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‘Tis the Season: How non-profit initiatives can stand out during the season of giving

Posted in Media Relations

The holiday season often motivates us to do good for others, making the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas the most important time of the year for non-profits. On average, charities receive 41 percent of their annual contributions during this time, as charitable donations increase by 42 percent.

One of the challenges facing not-for-profits is the abundance of worthy causes trying to gain awareness and raise money for their organizations during this year-end crunch. In Kansas City alone, there are more than 7,500 non-profits.

So what can these organizations do to separate themselves from the competition? Here are some media relations tips for non-profits to stand out in a crowded marketplace during the holiday season.

Be strategic. Monitor local media to identify which outlets and reporters are most likely to give you coverage, then pitch accordingly.

Make sure your story is newsworthy. Before contacting the media with a story, think about how your organization plays into the larger community. The story needs to be timely and relevant. Unfortunately, a worthy cause is not always enough to make it newsworthy.

Build relationships. Carefully manage relationships with reporters by providing newsworthy stories and good sources.

Be available. Make sure someone on staff is always prepared and available for comment if contacted by the press.

Create a virtual media kit and post it on your website. Information should include the organization’s history, mission, goals, key staff and board members, recent news releases and annual reports. This gives reporters quick and easy access to such information.

Build trust. Once you receive media coverage, it is important people can verify that you are a reputable organization. Joining a site like www.charitynavigator.org allows you to gain credibility and share your message with the community in which you operate.

With so many charities to choose from, it can be challenging to gain awareness for your cause. But these tips can help you connect with the people who matter most during this busy time of year.

Tagged holidays, Media Relations, Michelle Boyd, Morningstar Communications, Non-profit | Leave a comment Posted on November 8, 2011 by Michelle Boyd

How to Pitch Stories: Tips from Local Editors

Posted in Best Practices, Media Relations

Yesterday a few of us at Morningstar Communications got free food AND tips from seasoned editors on how to best pitch news stories. Score.

We attended a Business Wire breakfast event: “Meet the Kansas City Business Media.” Panelists included Chris Clark, News Editor for the Associated Press, Kansas City, Keith Chrostowski, Assistant Managing Editor/Business News, The Kansas City Star, and Peggy Phillip, News Director for NBC Action News (KSHB-TV).

Here are some tips I gathered from the panelists on how PR professionals can cut through the clutter and connect with news media:

Think about your client’s story from a wider scope. How does your story fit into a bigger macro trend or overarching theme that transcends your client?

Answer the question: Why is this story important to a general audience?

Craft releases more like news stories. Cut the jargon. Real people read it.

Think of an angle that hasn’t been thought of before.

Send content to the right reporter. Research all the contacts at local newsrooms. Know who writes about what topics and who their assignment editor is. Oftentimes, you can gain more traction with beat reporters than news editors.

After 3:30 p.m.= a bad time to contact a newsroom. So is Friday.

Before sending stories to TV news ask yourself: What’s the conflict? Is it visual?

Don’t hesitate to call if it’s a big story.

For pitching expert sources, watch the news cycle. Know when it fits to pitch your expert source as someone who has knowledgeable insights on a current news topic.

Reporters like being offered exclusivity. The scale may tip in favor of them doing a story if they are given exclusive rights.

Don’t be discouraged by a “No.” There are a lot of reasons why a reporter may not cover a story. Our job as PR professionals is to continually learn and adapt to what is relevant and newsworthy.

Don’t hesitate to set up meetings with the editor. A personal connection can make all the difference. When you tell your client’s story, the editor may recognize a news story that you have not thought of before.

Newsrooms are fast-paced and ever-changing, but it’s an exciting time in news. According to these editors, PR professionals still have content they are looking for, but it’s helpful (and mutually beneficial!) to consider these tips before we press send.

Tagged editors, Holly Eckold, Pitching Stories, press releases, Public Relations Tips, reporters | Leave a comment Posted on September 15, 2011 by Holly Eckold

Are You In? Improving Brand Image via Social Media

Posted in Best Practices, Media Relations, Social Media

The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently named Pepco, the electric company headquartered in Washington D.C., the “most hated company in America.” Other close contenders included Delta Airlines and Time Warner Cable. The companies listed undoubtedly had a number of unsatisfied customers, but the survey, which was featured in major news outlets such as the Washington Post, hurt their brand image on a much larger scale.

Maintaining a positive brand image can prove challenging, but one of the most innovative ways companies can improve brand image is by managing customer relationships via social media. Before making a purchase, many customers take to social media sites to ask friends, family and co-workers for recommendations. Social media sites allow customers to share insights on great deals, products or services, but it is also a platform for customers to voice complaints. The conversation about your company is happening, whether or not you are involved.

