Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with publicrelations

Account coordinator - what's it like?

trillian — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:52:56 -0800

What's it like being an account coordinator at a PR firm? I've read some job profiles online, but I'd like to hear personal experiences. What's the day-to-day work like, and what sort of person would be good for the job? I see there's a past question that touches on being an account exec, but this is the rung below, right?

Like, the hairdressing-industrial complex.

liketitanic — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:48:48 -0800

How do I figure out who covers a particular beat for a national magazine (besides lots of drill-down googling)? I'm working for someone who wrote a book on the history of an important social issue. Say it's . . . hairdressing. I'm working with the author to make a list of folks in media who might be interested in reading this book about hairdressing. How do I find hairdressing beat reporters for national magazines like, say, the Atlantic or the Nation when their site search functions are so unwieldy? Is there some shortcut I don't know about?

How to handle inquiries from MSM journalists, who seem to just suck information out and run?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:29:44 -0800

For better or worse, I am regarded as somewhat of an authority in a particular field (yes I have a blog about it). For this reason, I am getting requests for information about the subject matter from mainstream media journalists and writers. This is a new situation for me and I don't know how best to handle it. Up until now I have usually tried to help them out - in some cases for several days/hours. However, what has ended up happening more times than not is that they will not mention my blog or me at all, but instead feature people that I help them find (some of them are my direct competitors). I admit that I wouldn't mind the exposure, since for better or worse MSM mentions are still considered by many to be authoritative, so this really sticks in my craw. These journalists often never even send a simple email thanking me for my time, which also doesn't sit well either. I suppose this is all part of how a journalist operates due to tight deadlines or whatever other excuse?

My question is, how do I handle these requests? Do I continue to help them? Request that they credit me for the information they get directly from me? Ignore them? (Politely) tell them to f**k off? Any strategies for dealing with these people would be appreciated.

(anonymous to avoid any charge of self linking since my personal site in profiles links to all my other sites.)

Phrasing for a PR Person's Present Pen

eytanb — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:14:04 -0800

Latin Filter: As a present for someone in a PR-related field, I wanted to inscribe a variation of what Louis XIV would have inscribed in his cannons - "The Last Argument of Kings", implying that the pen is her weapon. What would you replace the word "last" with? Bonus points for helping out with the Latin. I have a friend who works in a PR-related field in the military. Needless to say, while she does love the work, it does not pay so well. Her job is soon coming to an end and I would love to get her something to show my appreciation for working with her. I was originally going to go with a pen with the cliched "The Pen is Mightier..." but then came across the Louis XIV "The Last Argument of Kings" and realized that switching with word "last" with something else (first? civil? optimal?) could make for a clever, thoughtful present.

I would like to get the quote inscribed in Latin, so if you have a killer suggestion and know how to say the entire phrase in Latin, I will send you wave upon wave of good karma for the duration of the week.

Work in the industry as a PhD or teach instead?

philrj — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:39:54 -0800

What starting salary can a recent graduate PhD in Mass Communication expect to make in the industry focusing on research (i.e., not teaching at a university)? Trying to decide whether to go into teaching at a university or go in the industry to do market research with my PhD. I know there is a relatively large price difference; but wondering how much the difference actually is.

I've been told teaching is anywhere from 40k-60k starting—untenured, but in the industry anywhere 100k and above. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Tough choices to make. Oh, and I have two more years to go before I graduate. I currently do online marketing/public relations research as a PhD student. Trying to begin plan ahead. Cheers...

What percentage of comments on large blogs/newspapers are propaganda?

Damn That Television — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:20:35 -0800

What percentage of comments on large blogs/newspapers are planned propaganda? As an example:
http://nymag.com/news/features/43892/comments.html#comments

Pretty scary article about an anti-smoking drug with lots of user comments in favor of the drug. I know that many, possibly all, are sincere anecdotes from people who have been helped. But how many are accounts from Pfizer or their PR firm, trying to spin/discredit it?

Are website user comments even something that companies/political groups really bother with?

What are some good blogs written by Californians about humanitarian projects in the area?

cmyers — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:56:00 -0800

What are some good blogs written by Californians about humanitarian projects in the area? Doctors without Borders is planning a tour of its outdoor educational exhibit A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Diego in October and November. A friend of mine is working for their public-relations department and is looking for California-area blogs to publicize the tour. Know of any?

