Yeah, I was able to find it within a few seconds by searching saved email. But I shouldn’t have had to think about this, much less do it.

PR folks, please: make sure email includes the vendor and product name at the top, in a reminder sentence, and if possible, in the subject line as well. I’ve got dozens of email conversations going on with PR folks at any time, there’s a limit to how much I can remember. And I’m sure I’m not alone.

I try to make sure my email to you includes what publication I’m writing on behalf of. It’s not hard to do.

Thanks.

When there’s more than one source involved in a (phone) conversation, each time a different person speaks, they need to pause and re-ID who they are, so I can keep track, for quote attribution.

For most of my phone interview conversations, I type a condensed verbatim transcript as best I can. (I’m a fast typist, and this is a lot quicker than transcribing after the fact.) But this isn’t as useful if I can’t tell afterwards who said what.

I’m prepared to waive this if I’m 100% sure I can tell from the voices. I get to be the one who makes this judgement.

So if you (PR person, etc.) are setting up a call where there will be more than one source in a call, be advised: I’m going to enforce this, meaning, each time somebody else starts talking, if they don’t start by re-announcing their name, I’ll interrupt with “Who’s speaking, please?”

OK?

Thanks.

(That’s me “talking.”)

Because one of my current gigs as a freelance technology writer is doing daily news stories (for InformationWeek SNB), I’m checking several of the press-release aggregating sites daily, like PR NewsWire For Journalists (media.prnewswire.com), and get several summary email messages from BusinessWire.com.

For example, my PR NewsWire profile specifies

“New Products/Services” and I’ve picked the computer/Internet technology categories. 

But an appalling amount of what’s listed is not a match, even if one concedes that a new website counts, like “Examiner.com Launches Upgraded Site”

For example,

Nasuni Issues Disaster Recovery Challenge

CheapOair Launches South Africa Contest

Big Star Media Group Completes Corporate Video

inContact Honored with a 2010 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine

Toshiba e-STUDIO-242 Series Awarded BERTL’s 4.5 Star Rating and Spring 2010 BERTL’s Best Achievement Honor

It’s not as bad as it good be. But it’s still wasting my (and a lot of other people’s) time by not staying focused. I don’t know how much of the blame goes to the releasers, for not following category rules, or to the aggregators for not enforcing them.

I have no problem with this; it’s the nature of the beast.

But… and especially in the case of mega-large events like CES, vendors (and their PR agencies) could make it easier (well, less hard) on us press folks by MAKING EMAIL USEFUL and TRACKING YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH US.

Keep in mind that even though YOU can dispatch email to hundreds, even thousands of journalists, editors, analysts and bloggers with a single keystroke, it takes each one of us time to respond to each message, whether it’s as simple and quick as “delete without reading” or “add to spam filter,” or taking the time to read, respond with a personal (or personally tweaked) message (I’ve got at least three just for CES — “Yes,” “Maybe,” and “Sorry, but…”).

INFORM US! Start by making sure each email message includes the info we’ll need.

