PR 101 - 10 Top PR Tips

Just attended a very well qualified event held by Sally Whittle and her colleagues from the team at the:101. Their first Meet the Media event for 2008 was delivered by a panel of esteemed journalists who contribute to some of the country's leading newspapers and magazines. They shared with a packed room of PR professionals their pleasures and trials of dealing with us PR folks.

Here are their top 10 tips:

1. Timing is everything - know the deadlines of the journalists and publications you are dealing with
2. Nobody likes a spammer - tailor your stories don't round robin
3. Journalists want stories not releases - make your story topical, make it mean something to the journalist and their readers
4. Most people don't have PHDs - don't get too technical, make the story relevant
5. If it didn't bounce it arrived! - don't phone up to 'see if you received my email' - if they're interested they'll phone so again make your story relevant
6. There are good celebrities and bad celebrities - if you have to use them then make sure they are current and appropriate
7. 'Fess up when things go wrong - be honest, if a story isn't going to work out phone the journalist to let them know in a timely manner, everyone makes mistakes!
8. It's all about the case studies (personally I think this should be point number 1) - note to clients - invest in developing a case study programme - this is exactly what brings a story to life and should be mandatory support to any story
9. Don't send attachments/photos....if the journalist likes your pitch they'll come back for more...let them know there's more available in the body of your pitch
10. Nothing beats reading the paper - before speaking to a journalist take a good look at their publication and double check that the story you are pitching is really relevant.

Other pertinent things to note:

Many journalists archive all emails and even if they don't respond this time they may come back in the future via a search of their emails - so make sure specific keywords are included in your emails
The subject line on an email is all that matters - get it right - make it the headline of the story, don't be obscure, don't try to make it funny
Journalists track blogs for research and sanity checks so make sure you are contributing to them but note that they would not necessarily use them as a basis for a story
You MUST listen to the journalists agenda and be prepared to shape your story to fit it
Deliver a package of information - your story, supported by a case study, an analyst quote, relevant statistics, avilability of good photography etc - all in one go! The better you package your story the more success you'll have
Before you pick up the phone to a journalist have a rethink - do I really have something to say? can I make 3 bullet points out of what I'm going to say?
Knowing an analyst or other third party has been briefed on your client/product etc is a godsend for a journalist - it means they don't have to trawl round to find one. If you provide a quote from an analyst the journalist will suspect that you have 'paid' for it so don't waste your time - just provide a contact

So thanks to Sally and her team for 'from the mouths we feed' advice on PR best practice. Oh yes and don't forget their media requests blog.