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Posts Tagged ‘PR’

Why You Won’t See any Dirt from Me Here

21 Jun

I tweet as @ladysportsman and I have this blog. Both are mine. I bought the blog domain name and for the most part, write my blogs on my own time. My twitter account is me, as well, and is a pseudo-representative of the company. I tweet some personal stuff (observations mainly) because I think people want to see a little personal mixed in with business. But the majority of my tweets are from business travel and doing business as Sportsman Channel. Sportsman has their own Twitter handle, @SportsmanChnl and they tweet about shows coming up, air times and my press releases. People have asked me if @Ladysportsman is the official handle for Sportsman Channel and I have to tell them, “No, it’s just me doing my thing.”

I don’t kid myself – I’m still representing Sportsman Channel on all this social media stuff. And as a PR person, perhaps I “get” that better than most people would in this position.

I’ve been berating myself lately.  Especially with this blog. I know what people WANT to see on this blog – behind the scenes, dirt, the goods, on Sportsman Channel. I try to offer little peeks inside our world, but I’ve found it’s REALLY difficult to write about something and keep it on the up and up. As in, I-hope- my-boss-is-cool-with-this-even-though-it’s-my-personal-blog. (I’m still not sure my boss(es) even read my posts. I think it’s still my mom, my sister and my one friend.)

"X" marks the dirt spot. Dish here! Photo credit: tsakshaug

So after reading this article about an agency getting fired over a Tweet, and then this article about the f-bomb imploding on a Chrysler Twitter account, I don’t feel so bad.

For one thing, the f-bomb thing was stupid. The account rep said they thought they were still logged in on their Twitter account. I would never swear on my personal Twitter account, even if I had it pre-employment. Perhaps that’s just me. But people find you – they find out who you work for (perhaps you have it listed on your Twitter bio even?) and now, tah-dah, you are a representative of your company on social media.

Some people just don’t get that. They think it is separate and that the two may never meet. WRONG

The “Golden Rule” of Twitter is to tweet how you want to be tweeted. So even the first story I mentioned above where the agency fired off an unthoughtful tweet breaks that rule. They apologized over and over again and deleted the tweet, but come on, we all know how this story ends in the age of social media. Someone already screen-grabbed that tweet and the agency lost the account.

This reminds me of another Twitter story where an agency account rep landed in a southern town to meet with a client and tweeted an insult about the town. They lost the account, too. You would think it was small-town USA and the agency was a small-time, two-person office. Um, no. It was Ketchum and the town was Memphis.

That story was in 2009 and I still recall it as “number one thing not to ever do on twitter.”

So that’s why you won’t see any dirt from me on this blog…or on Twitter and I only friend those I trust on Facebook.  I won’t dish about the network in any way, shape or form other than a purely educational format (or humor, I try and do humor like The Hunter’s Wife, but don’t pull it off as well as Jody.)

I hope to still provide an insight about what its like to work for a national cable network dedicated to the outdoors because well, how many people have my job? Probably two.

 

 

 

 

 
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Hunt.Fish.Feed Milwaukee and How I Wrangled an Invite to the Monkey Room

27 Jul

Michelle shucking corn at Hunt.Fish.Feed Milwaukee

We hosted yet another successful Hunt.Fish.Feed in Milwaukee this past week where we fed more than 400 people a tasty meal of venison Sloppy Joes complete with corn on the cob, macaroni salad and watermelon. A highlight of any Hunt.Fish.Feed event we do is to simply create an awesome meal with donated venison.  But the Milwaukee stop on our tour gave us something a little extra we didn’t expect – Milwaukee gave us a lot of media love.

We reach out to media on every Hunt.Fish.Feed stop and for the most part, we do well with a couple big TV mentions and some print hits.  Milwaukee went above and beyond and for the first time, I felt we really got the message across that hunters are the heroes here.

Milwaukee by the numbers:

  • 406 people fed
  • 115 pounds of venison donated
  • 45 huge watermelons purchased
  • 500 ears of corn shucked and boiled
  • 25 volunteers from Sportsman Channel and Time Warner Cable
  • One radio show – Cutting Edge Outdoors Show on ESPN 1250AM (where I was invited back AGAIN because the response was so good, click on the link to hear the show)
  • One national radio clip – CBS News ran the story nationally over the weekend
  • One AP article that was picked up by approximately 20 local outlets

That’s quite the media coverage! So what was the “secret sauce” that led to this success? I can only assume the following:

1. Serving venison at a shelter is not something you hear about – that makes it newsworthy

2. We are based in Milwaukee – that makes it local

3. The event was on a Tuesday and not much happens on Tuesdays, barring weather – that makes it timely

4. And – this is not something they teach you in PR/Journalism class – but Milwaukee is hunter friendly. The newstations had no problem promoting the event. The FOX6 station ran the clip they took of the event during five different news segments. FIVE!