• HAVE A SUBJECT LINE. Hard to believe, but I’m getting a lot with a blank subject line.
• Put KEYWORDS in the subject line; in particular, the COMPANY NAME, PRODUCT, and “CES” …and if possible, the location (site, hall, booth number). And if there’s room, also the year, since email builds up over time.For example, “CES 2009 – MagMonopoles’ New Drouds, LVCC SH3 33333″Phases like “Come see” or “Stop by” or “Meet with” or “Invitation” are OK, room permitting.
• PUT KEY INFORMATION IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, including:
  • The company — if you’re a PR agency, don’t just say “our client(s),” be specific.
  • Product(s) — CES 2009 will have 2,700 exhibitors. Don’t expect us to remember who you are and what you do — or have to take time to look you up online because you didn’t take the three seconds to add five or six helpful words.
  • WHERE YOU’LL BE. The location is important, especially for a mega-show like CES, which has exhibits in two convention centers, plus two hotels… and the convention centers aren’t small, either. For the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), include the Hall, and for South Hall, include the Hall number/level. E.g., “LVCC South Hall 3 (upper level) 3333.”While we could look this up, if it’s right there in the email we can enter it then-and-there in our planner.
  • What associated events/locations will you be at? E.g., will you be at the CES Unveiled, Lunch@Piero’s, Pepcom or ShowStoppers multi-vendor events? Will you be doing any press conferences, or have any meeting rooms? Again, include full location info.
• PUT IT IN TEXT. Don’t just send the info as an attached image, e.g. a GIF, JPG, PDF or whatever. That may be more work to open, it’s more file space… you may lose our attention before we ever see what you’ve sent. You want to include an image, fine, but put the key stuff in text in the message body.
• INFORMATION BEATS CUTENESS. The first three cute messages from whoever sent them might have been tolerable. By the hundredth — or even the tenth — it’s “just the facts — PLEASE!”And — I wish I could say, “Of course,” — use a mail tool that doesn’t include a list to hundreds of TO: names. Sheesh.
• TRACK ‘EM. Now that you’ve sent a well-crafted informative message, KEEP TRACK! And use an email system that lets you modify your list as you go. I’m getting the same message from some vendors every three days — including to ones I’ve already acknowledged.
• DON’T BUG US. If you’ve gotten a response — by email OR phone, don’t (re)send another copy.
• DON’T BUG US. Unless something changes, don’t send a message more than twice.
• DON’T BUG US. Unless the reporter’s registration form says, “OK to contact me by phone,” don’t. Especially if you’ve sent email. Especially if that email’s been responded to.

See you at CES 2009.

(Not all of you, of course… I don’t cover EVERYTHING, and even if I did, there isn’t time to see everything. See my posting from last year, A Few Words (Well, Paragraphs) AboutThe Multi-Vendor Press/Analyst-Only Events, on the inherent infeasibility of this, and why events like Lunch@Piero’s, Pepcom and ShowStoppers don’t just help address this problem, but go a long way to solving it.)

The primary intended audiences are:

• Vendors and agencies who want to learn more about what the press wants (and doesn’t want), and how to provide that better
• Editors and reporters who want to learn more about what vendors and agencies want, hope for, and think (including “what were they thinking!?”).
• Anybody who wants to get more/better media coverage, e.g. company owners, managers, network/system admins, end users, and sundry individuals (and why media exposure can be good — or bad — for your job and career).
• And anybody who’s interested in PR and the media, how it/they work (or don’t work).

What you’ll find here: tips (do/don’t do this, how to), blips, advice, Q&A’s, humor, horror stories and other instructive/entertaining items about PR. I may name-drop praiseworthy folks, acts, events, sites, products and services.

What you won’t find here: Don’t expect me any dissing or dishing, except maybe in cases where the name of the cat is already very publicly out of the bag.

Dern’s PR Tips is written from both the PR and press perspectives. (Changing hats accounts for the bald spot.)

Unlike many (but not all) of my fellow journalists/editors and PR folks, I’ve done, and continue to do both bylined journalism, and PR (and some things that are somewhere in between).

I’ve been an editor (Byte.com, Internet World) (see my editorial farewell to Byte.com), and do bylined tech journalism, writing for pubs and sites like ComputerWorld, eWeek, and Processor.

And I have also hi-tech PR experience. I’ve been a PR manager, handling editorial relations, speaker placement, freelancer writers, and customer case histories. I’ve been PR writer at a vendor, and have done and still do PR freelancing, e.g. writing press releases, feature articles, case histories, FAQs, backgrounders, and more, for a range of companies on a range of technologies and topics.

I have spoken at, and moderated, panels at BusinessWire, PRSA, and other (usually technology-oriented) events, and also written a number of articles and columns about PR, and working with the press, including my still-popular The Well-tempered Press Release”, which includes a Mad Libs-style “fill-in-the- blanks” press release form you can use.

Some of the posts for Dern’s PR Tips will be based on email I’ve posted to lists I’m on, LinkedIn exchanges, email I’ve sent, or things I’ve written in the past. (I won’t be using names, or other people’s words, except with permission and where relevant). Some will be based on something that’s happened recently, phone or face-to-face schmoozing, or the random percolations of my brain. And some based on things I’ve found on the net, including meritorious items from other members of the press and the PR trade.

So: read, learn, enjoy.