2. A good publicist doesn’t have to be based in New York or Los Angeles to be effective. Ever heard of this crazy thing called email or voicemail? Or even Twitter?

3. Few things actually warrant a press release …

4. A creative PR professional can still brainstorm ways to achieve your goals without one–but it really helps if you’ve lent your brainpower to the situation.

5. Stop insisting we call the media. Most of them hate this and specifically request we contact them exclusively via email.

6. PR is not free advertising. PR is not free (or cheap), period. Do not ask us to work for you pro bono unless we approach you to do so.

7. Don’t ask us to pitch an idea and then not be available for an interview. If you want the press, we need you to be ready to talk to the media at a moment’s notice. Even on weekends.

8. What matters most to you may be totally irrelevant to a journalist. Remember that it’s what they—not you—think is important that matters in the end. Follow the trends in your industry and become a wise old owl on those.

9. Publicists cannot control the end product. It is unethical for us to ask, to see, or to proof a copy of the story beforehand, or to dictate what the reporter can and can’t say. Doing so will backfire—trust me.

10. Social media is more than Facebook and Twitter.

11. If you insist on running all tweets and posts past your legal department, don’t expect results from your social media strategy.

12. If a journalist says he or she is not interested in a story, that person means it. Reaching out again will further annoy the reporter and guarantee you’ll be ignored the next time.

13. Don’t measure your PR results in ad equivalency rates. Do you want to know you had $500,000 of ad equivalent value in negative press, or would you rather know 80 percent of the press you received was positive in tone and accurate in its messages?

14. No, we’re not writing any more “…pleased to announce…” ledes.

15. Ditto for “We’re so excited/thrilled/happy” CEO quotes. Pretend you’re explaining the story to a friend over drinks, and then give us that quote.

16. There’s no need for a logo and boilerplate. Photos, yes.  B-Roll, always.

17. PR is a process. You know who hits it big overnight with a story on the “Today” show? Criminals, naughty celebrities, and shark-attack victims. Do you want to be one of them?

18. You can’t “make” something go viral. That’s why it’s called “going viral.”

19. An ethical PR pro is not a spin doctor. Do not ask us to lie, spin the truth, evade the press, or hide your dirty laundry.  More so, don’t omit the OMG important details either.  We hate learning your company really is a pioneer after the fact. Share your research with us.  Better yet, pay us to do it.

20. We love you. You’re our favorite client. Your’s is the only account we work on all day.

Happy New Year and every success to all of you in 2012!

The University of York, City of York Council chiefs and representatives from Safer York Partnership have joined forces to tackle alcohol related disorder in York.

A worthwhile initiative, so what’s the news?

Key figures from each of the organisations got together for an ‘ideas sandpit’ to develop innovative solutions to the issues associated with alcohol disorder.

Excuse me? An “ideas sandpit”? What in the name of all that’s holy is an “ideas sandpit”?

The ideas sandpit – essentially a brain storming exercise…

Oh right, why didn’t you just say?

…was led by Professor Kiran Fernandes, of the University’s York Management School, who was part of a team that modelled gun crime in Manchester and tested approaches that could be used by police to significantly reduce the number of incidents.

OK, so what’s the news?

Professor Fernandes said: “The goal of the ideas sandpit was to bring this highly diverse team of stakeholders together to develop models that can be used to handle alcohol-related disorder in York. The ideas sandpit has improved understanding of the issue between social scientists, crime analysis and operational policing.”

OK, so what’s the news?

Participants heard first hand from local residents the impact that alcohol related disorder was having on their lives and on their local communities, before discussing what could be done to improve the situation by all the agencies involved.

Don’t make me ask again. You’ve sent out a press release, there must be some news…

Tracey Carter, Assistant Director, City of York Council, said: “It was really moving to hear how much this issue is impacting people’s lives. But by working together, we did come up with some potential solutions, which I hope we will be able to develop and implement over the coming months.”

Got you. But what’s the news?

The outcomes and ideas from the session will be evaluated and developed before being rolled out to key areas across the city.

And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop this pain?  Happy Holidays and keep on pitching!

Exhibit B: Grammar Girl’s verdict echoes the AP Stylebook: One space after a period. She goes on to say, “I know it’s a hard habit to break if you were trained to use two spaces, but if you can, give one space a try.”

Exhibit C: From Wikipedia: “Double space (English Spacing). This convention stems from the use of the monospaced font on typewriters. If the ribbon were too dry the visibility of the period would be reduced significantly. Adding two spaces after the period ensured that the reader would know where the end of the sentence was if the period didn’t strike properly. This historical convention was carried on by tradition until it was replaced by the single space convention in published print and digital media today.”

Dear Editor or Health Editor: Would you consider running our press release as a win-win project? We will pay $100 for every Skin Care Patient who sees the press release in your newspaper and commits to our exclusive and effective process. We monitor each incoming patient and where they heard about us.”  Then, the letter promotes the product’s alleged ability to “cure” a variety of skin disorders.

The editor in Virginia who forwarded this letter to Romenesko wrote: “[I'd] be curious to see where this press release is run, given the inducement.”

This is hardly a new PR tactic in securing news coverage in the competitive media landscape; but it still remains a tactic that should have disappeared from the PR landscape decades ago.

The employee, Deborah Zabarenko (@dzabarenko), who is also the head of the Newspaper Guild at Reuters, posted the following tweet as an @reply to a Reuters corporate Twitter account:

“One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”

She was reprimanded for the tweet by her direct supervisor, who said her public critic could damage Reuters reputation. But according to the National Labor Relations Board, which tipped off Greenhouse through an anonymous source, employees have a legal right to engage in public dialogue, however critical it may be, to improve their working conditions.

No compliant has yet been filed, and according to Greenhouse, the National Labor Relations Board has been known to threaten legal action as a way of forcing out-of-court settlements. The National Labor Relations Board is a U.S. Government Agency.

The issue of whether or not employees can publicly criticize their employers via social media has never been tested in U.S. Federal Court. Greenhouse notes that in November 2010, a Connecticut ambulance company settled out of court with the NLRB for firing a worker who posted a Facebook status update critical of her supervisor.

o Break up the story and summarize key information into bullet points.
o Include links to other trend stories and think of what visuals would work for your story.
o Remember the hook. Even though you’re pitching a feature story, a hard news hook is still valuable. Say why I should care right away. Naming the names is really important.
Katy De Luca is the features editor of the Washington Examiner. For De Luca, the best feature stories are ones that appeal to the Examiner audience. “I look at all pitches and think about what will be most interesting to our readers. I think about what they would want to read and what is the best way to get the information to them.” Most of the story ideas come from the writers De Luca works with. She also reads a variety of media and if a topic grabs her attention, she’ll forward the lead to one of her freelancers. De Luca recommends:

o Include as much information as possible in the subject line and personalize your pitch. Provide all basic details. Simple is better.
o Ask the person you are pitching about they are looking for. Communication is a key part of the process.
o Don’t send long-winded e-mails with attachments.

Within minutes, the editor emailed for my city, state and age, and told me my remarks would be in the following day’s national edition of USA TODAY. My comments were among the few printed in the national edition and one of handful in the online edition.

As a reminder in counseling clients and small business about social media, keep in mind:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/24…

Head of Colorado’s Ovarian Cancer Alliance discusses survival rates