6 things mom taught me that I apply to PR

Posted on May 13, 2012 by sarah

My wonderful mother, stepdad and myself after church

I spent this past Sunday celebrating Mother’s Day with my mom in Tallassee, Ala. That prompted me to think of  a few things mom has told me over the years that I now apply to my career in PR. I’m sure your mom told you some of the same things, but if not, please comment below and let me know what you’d add!

  1. “Share”

    • I have three sisters, and I’m one of the middle ones. My mother probably told me to share my toys, clothes and everything else a billion times. Now, I use this concept in my career. Share content. This applies not only to clients and press releases – that’s obvious, but also sharing relevant, interesting and helpful information about everything else.  In a recent Rutgers webinar about writing for social media, I learned that 80 percent of social media posts are “me now” posts. That means starting a tweet with “I” or making about something you dislike/like – and that’s fine. Next time, though, try Angela Maiers 70/20/10 test.
      • 70 percent of your posts should be sharing relevant, interesting or funny information

        • Such as tips, speeches, this blog entry …

      • 20 percent should be connecting

        • If you look at your 10 most recent tweets and not one of them mention someone else, you’re not engaging your audience enough

      • 10 percent can be chirps

        • Tell me about your day, but only once every 10 tweets, please.

    • “The Golden Rule”

      • No, not “He who makes the gold, makes the rules,” but “treat others as you would like to be treated.” I utilize this rule when dealing with the media, clients, colleagues and audiences. When a reporter or client wants something, I get it done – that’s what I’d want to happen. I also try to be mindful of the reporter’s deadline and that they have lots of other stories to juggle. I also think about my audience when sharing information. If I were the one being marketed to, how would I feel? This simple elementary school rule can really change how you are perceived in the world, in my opinion.

    • “Those who don’t read, work for someone who does.”

      • When I was in kindergarten, I won a grade-wide reading competition and got to help shave Principal Roberts’ beard. (In retrospect, what were they thinking? I was 5 years old!) I am so thankful mom instilled a love of reading in me at an early age, and I still completely agree with this mantra. I’ve said it in earlier PR 101 posts, PR practitioners have to read/watch/listen to the reporters/producers/bloggers to whom we pitch. Also, it’s a good idea to stay up-to-date with current events anyway. Understanding what’s happening in the world, in your target industries and in your community will make you better at your job; it might even inspire fresh content.

    • Be honest.

      • The other day I told someone I worked for a PR firm. His response (I couldn’t make this up) was, “Oh, so you like work for cigarette and other morally corrupt companies and try to make them seem OK to the public?” I thought public relations being perceived as “spin” was outdated, but I guess that perception lingers. Encouraging transparency in your clients and in your own life is the best practice. Being proactive is also a good technique to avoid bad situations. There are so many case studies that show us that trying to keep a problem hidden from the public almost never works, so just give it up.

    • “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.”

      • We’ve all heard this one. Fell off your bike? Can’t get the French braid just right? Well, brush it off and try again. Well, now we can ride bikes, French braid and throw the perfect spiral, but we can still apply this to our lives and careers. There are some stories that don’t get published right away, so we have to be persistent and revisit them later or perhaps explore a new angle. There are some backgrounders that I cannot get right at all, so instead of getting frustrated, I have to just put it away and come back to it later. I know that there will be times that the brilliant PR plan I created just doesn’t show the results I expected, but even if I failed miserably I can’t mope about it – I just have to come up with a new plan and try again. Everyone makes mistakes, but we have to just try harder next time.

    • Use your manners.

      • Even though I’m 24, mom still scolds me if I am ever the slightest bit impolite to someone, whether I think I am or not. I’m glad, though, because we all need to mind our manners in every facet of life.  I’ve heard so many horror stories about divas and other employees that are hard to work with and I don’t understand it. “Please and thank you, they’re called the magic words” – we all remember that song, right? For social media etiquette tips, please refer back to the SoMe Etiquette post.


 

Thank you all so much reading, and please feel free to share with your friends.

-Sarah Funderburk

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Trending

Posted on May 4, 2012 by marynevaire

Status Update: I’m Donating My Organs

My grandparents consider Facebook a huge waste of time. Why wouldn’t they, really? Older generations believe in privacy. They also ask, “Who cares?” when shown a status updating detailing your awesome Tuesday morning coffee date with a friend. But you took such a great Instagram of the latte the barista put a cool design in!

