Putting our Heads Together

It's time to put our recently discovered blogging knowledge to the test. We are coming together as a class in hopes of creating a blog for Heal Magazine.

Cure Magazine is a quarterly magazine that is aimed at individuals living with cancer. It provides a way for cancer patients to understand the disease and how to deal with it on a daily basis. Heal magazine has evolved from Cure and will launch in the Spring of this year. Heal will focus their attention on educating cancer survivors on recovery, life after cancer and most importantly living well.

To learn more about Cure and Heal visit: http://curetoday.com and http://healtoday.com/

The blog will provide a place for cancer survivors, caregivers, and doctors the freedom to express their opinions and talk about recovery. There a millions of blogs that are similar to the one we hope to create for Heal. Simply type in “Cancer Survivorship Blog” on a Google search and you will find both personal and group blogs.

Here are a few blogs I found helpful and inspiring:

http://www.thecancerblog.com/

http://acscsn.org/

http://www.redtoenail.org/

http://www.lindiskin.com/cancer-skinny/

http://www.blogforacure.com/community

http://cancercreatives.com/pblog/index.php

As a class we are to come up with several sidebar topics for the blog site. The three that popped up in my head include:

*Fundraising – Staying Involved

*Families – We Are Survivors Too

*Get the Facts

It will be imperative that we put a disclaimer on the website explaining this blog is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice.

My personal vision for this blog would be to broaden it to Heal AND Cure. I think you are a survivor from the moment you are diagnosed. Just imagine, someone is told they have cancer. Where do they go? Cure Magazine? The chances are very high. They visit the website, discover the blog, and read blog posts from cancer survivors who once suffered from the same disease. Think about the hope that would instill in them when reading those personal stories. Survivors would feel satisfaction and joy after helping a fellow cancer “survivor”.

The blog would express the power of choice in survivorship and the idea of never giving up.

Thanks Gregg Elkin

Overlooking The Ballpark at Arlington, I spent almost an hour chatting with Senior Director of Baseball Media Relations, Gregg Elkin last week. After being PR director for the Dallas Mavericks, Gregg took a job with the Texas Rangers. He had some great advice and tips for PR wannabes such as myself.

Try to get involved in as many things as you can. Gregg worked all through college in the sports info office at Iowa and for the Phoenix Suns while attending ASU. "A solid practice is to just be around it and put as much time into it as you can," Elkin stated.

He stressed the importance of technology and how our generation should be on top of their game when it comes to the internet. "The internet has changed everything, it is a really good thing because it is reaching more people," Elkin said.

It is important to read people and take in a lot of information and know what you can and cannot say. Be honest and be available. If you don't know the answer apologize and say you will find out.

His best PR practice was to KNOW what your MESSAGE is and get it to as many outlets as possible in order to get your message across.

It was great to meet Gregg and his advice will help me tremendously in the future.

Media Relations Strategies

Public relations functions to create policies and actions that PR professionals hope the public will approve. Public Relations deliver their messages through the media, making it absolutely essential to develop an effective relationship with the media. Consumers trust articles more than advertisements, another reason why it is important to form relations with the media. It is important to remember that the media is also dependent on PR for news. That does not mean you can just e-mail blast or fax copies of your press releases to journalists and expect them to be read. There are several things to remember when you are trying to establish a relationship with the media.


You need to take a target approach to PR. You trust a person you’ve met which is why face time is KEY. You’re probably wondering how you do this. It is simple; join groups like the Press Club of Dallas or PRSA Dallas chapter. To find out more info check out: http://www.prsadallas.org/ and http://www.pressclubdallas.com/


Another tip for PR professionals is to compliment the media on a recent article they published. This requires you to do a little research and know what certain publications JUST wrote. Last semester, in my strategic writing class, we had Emmy Award Winning Reporter, Jeff Crilley, come speak to us. He emphasized the fact that your pitch line should be a sincere compliment because reporters love themselves. To find out more about Jeff or to purchase his book Free Publicity check out: http://www.jeffcrilley.com/
His book provides insider advice on how news works inside the news room.


