Forward Podcast 30 tackles the topic of interviewing with special guest Nettie Hartsock. Nettie wears many hats. She is a book publicist, a freelance journalist, a PR professional and a blogger. She authors the Professional PR and Must Read Business Books for Allbusiness.com as well as her own blog. To fully appreciate what you hear in Forward 30, read about her extensive and incredibly impressive career.

Nettie and Luke talk about both sides of interviewing: being the interviewee (think: job interview) as well as the interviewer (think: what does my client actually do and how do I tell other people). Nettie shares her experiences and advice on everything. As PR professionals, I think it’s important to remember there are more chances you’ll be interviewing someone else rather than being interviewed. It’s more than setting yourself apart in that first job interview, but also dragging information out of that CEO or engineer who hired you to communicate what they do to people who don’t understand what they do. Whether it’s a white paper, brochure, press release, media advisory, speech or doctor’s excuse (alright, I made that one up) you need to know how to get that information.

As always, leave your comments or questions here for Nettie, Paull or Luke. As an added bonus, Paull will now be making rash, inflammatory statements at the beginning of each Forward Podcast. Tune in twice a month to hear the irrational ramblings of an Aussie in NYC (and the dulcet tones of a guy in rural Ohio).

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OR ‘why you shouldn’t listen to the Forward Podcast’.

In this edition of the Forward Podcast Paull Young and Luke Armour take you on a tour of all the best podcast sites for PR up-and-comers. They have both been plugged into the PR podosphere for some time and here they share their thoughts on which podcasts hold the most value for PR students and young professionals.

Podcasts mentioned in the podcast:

• For Immediate Release
• Inside PR
• Trafcom News
• New Comm Road
• Comms Cafe
• Six Pixels of Separation
• PR Junction
• Across the Sound
• Marketing Over Coffee
• On The Record Online
• Managing the Gray
• American Copywriter

To close the podcast, Luke and Paull ask for your feedback on the Forward Podcast - what do you think of it? How would you like to see it change? How can it better serve you? Please leave comments below.

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I took a group of students to London in May 2005, for a two-week tour of communication agencies, firms, and government officials. It was fantastic. I wrote this article for our Alumni newsletter, but it never made the cut. As so many of our readers are recent graduates, I thought I’d edit and share what I learned. I still feel, two years later, that it’s apropos. - Luke

“Look Right.” Two simple life-saving words are painted on nearly every crosswalk throughout London. As Americans cross the street, our first instinct is to look left first – since that’s the side from which our traffic comes first. In England they drive on the left side of the road.

So what?

So it means if you want to make it across the street without incident, you need to look right first.

I spent two weeks in England, leading a group of students on a PR tour of businesses across London. Our mission was to meet with journalists, CEOs, and professionals covering all aspects of the art and practice of relating to people.

“Look Right.” It seems like that could be a PR practitioner’s motto, too. PR strategically monitors and alters the environment for the benefit of the organization. But in order to effectively enact our strategies, we have to be able to see properly…or look right.

How do we find out what’s going on? How does one environmental alteration affect one’s company? How do we get people to listen? The people we met with had answers. The following is a compilation of intellectual gems I gathered from these professionals.

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As a spin off to Leo Bottary’s great post about “Basic Assumptions and The News Media,” I’d like to pose the question “How do you avoid being misquoted?”

Like many PR folk, I’ve had clients who were afraid of media interviews - clients who absolutely despised the idea of talking “on record” with reporters. In my experience, it usually stemmed from a horrible misquote experience years back.

My solution was to revisit that exact bad experience with them, and explain how I would have managed the interview process differently - via key messages, talking slower when giving complex answers, reiterating numbers and messages s/he didn’t want misquoted, following up with clarification via email, etc.

Once the client realized just how much s/he (or their PR person) didn’t do to manage the interview the last time, s/he was willing to try it again with the added tactics for preventing misquotes.

So, what counsel do you give clients to prevent misquotes during the interview and, as the PR advisor, what steps can you take before and after the interview to assure the most accurate quote?

Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, media relations, media interviews

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I gave a short guest lecture on social media at one of my MBA classes this past week. I told the class I believe there is a positive linear correlation between the amount of PR elements offered to reporters and the quantity/quality of media coverage generated.

Assuming there is real news value with the announcement/release, PR pros will almost always see an increase in the quantity and quality of media coverage when more “elements” are offered to reporters. PR elements include a well-written press release, source interviews, pre-written quotes, images, audio, video, third-party expert interviews, etc. - all of which are easily accessible in a social media press release.