The majority of our posts consist of mundane occurrences, but we also share information about causes that matter to us. This year, my sister got involved with One Voice, an organization that fights human trafficking in Atlanta. Since then she’s devoted a lot of her posts to events and fundraisers, and shared links to articles about human trafficking at home and abroad. Facebook is one way for her to get the message out.

Mark Zuckerberg is hoping that his new donor initiative will do the same thing. According to Organdonor.gov, there are about 114,000 people waiting for an organ in the United States. 18 people die every day waiting for a life-saving organ. Eight lives can be saved by a single donor. Most people don’t register, or realize the incredible need.

This past Tuesday was an incredible day and yes, what happened totally trumps your latte photo. Facebook rolled out their new “Life Event” option, “Registered as an Organ Donor”. The site also provides information on where to register. Zuckerberg is a powerful 20-something: 6,000 people enrolled in 22 state registries by the end of the day. On a normal day, less than 400 people sign up.

Information continues to spread as those newly registered donors share their decision to register on their walls. It will hopefully lead to fewer people watching the clock, desperate for a donor. It’s an inspiring example of the new face of social activism.

-Mary-Nevaire Marsh

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Inside Atlanta PR

Posted on May 1, 2012 by chris
Posted May 1, 2012 by Chris

Caren West learned a thing or two before staring her own PR firm at 26

Twenty-six might seem a young age to start your own PR firm in Atlanta, but Caren West had already learned important lessons from her 12 years working in hospitality: “Your job is to make sure your guests have a good time and a great meal.”

Now she counts restaurants, musical events and media companies among her firm’s clients. “It’s more than a job, it’s someone else’s dream that we get to be a part of.”

Caren West

When she was 13, Caren walked across the street from her home outside Baltimore and landed a dishwasher’s job. During college summer breaks from Auburn, she worked at the Weekapaug Inn in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. “Think Dirty Dancing,” she suggested. “Auburn’s summer breaks were longer than other schools, so I raked it in at weddings and big dinner parties after the other students went back to school. It helped pay college expenses!”

She wasn’t headed for a career in PR. She majored in communications and minored in psychology (her mother’s field). “I was interested in TV production and I landed a job at Turner, but they merged with Time Warner before I could start and my job was caught in a hiring freeze. So I decided to evaluate what I was going to do next. I tell people I didn’t find PR, PR found me.”

She started at a music label and soon was pulled into working for two small PR firms, yet continued freelance writing – her first love. “I loved the media and I’m obsessed with magazines. I thought I’d try journalism, but people kept asking me to do PR.” She eventually landed a weekly column at the Sunday Paper, was special projects editor at Jezebel and landed a weekly on-air gig on 99X. Then her PR projects started getting bigger and bigger and Caren West PR was born.

CWPR clients include the 20th anniversary of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, Wild Heaven Craft Beers, next month’s retirement of Monica Pearson from WSB-TV as well as CounterPoint, a new music festival planned for this fall in Chattahoochee Hill Country.

“I have a passion for writing. In PR, it’s important. You have to be great writer to be able to tell a story with every pitch. There is so much noise, so many blogs and social media, having consistent and meaningful messaging is so important.”

She partnered with graphic artist Chad Shearer in 2005 and the four-person firm keeps an office in Old Fourth Ward with four dogs. “It’s a zoo. I love it,” she said.

“I’ve had offers to go to New York, but I always turn them down. I love Atlanta. Atlanta was on the verge and I wanted to be here,” she said. “It’s an entrepreneurial city. The PR community works together to breed success. I love the fact that I can partner with other PR people and cross-promote.”

CWPR was an early adopter of social media and building the buzz. Jezebel Magazine just listed Caren’s personal Facebook page as Atlanta’s funniest. (Better hurry if you want to be her friend, she only has a few spots left before she hits the ceiling of 5,000.)

She was especially honored to be asked by WSB to handle Monica’s retirement schedule. “I love media people so much and I respect the hours that go into what they do and I’m willing to jump through hoops to do whatever they need.”

– Chris Schroder

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Penn State’s ongoing battle with crisis communication

Posted on April 26, 2012 by sarah

Last fall when news broke of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the entire nation wondered how Penn State would handle the crisis. The child abuse fiasco is a public relations disaster that Penn State will surely be dealing with for years and years to come. So, what should Penn State do?

