PR Studies

News release revisited

I've been asked for some advice from a student on how she can improve her news release writing skills. (Obviously my twelve-week module on PR Writing at the start of the previous academic year had faded from memory).

I know that the traditional press release is discredited and that we should be willing to experiment with new forms. I prefer the term news release because this describes its essential ingredient. I also feel that the discipline of writing a 'story in a sentence' is useful even if the document gets discarded, and that a grounding in news values is important for PR students.

Here are my tips on news release writing:

• Ask yourself 'what's the story?'. Make sure that the story is focused on a matter of public interest or customer benefit - not just on the client's desire for publicity. No story, no news release. Does it meet the following test: 'is it new, or is it surprising?'

• To help you think about news, it describes an event so you should be able to answer the question 'what happened?' News is conventionally written in the past tense (eg 'launched', 'announced').

• Now write the story in a sentence using short words and dropping the adjectives (the descriptive words that can easily lead to hype such as 'revolutionary'). For style tips read the first sentence of any story in a newspaper - especially the tabloids.

• The rest of the document should elaborate on this sentence using the inverted pyramid principle (most important facts first, followed by next most important and so on).

• Always include a quotation: this is the next most important component as it should express a real opinion from a real person. Check and discuss this quotation with them and never resort to a statement starting with 'we're delighted...' That's not new, not surprising and won't be used, though it's opposite might gain you some attention. 'We're ashamed of our new product and apologise for introducing it...'

• Put the company puff in the notes or use a hyperlink. Don't clutter the news paragraph with a lengthy description of the client.

• The client will want to change much of the above, assuming the news release to be a form of placed adverisement. You have to earn your salary by advising them that without news there's no chance of publicity and that the news release is the start, not the end, of a process.

• Images are usually helpful, but don't automatically send large file attachments. Plain text is best (and a phone call first is usually better).

How we learn: paddling pool or immersion?

Like many people involved in teaching, I like nothing more than learning something new myself. It's a pleasant bonus when the lesson comes from a student.

There's a lesson for me in the apparent contradiction in what one of our placement year students writes about how to learn about two areas of public relations practice.

On crisis communications, she writes: 'crisis is an area that you can only gain experience from when you are thrown in at the deep end'. Yet, on social media just a page later: 'I spoke to a lecturer regarding the lack of social media tuition at university and the opinion was that since we are of a younger generation ... we are assumed to already have this knowledge. This is not true and there is an academic gap that needs to be addressed.'

So, for one area of public relations it's 'learning by doing'; in another, it's 'back to the classroom'. This contradiction is the subject of a paper on 'teaching social media' I'm jointly presenting at the Stirling 21 conference in September, so this is a timely contribution.

The bad-on-paper problem

You know about good-on-paper people? They tick all the boxes - on paper. In person, they can be disappointing to meet: there's just no chemistry.

Many public relations consultants are good-on-paper, I feel - perhaps because dating is such a good metaphor for the competitive pursuit of client relationships.

Most undergraduate students are the reverse of this. They're confident presenters and persuasive and personable individuals. It's just that they're bad-on-paper. When you come to read their essays you realise that inside that confident exterior lurk the thought processes and writing skills of a child.

Of course, it's easier to fix the bad-on-paper problem than the good-on-paper problem. Students have time on their side and need to be told when and why their written words let them down. The obvious fix for a good-on-paper consultant who's not winning new business is to be more modest - advice they're unlikely to heed in a recession.

Here's what PR students do

I've completed another round of visits to students in the workplace. Here's a snapshot of the priorities of ten placement students (7 in house, 3 in consultancies) based on my estimate of how they divide their time between roles. For reference, here's the same exercise conducted a year ago.

There's a new admin category this year; this covers the support functions often given to placement students. But I should note that one student has been asked to hire her own assistant, so there's an unexpected management element in here too.

1. Media relations (41%)

2. Events (20%)

3. Internal comms (12%)

4. Social media (10%)

5. Corporate and community (9%)

6. Admin/management (8%)

The sectors represented are varied: I've visited students at organisations involved in fashion, healthchare, industrial gases, media, retail, tourism and transport. It was encouraging to find how highly these students are valued and how well they are supported by their employers.

Survival of the fittest

We're living in interesting times. I'm mid-way through a series of visits to students out on their placement year and I've noticed some links to evolutionary theory and systems theory.

The following is a generic and simplified picture based on several individuals and various different organisations. Nor are these points fixed: I've observed a student moving from one position to the other during the year.

Closed system students

These tend to take a self-centred view of their placement year. 'It's all about me: my role, my aspirations, my portfolio'. They are focused, confident and assertive, and in the good times would probably be the first to succeed. But these are not good times, and their lack of awareness of the environment facing their employers (and their clients) can pose problems.

The tutor's role is to introduce a note of realism and to point out the dangers of having fixed ambitions in changing circumstances. These students need help seeing the bigger picture and recognising that their best long-term interest may be to get their heads down and show some adaptability. They often find this hard to to as it's at variance with their fixed view of their skills and capabilities.

