Tag Archives: political PR

Why nonprofits find PR so difficult

While all nonprofits are different, they all share common attributes and challenges.  Most of those challenges are in marketing, PR and having their voices heard.

Every nonprofit wants the world to know about the great work they are doing.  And most deserve to be heard.  They want people to know how they are making the world a better place.  Some of this desire is self-interest.  They want to attract funding, volunteers and Board members.  Some is truly altruistic.  Wanting the world to know how their services can help.

So why is it so difficult for the average nonprofit to stand out?

First, there are so many nonprofits.  Tens of thousands in the country, and thousands in each major city.  Competition.

Second, there is overlap.  Too many nonprofits do the same thing.  They have the same mission.  So when the media cover one organization, they won’t cover a similar one that isn’t that much different.

Third, many nonprofits simply don’t understand the media and how to structure a story pitch.  They do social media, but social media only hits their circle.  The media want certain stories, presented to them in a certain way.  This is a PR skill that most nonprofits don’t have.

Fourth, there are many avenues to tell your story.  TV, newspapers, internet and social media aren’t the only avenues to attract attention.  What are others?  That’s where experienced PR and marketing counselors come in.

Last, nonprofits are great at doing their work, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily at telling their stories.  Most of our clients lack basic understand, skills and contacts to convey their message.  Not their fault.  PR and marketing is a skill that takes training, practice and understanding.

The larger nonprofits can afford to hire PR and marketing consulting firms.  Smaller nonprofits often can’t.  But that doesn’t mean they can’t work with a firm.  Some PR and marketing firms will take on small projects for reasonable fees.  Having a PR firm doesn’t mean all or nothing.

The moral of the story is PR and marketing is a skill like running a nonprofit is a skill.  Everybody can’t do everything.  Let the PR experts do the marketing while the nonprofits change the world.

 

How LA Times Move Will Impact PR

How will the sale of the LA Times impact local PR and marketing opportunities?

As is well known, last week, the Los Angeles Times announced it has a new owner. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a surgeon, part LA Lakers owner and pharmaceutical billionaire purchased the paper for a reported $500 million. Along with the purchase, he moved the paper from its historic and iconic building downtown to El Segundo.  El Segundo is a quiet city adjacent to LA airport.  He made the move for two good reasons.  First, the prior LA Times owners sold the historic building that is right across from City Hall.  It has been there well over a hundred years and a landmark.  When they sold the building, they made the paper renters, so not a good financial move.   Second, Soon-Shiong owns a significant amount of property in El Segundo including a major office tower that is now The Times’ home.  It is rather strange that the LA Times is headquartered in a sleepy suburb and not where the action is downtown.

How does this affect PR people?  There is no impact for pitching stories.  The paper still covers the same geography.  However, when the purchase was made, the new owner noted that the paper in recent years shrunk from an editorial staff of 1200 to 400.  That is an issue.

As someone who has worked with The Times for decades, there always was stability.  Times reporters and editors worked there for decades, covering the same beats.  We knew them by name, who to pitch and what stories would interest them.  Now, so many writers have left and those who are left have switched beats, cover multiple beats and some have been dropped altogether.

We all know that news and media is moving online.  There is more advertising revenue to be made online than in print.  That is a simple fact.  But advertising online is not the same as print.  There is something about holding a newspaper or magazine in hand that makes it different.  Online, stories change repeatedly throughout the day.  As news changes, so do news sites.  What is the top news story in the morning will likely be moved to the bottom of the past by the end of the day.

The challenge for us in the PR and marketing business is we have to be fast, know what’s happening every minute and be prepared to pitch on moment’s notice.  When a story breaks, we jump in and offer a client for their perspective.  The media look for that and want that. They want experts who can shed light on breaking news.  That’s why our staff are online all day, if not writing text for a client, we require that everybody have a screen open to keep an eye on breaking news.  Often we switch gears on a moment’s notice.

The fast pace of publicity, PR and marketing makes the PR business more and more challenging.  It also keeps us on our toes.  We need to know who the media are, their political bents, what reporters/editors will be civil to our clients and who will be hostile.  We need to know what to pitch and to whom.  We will never put a client in front of a hostile reporter just to get them PR.  We don’t subscribe to the notion that there is no such thing as bad PR.  In today’s Twitter world, there is such a thing as bad PR.  Just as Roseanne Barr.

The big question is how long will the LA Times continue to print a paper before it goes entirely online?  The new owner vowed to be committed to a print version, but let’s be realistic.  He is a businessperson and a good one.  Tragically there may come a time when all media will conclude that it no longer makes sense to run the presses.  By the time a newspaper or magazine rolls off the press, it is reporting old news.

In the meantime, we continue to work hard to get exposure for our clients, whether in print or online.  Online is great in that we can easily send links and keep our clients’ story alive.  Print is always good because people like to see their stories in print.  There is something about being in print that an online link can’t match.

 

 

 

The Twitter PR battleground

Seems hard to believe, but Twitter is only about 11 years old.  It started as a cute social media venue, used mostly by celebrities to promote their movies and shows.  Somehow it has become a PR battleground and major political communications force.

Twitter now is used by presidents (I don’t have to mention who) and state leaders around the globe.  Police forces, business people, everybody.  It is the favored way to instantly get a message out, hopefully reposted, and then often regretted.