The day after Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse of eight young boys over a 15-year period, Penn State University’s Board of Trustees enlisted Omnicom Group agency Ketchum for crisis communications counsel.

Two days later, the firm assisted the school with a press conference during which the vice chairman announced that Joe Paterno (JoePa to most), as well as university President Graham Spanier were stepping down.

In January, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said the university was no longer working with Ketchum PR. Erickson told the Faculty Senate that “the university had used Ketchum as a crisis coordination firm primarily in November, and it had been decided after the holiday break that the university had moved to a point where that company’s help was no longer needed.”

Oh, that’s it? Penn State’s Board of Trustees think it’s all over because the story is not on the front page anymore?

Luckily, something made them reconsider. Edelman and La Torres Communications, were hired this week by Penn State to help rebuild trust and improve its media relations efforts.

According to PRDaily, the two firms “will support the school in upcoming litigation related to the Sandusky crisis and work to foster greater transparency among Penn State Stakeholders.”

In my opinion, the two firms have their work cut out for them. I think it was smart to not only hire Edelman – which has a proven track record for crisis communication campaigns across the globe – and a local firm to handle the campaign.

A quick tangent – according to The Morning Call, the new yearlong contract with the two firms will cost $2.5 million. Also, Penn State has already retained at least 12 other firms at the cost of $7.6 million to provide communications and legal assistance. Where is this money coming from – tuition money? The new strategy should consist of transparency and letting the public know just where the BOT is pulling funds.

What else should be in the new strategy to regain trust and offer great transparency? Is forthrightness enough?

Traditional rebranding may not be enough, considering children are involved and so much wrongdoing has occurred on so many levels at the university. Penn State lost the public’s trust. It’ll be a long process to earn it back.

via TheAtlantic.com

The first thing I learned about crisis communication was concern for the victims, their families and communities. Penn State should donate copious amounts of money to child abuse charities, or even start their own. It should implement a no tolerance policy when it comes to any sort of misbehavior, empowering its faculty and staff to do the right thing – not simply tell someone else and consider the situation handled. College funds could be set up in the names of those victims who have not yet attended a university. Media training will probably be implemented to faculty, staff and coached for future situations. Penn State needs to somehow prove that it is a safe, stable environment that is suitable for everyone.

There is so much work to be done for Penn State, but it seems to be on the right path. This subject will surely be discussed and studied for many more years. What do you think Penn State should do?

by Sarah Funderburk

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Inside Atlanta PR

Posted on April 23, 2012 by chris

Sharon Goldmacher might be the only person who can solve this winning PR formula: C21 + 2013 = Final Four

When Sharon Goldmacher of communications 21 was trying to decide where to start her career, she had a bit of a Goldilocks experience: New Orleans was too hot and the Baltimore/D.C. area was too cold. Atlanta, it turns out, was just right.

Not only is she celebrating her firm’s 20th year, she and her firm have taken on a second job of sorts: managing the operations and execution for the 2013 NCAA Men’s Final Four as well as providing marketing, PR and promotion services. That would be c21’s 21st year, coming of age just in time, naturally.

Sharon Goldmacher

“I tell people my full title is ‘Executive Director of the Atlanta local organizing committee and I have no tickets!’ ” (The NCAA has taken over all ticket distribution responsibilities, but you can enter a lottery for tickets here.)

As Sharon was preparing to graduate cum laude from Tulane with a double major in political science and communications, she worked part-time at the NBC affiliate, WDSU-TV. She helped provide coverage for Mardi Gras, the space shuttle Challenger explosion and a decapitation with an alleged Mafia connection.

“The coup de grace was a 12-car pile-up on a foggy Sunday morning. It was a very bad wreck. That was it for me,” she said. “I’m not a big emotional person, but for survival’s sake, I wanted to stay as humanistic as possible, so I decided to get out of TV News reporting in New Orleans.”

Born in California, Sharon had moved with her family to Orlando, Boston and Baltimore. “We were in Orlando and attended Disney the second day it opened, which was a great memory I will never forget,” she said. “But I didn’t want to go back to Baltimore and, after job-hunting in D.C., I decided it was too cold. My sister went to Emory and my college roommate was from Atlanta. It was the greenest city I’d ever seen in my life, so I moved here.

