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

Web Site |LinkedIn|Twitter

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.

Enjoy the clip.

Name: Colleen Moffitt
Age: 39
Current City: Seattle
Job Title: Founding Partner & Author

Company Name: Communiqué Public Relations
Book Title: “Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR”
Length of Time in this Role: Five years since founding Communiqué
On the Web
Facebook
Blog
Twitter: @SeattleCM

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field? (Be sure to mention your course of study in college).
CM: My path to PR was not direct or necessarily a traditional one. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Puget Sound with a minor in Business Administration. While in college I also earned a certificate of study from Centre Universitaire d’Etudes Francaises (CUEF) of the University of Grenoble III.

After graduation I worked in the public sector for a few years before being hired at Microsoft as a recruiter. There I was responsible for finding and attracting some of the nation’s top technical talent to the company. I developed strategic recruiting plans for Microsoft’s consumer and hardware divisions and helped attract key talent from Moscow as part of an acquisition.

I joined RealNetworks (Progressive Networks at the time) in early 1997 to drive technical recruiting for the company. Ready for a new challenge, I moved into a program manager position in 1999 where I managed product-review programs, key customer relationships and product development. During my seven year tenure at RealNetworks I had an opportunity to work on it server solutions as well as its Windows and Mac based consumer products.

The experience I gained in these roles – influencing, negotiating, interviewing with various audiences including technology editors, product reviewers, customers, partners and executives – led me to public relations, to found Communiqué PR and to author “Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR” Read the full story

Name: Jasmine Vega
Age: 41
Current City: Venice
Job Title: Music Publicist
Company Name: JPR
Length of Time in this Role: 20 years

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?
JV: I didn’t actually go to college.  I started working at 14 yrs old and haven’t stopped.  I didn’t know what a publicist was when I asked for the job.  I was working at a law firm in the data entry department during the day and at night I was promoting my boyfriend’s club in Los Angeles.  This was in the late 80’s.  We always had rappers and record promoters come to the club and get on the mic.  I became friends with the A&R person from Delicious Vinyl (Young MC, Tone Loc).  He asked me if I wanted to come to his label one day after work, so I did.  I looked around and saw that the office was in a shambles, no file cabinets, no structure etc.  This was hard for me to understand coming from a law firm where everything was in its place at all times.  So I asked why that was and a month later I got a call asking if I wanted to come in for an interview to assist the GM.  I went in and got the job.  A few months later the publicist at the label was leaving her position and said that I should ask to take her place since I was already doing her job and everyone liked working with me.  Doing her job at that time since we had established artists was answering the phone and sending out press kits to those who asked.  Those calling were the likes of Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek etc.  I was in a very fortunate situation and took the position.  The rest is history.

Mopwater: Describe how you got from the in-house publicist job to what you’re doing now. When did o become an independent PR pro? How many years into working at Delicious Vinyl did you decide to go out on your own?

JV: While working at Delicious Vinyl, we also hired an indie pr firm to work other projects that I didn’t have time to.  After a year in the position, the pr firm had asked if I would like to work in their LA office.  I eventually left the label, moved to the indie firm until it closed its doors.  At that time, I was able to leave with a handful of accounts to be independent for a few years until Priority Records offered me an in house position.  I was there for a couple of years until I was courted by Virgin Records.  I remained at Virgin for 8 years until they moved the company to New York.  At that time I went indie again and have remained indie for the last few years. Read the full story

Name: Lizzie Landon- Cole Sorensen
Age: 30
Current City: Saratoga Springs, NY
Job Title: CEO and Founder
Company Name: 32Flavors Public Relations
Length of Time in this Role: 6 years before that consulted for 2 under another company name
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Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?
LS:I grew up around a lot of creative people, between a mix of artists and innovators who made a good living, and then starving artists. I could always see both sides to the story but couldn’t deny my genetic ability to create, have ideas, and follow through with them. My grandfather replaced Kurt Vonnegut when he left GE, and he (R. Ned Landon) was the chief speech writer for the CEO of GE, as well as the PR liaison between GE and Disney. It always seemed like a shirt and tie job to all of us 10 grandchildren growing up, but little did we know that we would all inherit a bit of his creativity. On my father’s side, my grandmother is an incredible painter, sculptor and photographer, and that didn’t start to hit me in my own creativity until just recently.