It is fascinating that something that allows only 140 characters can become so powerful.  Of course most people post multiple messages, strung together, to make their point.  But Twitter’s constraints have forced people to write more concisely, use abbreviations they make up and often convey nonsensical messages.

President Trump has said he believes he wouldn’t have been elected without Twitter.  He touted his Twitter account years before entering politics and has never stopped using it.  Today, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, he still refuses to give up the habit, much to the chagrin of many Americans who see it as “unpresidential.”

What does this say about our communications, PR and marketing?  It says a lot, but foremost it underscores the fact that we don’t have the time or patience to write complete, thoughtful sentences. It says a lot about lashing out impulsively at another person, a company or a government.

The lesson to be learned from the Twitter craze is it often does more harm than good for the user.  How many people have been fired for insensitive or racist Twitter posts?  How many people in prominent positions have had to retract their Twitter posts, only to see them live on.

Instant communication via social media or even email is tempting.  Getting back at someone quickly through electronic communications can provide instant gratification.  However, for most people if they take a couple of hours, and a few deep breaths, they usually decide it is not worth it.

The internet never forgets, and too often people never forgive.

Trump’s public relations strategy. Brilliant or disastrous?

Since I am essentially apolitical, I can’t comment on President Donald Trump’s political savvy.  But I can comment on his public relations and media savvy.

For decades, Donald Trump has made it a point to be in the media.  If it wasn’t a whirlwind marriage, or divorce, or a new skyscraper, or a new product, show or whatever, it was a regular appearance on the David Letterman show and countless other programs.

It is obvious Trump craves attention and PR.  Oddly, he doesn’t seem to care if the PR he gets is positive or negative.  If it is positive, he will re-tweet it.  If it is negative, he will attack the person or news organization that reported it.

It is clear his voracious need for media attention propelled him into the White House.  Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was a grand plan.  In either event, it worked.

The president of the United States is the most watched and reported person in the world.  His every word, every action, every nuance is recorded.  He can cough at the wrong time during a speech and send the financial markets into a spin.

One would think that a president would want a good relationship with the media.  John Kennedy was a master media manipulator.  He loved his news conferences and the press repaid him by keeping his secrets secret.  Richard Nixon hated the media and they virtually ran him out of the White House with relentless Watergate reporting.

In office a mere two weeks, it is clear Trump marches to his own beat.  He doesn’t care.  If he isn’t attacked, he attacks first.  He seems to relish a good fight and will often raise issues nobody is talking about and nobody cares about.  He just wants the attention.

It is a very strange strategy for someone like myself who has spent a lifetime working to curry favor with the media.  I want the press to like my clients and to report favorably about them.  Negative press is never good, in my view, but not in President Trump’s.

We will have to just wait and see if the friction between President Trump and the White House press corp. is a fluke or a permanent reality.  If it continues for months, it will continue throughout his presidency, and for Donald Trump, that may be just the way he wants it.

Does Trump’s PR style trump all others?

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump finally made official what he has been flirting with for years.  He declared himself a candidate for president.  And to nobody’s surprise.

It’s also no surprise how he made the announcement and what he said.  To lots of fanfare — as all candidates have at the ready — Trump spoke about the U.S. presidency as if it were a corporation.  He spoke as if he wasn’t running for president of the U.S., but for emperor; in no need of a vice president, cabinet, congress or advisors.

But that’s who he is, and if he changed now it would be kind of a let down, don’t you think?  What we expect of Donald Trump is someone who speaks his mind, is egocentric and a bit of a bully.  Quite a sharp contrast to the presidents we are accustomed to.

The question I would like to raise is whether this style that has been so successful in the boardroom will resonate with the American people.  Are we ready for a president who says he is ready to go eye-to-eye with every other country so we can finally get the U.S. out of debt and in the black?

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Few people are taking Trump’s candidacy seriously.  It is great fodder for late night TV hosts.  But some say whether he is a serious candidate or not, he will undoubtedly raise issues nobody else wants to talk about such as the trade imbalance, domestic jobs and so forth.  The other candidates don’t want to talk about the economy because there are no easy answers and no easy solutions.  Slapping a tax on everything coming into the U.S. is not a new idea.  It was done in the 1980s when Congress limited the number of Japanese manufactured cars into the U.S.  The import quota actually worked because it forced Japanese automakers to build U.S. plants.  Today most of the Japanese cars sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S.

What I am talking about is not substance but style. One reason few are taking Trump seriously is not his message but how he delivers it.  If I were his PR advisor (and I am not) I would encourage him to focus on his ideas and check his ego, bullying, and brashness at the door.   If he truly wants his ideas heard, debated and considered, and if he truly cares about making America “great” again, he needs to make his campaign about issues not himself.  Everything in his announcement speech related to his business and himself.  He needs to talk about the rest of America, not only his net worth and who he is competing with in his hotel and golf course business.

Tone down the rhetoric and up the focus on the issues, Mr. Trump.  If you do, perhaps you’ll be taken seriously and even more important, maybe you will force the other candidates to think about these issues and come up with some ideas (and solutions) of their own. Please follow us for more info and tips on having the quickest lending option for you.

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