FIR Podcast Network

For Immediate Release: Podcasts for Communicators

  • Home
  • Shows
  • Episodes
  • People
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
    • Join the FIR Podcast Network
  • Archives
You are here: Home / FIR B2B / FIR B2B #68: When PR Pros Sour the Day

FIR B2B #68: When PR Pros Sour the Day

March 7, 2017 by David Strom and Paul Gillin Leave a Comment

http://traffic.libsyn.com/fir/Fir-B2B_68.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:11 — 17.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Email | RSS

This week Paul is crabby because of some bad PR experiences. He had an interview with one company that probably had seen “All the President’s Men” too many times and was confused about when something can go on background or off the record. Once something has been said, it is on the record. If you want to go on background, make sure you get that agreed to in advance. And don’t going calling on us after an interview and want to take something back. Not only is it bad form, but it just sours the entire relationship between press and PR.

Another all-too-common tactic is to send multiple follow up emails, “hope you had a nice weekend” (it is Wednesday, thank you very much) “and check back with you.” Really? Assume that if you don’t hear from us, it means we aren’t interested. Don’t badger the reporter. We understand that sometimes a PR person is getting heat from their client, but try not to transfer this energy and mess up the relationship between both clients and press.

In the news this week was the Amazon S3 outage on Tuesday. Paul got several emails with offers of sources to comment on the dire state of affairs of the Internet. (Didn’t you know? Neither did we.) This practice of what David Meerman Scott calls “newsjacking” is frequent, but try to do it properly: offer some unique perspective, just don’t trash Amazon or try to be too self-serving, and again, if your email doesn’t elicit a reply from the reporter, assume we aren’t interested. For example, Paul got an email from Commvault’s PR (arguably an Amazon competitor in the storage arena), which had some glimmer of hope, including some of the business and tech implications of the outage.

To round out our sourpuss series, we have this report from the DC-based policy think tank called the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The study shows the tenor of tech reporting has become more pessimistic over the years, with a number of contributing factors such as more realistic understanding about the effects of tech, more sensationalist headlines, or just more people (including some news organizations) who want to use tech threats for their own particular purposes.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related Posts

  • FIR B2B #149: Cutting Out the Middleman in B2B PR
  • FIR B2B #75: Beth Winkowski does B2B PR very well
  • FIR B2B #132: Worst PR Nightmares of 2019

About David Strom

David Strom is a former editor-in-chief of Network Computing and Tom's Hardware who has written two computer networking books and thousands of articles about B2B IT.

About Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin, host of FIR B2B, is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Full bio

Filed Under: FIR B2B Tagged With: best and worst practices, Newsjacking, off the record, technology reporting

Share Your Comments with FIR B2B

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Social connect:
Login Login with facebook
Login Login with twitter
Login Login with google

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with FIR

Support FIR

Become a Patron

Pledge as little as $1 per month to help support the existing stable of shows, make new shows possible, and be part of the growth of the FIR Podcast Network.

FIR Podcast Network Shows

FIR SPONSOR

The FIR Podcast Network is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, of which we currently have none. Please reach out to us if you are interested in sponsoring FIR. Contact us at fircomments@gmail.com.

Looking for Older Episodes?

Visit the FIR Podcast Network Archives at forimmediaterelease.biz.

Join Our Facebook Community

Facebook Group Icon

FIR Podcast Network on Twitter

My Tweets

We Want Your Feedback

Email comments with or without audio attachments (5 MB/3 minute limit) to fircomments at gmail dot com.

North America Comment Line:
+1.415.895.2971

Europe Comment Line:
+44.20.3239.9082

Skype: fircomments

Promote FIR!

Let your readers and colleagues know about FIR by adding a logo to your blog or web page. Get it here!

FIR Podcast Network Logo

Help Spread the Word about FIR!

GaggleAMP: spread the word about FIR!

License

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

FIR Podcast Network website © 2023 Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson | Community Guidelines | Privacy Policy

Website development by WP Fangirl. Album art and design by Effective Edge Communications.