“After I did some volunteer work at an Atlanta PBS station, someone said, “You’d be great in PR.’ And I said, ‘Awesome – PR, what is that?’ ”

She worked for a small PR firm that handled commercial real estate before joining Knapp Communications, where her friend and mentor was William Pate, now president & CEO of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I finally decided I wasn’t that great with authority, so after three years at age 28, I struck out on my own. The downside was I had no formal training in running a business,” she said. “From the beginning, I was very much focused on client satisfaction. After all, they are your lifeblood. When you’re getting started, you don’t have flexibility to say ‘I will work with you or I don’t want work with you.’

“I lost focus on the fact that people working with clients need to be happy as well and around my fifth or sixth year in business, I lost a couple of key people. So then I rotated 180 degrees: I learned you have to have great people and make sure they are happy. If the team is happy, then the client is happy. The work is there and if the employees are challenged, they will want to do best they can. So we do a lot of training and pay 100 percent of development and education.”

communications 21 has numerous clients, including the Southeast Dairy Association, Copper Development Association, Community Coffee Company and Quality Technical Services. But the firm’s big client is the NCAA Final Four, which will host the second largest sports event (behind only the Super Bowl) in Atlanta next April.

“Our goal is to have this be the best tournament ever, in honor of 75 years of March Madness in 2013,” said Sharon, who was the volunteer chair for marketing and PR promotions in 2007 and then helped prepare and deliver the Atlanta organizing committee’s winning pitch for the 2013 event. It wasn’t long before the committee asked her to be executive director of the Atlanta committee. “Our goal is to have the Final Four here every three to five years,” she said.

In addition to taking over ticket distribution, the NCAA has its own telescopic seating that it will install over the lower bowl of the Dome, making it a much more intimate setting than four years ago when only 50,000 seats were available. Not only will seating increase to 73,000, but the floor will be raised three feet above the benches and media. Also, instead of just three total games, the event will include a free music series (The Big Dance) and 89 different sports in the Georgia World Congress Center as part of Bracket Town – the fan fest event.

In addition to heading the committee, c21’s 13 employees will handle all marketing, PR and event promotions. Normally a host city has an executive director, a director of operations and a support person. “I told them they are getting 10 additional people for the price of three!” Sharon said.

– Chris Schroder

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SoMe Etiquette

Posted on April 23, 2012 by sarah

I handle a few social media (SoMe) accounts for Schroder PR, and I’m learning a few things as I go. My friends think posting to clients’ Twitter and other social media sites is the easiest part of my job, but that’s far from the truth.  A PR Daily article recently summed it up nicely:

“Your friends probably think you spend all day on Facebook sharing cool things, pinning pretty stuff on Pinterest and retweeting about Happy Hour. What they don’t see is that your client just called you and demanded a Facebook promotion with a minimum of 100 entries …”

It’s much harder to speak for a client than on your personal pages, and we’ve all seen stories of interns and social media managers alike posting on client pages when they thought they were posting on their personal page – remember the Barneys New York fiasco?

Maybe leaving the Barneys NY Facebook account in the hands of a stressed intern wasn't the best idea ...

So here are 5 tips that I’ve assembled. These are general social media etiquette rules, but they can also be applied to managing clients’ account.

1)   As a personal rule, I only “friend” actual friends on Facebook. I’m all for fueling social interaction, but some members of the media may think it’s creepy if you friend them and start commenting on family vacation photos. Follow them on Twitter, fan their Facebook brand page and even follow them on LinkedIn – don’t send them one press release and think y’all are friends.

2)   Chris Brogan wrote a nice article about social media etiquette in which he covered seven topics. I’ll paraphrase:

  1. It’s OK to let the competition follow you, and it’s OK to follow the competition. (I actually recommend it! Keep your friends close, right?)
  2. Listening is important and commenting is important. Be the #1 commenter on your blog, but it’s OK to not comment back for every single comment you receive.
  3. If you’re writing about a client on your personal page, add (client) to the tweet/post/update/blog comment.
  4. Promote others, and it’s much more likely people will help promote you when it’s your turn.

3)   Treat each network separately. This is a pet peeve of mine. It’s OK to tell all the networks the same thing, just don’t make it a one-stop entry. Facebook allows as many characters as your heart desires, Twitter does not. I will not click on the link in my Twitter feed that directs me to the rest of your Facebook post. It may take more time, but it is far less irritating to see messages that are tailored to a specific network.

