I’ve said this before and continue to believe it. The PR profession under-appreciates interviewing expertise. It starts in college. Try to find a curriculum for mass communications or PR that offers a class on interviewing. Good luck. Every journalism program in the country tackles the art of the interview. But PR curricula ignore the topic. …more
Public relations as an industry undervalues interviewing skills. You can find training session after training session on how to pitch a journalist and to not follow up with a “did you get my email?” Same goes for writing. Show, don’t tell. Stay away from chest-thumping adjectives like “revolutionary” and “breakthrough.” Yet, most mass communications curricula …more
Needless to say, COVID-19 has changed the way people live, work and play. The broadcast media industry is no exception with radio presenters and journalists now conducting live profile interviews over the phone. How can we as communications consultants help our clients adjust to this new normal and maximize interviews over the phone? These five …more
Between Huawei’s reputation, 1,000 posts, our Asia team crushing it, taking things personally and Frank Bruni’s acerbic wit, the first half of the best posts in 2019 covered a lot of ground. Here comes the second half. . . 6) Thought Leadership versus Thought Followship The communications industry has wakened to …more
The headline is our attempt at inserting incongruence into the story. As you would suspect, PR agencies typically don’t use advertising as part of the marketing mix. When they do, the creative often lacks inspiration (to put it kindly). I’d like to think we’re an exception to the rule. Which brings me to our initiative …more
We know the story is always there. Yet, bringing the story to the surface often requires the right questions. And no one is better at probing and cajoling a source than Terry Gross, the maestro of the NPR podcast “Fresh Air.” She recently interviewed the actor Patricia Arquette. Having done her homework, Gross knows Arquette’s …more
By Matt Burrows, Senior Account Executive At first glance, dentistry might seem like the last profession you should address to get thoughts on storytelling, with most conversations with your dentist consisting of them asking questions while your mouth is open to the world. So when Dan Tynan — journalist, communications writer and Thought Follower …more
Our 2019 mantra “The story is always there” points to the importance of the discovery process in business communications. Anyone can sit down with Apple’s Tim Cook after Elizabeth Warren has made her case for greater regulation of the tech industry and come away with a story that triggers clicks. It takes much …more
The reason PR fails at storytelling often has nothing to do with understanding the makings of a good story or writing expertise. Instead, the root cause can lie in the interviewing process for sourcing the content. If you don’t get this upfront step right — pulling out the type of content that the outside world …more
