PAN Blog

Last night was one night where the local PR community came together to recognize the tremendous work generated on behalf of our clients and organizations. The Publicity Club of New England hosted the event at the Westin Waterfront in Boston.

PAN Communications walked away with Six Awards last night - clients that were recognized included KANA Software, PlayNetwork, Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation and Hydro International. A nice mix of representation from all three of our portfolios...

And I can tell you that we're already eyeing many more next year based on the tremendous work being generated here.....

Congrats to all the winners last night.

For those of us on the East Coast, it was hard to stay up to watch the Celtics/Lakers game on Father’s Day, but we all did regardless. The beginning of the game seemed like a replay of Game 4 and Boston fans hoped for another historic comeback, which simply didn’t happen. Boston is clearly the better team, they have team chemistry, they have veteran experience and they’re even tempered and mature. The Lakers, on the other hand, are inconsistent, they can’t seem to figure out who to match their guys up with, and there’s overall tension on the team (random thought: is anyone else disturbed by Lamar Odom’s tongue flapping sessions?). They were lucky to win Game 5 - their home court definitely gave them a slight advantage.

I think Celtics fans are a tad bit happy that there’s going to be a Game 6 in Boston – we would’ve loved to have won a championship in LA on Sunday…but winning at home, in the Garden, well, there’s just nothing like it…

Here’s to Game 6 – let’s hope it’s one sweet victory – something Boston fans haven’t tasted since 1986…

As someone who focuses on message development and media training for our clients, I know we all look for ways to be able to stay on message during media interviews. In training sessions, we teach techniques called headlining, blocking and bridging. Simply put, there are several sentences you can learn to use that will help you get back to message and highlight your company’s product or service. Here are a few sentences to keep in your arsenal -- or better yet, practice before your next interview:

“The most important thing to remember is …”
“That speaks to a bigger point …”
“What I really want you to remember is …”

Want to see first hand how it’s done? We all have a golden opportunity over the next few months to learn from the best by watching some of the media interviews with our two presidential candidates. One of them is actually phenomenal at using these techniques effectively (in my humble opinion) and one – well, not so much. Next time you’re listing to an interview on a difficult topic, listen for the number of times a candidate says “the real issue is …” and totally shifts the subject!

Is the PR industry's reputation getting worse, or just suffering from a lack of understanding?

A post put together for today's internal brown bag discussion...

We're all working through that question, as more "bad pr" pitch / stunt / email / telephone call blogs become popular among reporters, bloggers and even the PR industry itself. "Outing" particularly grievous PR errors has become a sport, and dustups between annoyed pitchees and pitchers has overshadowed the value good pr brings to organizations. It's a frustrating cycle and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

Examples of "bad pr" sites include this recent addition, the original "bad pitch" blog , and there are many more.

We need to revist this question more frequently now that there are so many new channels for communicating with each other. Just the other day I had a conversation with a PR Week editor working on a story about how social media tools are changing the way PR communicates with its audience of editors, reporters and bloggers.

The conversation revolved around whether or not social tools were appropriate for pitching the media. (for the sake of this post, "media" will be an all-encompassing term). I couldn't think of an easy answer because I believe it's a matter of preference for each party. Some media are perfectly fine receiving pitches through Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social sites. Others are very definitely not fine with that approach.

The key for anyone in PR is to do their homework, not be lazy and remember that social sites are first and foremost, social (although you can make an argument for LinkedIn as the most business-oriented). Even though these sites are always on I'd equate pitching someone through them to getting work calls long after hours. It'd be annoying to you, and its annoying to media (again, with the caveat that if you've been invited by a reporter to contact them that way, all the power).

I'm of the mind that social media tools used in business are primarily for "gathering intelligence," rather than first contact. If you're fortunate enough to be brought into someone's social circle, don't immediately and foolishly take advantage of that access. Use the tools for what they're good for: learning more about the person sharing their lives through them. You'll be a much better PR person if you do more listening than talking, and benefit from creating pitches with real value to the particular target.