  1. Also, I understand linking your Facebook and Twitter, I do – you’re busy and you want all of your friends and followers to know it. But on brand pages, I think your clients prefer putting your best foot forward, and in my opinion – tailor-made drafts for each network is the way to go.

4)   Holly Grande wrote a great article on Cookerly PR’s PeRceptions blog, “Is Social Media Etiquette Necessary?” She began with the very question that I’ve wondered at least a dozen times, ‘when someone retweets you, should you thank them, or should you ignore it?’ Her commentary boiled down to two (very wise) words: do good.

“Be considerate in your posts, thank someone if you feel like you ought to thank them, engage followers in a conversation, but – most importantly – tweet the way you want to be tweeted.”

5)   Write professionally. Remember: Your social media presence is an extension of your business persona – or in some cases your client’s brand. Proper grammar and spelling helps you maintain credibility and a professional image. If I tweeted “LOL! OMG! Schroder PR wants 2 work 4 u! #winning” from Schroder PR’s Twitter account, I’d probably lose my tweeting privileges. I know you only have 140 characters, and you want to save characters for retweeting, but try – please try – to at least use the proper grammar, like the correct forms of their, they’re and there.

Please just use SoMe sense when you’re posting, whether it’s personally or for a client. Here are a few links to other interesting articles on the topic:

-       Fox Small Business Center: “What Bosses are Saying about Social Media Etiquette”

-       Boston Globe: “Learning social media etiquette”

-       PR Daily: “10 tips to master Twitter etiquette”

 

<em>- Sarah Funderburk </em>

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Inside Atlanta PR

Posted on April 17, 2012 by chris

Carol Cookerly learned early on that an appropriate demeanor needs to fit the occasion – Today, that demeanor would be happy

When PR expert Carol Cookerly was early in her TV career just after graduating from Duke, her news director gave her a lesson in appropriate demeanor that fits the occasion.

“He called me in to his office after I had done a live shot at an explosion. ‘Carol,’ he said. ‘Instead of looking so happy at doing your TV reporting job, you should probably look more empathetic to the occasion.’ I went back and looked at my tape and that was a eureka moment for me,” Carol said Monday. “Make sure your demeanor fits the occasion. Even though I really was happy doing my job as a live stand-up reporter on the local evening news in Greensboro and Durham.”

Carol Cookerly

Today, celebrating 20 years running her own PR firm, Carol’s happy demeanor seems most appropriate. With 24 full-time employees serving a diversified client base, she reports that the economic impact on her firm’s revenues of several recent downturns in the economy “has been negligible.”

Carol grew up in Charlotte until she was 15 and then her family moved to Washington, D.C. After majoring in economics, she worked four years covering “the mundane to murders” for the Carolina TV stations. Following a move to New Jersey and New York, she joined a PR firm for three years, eventually migrating to Atlanta to work for Hill & Knowlton.

“Then I went into computers and software for two years and learned how to sell,” Carol said. “I learned about the IBM selling process and I credit that with a lot of our ability to grow as a PR firm.”

Three years after she left PR, she opened her own firm and called up a number of the consumer goods firms she had served at H&K. “They weren’t working with any other firms and they were game to work with me,” she said. “So I immediately hired an account person and an admin. I never wanted to specialize in any one vertical and that has worked well for us. We’ve had a very controlled, profitable growth curve.”

Cookerly serves clients such as SunTrust Banks, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Clean Air Campaign and U.S Micro. Carol has served on the Metro YMCA board for the past 15 years and this past year she was honored with the Bransby Christian Leadership Award for the volunteer of the year. She is also heavily involved with the Murphy-Harpst home in Cedartown, supporting severely abused children.

“I can tell you we focus on writing as in-depth a plan as we possibly can and then try to work those plans. We’ve gotten more complicated business propositions and we’ve gotten very adept at complicated stuff. We don’t just say we’re going to do a media relations gig – we try to work out as rounded a marketing program as we can.”

That has included an early commitment to social media. “We got in early in social media. A VP of my staff, Candace McCaffrey, showed leadership early on in that area and became an expert on social media strategies. Then we decided several years ago that everyone was going to be expert in it. We promote our firm heavily in social media. We’re right in the thick of it. Though we also strive, if the goal is publicity, for as much national media, even more than local media.”

Carol, however, just closed down her personal Facebook page. “We’re big into it as a firm, but it’s counter to my nature as a private person to have all this stuff bleeding onto my page even when I don’t post. I’d rather go walking. I take a walk in the woods for 30 minutes each day without a cell phone. That’s how I relax.”

