The CBS Interactive team swung by Octopus comms HQ yesterday afternoon for a Q&A session about how top tech PR agencies can work better with their publications. The CBS Interactive roster includes the likes of Silicon.com, ZDnet.co.uk and CNET.co.uk, so with all these publications being relevant to a host of Octopus clients, there was plenty to discuss…

This provided a great opportunity to learn first-hand what makes these publications tick and Tony Hallett, the group publisher, gave his top three tips for PRs looking to pitch to CBS Interactive publications:

1.       Pitching on a Friday afternoon is ok!

Tony explained how readers still consume content on weekends! There seems to be an urban myth in place at some PR agencies that you should avoid pitching on Friday afternoons but there is a growing trend amongst online publications to push out news beyond the traditional Monday-Friday, 9-5 timescale. PRs shouldn't be afraid to pick up the phone at 4pm on Friday afternoon as this is the time journalists will be looking for weekend story leads and comment.

2.       Get to know their beats:

Every PR has been there before - you spend five minutes pitching a story to the journalist, only for them to say "I'll pass it onto my colleague who covers that area." Save yourself the time (and embarrassment) by spending a few minutes checking up on the kind of areas they are writing about. It will get the pitch off to a good start if you are talking to the correct journalist!

3.       Show passion for the clients you are representing:

Your enthusiasm will really come across when speaking to the journalist on the phone. Journalists receive lots of calls/emails each day from PRs so invest a little bit of time in your pitch and think about why it is relevant to the journalist and why the story will resonate with their audience. It will help your pitch stand out from the crowd and the journalist will appreciate that you've put some intelligence behind it instead of taking the easy option and selling-in a generic press release.

JP

A few weeks ago my husband told me with disbelief that he had received an email from the office manager at the place where he works, asking him what he wanted for his Christmas dinner this year at the annual knees up.

'It's ridiculous, I don't know what I want, it's 5 months away!' he said. But when I asked him what did he think he'd want, he said without pausing for thought; 'Well it'll be the prawn cocktail, turkey dinner and the Christmas pud'.  And you know without checking the menu they will all be there.

So my point is this, generally we do know what we want, we just need to ask ourselves a simple question.

So if you have a particular niggle, problem, stumbling block, or just something you want to change, ask yourself; 'What do I want instead?'

This question, can help you change the 'neg' into a positive and desirable statement. (I want to lose a stone = I want to be fit and healthy) Once you see it as something more attractive, you are more likely to start making changes to achieve it. The next step is to write a list of all the actions you could take (eat my 5 a day; drink 8 glasses of water, limit my daily tea intake to 2 and so on). Choose your preferred actions and go for it! In fact, if the actions are appealing, you may not be able to stop yourself. All of a sudden you could be moving towards something really exciting.

Talking of which, it's only 4 months away now...

Lisa

On a recent visit to the Channel Islands my attention was grabbed by a piece of graffiti, which you'll see for yourself below.

My eye was first caught by its visual simplicity - a few words chalked on a plain background. No gaudy colours and idents here.

And unlike the tag-obsessed graffiti that now adorns much of the urban landscape, this example harked back to something you don't see so much of any more - graffiti as a way of conveying a message.

It could be a political message.  It could be a societal message.

And I say could be, because frankly days after clapping my eyes on it I'm still not at all sure what's going on with this one.

What's it doing right? Well, it's informative. Assuming it's accurate information - which for the purposes of this exercise I'm going to. And clearly plenty of thought went into putting it somewhere where it would be read.

But what's it doing wrong? Well, I can't divine the author's intent; am I to infer there are too many people working in finance, or not enough? Does the author think the island is badly served by the finance sector? Or are they celebrating?

So it is (here comes the subtle segue into something to do with PR) with poorly written corporate communications, marketing, advertising and even PR material. You may have included lots of pertinent facts, you may have identified an issue that needs addressing, and gone to great lengths to ensure people read it. But have you told the reader what you think and have you helped them form an opinion - hopefully one that's the same as or very close to your own?

If you haven't, you're probably not best-placed to make the kind of judgement call required to improve on what you've written.

So, phone a friend or, if you haven't got any, phone a fiend. Or go 50/50 (whatever that might mean in this context). But run it by someone else and ask them to tell you what they've learned.

On that note, I shall sign off and ask someone to read through what I've just written.

Sean