The ladies from The Morning Blend, Michelle and Scott Leysath

Next week we head to San Diego and I doubt I can repeat this amount of media coverage. I am pretty much hitting #1 and #3 on my list. I know the area isn’t as friendly to our cause and that’s sad because it isn’t about hunters – it is about what we are ALL doing to help those during their time of need. This is the second largest group we’ve ever fed with 1,500 meals. That’s 400 pounds of venison! The largest group we served was in Detroit with 2,000 people served in 2009.

And the Monkey Room? That’s from the Cutting Edge Outdoors radio guys. One of the hosts of the show owns a bait shop and it seems they have a room above the retail floor with a table, chairs and a whole bunch of mounts. It is their “guy place” where women are invited (hence my invite) but they certainly don’t stay long.   I can only assume I received the invite for one reason: I took the time to drive to the studio and go on air instead of calling in.

Go the extra mile for media and it will get returned to you in double.

What is your “secret sauce” to get media coverage for your events? Why do you think you are, or aren’t, successful in getting local coverage?

P.S. I really doubt I will be visiting the Monkey Room anytime soon.

 
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Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

13 Jul

We’ve all been there – you are working on a project you thought was yours, but then your boss got involved, and he brought in a person from another department, and they brought their coordinator, who has an intern…..and they all have different ideas on how this project should run.

So how do you get a sous chef, saute chef, pastry chef and assistants in your kitchen without burning the food?

There always needs to be a leader in any situation and good communication is key. If you feel like your toes are getting stepped on, then you need to assert yourself. During discussions, take the bulk of the tasks on yourself – you can always delegate later, but I’ve found it is important the boss knows “hey, this is my baby and I am serious about seeing this through.”

I’ve discovered that the reason people “nose in” a project is because:

1. they aren’t sure/aware of the goals

2. they aren’t sure of you

3. they just want to be heard

Hear the group out, assure them of your passion and undying attention to the project and lay out the goals, objectives and how the project will be evaluated for success. The person who brings the plan to the table is usually the winner as it makes you look serious.  Now, they may pick apart your plan, but nine times out of 10, no one else brought anything to the table anyway.

When all else fails, wait it out.  Things change. People get bored with projects and find something new to stick their nose in or, like panning for gold, the nuggets of goodness float to the top and shine. (In case you didn’t know, you are the gold nugget in that analogy.)

Next time you have a project with “too many cooks in the kitchen,” embrace it and realize it is an opportunity for you to be a star.

 
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You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

07 Jul

I was chatting with a newcomer to our industry yesterday and he reminded me of how life was in the beginning stages of Sportsman Channel: ignorance was bliss.  Like most start-ups, the network had a mix of people from all walks of life, but I am not sure if anyone fully understood the deep-seeded roots of the cable/satellite world. It is like a night club with a very tall, muscular bouncer with a scowl on his face at the entrance. You do all you can to make him smile and grant you entry, but in the back of your mind, you know it is practically impossible.

Back to my newcomer, he wants his client (one of our producers) to get on a late night talk show.

“Good luck,” I said sarcastically. “Most talk shows tend to shy away from folks who make a living via guns.”

He knew that, of course, but believed in his client’s “brand” so much, that he was going to try anyway. And he explained to me, “You know, I really don’t have any experience in PR.”

Shocker. But then I warmed up to him because I remembered the early days of the network when I didn’t know anything about cable PR and very little about outdoor TV.  I was lucky to not know what I was getting into. If I realized how difficult it was to get ink in Multichannel News, or even Wall Street Journal, I probably would have freaked out. But instead, I said, “I am going to try it anyway.”

So I told him, “I bet you anything, you’ll get him on there because you don’t know what you don’t know.” He didn’t really understand me.

The funny thing is, if you want something bad enough and believe in something strong enough, you’ll make it happen. The dozen of us that made up Sportsman Channel in the early days believed in the network so much, it made us creative in getting press, finding clients and securing programming. That creativeness is carried through still today. And that, my friends, is what my newcomer is using right now to get his producer on a late night talk show.

So embrace what you don’t know and smile when people tell you “ignorance is bliss” because by gosh, it really is.

Do you have a story where your ignorance helped you?

 
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