That and horseback riding. Carol was a competitive circuit jumper most of her adult life, but slowed down the past few years. “I’m thinking I’m ready to get back into jumping,” she said. “It’s the only time I can concentrate. When you are riding a horse jumping, you can’t think of anything else.”

– Chris Schroder

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PR 101: Meet the Media

Posted on April 12, 2012 by sarah

Meet the Media with Jennifer Mayerle of CBS Atlanta

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous to meet Jennifer Mayerle. I mean, she’s an Emmy Award-winning journalist, and that’s just one of her many awards. Jennifer has also received the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Associations awards for Best General Reporting, Best Anchor/Reporter and Best Series Reporting, an Edward R. Murrow award and the Apex Society’s 2008 “Power 30 under 30” award.

I sat down with Jennifer over iced coffee and green tea at the Starbucks minutes from the CBS Atlanta building. I don’t know if you follow her on Twitter (@CBSATLMayerle), but if you do – you know how lucky I was to sit down with her. Sometimes I wake up and check Twitter before I’m out of bed and see that she’s already been following a story for three hours! Even though she’s constantly looking for the latest news for the city of Atlanta, she was able to let us in on a few insider details on how to get your client’s story on CBS Atlanta.

Jennifer says she usually gets most of her stories from the community and other sources. New to the “day shift” at CBS Atlanta, she thinks she’ll have more opportunities to do more pitched stories. But, she did have a few comments on what NOT to do, “Please don’t send me incomplete information. Make sure you know what station I am with, because I’ve had emails reading, ‘Hi Jennifer Mayerle with [a competing news channel].’ I won’t read those emails.”

Also, just as Collin from Atlanta INtown stated, it’s a good habit to proofread emails before sending them to Mayerle. I think it’s safe to say that you lose credibility if you have spelling errors or wrong information.

A very cool thing about Jennifer is her take on social media. I actually tweeted her to set up the interview, she got right back with me, and voilà! She says she likes Twitter because it comes straight to her phone. If you see news happening, snap a picture and then tweet it in to her or CBS (@CBSATL). This is much easier than trying to contact a reporter via desk phone, especially because they are hardly at their desks at all!

So, what kinds of stories should you send to Jennifer? A true Atlanta lover, she enjoys covering stories that are community based; those stories that promote positive changes or benefits to the community at large are perfect. And although she prefers hearing about stories that have broad appeal, she does not like receiving mass emails.

“I know that you want the most people to cover the stories, but no one likes to walk in the morning meeting with a great idea that everyone else has too. Like most reporters, I like to receive exclusive information.”

Jennifer is also doing more investigative work, as that presents more of a challenge to her. Stories that hold officials accountable and coincide with CBS’s Tough Questions are another topic Jennifer likes. She also likes to cover women’s health issues, as she often speaks on eating disorders and promoting positive body image.

What’s the typical day like in the life of a busy Atlanta reporter? There’s no typical day! Jennifer says she goes to the editorial meeting in the morning to discuss with other reporters, producers, the assignment desk and the news director what has happened the night before and what is happening now. They decide what should be covered and then she starts making calls to collect information on stories she’s covering. Next, she’ll hop in the live trucks with her photographer and get ready to do live shots and interviews for the 4, 5 and 6 o’ clock news programs. She’s pulled away from her planned location for breaking news maybe once a week, but it’s all part of the job.

If you want your client on CBS Atlanta, here are a few hints:
• Day shift reporters need to be armed with stories by the 9:30 a.m. meeting
• Night shift reporters come in for their meeting around 2:30 p.m.
• If there’s a certain event to be covered, 1-2 days notice is preferred so all facts can be collected
• Every reporter is different, but Jennifer usually has her “downtime” between 3-5 p.m. She usually makes her calls during this time, so if you’d like her to cover your story, get it to her by 3 p.m. for the best chance!
• Images and videos supplied by PR firms will not be used in most cases. You can send these visuals, but CBS likes to use their own shots and live video.