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The initial blog storm around the anti-astroturfing campaign has died down. Many bloggers have stated their support and there’s a great collection of resources at the campaign home page, but the question is - where is the next step from here?

The campaign has attracted mainstream media attention, blogosphere buzz and the support of some PR agencies (Jackson Wells Morris, Altyris, Flatiron Communications and Voce Communications take a bow) but no professional association or large PR agency has lent any meaningful support. Maybe it’s too difficult, maybe it’s because they lack courage.

Of course it is a complex issue full of nuance. Richard Bailey, one of the most upstanding PR practitioners you’ll come across, can only offer luke-warm support. It’s not black and white, it’s not the only ethical issue facing our profession, and it’s only a small part of the overall transparency debate we must confront in order to convince the public to allow us to perform our role in the new world online.

The difficulties in definition do not alter the fact that astroturfing is one of the most deplorable practices in our industry, and at the very least there are astroturfing activities that every communicator can oppose in every instance. It is an issue that an impressive collection of communicators see fit to oppose, and while it’s a difficult topic to confront – it doesn’t deserve the too-hard basket.

The thing that has struck me with the campaign so far has been the number of PR students and new practitioners who were blatantly unaware of the tactic and uncertain about why it is so wrong (this video is an example). I’ve been regularly discussing the issue with my peers for several months now and few have had cause to consider the ethical implications of their practice.

The vast majority of the industry are intelligent, ethical operators who will always avoid these dodgy tactics … but these are not the kind of people who will fall down with astroturf.

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Still within the first few months of my PR career and I just thought I’d share some observations. After all, that’s what I do, make observations. I’m sure the other newly employed PR flacks can join in here, the seasoned can attest, and the students can learn from my misjudgments.

Dusk. Dusk is a pretty good transition. From the bustle of the busy day to the quiet of the sleepy night, dusk gently leads us from one to another. And, really, it’s your perspective of day and night that changes your opinion of dusk. From good to bad, from bad to good, or just from one stage to another. Your call.

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I think we’ve made it reasonably clear that we at Forward recommend that PR students and young professionals try their hand at blogging to become familiar with the space. But here’s a thought that we possibly haven’t stressed enough: don’t feel like you have to blog about PR. Write about whatever interests you. Seriously!

It’s much more compelling read writings that are the result of an inner-driven passion (or an interest at least) than posts that have the “I’m-writing-about-this-to-further-my-career” kind of thinking. Blah.

Granted, I’m obviously a big proponent of blogging about PR … IF you’re interested in it enough to really make something of it. Sometimes, all that takes is curiosity. I think especially back when I started my own blog while I was in Robert French’s class, a lot of my posts were driven by curiosity. And blogging about PR is a good way to get yourself thinking critically about issues and specific topics in the industry. But we’ve covered all that before.

My point here is just to share a concept that has been more prominent in my mind lately. I think it comes from being around my team at Edelman — a very talented group, many of whom blog … and not necessarily about PR.

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Does writing matter in public relations? You bet. The written word is frequently the ‘product’ by which we’re judged. However personable and persuasive you are in a face-to-face meeting, if your follow-up is poorly worded then this will count against you.

Don’t believe me? Then take note of a couple of senior practitioners arguing the case for writing as a key public relations skill: Marcel Goldstein and Todd Defren (interviewed by Marie Williams).

But you already know that (you’re reading Forward, after all, so you’re at least a step ahead…) Next question: how can you improve your writing skills? This came up in a recent phone conversation with a PR graduate who is several months into her first job. She’s someone I back to do well in public relations, but her supervisor was clearly unimpressed with her writing skills, an essential task in her role as a press officer.

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Recently, as written by Justin Estes on this blog, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola got into a little bit of a corporate espionage fun.

But, there is even more to the story. Because of the corporate theft, many companies are now re-evaluating how they are handling confidential corporate information - such as new products. The Associated Press went into it a bit more in this article - read it, as it is a good primer for this post.

Here’s the lesson to think about. As you begin your public relations career, you are going to be privy to a lot of confidential client information. While you will occasionally be reminded during brainstorm meetings that what you are about to talk about is under extreme confidentiality, and to not talk about such issues outside the office.

As entry-level PR persons, you get information that is not for public knowledge. It’s not just at brainstorms, but it is during morning meetings, during conversations in the hallway, etc. You do not necessarily get told “hey, this is confidential information,” but you have to be careful about what you are doing wth the information, where you talk about clients, and who you speak to (at times).

It goes back to the old WWII adage: loose lips sink ships. Be careful what you are talking about, as you might inadvertently be talking about confidential information. That includes talking to family, even.

So, it is not about paranoia … but about good work practices. Be careful out there, as it’s a war.

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