Timing and finding newsworthy stories are important when trying to grab the media’s attention. Keeping up with the current news will help you tremendously. If you know there is big news such as Katrina, do not send stories that are unrelated. If you have information related to stories currently in the news, send in your advice. Crilley stressed the importance of checking to make sure your story passed the “Who Cares?” test. Is this a story you would want to watch?


Remember to always be honest. If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say you are not sure but you would love to find out and get back to them.


As I mentioned in my previous blog, technology has changed PR. It is almost time to say goodbye to press kits? Online news rooms are popping up everywhere. This is a simple way of sending a reporter press materials via internet. Advantages? They are time AND money savers. You want to make sure the news room is professional and easy to navigate. To learn how to create online news rooms check out this article from About.com: http://advertising.about.com/od/mediarelations/a/guestonlinenews.htm and to view Microsoft’s online news room go to: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/office/default.mspx


PR professionals should serve the media. Make it easier for them to use your information, give them PERKS. During my internship at Backstage Creations, I worked two different award shows. The media would walk through the room and comment on various items. We would then give them a small gift bag of their own including a few select items from the room. Also, I mentioned Perez Hilton last blog, which is seen as free publicity to many PR companies. Could this be an explanation for all his invites to premiers and parties? You bet.


Always remember, PR is conducted through the media and building lasting and effective relationships is extremely valuable.

Blogging as a tool for PR

The Internet has changed everything. With the explosion of social media, people are using blogs and social networks to share their ideas and opinions. This instantaneous word of mouth communication is viral and reaches a large amount of people effortlessly. According to an article in About.com, a new blog is created every seven seconds. Public Relations practitioners have realized that the internet has become the new medium of communication and they better jump on that bandwagon immediately. Why wouldn’t they? It is less time consuming, less expensive and an opportunity to find out what people are saying at this very moment. PR builds, protects and strengthens a brand and blogs have created a way for PR practitioners to do just that. Never before have you been able to track or receive feedback about your client so quickly. It allows companies to engage in communication with customers on a one-on-one level, thereby increasing the relationship, understanding and most importantly brand value. In PR, you need to know your message, and get it to as many outlets as possible so they can start spreading the word.

Blogs raise awareness of your product or company through word-of-mouth. For example, I interned this past summer at Backstage Creations, an entertainment product placement company in Santa Monica, California. After creating a MySpace page for the company to promote our clients, it became pretty clear that blogs and bloggers were influential in creating exposure. After recently speaking with my boss, she informed me that they invited Mark Malkin, from E! Online to cover the gift lounge at the Golden Globes. Mark currently writes his own blog called “Planet Gossip” and Backstage Creations pitched this idea to him on behalf of their clients in order to generate exposure. To check out his blog go to: http://www.eonline.com/gossip/planetgossip/index.jsp

Another form of this social media is YouTube, something I’m sure everyone is familiar with by now. YouTube allows people to share and post video segments online. As I discussed in my previous post, Southwest Airlines has taken advantage of the Youtube craze. They have created a new “Wanna Get Away” campaign. After filming and posting a 20 second commercial on YouTube, Southwest will judge and pick a commercial to air on national television during the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Southwest Airlines found a way to use social media to promote their company and campaign to millions. To find out more go to: http://southwestwannagetaway.com/ also check out: http://youtube.com/

Perezhilton.com is a celebrity gossip blog and one of the most read entertainment sites on the internet. Perez is constantly thanking Hollywood publicists in his blogs for inviting him to premieres, parties and events. Why do you think they are doing this? It is obvious. They invite him to events in hopes that it will end up on his site. Hollywood publicists are using bloggers as a cultural barometer. If it is “popular” it will show up on a blog that markets itself as a gauge of what is new and cool. It seems like bloggers have become the voice of the people and PR is catching on quickly. To read his blog go to: http://perezhilton.com/

This explosion of opinion through blogging is picking up speed and PR practitioners have started to catch up. It will be interesting to see how technology and the internet continue to change communication.