In what little free time she has, Jennifer loves to travel as much as she can, attend community events and spend time with friends. And don’t be surprised if you see her running in Piedmont Park or in your next yoga class. As I mentioned before, she speaks at schools and conferences about eating disorders and body images. After her best friend from high school lost her battle with anorexia, she became extremely passionate about it

‘Jennifer came to Atlanta from Mobile, Alabama, where she was a weekend anchor/reporter. It was in Mobile that she gained international exposure for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She won her first Emmy for her interview with Hardy Jackson in Biloxi, Miss. just hours after the storm passed. Jackson recalled how his wife was swept away from his grasp by the floodwaters. Through her experience with Katrina and its aftermath, Jennifer realized the strength of communities along the Gulf Coast that extends to cities such as Atlanta.’ (Paraphrased from her bio on CBS Atlanta’s website.)

-Sarah Funderburk

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Inside Atlanta PR

Posted on April 9, 2012 by chris

Karin Koser’s career started before she could even finish graduate school – and she’s been shooting higher ever since

Karin Koser will learn in June whether her firm’s video work for Shepherd Center will win one of the industry’s highest awards: a national Silver Anvil, for which their DVD series is a finalist in the Health Care Services category. They’ll be competing against other Atlanta and national broadcast and PR talent – something she’s been doing successfully since she was in graduate school.

In fact, a career opportunity so enticing knocked on her door while she was at the University of Georgia pursuing a graduate degree in broadcast journalism that she never finished her degree.

Karin Koser

“I only had six to nine months to go to complete my degree when I saw a job posted on the bulletin board for the Georgia Department of Tourism to be a travel reporter on WAGA-Channel 5’s PM Magazine program,” Karin recalled Friday. She thought “this is the type of job I’d even quit my degree for – if I could possibly win the competition for it.” She did.

Splitting her time between the Tourism office and the TV station, she traveled the state for three years, writing, editing, producing and hosting video segments that aired on the highly rated program until it was bumped off the air by Wheel of Fortune. “My favorite stories were ‘fairy crosses‘ in Fannin County and sitting on the porch of the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island with Gogo Ferguson when a baby deer walked up and she fed it in her lap with a baby bottle.”

So she stayed on for a total of 14 years as PR Manager and later assistant director at the GA Dept. of Industry Trade & Tourism, traveling the world, helping raise media and tourist interest in the state and initiating the “Georgia On My Mind” campaign. As the Olympics approached, she was launching the Welcome South Visitors Center when Ken Willis, then at GCI, recruited her to the PR world.

“I was a senior account supervisor working with Shaw Industries and Lake Lanier Islands, but by that time I was also the proud mom of a young daughter and all those hours and travel weren’t compatible. So when a job as PR Director at Egleston came open, I knew that was closer to home and closer to my heart.” She stayed there more than three years, helping with the communications around the hospital’s merger with Scottish Rite hospital.

“I had been thinking of jumping off and starting my own business,” she said. “I was watching and being encouraged by folks such as Melissa Libby and Lee Echols and finally in January 2000, I did that. Fortunately, I talked to my bosses at (the newly merged) Children’s Healthcare and was able to serve them as a consultant for two years, continuing C-level PR strategy work and promoting healthcare breakthroughs and events like the Festival of Trees and Art of the Season. At the same time, I got a small contract with Connecting with Kids to produce short- and long-form videos about child and teen health.”

She’s led KPK & Co. for 12 years and branched off KPKinteractive in 2008 to take advantage of the interactive opportunities the Internet provided with video technology, and social media channels. Her firm’s video/interactive clients include Shepherd Center, with which she’s worked since 2002, Interface and DeKalb Medical Center. On the PR side, KPK & Co. works with Georgia State University and the American Craft Council’s annual event in Atlanta, among others.

Karin knew she wanted a career in PR after her freshman year at UGA when she was in Rome, Italy, with her mom. Karin’s European-born mother taught her conversational German growing up and took her on lots of trips – a benefit of her mom’s job with Lufthansa. On a bus tour of Rome, the tour guide slipped easily from English to German and Spanish while promoting the city with passion. Karin was impressed.

“Then it hit me, I could be passionate about promoting my own city and state and possibly make a career out of it,” she said.

In 2008, Karin and her team created the “Story of Hope” brand for Shepherd, profiling patients who came to the rehabilitation center and found it a life-changing experience. That led to the development of ShepherdTV.org and to a series of videos this past year informing families what to expect following a spinal cord or brain injury and the promise of eventual recovery and a better long-term life. The video programs were distributed nationally and are available at two new websites: braininjury101.org and spinalinjury101.org.