Companies should seize this opportunity to improve upon business functions. By monitoring social media sites, a company can become familiar with customer complaints and resolve systemic issues. It can evaluate what it is doing well and what it could be doing better.  Companies that join the conversation on social networking sites will be able to provide the best possible customer service to consumers, improving customer satisfaction –and ultimately, the company’s bottom line.

Perhaps Pepco, Delta Airlines and Time Warner Cable made the “most hated” list for a variety of reasons, but it is hard to recover once your brand image has been damaged (just ask Casey Anthony). It’s important to be proactive when handling one’s reputation and social media allows companies to do just that.

Tagged best practices, Michelle Boyd, Morningstar Communications, Pepco, social media | Leave a comment Posted on July 14, 2011 by Michelle Boyd

We got a story! …Now what?

Posted in Best Practices, Integrated Marketing (IMC), Media Relations

It’s a good day. You open your newspaper (or magazine, website, blog, etc.) to see a positive story about your organization.  While that media placement may reach a decent number of people in your target audience, it is important that your organization gets the most from the story.

Eric Morgenstern likes to use an analogy of a dog chasing a car. The dog works so hard to chase after the car, but what does it do when it actually catches it? (I can totally picture a dog standing there barking at the car, really confused about what to do next.) In the same way, your organization works hard to craft your message and reach your target audience. Once you receive some positive PR, don’t stop with simply getting the placement. Disseminate that story through the right mix of communication channels.

Here are just a few ideas of how to merchandise the story. It’s best to use a strategic combination of these channels to reach your target audience:

• E-mail: Write a staff e-mail that includes the article to make sure everyone in the organization sees the story. You can also e-mail the article to an external target audience, such as sales prospects.
• Website: Post the article in your company updates or newsroom section, either as a link or as a PDF.
• Blog: Dedicate a blog post to sharing the story.
• Sales materials: Reprint the story as part of your sales package.
• Facebook: Post a link to the story on your company Facebook page.
• Twitter: Tweet a link to the story.
• Newsletters/E-newsletters: Mention the article in your next company newsletter or e-newsletter.
• LinkedIn: Employees can post a status update with a link to the article on their individual account.
• Podcast: Share radio clips by uploading a podcast to post on your website or through other communication channels.
• Talk about it: If relevant, mention the article in your next sales call, discussion with a client, etc.

It takes hard work, timing and a little bit of luck to get a good story placement.  Be sure to get the most out of your story, and think strategically about what mix of communication channels would be best to showcase the story to your target audience.

Tagged Holly Eckold, Merchandising PR, Morningstar Communications, public relations | Leave a comment Posted on July 5, 2011 by Holly Eckold

A Media Relations Message for LeBron

Posted in Media Relations

LeBron James’ press conference meltdown on Sunday night after the Miami Heat lost in the NBA Finals was the latest reminder that sports professionals in particular don’t take the media seriously enough. In a classic poor-sport move, James attempted to crush his critics by basically calling their lives pathetic.

“At the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that.”

There is one thing James, or anyone who talks to the media can do: Learn how to really represent a brand in the media.

Being uncomfortable representing yourself or your company is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s tough being on the spot, in front of a camera knowing that anything you say can live forever thanks to YouTube. What is shameful is when professionals go in front of the media without proper preparation and damage their reputation, sometimes beyond repair.

Athletes, congressmen, former vice presidential candidates, CEOs, bank presidents, small business owners have all ended up thoughtlessly interacting with the media. Consider this a pre-intervention message: Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom and descend into media relations hell where you’ll rub elbows with the likes of King James, Anthony Weiner and a slew of others. Be proactive and prevent your image, your business, your brand, your reputation from being unnecessarily sullied.

If this post makes it to LeBron, I have a message: Your off-the-court performance is getting harder to watch as the years go on, so I’d like to offer media training and brand-saving techniques free of charge. All I ask in return is that you apply the lessons, stop listening to whomever you’ve been listening to and help me improve my jumper. We’ll both be saved from further public humiliation. It’ll be fun. We’ll learn, we’ll laugh and I can tell you all about my first and penultimate basketball season in which I scored 3 points.

If this doesn’t make it to King James, that’s fine. I hope other professionals will start to understand poor media relations skills and the effect it can have on you or your brand’s image.