I couldn’t wait to get out of high school where I was president of my business club (nerdy yes, but hey, those soccer jocks aren’t being interviewed right now are they?). I found a college that had a PR/Ad department and would take me as a senior in high school and let me do both senior and freshman year simultaneously. I loved to write, and was always coming up with ads and commercials in my head so I thought it would be interesting. My father, who has had his share of starving artist and layoff moments in the field of advertising, photography, and graphic design wrote me a 17 page letter about how I shouldn’t move from upstate NY to Providence, R.I., 1. Because I was 16, and 2. Because the marketing industry can be tough. Along side the artists in our family we have our share of lawyers, and professors, and as much as I tried for a more stable profession, it just wasn’t in me. Read the full story

Peter Shankman’s service Help a Reporter Out (HARO) has revolutionized the way publicists and PR practitioners find and respond to reporters’ queries. Based on the premise that “everyone’s an expert at something,” the thrice-daily free email service delivers dozens of queries to a subscriber’s inbox every day. All you have to do is sign up, check your email, and scroll.

But such services have also given any and everyone with an email address access to media contacts. As an advocate of free services, I believe the democratization of media relations is great. But as a former reporter, I know that in the wrong hands, such power can be potentially hazardous.

Dealing with the media requires a certain brand of etiquette, and that may escape an artist or small business doing its own PR.  And that’s completely understandable. That’s why there are professionals that do this sort of thing.

I recently caught up with Jennifer Thomas, a Florida-based travel columnist and editor of an online travel magazine.  She regularly posts queries on HARO.  Should you ever find yourself responding to a posted query, here are 6 tips from Jennifer on how to respond:

1.PITCH ON TOPIC. I know this sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often I receive pitches that have zero to do with my query.

2. ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS POSED IN THE QUERY. Please do not say “I have an expert for you, click here,” or “I wrote about this, visit my blog at X”. I want to hear what you have to say about the query and how you think you or your expert fits in. Do not make me work for it. There are too many people responding to posted queries, so those who actually take time to provide relevant information will likely receive follow up questions or be included in the article.

3.MEET THE DEADLINE. If a deadline is included in the query, please, please, please, respond in a timely fashion.  Just today, I am still receiving pitches responding to a specific query from 6 days ago. The article has already been written. If by chance you or your client fit perfectly into a story, then start off by saying “I know your posted deadline has passed, but I have a great source for you. I’ve included specific content below in case you might still be working on the article. If not, I appreciate you considering this client for any future article opportunities.”

4. PROVIDE THE WEB SITE FOR MORE INFORMATION. You’d be surprised how many pitches I receive, particularly for consumer products, that do not include the Web site. I then have to ask for the Web site, which could be a huge delay if the client contact is not immediately available, or I do a search on my own for the appropriate Web site and it may or may not be the right one the client/source wants me to include.

5. USE CONTACT INFO WISELY. I don’t mind being added to press lists for additional press releases or unsolicited pitches personally. Often this received proactive content might spark a story idea for me. So, bring it on. As a general rule though, only pitch me 2x a month per client unless you have a brand like Oprah.

6. KEEP FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS TO A MINIMUM. If I’m working with you/your client on a story and it is evident that I am including your information, please keep follow up to a minimum. I personally do alert my sources when an article has posted, but that’s not needed…it’s just polite on my behalf. That’s what Google alerts and the pr firm’s searching is for. I ignore the continuous “do you know when it’ll be posted” or “what is your circulation” type questions. Reduce the back and forth please…I am on deadline!!

Happy Thursday Media People! I’m super-excited about today’s Test Drive My Job interview with Deirdre Breakenridge, whom I “met” at the Georgetown Barnes and Noble while searching for some PR and Marketing reading. I was in one of those saw-sharpening moods that I go through periodically, so when I saw Deirdre’s book PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences I thought it would be the perfect remedy. And it was.

Seldom do I come across game-changers, but this book was definitely one of them. Without going into too much detail (go pick up the book, you won’t regret it) PR 2.0 gave me a ton of great tips that I am already implementing for my clients. For instance, Deirdre writes about how important online newsrooms are for SEO. I’ve improved two online newsrooms just using her suggestions, and I do believe it’s eventually going to make a difference in our search engine rankings.

In PR 2.0, Deirdre also breaks social media, blogging, social media press releases, etc. all the way down and helps you figure out ways to get measurable, affordable results for either yourself or your clients. It’s a must-read, so check out her blog for info about PR 2.0 and her other titles. Let’s get on with the interview…

Deirdre Breakenridge, 42

New Jersey

President and Director of Communications for PFS Marketwyse for the past 10 years

Author of PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences and co-author of Putting the Public Back into Public Relations

Blog and Twitter

Mopwater: What are your typical work hours? DB: I pretty much work all day and night. A normal day could easily be up to 12 hours. I guess this is typical when you own your own marketing/PR agency. You just never stop. I help my employees with their work during the day and then I do my own work (strategy, writing, new business proposals and reports) at night.