This campaign, consisting of two full-length videos, packaged as a DVD series with companion booklets, marketing materials and online, is the work that could land Shepherd Center and KPKinteractive a Silver Anvil in New York. Other independent Atlanta finalists in the awards are Jackson Spalding and Hipple & Co. Reputation Management.

“I think there is a story behind everything,” Karin said. “If we can connect the product or the service personally, it will resonate and be successful in reaching our client’s targets. Video, especially distributed interactively, is the best communication tool these days to reach people. We feel like we are at the right place at the right time and this is really the core of what we do. I’m personally passionate about health and wellness, higher ed, lifelong learning, arts/travel/culture and that is reflected in our client portfolio.”

– Chris Schroder

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Inside Atlanta PR

Posted on April 2, 2012 by chris

Former ABC Editor David Rubinger jumped to PR, then corporate and now has his own firm.

A number of Atlanta journalists migrated into PR later in their career, but you may be able to count on one hand – perhaps one digit – former editors of the Atlanta Business Chronicle who now work in public relations. Meet David Rubinger, who actually worked on all three sides part of the communication spectrum: journalism, PR and corporate.

“I still think the most fun I’ve had in my career was my time at the ABC,” David told us last week. “It was perfect for someone like me who was new to Atlanta. Anita Sharpe was editor and Ed Baker, the publisher, introduced me to this city in a way a young person at age 24 would never normally get coming to this city.”

David Rubinger

The next stop for David was Ketchum, to which he was recruited by Jane Shivers to run the media relations department. “It was a very difficult decision to leave,” David said. “I valued the time at ABC, but with two children (four now) and looking for further professional growth, I wanted to try something different. The opportunity was right: The Internet boom was starting, Ketchum was growing quickly and I ran media relations. I don’t know if that could happen today, given economic realities for large PR agencies, but at the time they were willing to use my experience at the ABC to win new clients.”

An additional benefit: David got to “work on accounts such as Equifax and the Metro Atlanta Chamber, help implement new programs and learn the agency business without the extreme pressures of being 90 percent billable right away.”

The benefit paid dividends five years later in 2003 when Equifax CEO Tom Chapman recruited David to “go corporate” and head up the corporate communications department. That assignment opened his eyes to a totally new perspective.

“Until you are inside corporate, you don’t realize the complexities of getting all the various constituencies on the same page,” David said. “There are so many voices in a large corporation that you need to align,from the CEO to the board of directors to legal to marketing to human resources to finance. Getting everyone aligned can be a very difficult task and it doesn’t happen until you understand the pressures each of them face to work together as a team. And being a public company made it even more complicated.”

All of which gave him a good perspective when he started Rubinger Inc. in July 2008.

“When you run your own shop, you really learn to understand the client on personal and professional level … to know how they like to work with a consultant of any type,” David said. “I equate it to dating: Understanding what a partner wants, not stepping on toes, giving each other mutual respect, getting to know the client more than a weekly status call. You have to understand their needs. It takes time … sometimes it’s six months before a client and consultant get on the same page. If you know that, it pays off for the long term and it’s much more gratifying over a long relationship.”

David grew up in Manhattan, “devouring the New York Times each morning.” He was involved in the college paper at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, worked an internship at McGraw-Hill’s Electronics Magazine, leading to his first job at McGraw Hill’s online real-time news pilot program. He moved to Atlanta with his wife Hedy, a partner with Arnall Golden Gregory. “I like to say I’m a ‘Damn Yankee’ who became a ‘good old boy!’ ”

He began what he calls his “decade-long MBA program at the ABC,” first as banking/finance writer, then the real estate beat, then managing editor and finally editor for three years, leaving in 1998.

“Your sole goal as a journalist is to get the story and when you don’t get cooperation from a business entity, as a journalist, you don’t understand,” he said. “When you move to corporate, you understand the dynamics involved with legal, marketing, etc.”

At Rubinger, David and his five contract professionals serve clients such as State Bank Financial Corporation, Vocalocity, Heery International and Half-Off Depot.

“As a small firm practitioner, real success is when you are a true partner with the client,” he said. “I do whatever I can do to help them succeed as a business. It’s so much more than getting your client a news clip … it’s being their counselor in ways PR practitioners 50 years ago never would have dreamed. I love what I do now, capitalizing on a 23-year rolodex, helping solve issues, promoting brands, using my best thinking to solve clients’ problems.”

– Chris Schroder

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