Just got this doubleplusgood announcement from Apple regarding the company’s press conference tomorrow (September 1): Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® [...]
July 28, 2010
Tip #153: No dead rodents, please
If you’re going to send marketing swag, it would be good to send something that doesn’t make the receiver recoil in horror and fling said swag across the room in disgust. I refer to the mullet wig I recently got from a type foundry. Before I remembered that the company had previously sent me an [...]
June 29, 2010
Tip #152: You and what army?
To learn about a new company or product, the only person I really want to talk to is the CEO. It may just be me, but I like to focus on just one person during a pitch. So if the CEO is at the meeting, the presence of the COO, and the VP of something-or-other, [...]
June 10, 2010
Tip #151: No clumping
At a working dinner (like an awards banquet or evening panel discussion), don’t seat all the journalists together. You’ll get more coverage if you actually put us in proximity to the people we get paid to talk to. That said, the good journalists will ignore or hack the seating plans anyway. So, never mind.
June 7, 2010
Tip #150: Your bad network is not my problem
Our reporters just got back from the WWDC Stevenote. They say that when Steve Jobs said, “All you bloggers need to turn off your notebooks,” to free up WiFi bandwidth, Apple PR reps aggressively demanded that reporters comply. This is not how the press works, people. You don’t get to shut us down to make [...]
May 21, 2010
Tip #149: The beat goes on
Many journalists change their “beats,” or topic areas, frequently. It’s more frequent now than ever, with newsrooms shrinking. Editors have to constantly shuffle staff around. So when you’re pitching, do one last check to make sure the person to whom you’re pitching is still covering your category. You certainly do not score points when you [...]
May 11, 2010
Tip #13 reminder: Don’t let your toddler name your company
As a friendly reminder, I point my readers towards Pro PR Tip #13, Don’t drink and brand. Today’s Bad Company Name award goes to… well, I’ll let you read the email. Goober Networks, a leading Unified Communications (UC) solution provider, plans to announce the next version of its UC solution on Tuesday, May 11… Seriously, [...]
May 10, 2010
Tip #148: Your Jedi mind tricks will not work on me
Don’t try to get me to agree with you about how awesome you think your product is during a meeting about new features. (Courtesy of Josh) It’s OK to be excited about your product. Even passionate. But the writer needs time to form his own opinion. Forcing the issue is likely to have the opposite [...]
April 26, 2010
Tip #147: Who are you doing PR for, exactly?
Your job, when sending an e-mail pitch to a journalist, is to promote your client. So if you must put silly award logos in your e-mail sig, they should be your client’s, not yours. See also tips #32 and #103
April 23, 2010
Tip #146: Learn to apologize
There will be a mistake. A bad one. Customers will be inconvenienced, damaged, frightened, perturbed, and angry. Say you’re sorry. Then say what happened. Then say you’re sorry again. Save the soul-searching “This has been a bad day,” stuff for your spouse — because it’s been a worse day for many of your customers. Do [...]
Rafe