Tagged brand image, LeBron James, Media Relations, Morningstar Communications, Tyler Dustin, YouTube | 1 Comment Posted on June 15, 2011 by Tyler Dustin

P-steps for pitching success

Posted in Best Practices, Media Relations

When doing media relations it is important to know to whom you’re talking and why you’re talking to them. Pitching media types without knowing their body of work is a waste of everyone’s time. One of the worst things you can do is get lazy and start firing general pitches to publications and blogs that “seem like” good fits.

For maximum effectiveness, there are a few steps to take that will help get your message to the right people. One of my teams recently worked on a blogger outreach project in which we pitched an organization as a great place for community business leaders to volunteer. With so many nonprofits competing for people’s time, we wanted to make sure we were heard. As a result of the pitch, about half the bloggers in two of the organization’s major markets have written or are currently working on posts. A definite success.

For best results:

Purpose
Determine what you want to gain from potential blog posts so key messages can be established from the beginning. This will help the blogger be clear on the topic and organization, and help narrow the potential bloggers to pitch.

Plan/Prepare
Once you figure out what type of bloggers you will be targeting, now you can search for those bloggers. Twitter and basic Internet searches are great resources. Remember to read the blog posts to make sure their content is congruent with what you’re pitching. Make notes about the topics and the blogger that match your purpose. Also look at what blogs each blogger recommends for more resources.

Personalize
Those notes you took? Now is the time to use them. The skeleton of the pitch was written after the purpose was determined, so now you can personalize each pitch by throwing in bits about recent posts and why they might be interested in the topic. If they feel like you took the time to read their material, they will take the time to read yours.

Pitch
Go ahead and distribute your personalized and targeted pitches. If you did your homework and have a small list, that’s OK. It is more important to pitch to a few people that care about your story, than a few hundred that don’t.

In some cases, bloggers may write for more than one publication, which could mean double the exposure from one pitch. Add in the tweets and re-tweets once the blog is posted and you could potentially be reaching thousands of eyes, eager and interested to learn your story.

Tagged blogger relations, media pitching, Media Relations, Morningstar Communications, Tyler Dustin | Leave a comment Posted on April 21, 2011 by Tyler Dustin

Key Messaging, Gaga Style

Posted in Media Relations

Lady Gaga. Look her up online and you’ll find many words to describe her: singer-songwriter, fashion icon, trailblazer. I’ll add seasoned spokeswoman.

Well documented as a gay and lesbian rights advocate, she also serves as a spokeswoman for MAC Cosmetics VIVA GLAM campaign. The campaign, which addresses HIV/AIDS protection, treatment and prevention, features lipsticks for a cause. One hundred percent of the proceeds from purchases of MAC VIVA GLAM products go toward the MAC AIDS Fund.

Last month, Gaga appeared on Good Morning America to talk about the campaign. Her appearance came on the heels of the Grammy awards and Robin Roberts tried several times to steer her off the topic of HIV/AIDS protection. But like all good spokespeople, Lady Gaga bridged back to her key messages time and time again.

Watch her interview for a master class in using key messages. She seamlessly bridges back to her main topic of AIDS prevention, weaving in MAC to ensure that her key messages are heard. After watching the video, you may not remember every word she said, but you’ll have a good understanding of what she’s advocating for and who she’s advocating with.

Tagged Cause Marketing, Lady Gaga, MAC Cosmetics, Messaging, Morningstar Communications, Tricia Jaworski, VIVA GLAM | Leave a comment Posted on March 14, 2011 by Tricia Jaworski

Media relations tips from the media

Posted in Media Relations

Yesterday, I attended a media roundtable discussion held by PRSA of Greater Kansas City. It was interesting to hear a day in the life of local media figures such as Steve Vockrodt, Keith Chrostowski, Jabulani Leffall, Andrea Silenzi and George Mills. They shared insight on how they generally like to be pitched, when is the best time to reach them, their thoughts on social media and many other things.

A few nuggets to remember when trying to get your story “out there”:

• Ask yourself the question that editors will ask: “Why do we care?” If you don’t know, neither will they. Another good question to ask is, “would I want to read/watch this?”
• Make sure the person you’re pitching is well educated on the topic. Providing some background or support materials will help the reporter better understand the story.
• If you have a client that has not been covered before, set up a meeting with reporters to talk to the principles of the company. A short meeting with pertinent key messages will help to create familiarity between reporters and the client. This might help facilitate future pitches or create a new source for the reporter.
• If you’re pitching to TV, it’s okay to pitch to more than one source. The news desk is still the main funnel of information, but if you know of a specific producer or reporter that would be interested in the story, go ahead and pitch them as well.
• Don’t breach your own embargo or break your promise for an “exclusive.” It will be remembered and not remembered fondly.

