove the addresses of those who your reply does not apply to.
  6. Refrain from using the “Reply to All” feature to give your opinion to those who may not be interested.
  7. To be safe, don’t complete the “to” field until you’ve completely written and reviewed your message and are ready to send. How many times have you accidentally hit the “send” button prematurely? “Doh!”
  8. Take the time to review each email to ensure the message is clear and cannot be misconstrued. Check your tone.
  9. Refrain from using too many exclamation points. It’s annoying. This is a good rule for any writing – electronic or otherwise.
  10. If your email is emotionally charged, take a break before you send it. Nine times out of ten, you’ll feel differently in the morning. It’s for the best.
  11. Just because someone doesn't ask for a response doesn't mean you ignore them. Always acknowledge emails from those you know in a timely manner. And if you cannot respond to an email promptly, at the very least email back confirming your receipt and when the sender can expect your response.
  12. Keep emails brief and to the point. Don’t lose your message in a sea of filler.
  13. In a string of emails, feel free to modify the “Subject” field to more accurately reflect a conversation's direction.
  14. When in doubt, go formal. No abbreviations — use full words and sentences (you, not “u”).
  15. And for goodness sake, no crazy fonts or fancy backgrounds.

Lastly, if you need to clarify your message, don’t forget the telephone. I know it’s a scary thing to actually talk to people. Maybe my next blog will focus on the lost art of conversation . . .

 

Sources:
businessemailetiquette.com
www.netmanners.com
101emailetiquettetips.com

Continue reading
  5056 Hits

"I’m right on top of that, Rose!" — On-the-fly resources

Being an assistant means that my day-to-day is never exactly the same. It means I get thrown random tasks and assignments almost daily and it means that my brain power is sometimes spread a little thin and I have to rely on alternate resources to help me figure things out. 

One of my first weeks on the job presented a situation where a letter needed to go out in that day’s mail, and since our mail had been picked up already, it meant I needed to find the nearest mailbox. Stat. I took off, letter in one hand, smart phone loading Google maps in search of nearest mailbox in the other. For a brief moment, I felt just like Sue Ellen Crandell from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” – and I loved it. "I'm right on top of that Rose!"

Unlike Sue Ellen, I don’t farm out my duties to an overly eager co-worker, but I do rely on my co-workers for help an awful lot. They are, by far, the best resource I have. That said, sometimes I simply enjoy figuring things out for myself. The following are my top three resources for when I need to complete a task “on the fly.”

Google
If you want to translate a paragraph from English to Spanish, I highly suggest you seek help elsewhere, but in many situations Google can be your very best friend. Need to book an off-site dinner reservation near an event venue? Google Maps. Want to put a face to the name of someone you’ve had only phone meetings with? Google Images. Honestly, when in doubt in nearly any situation… ASK THE GOOGLE! I’m not saying that you should believe everything you read on the Internet, or that every source you come across via Google is a reliable one, but it’s a starting point at the very least. Sometimes when my brain is completely blanking, I just need to enter a few words into the Google search bar, see some of the results, and my brain is right back on track.

Computer drives + search tool
In many situations the answers you’re looking for lie right within your computer drives. But since you likely didn’t set up those drives, and there can be folder upon folder containing countless files, it’s a good idea to become chummy with that search bar up in the right-hand corner. My search history tells me I tend to search for the same things over and over again. I could take this a step further and make a cheat sheet with locations of commonly searched documents too.

Speaking of which . . .

Cheat sheets
After repeatedly asking my colleagues the same questions time and again, I decided it was time to start make cheat sheets to reference. I have sheets for each client and they contain everything from links to commonly requested information, forwarding addresses for mail that comes here despite the intended not having “resided” here for quite some time, to names and a brief bio of industry partners for reference when they call sporadically. It’s easy to forget exactly who these partners are when you’re not in constant contact with them, so I love having a quick method of reminding myself of just who John Smith is when he calls. I’m constantly adding new information to these sheets and even removing something every so often when it seems it’s in my brain to stay.

I’m all about keeping it simple, so these basic tools work well for me, but in this app-happy world I’m sure there are numerous other resources that would work to help keep me on top of things. What works for you?

Continue reading
  5505 Hits

Want to attract Millennials to your events? Here’s what you need to know.

millennials

Google “Millennials” and you’ll find more than 11,000,000 results. A lot of them will claim to tell you what this group of young people is interested in, what motivates them and their attitude toward everything under the sun. Why should we care? Well, they’re the largest generation in the U.S., the first one to have had access to the Internet during their formative years, and their impact on the economy continues to grow. All of those things will also impact our associations and how we attract and engage them.

I’m definitely not a Millennial (I won’t reveal my generation here), but I work with them, live with one, and, in the role I play with our clients, I need to know what attracts them to associations and events. I want to hear directly from them and I had the opportunity to do just that when I attended a recent panel discussion.

The entire panel consisted of Millennials and they shared it all: how to get them to join an association, what they need from you in order to get engaged, how their career and workplace should make them feel and what motivates them to attend an event. I’ll focus on meeting attendance here because that’s where I found the most food-for-thought when planning for the future.

When it comes to meeting attendance, all panelists agreed that it wasn’t the price, location or keynote presenter that drew them. Here’s what does:

  • A majority of the education at an event should be relevant to their current position. Although they are willing to spend time on something out of the scope of their responsibilities, if it’s new to them – perhaps something they can see themselves doing in the future.
  • Networking with colleagues using the same tools, sporting the same titles and dealing with similar issues is important to them. And, if you also provide access to senior executives, they’ll be there.
  • Marketing collateral should be exciting and contain “like faces.” They want to know that they’ll identify with other attendees and have fun.
  • If they can get the information online or from another association, you’d better try harder with your overall program. They want a unique experience.
  • If your event ends with a final “thank you” from the moderator, then try adding opportunities to keep the discussion going after the program closes. They know they can easily stay connected and keep the learning going.
  • Considering a presenter that gives a three-hour presentation? Think again. These professionals grew up with the Internet. They like to learn in short snippets with pictures and 140 characters or less.
  • Once you get them there, you’ll need to make an effort to make them feel connected and valued. Do this and they’ll be back. Skip it and don’t count on a return appearance.

Millenials – is what I’ve shared true of you? Other generations – chime in and let me know what you’ve found when trying to engage them.

Continue reading
  5713 Hits

AMPED-logo-sans-text-small