Open system students

These students are outwardly much less confident of their abilities and have a more flexible view of their role in the placement organisation. This is proving useful in the current climate as they are capable of moving between roles: between pure public relations and marketing, admin, sales, or design activities.

In other words, they exhibit an ability to adapt to their environments - a good survival strategy.

The challenge facing the tutor is to help build their confidence since they lack a fixed view of their core competences. They also need help making the connection between their degree course (public relations) and the wider business role they're performing during their placement.

She is the very model of the modern uni graduate

I've read much about Generation Y (and their sense of entitlement). Now it's time to paint a more positive picture, drawn from life.

The description below is a composite; to preserve anonymity and to respect confidentiality, it's based on more than one person. But it's all true (as far as one person's perceptions can ever be true) and describes the best of all possible students about to graduate into the worst economic circumstances in living memory. As you'll see, the gender references are deliberate; a typical university graduate is now female.

This model graduate is:

Hard working: She works hard on university assignments, but that's the least of it. She's also paying her way through university by working long hours as a waitress. She then fits in carefully-chosen unpaid work in order to build her CV and portfolio.

Ambitious: She chose a vocational degree because she's ambitious. Though she knows where she'd like to end up, she has an open mind about how best to get there, and assumes she'll need in-house and consultancy experience, and to have worked in the public and private sectors.

Experienced: She took a gap year before coming to university and chose the option of a full-year placement. Though still young, she has more work experience and a more rounded view of life than most new graduates.

Family-oriented: She may be the first in her family to gain a degree and knows that her parents have made sacrifices to help her get this far. This fuels her ambition. On the downside, though, she accepts that it will be hard to combine a career with having her own family. It may also be hard for her to remain in a long-term relatonship: as popular literature and film shows, there are more 'fabulous females' than 'marriageable men' in most adult age groups.

Fearless: She communicates well with people regardless of their age, gender or status. Though star-struck, she held it together when meeting an iconic global celebrity, so presenting to chief executives is a routine matter for her.

Next year will be a difficult one for new graduates, but my model graduate is better than - and cheaper than - many incumbents. Smart employers will be quick to snap her up.

The great PR degree debate

Wofstar's Jed Hallam has sparked a lively debate on the value of a PR degree (and has shown ingenuity in using other communications channels to encourage comments).

There are 22 responses to date; I've had my say over there so won't comment further here.

How to make friends and influence employers

Some of our new student bloggers can draw inspiration from this. Allie Osmar looks back on a year of blogging and podcasting, and lists the benefits: improved writing skills, new friendships, a great job (at Edelman, need I say?), and a flow of new ideas.

Blogging briefing

'A little less conversation, a little more action please'... After two days of talking it's time to change pace and invite a new group of practitioner-students to carry on the discussions on their blogs. (Of course, conversation counts as action in our world). Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Set up your blog. I recommend WordPress (though quite 'techie', it's open source, industry standard and free); there's a ready-made forum for your PR-focused WordPress blog at PR Blogs.org. From then on, it's about content, conections and community:
2. Content: Have any ideas in class sparked your interest? What are other PR bloggers writing about? What's going on in the world? What have you been reading? So many questions... How will you write about it (short and frequent posts probably work better than long and occasional ones).
3. Connections. Think link: is your blog a stepping stone to other sources and ideas? Are you begining to get noticed (inbound links, comments, RSS subscriptions)? Remember that Technorati authority will be one of the ways of evaluating your efforts.
4. Community. Who cares? Diarists throughout history have been content to write for themselves (and occasionally for posterity). That's a good start point. If what you write has some value to a handful of people whose commentary also interests you, then you will have developed a valuable community. Some blogs have a wider reach than newspapers; most are better for focusing on small, niche interests. Join PROpenMic and let this vibrant community of PR students, practitioners and faculty know about your blogs.

Some key guidelines. Get started before the end of October, and communicate your blog's URL by the usual channels (email, social networks, class wiki page). You need to keep your blog running for three months: it will be formally assessed after the end of January 2009. My guidelines for PR student blogs may still help, though much has changed in the last two years.

Students: here's how to join the CIPR

As Carys Samuel (one of our CIPR student reps) said at last night's guest lecture, you should consider joining the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. The student application form is here (in pdf format) and the annual membership fee is £35. This runs to the end of September 2009 so don't delay if you're to gain a full year's benefits.

Here's why I think you should join (most important reasons first, though you may disagree with my priorities):

1. Public relations, like any other management discipline, is currently at best only semi-professional in its status. This will only change as professional standards and professional membership becomes expected. Education, qualifications, continuous professional development are all drivers of professionalisation. You can take charge of the wheel!
2. A member database of close to 10,000 members - complete with contact details - is a vital resource as you seek placement experience and contacts in order to develop your experience. You'll be listed in this, too.
3. You can add membership status to your CV. You're already paying much more to be a full-time student, so why not take this extra step and gain much more credibility?
4. You will receive the much-improved PR Week for free as well as the CIPR member magazine, Profile.

I've been a member for ten years and will gladly answer your questions and sign your application forms.