Tales From Agency Life?

producerpod — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:46:51 -0800

PR/Marcomm Filter: What's it like to work for a PR/Marketing/Ad agency/firm? I'm currently a jack-of-all trades comm person, working for a small non-profit. I'm considering my next move. I do everything here - copywriting, speechwriting, graphic design, web coding/design, newsletters (print and e-newsletters), annual reports, brochures, one-sheets, you name it. I'm constantly busy, but there's nowhere to go, promotion-wise. My experience doesn't seem to be specific enough for a lot of the corporate-type marcomm jobs out there ("5-7 years experience in the healthcare industry") so I'm considering all my options.

So what do you have to say about the day-to-day life of your average account exec? And where could I go from there?

p.s. I spent 10 years in an editorial role in the broadcast news industry, which is why I'm leaning toward the PR route.

Created by Madison Avenue?

empath — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:55:29 -0800

What are some pop cultural artifacts and bits of 'common knowledge' that originated in ad campaigns that most people may not know about? I was listening to NPR today and as part of a story about Chaquita, it was casually mentioned that the idea that you don't refrigerate bananas originated in a United Fruit Company ad campaign, because they did want people to keep the bananas around any longer than necessary. This got me thinking about other things that 'everybody knows' that most people don't know started in Madison Avenue.

The diamond engagement ring was created by deBeers. Santa Claus was (kind of) created by Coca Cola. Valentine's Day is an invention of Hallmark.

What others can you think of? The more obscure the better.

Press release etiquette?

bubukaba — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:31:40 -0800

What is proper etiquette for writing and distributing press releases? General advice, book/website suggestions appreciated; more specific questions inside. I've been publicity chair of a film society in Chicago for about two months. We have a 500-seat cinema, we screen films every night of the week on 35mm whenever possible (often rare or archival prints), and we have some of the most interesting, eclectic programming in the city. So, in some senses we're very professional.

But the reality is that we're actually an all-volunteer organization staffed by unpaid undergraduates (I'm one, too) and occasional cinephiles from the City. The University is completely uninvolved in most of our work.

So, two months ago I found myself in charge of all of our publicity - with pretty much no experience. I think I've done a pretty good job so far, but I'm concerned that my lack of experience is leading me to make a lot of assumptions about what is and isn't okay to do when dealing with the press.

1: I've mostly been emailing our press releases (we send out one announcing our quarterly calendar and about one a month about special events). Is this a terrible idea?

2: Is it bad form to BCC it to everyone with a generic greeting and "this is the press release for ____. Thanks a lot, etc etc" kind of opening letter? Should I be emailing each reporter individually instead?

3: What should the subject line to an emailed press release read?

4: Should I still put -30- at the end of an emailed press release? (What about a paper one?)

5: Is sending an attached .pdf always bad?

6: Under what circumstances should I mail a paper copy?

7: Should I write to ask if people would like to be added to our press list, or if they want to remain on it? How do I build these sorts of relationships? (This is the kind of thing that seems particularly hard in a four-year institution).

8: How do I inform the press of corrections to my initial press releases?

9: Are there differences in how I should approach newspapers and how I should approach blogs? (I'm particularly worried about my dealings with the Slowdown section of Gapers Block - they seem to have completely ignored everything I've sent them, including questions about how to best submit our calendar of screenings to them).

10: Should I write to thank journalists who write things about us?

11: How long should a press release be?

Any suggestions of web or print resources on figuring this whole game out would be enormously appreciated.

What's a typical hourly rate for freelance public relations?

jeffmshaw — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:03:01 -0800

What is a typical hourly rate for freelance public relations work? I've done lots of freelance writing, but little freelance p.r., and am considering bidding for a project that requires one to specify an hourly rate. This is in the Minneapolis area. The ad in question is here. Since it could be a 40 hour a week job, should I just break down my hourly wage from my last p.r. job (one I worked at for six years) and use that number?

post-starving-college-student quandry

furnace.heart — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:04:26 -0800

How does one make even make an attempt at getting an entry level job in the journalism or PR fields, when he or she has no real access to those fields (and no experience)? After six years in college (and four universities) I've finally obtained a BS in Communication Studies. During this time, I worked full time at a local grocery store to make ends meet, and make a small dent in the ammount of debt i have. Working at a grocery store has many wonderful perks for a young college student (such as staving off starvation and discounted beer). Regardless, all of this surviving didn't allow me to take advantage of internships, and aside from helping out with our (now defunct-ish) local pirate radio station, and promoting a few vintage Vespa rallies, I have no real practical experience in any sort of media field.

Now that i'm out of school, and looking for a "real" (read: non-grocery) job, I'm at a complete loss. I've got a decent resume for someone starting out, two killer letters of reccomendation and plenty of good references outside that, including from my current boss who knows i'm looking for work elsewhere.