Here is the biggest tip of all: Make sure it’s a GOOD story. With hundreds of emails and phone calls per day, media outlets are not suffering from a shortage of material. Providing a well-crafted, interesting, pertinent story will greatly increase your chances of getting picked up.

In my next post, I’ll drop some reporters-and-social-media knowledge on you.

Tagged Media Relations, Morningstar Communications, PRSA, Tyler Dustin | Leave a comment Posted on January 26, 2011 by Tyler Dustin

Auld Lang Syne

Posted in Best Practices, Integrated Marketing (IMC), Internal Communications, Media Relations

The flipping of the calendar from 2010 to 2011 fills me with hope and promise. It’s nice to have that fresh start that comes with the beginning of a new year. While I like to focus on what’s to come, the end of the year gives us reason to look back. I’m taking this opportunity to share some of my favorite 2010 blog posts from here at Morningstar Communications. It’s pretty cool that I get to work with some really intelligent and thoughtful bloggers.

Early last year, Eric Morgenstern wrote about how Social media is here to stay. In a year when so much has happened in the social media space, it’s really interesting to see what the social media sentiment was in early 2010.

My colleague, Tricia Jaworski, dedicated some of her blog space to talking about the backbone of PR – media relations. She takes it to 11 by talking about national media relations and how luck and strategy plays in to each opportunity.

This post about filler words by Tyler Dustin has stuck with me since I read it. I was guilty of adding a “just” when it wasn’t necessary. Not so much anymore.

Morningstar Communications always has outstanding interns, who know their stuff. This post from Holly Eckold nailed how to tell your story to capture and connect audiences.

Employee communication has always been near and dear, so Matt Tidwell’s post talking about employee engagement and communications really drove the message home.

And of course, it never hurts to give another nod to the boss. Eric’s three-part series on macro-trends is worthy of another look. The first post is on transparency, the second is on privacy and the third is on connectivity.

There were so many other great posts in 2010 so look through our archives if you get a chance. You’ll quickly see what I already knew – I get to work with smart people who will keep on blogging in 2011. Happy New Year!

Tagged 2010, blog review, communications, Creativity, Eric Morgenstern, Internal Communications, Leadership, Marketing, marketing, Morningstar Communications, public relations, Rachel Spear, Tricia Jaworski, Tyler Dustin, Web | Leave a comment Posted on December 28, 2010 by Rachel Spear

U Collaborate.

Posted in Executive Insights, Media Relations

In addition to serving as the theme for the 2010 Smart Communications Summit held last week at the Kansas City Convention Center, this tagline truly describes how Morningstar Communications worked with client SKC to help develop and implement the company’s annual thought-leadership event.

Now in it’s third year, the Technology Summit has grown from a tent in the parking lot of SKC’s headquarters in Shawnee, to the Kansas City Convention Center, a premier event space. With the move to a larger, more high-profile location came the need for increased production and visibility.

From key messaging to presentation coaching, video production consulting to staging recommendations, Morningstar Communications collaborated with SKC to help orchestrate the Technology Summit. Our work on the Expert Panel Discussion is perhaps the most notable.

Take six industry leading CEOs and VPs, some of whom are fierce competitors, and put them together on a stage to discuss one universally important topic. Unorchestrated, this keynote could go drastically awry. With careful preparation and forethought it becomes a highlight of event. Such was the case with SKC’s Expert Panel Discussion.

Questions were carefully crafted based on key messages provided by our panelists to ensure the audience received the most useful and beneficial information, and our executives delivered their key points. Phone calls were held with each panelist to provide the ins and outs of the discussion’s flow and prepare them for what was to come. Our very own Eric Morgenstern facilitated the panel to keep a consistent rhythm and energy, and to tie answers together into key insights for attendees. From the tiniest details to the big rocks, everything was planned for a spotless execution.

The event brought more than 400 of SKC’s clients, prospects, manufacturers and employees together under one (big) roof. In the end, the Technology Summit helped us accomplish exactly what we set out to do three years ago in SKC’s parking lot. It positioned SKC as an industry leader and knowledgeable expert, provided attendees with information and opportunities they can’t receive anywhere else, and strengthened ties between SKC and it’s key manufacturers.

We’re proud to serve as SKC’s strategic marketing partner and are already looking ahead to 2011 as the Smart Communications Summit continues to grow and thrive.

Tagged Tricia Jaworski | Leave a comment Posted on August 3, 2010 by Tricia Jaworski ← Older posts