I had the pleasure of meeting today’s TDMJ PR Pro a few weeks ago, and was so compelled by her story that I knew you would be, too. In addition to being a new wife and mother like myself, Mrs. Lara is a tenacious public relations professional who started out in the world of academia and leveraged a thirst for knowledge and willingness to work hard to create her own opportunities. For Lara, this has translated into a pretty impressive career track only a few years out of college-not bad for someone who didn’t study communications in college! Already a senior account exec with several agency positions under her belt and a consulting practice in the works, Mrs. Lara is one to watch.
Name: Jacqueline Lara
Age: 26
Current City:Silver Spring, MD
Job Title: Senior Account Executive, Lyons Public Relations Owner, Mpact Communications
Length of Time in this Role: 18 months
Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?
JL: My path to PR was nontraditional, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because each step has molded my experience. I received my B.A. in Sociology and a business certificate from the College Park Scholars program at the University of Maryland. While I enjoyed my major and loved analyzing groups of people and their behaviors, as well as organizations and the key factors influencing their effectiveness, I often wondered what profession I’d pursue after college. I felt pigeon-holed between working in HR and becoming a social worker. Neither of these options appealed to me, so I took a few communications courses and was intrigued by the power of words and the way media pundits ‘spun’ messages to advance their platforms. Read the full story
CNN correspondent Joe Johns offers what could be a case study in bad PR, and a cautionary tale for all of us. Johns tells the story of an unfortunate PR person who pitched the top of the CNN food chain (the producer) instead of involving the corresponding reporter directly.
This morning I attended the PRSA National Capital Chapter’s panel in Washington, DC: How to Get Big Media Hits in a Social Media World. Joe Johns, a correspondent for CNN, gave this great synopsis of how he uses Facebook to get information for his stories. While he loves Facebook, he’s not such a big a fan of Twitter. So the lesson here is, know your journalists’ tastes.
Find out how to use hashtags to promote your event, connect with influencers before your event, manage your hashtag during the event, use Twitter and other tools to stream your event live, and how to reward active hashtag users after the event.
Name and News Organization: Kate Michael, KStreetKate.net and The District Dish Beat: DC topics (People, places, events, charities, businesses) Job Title: New Media Personality Length of Time in this Role: 3 years Web Site and/or Blog: K Street Kate/ The District Dish Twitter Handle:@kstreetkate
Mopwater: What kind of stories/people/companies are you most interested in covering, and in what context? KM: Both the online magazine and talk show feature the best of DC, lifestyle stories that highlight the real District of Columbia and its eclectic neighborhoods.
Mopwater: What’s the best pitch you’ve gotten recently and why? KM: A unique and interesting business (trapeze school) moved into the area and featured lessons with the instructor who taught “Carrie” on the trapeze episode of Sex and the City. We booked him immediately to tell people about the trapeze school on The District Dish!
Mopwater: What’s the worst pitch you’ve gotten recently and why? KM: The sister of a local woman asked me to do a feature on her because she was “so nice” and “people should know about her”… I’m not sure why.
Mopwater: What’s the easiest way to get ignored by you when pitching? KM: Forget to take out the name of the other publication you were pitching when you were cutting and pasting your pitch.
Mopwater: What’s your preferred method of contact? Phone, email, your web site, your twitter account, your Facebook? KM: Email and twitter, equally. My actual e-mail is listed on my facebook page, so why use a facebook message?? Read the full story
Name: Marc Silverstein Current City: Washington, DC and environs Job Title: President and CEO Company: On The Marc Media Length of Time in this Role: 5 Years Twitter: @onthemarcmedia Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field? MS: I was a crusty but lovable TV news reporter for close to 20 years, so skepticism of all spokespeople, PR folks and spinmeisters was in my DNA. Over time, I came to appreciate the few who “got it.” They knew how to successfully spar with reporters, leak stories, get out their message—and when they had to—take one for the team (usually a critical story) without too much whining.
Then I left news and hosted a long-running show about restaurants on Food Network called The Best Of. Many of the places we profiled had publicists, some of whom were incredibly helpful, and succeeded in making good stories better. But far too often, we had to deal with what I nicknamed Philadelphia-type PR, based on a company in Philly whose reps were so inept that we stopped covering their clients. They got in the way, raised tension levels with the crew and consistently made the process so difficult that even eating the free food offered by the chefs became a chore. That takes some doing.
From both the news and entertainment experiences, I saw there was an opportunity—to offer the kind of PR that provides a more effective bridge between clients and the media. Clients need public relations people who know how to:
• Understand reporters, their pressures and their personalities—and make their lives easier. (Like providing “one –stop-shopping,” and not calling to pitch stories when reporters are under deadline).
• Speak the language of news reporters (Forget the elevator speech; you’re lucky if you get to ride one floor while you’re pitching them).
• Identify what their client does that’s newsworthy, and figure out every way we can to get it in front of an audience.
• Write short, dynamic news releases that don’t waste anyone’s time.
• Use a lot of bullet points.
After Food Network, I hosted a show on Discovery Channel. After shooting the episodes, I was under contract and couldn’t work elsewhere in TV for several months. Much to my disdain, my wife wouldn’t let me sit home in semi-retirement. That’s when On The Marc Media actively started going after PR clients—and since then, we’ve been successfully getting them on TV, in print and on the Internet, in addition to providing a vast array of other marketing services. Read the full story
Name: Jacqueline Lara