How on earth do I attempt to break into the media or PR fields? Every post i see on craigslist, monster, or any other site requires 5-7 years experience...which i don't have. How does one actually make contacts and connections in this field?

From Hack to Flack?

mph — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:05:29 -0800

How easy/feasible is to make the jump from journalist to media relations/publicist? I've been working in tech journalism for about six years now. As "careers" go it was sort of coincidental and grew out of some interests I had that I was writing about for the hell of it anyhow. Even though I sort of started my academic life looking to be involved in journalism somehow (EiC of the college paper, brief stint as a smalltown reporter), I didn't expect I'd end up covering tech journalism stuff.

I'm getting a little restless now, and I've been wondering about what options there are that would leverage what I already know without keeping me in the exact same field. It so happens that I recently watched a company in the space I cover pick up a new PR person, and my first reaction was "Wow ... she's really lucky to get to work for them ... they deserve a decent media presence," which served to sort of edge me around my usual reaction to any flack, which is appropriately and professionally hostile in a very cordial sort of way.

When I was in college, everyone was moaning about how the journalism departments were staggering under an influx of people who came to learn the inverted pyramid style so they could make their press releases more palatable to the schmoes transcrib... reporting on them, so it's always seemed to me that these are two compatible fields on some levels.

Is that so? If you've moved between the two professions (preferably from hack to flack) what was it like? If I couldn't find work with a company I believed in, what are opportunities like in the non-profit sector?

I'll extra appreciate any answer that doesn't include the word "evil" or any of its many synonyms.

Standalone video capture?

fvox13 — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 12:07:20 -0800

Does this exist: A Standalone video capture solution? I work for a marketing company that also does public relations. Whenever a client of ours has a media hit, we make a recording on a VCR. Then, another staff member converts this to WMV or AVI through his computer and a capture card.

What we're looking for is a standalone box that will accept a cassette tape and capture the video (preferably at higher than 1x) and then store it on a built-in hard drive. This unit could then be networked or plugged in via USB to download the digitized video.

If this doesn't exist, any suggestions on how we can speed up the process for video capture? It's taking up more and more of our staff's time.

Thanks!

where to get press releases?

Svea — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 05:49:34 -0800

how or where does one sign up to receive UK press releases? Are there centralized sources or do the releasing parties pick who to send news to? we are looking to add a related news section to a nascent website and would prefer not to repost news scraped from other online sources but have the ability to report appropriately themed/related subject matter news as it is released. this would only be news gathered that is relevant to the subject matter of the site.

aside from the simple answer to the first question does anyone have anything to share with regard the standards and guidelines one should follow when starting a news site?

How to get my 92 year old father on Oprah?

Helen J. — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 09:06:54 -0800

My 92 year old father has written a book about his life and he wants to appear on Oprah and similar shows to promote the book. Does anyone know anyone who can help gets this to a national market? After 5 years of working on this biography, the book has been self-published and is selling well locally. The family feels that working on this project has been the stimulus that has kept him going. Now he is enthused about getting the book into the national media. Does anyone know a media agent or anyone like that who thinks this would be an interesting project? My daughter made a website about the book and it is linked in my profile.

PR language and colloquialisms?

kahboom — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:27:45 -0800

Anyone work in the wild and wooly world of Public Relations? I'm curious about industry-specific lingo and utterances. What do people in the public relations industry call it when a Press Release/Video News Release, etc. gets picked up in the media just as they'd hoped? Is it a success? A hit? A what? What are the commonly used terms of success or failure? Are there differences between terms used in public and the ones used near the water cooler? Are there any specific pieces of vocabulary, and what do they mean? Any PR lingo is much appreciated....

This thread DOES comment on pending litigation

fourstar — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:47:15 -0800

When did the practice of refusing to comment on a given issue due to pending litigation become an acceptable response? Is this a fairly recent development -- a result of living in a sue-happy nation? Is it just the vogue rhetoric of avoiding even a minimal amount of accountability? Or is it something else? For the lawyers out there, what are the ramifications of commenting? ... especially with cases like those involving the government?

Contacting Celebrities

taumeson — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 10:08:12 -0800

OK, so a friend wants to contact a celebrity's publicist / representation. He wants to send some photos taken of him with the celebrity that he promised to send when he got them developed. How can somebody find out who represents a celeb? He'd probably be willing to call around, if he just knew what kinds of people to call...do you just ring up the Walter Morris Agency and ask who represents so-and-so?