public relations

Better Press Releases

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Most press releases don’t get published.

This is partly due to the sheer volume of incoming press releases and partly because of the lack of news value contained in the releases.

But the chance of a press release being published is greater today than ever before. All newspapers, magazines and news web sites, need and want content, especially free handout material. Demand is high. So what’s the problem?

After working for almost two decades at Toronto newspapers, here’s what I’ve learned about press releases:
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Better Public Relations Photography

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What’s the difference between a photographer and a photojournalist?

A photographer takes pictures of nouns whereas a photojournalist, or news photographer, takes pictures of verbs.

If you remember way back to grade school: a noun is a part of speech that’s used to name a person, place or thing. A verb expresses an action or state of being, and is the most important part of a sentence.

The average photographer usually takes pictures of animals, nature, architecture and still life. Nothing wrong with that but all nouns.

Photojournalists take pictures of people expressing or enacting such things as anger, joy, sadness, happiness, victory, protest, excitement and more. These are images of people engaged in some sort of physical or emotional state of being. Verbs.
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Three wise men or three blind mice?

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There are currently four new cell phone companies about to start up in Canada. Three of them, DAVE, WIND and Public Mobile will be operating in the Toronto area. Let’s compare their marketing strategies to date.

Web sites:

DAVE is plain and boring and has no useful information. There’s no attempt at excitement and nothing whatsoever to engage the customer. The business image is “we’re cheap and boring.”

WIND is better. This company obviously knows the value of relationship building and is doing everything right in this regard. Unfortunately this site has but a couple of lousy photographs, there’s almost no useful information, and it seems to be trying too hard to be trendy. But at least these folks are thinking about customer engagement.

Public Mobile has some useful information for its customers. The site uses no photography but has some video with its executives. They do try to engage the customer through a blog where potential customers can get answers to their questions.
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Corporate Photo Library

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I received an e-mail from the communications director of a large insurance company who’s thinking about creating a photo library of their key employees. He was looking not just for a price estimate but also suggestions on how to start this project. He realized that having an up-to-date photo archive would benefit his company many times over. However the communications director wasn’t sure if his company would even go for the idea.

Newspapers have long known the value of having their own photo library. Various levels of government and some universities also have photo archives. This is done for both public relations and historical purposes.

In today’s digital world, setting up and maintaining a photo archive is quite easy compared to the old film days. So why are many businesses so slow or hesitant to do this?
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Royal Pain

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Another long post.

I just finished three days of following Prince Charles and Camilla through Toronto and southern Ontario. The Royal couple are currently on an 11-day official visit to Canada.

My first thought is that this is a colossal waste of taxpayer money. I can’t imagine how many millions of dollars are being spent on this. Many events were not open to the general public and most media events were only for a handful of pre-selected media organizations.

However if you consider, or at least pretend, that this is a marketing or public relations event, then perhaps it might be money well-spent if it had been properly planned and executed. This applies to all marketing efforts and not just royal visits. The client, (in this particular case, the Canadian taxpayer), must get their money’s worth.

Why spend time and money promoting a product, service or brand when that effort is only half-assed or squandered? Why just go through the motions? Marketing success needs both media and public exposure. Otherwise it’s just a tree falling in the forest.
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Paid Placements

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When photography is licensed for editorial use, public relations, or certain other uses, there will often be a licensing clause that states that the picture(s) may not be used for “paid placements.” A few folks have asked what this means.

“Paid placement” is simply any use that requires the company to pay a fee to have the photo(s) published. Paid placement includes, but is not limited to, advertising.

One could argue that all business communication is a form of advertising. But let’s look at three general types of photography usage.
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Corporate Journalism

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Is “corporate journalism” an oxymoron?

How about the terms “business journalism” or “editorial business”? Perhaps “editorial marketing” might be more accurate?

This post is about how businesses can benefit by having editorial content and even outright journalism on their web sites. This is not to be confused with public relations or marketing. The benefits of quality and timely editorial content can equal and even surpass a company’s public relations or marketing efforts.
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