Mopwater: Describe a typical work day. DB: I get into the office around 8:00 a.m. (that’s after commuting for about an hour and a half). I like to get some “think” work done and prepare for the day before the staff arrives. Usually, mornings are filled with internal staff meetings that include team production meetings, communications meetings and creative brainstorming. I also devote morning hours to operational responsibilities, so that I can work with the accounting office on financial matters or with the project management department. I tend to schedule most of my client meetings in the afternoons whether they are by telephone or in person. I leave the office by 5 p.m. to beat the traffic, but will finish the work day/night at home. It’s no surprise that I’ll still be emailing clients or members of my team long after the normal work day ends, especially if those clients are across the country or in another part of the world.

Mopwater: Describe your office. DB: I spend four days a week in the office with the staff. We are about 20 minutes outside of New York City, in Northern New Jersey, which is a fairly busy area. I spend every Friday working from home. It’s my favorite day of the week because I feel I can get so much accomplished without interruption. Being in an office is great so that you can interact and brainstorm with colleagues, but there are times that it’s difficult to concentrate. I have an open door policy, so my office door is literally always open. I do feel that you have to be disciplined working at home because there are distractions there too whether it’s the refrigerator or the fact that laundry always needs to get done. But, if you can get into a good routine then you will find the time out of the office is much more productive, not to mention the fact that you want to go back on Monday to see everyone.

Mopwater: What types of clients does your company work with and what services do you provide? DB: We have a variety of clients in different industries including technology, healthcare, financial, HR, and food manufacturing. Our company is made up of three divisions; Communications/PR, Creative Marketing and Video/Multimedia. Many of the services we provide from PR and advertising to FLASH development and streaming video, help companies to bridge the gap from traditional marketing to new media and Web 2.0. Our clients’ campaigns are customized so that they can interact with the most important influencers, at the right time, to gain maximum exposure and engage in new and innovative ways to build brand loyalty.

I really enjoyed the strategy, planning and launch behind GettingHired.com, a website that helps people with disabilities find jobs. GettingHired is also a social networking platform, so that people with disabilities can interact with peers, service providers and advocacy groups. It’s one of my favorite projects, not only because it’s such a necessary service for the 23 million people who have disabilities, but also because the campaign has traditional elements of advertising, direct mail and PR and bridges over to Web 2.0. We used several successful strategies to interact with new influencers and Web communities (blogging, social networking and social media releases, to name a few).

Mopwater: What are your favorite things about working at PFS? DB: My favorite things about working at PFS are the people/culture as well as the diverse client base. The culture at PFS is very hands on and proactive. PFS employees take tremendous pride in their work and have been complimented by clients for achieving aggressive deadlines and staying under budget. I also love the diverse client base because you never feel that you are “stuck” in one industry. It keeps your mind fresh. Each employee has the opportunity to learn about a variety of companies and their communication challenges in the market.

Mopwater: How do you best collaborate with your team (standard board room meetings, conference calls, BaseCamp or other project management tool, etc.)? DB: We have 15 employees in total and I work with all employees in their separate client teams. We collaborate best when we are together in our creative department which is a big open room with comfy chairs surrounded by our computer technology. The atmosphere gets the creative juices flowing when we’re brainstorming. That’s not to say that we don’t have meetings in the conference room. We have our standard production meetings and client meetings in the boardroom setting, and also do a lot of telephone conference calls/Web Ex meetings there for our clients.

Mopwater: What do you wish was different at your job? DB: I wish I could find the right PR person/Director of Communications to run my communications department and to work with me on strategy/planning for clients. This would allow me to give more focus to my Presidential responsibilities (operations and finance), new business, speaking engagements, interviews, etc.

Mopwater: Do you see yourself in this job in 5 years? If not, where do you see yourself? DB: Yes, because I own PFS Marketwyse, I do see myself there in five years. However, my role will be more strategy and consultation to clients and less operational. I will also continue with my writing career, and, hopefully, in five years, be on my 8th or 9th book. I have my 4th book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” being published in March 2009. And, I’m in the process of pursuing book #5 with my publisher Financial Times Press.

I think as a communications professional you need to be an excellent communicator (both oral and written), have a lot of energy, be a total “people-person” and enjoy working in teams. As a business owner and President of a company, you need a tough skin, be able to handle stressful situations, and learn the art of negotiations.