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.

And most PR folks, at agencies and in-house, know this.

Yet, oddly, for a number of the news stories I’ve done lately (I’m currently doing roughly one a day for for InformationWeek SMB), when I’ve asked the names of an analyst or two to call (I only need one, but I can’t count on a given source being available in time), the answer is, “We’re briefing them next week.”

In some cases where I’m being pre-briefed (that is, ahead of the official announcement — under embargo and NDA, of course!), the analyst briefings are scheduled to be done after the announcement is made.

This doesn’t make us journalists happy (assuming we want or need an analyst quote). And the analysts don’t like it, either, since giving these quotes is part of their free (other than the cost of their time) marketing/advertising. Plus, (some) analysts don’t like saying “Huh?” when cold-called for a quote.

So: when possible, call and brief an analyst first.

P.S. I’ll be briefing an industry analyst about this blog post next week.

Small Businesses Agree: The Web is Dead

and led with “Wired had it right; the web is dying. [REDACTED]s small business customers have shown a distinct preference for managing their documents in the cloud with downloadable applications – both on the iPad and on their Windows desktops – vs. using their browsers.”

So, a, one company’s “opinion” (or its interpretation of one thing their customers are doing) equals this “fact”? (Here’s another possible interpretation of the data: “Our browser access is badly done.”)

Wired was right?

Using a native client instead of a browser equals “the web is dead”?

Move over, Chicken Little, you’ve got company.

The release continues, “That is why we are proud to announce…”

“Proud”?

P.S. to PR company: Include an email address in your press releases.

P.P.S. If “the web is dead,” why are you having your press releases posted to a web site?

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.

Talk about “Rank hath its privileges”

In general, I start with from a press release. Whenever possible, I follow up with a phone call (brokered usually by a PR person) to a company spokesperson to confirm or sort out the facts, and get some additional quotes or other information. Sometimes I also call an industry analyst, occasionally, if one’s available, a user, for additional quotes.

Many of the press releases have enough information to get me started.

But — depressingly — many don’t.

A surprising, depressing, annoying, appalling and downright unfathomable number of press releases omit facts without which they should never have been sent out, and which nobody who’s been doing PR for more than three months should let be omitted, or at least not without acknowledgement. (I’m talking about releases posted, and sent out, not draft releases.)

Here’s a quick summary of some of the major boneheaded, amateur-hour, not-ready-for-primetime-or-even-late-night, PR 101-level omissions I’ve run into in press releases I’ve been assigned to write news stories from. (Some, I concede, were releases I suggested… having sometimes not noticed at first blush there might be show-slowing or -stopping omissions.)

PRODUCT NAME NOT GIVEN. Yes, that’s right, the release refers to “a new module,” “a project integrating two companies’ products,” et cetera. But the name of the product isn’t given. Sometimes there isn’t a live URL available, either because I’ve gotten the release ahead of its official issue, or because the company hasn’t updated their web site yet. But it should have a name.

NO PRICING. Yes, the price is often not a simple, short thing, but that’s no excuse for saying “Pricing begins at” or “Pricing is based on,” or, at least, “Pricing has not yet been announced.”

NO AVAILABILITY DATE. Again, if nothing else, “Availability to be determined.”

NO DETAILS ON “WHAT’S THE NEWS.” For example, saying “has enhanced” or “has added features to” without actually listing any actual details or specifics.

I kid you not.

And one other: IS THERE NEWS? There’s been at least one or two releases where, even after talking to the vendor, I realize I can’t tell if something new was announced, or they’re simply talking about something that the product already does, which they’ve added a new marketing spin to. That’s fine, if the release makes this clear; it’s not, if I can’t tell.

Most of the announcements I’m working on are specific assignments, so I sort things out. But I suspect that a lot of other reporters simply move on to another announcement instead. Sadly, many other places simply lift information from the release without bothering to check, meaning that readers don’t get a useful article.

So, vendor and agency PR folks: Please, do your homework. These are the easy things, there’s no excuse.

Thanks.

In particular, finding “users” — people doing/using the topic — and sometimes, finding third-party experts — consultants, analysts.  Finding vendors — companies who make/sell/provide the products or services involved is comparatively easy (although to be honest, some vendors often don’t respond or make themselves available to the press).

I write mostly technology-oriented articles, where, sometimes, vendors can provide names of users/customers.  But not always, especially if they’re selling consumer products, or sales go through resellers.

When I remember to do it, Google and Wikipedia have become part of my initial topical research, to get up to speed, learn key terms, identify likely players.  (Google isn’t, of course, a source per se, and unless nothing better presents itself, ditto Wikipedia.)  But finding user and expert sources, or vendors in an area I’m unfamiliar with, has remained a challenge.  I often query one or two mailing lists I’m on, do my best to remember who I’ve run into at trade shows, will ping some of my colleague friends.  I’ve tried via LinkedIn. But finding sources remains a bear, as a rule.

What’s helping out is the HARO (Help A Reporter Out) web site, which helps match up requests and sources, from Peter Shankman.

It’s simple: If you want to be a source, sign up at <http://www.helpareporter.com/>.  And “If you’re a JOURNALIST who’s LOOKING for sources, submit a query at <http://www.helpareporter.com/press/>.

According to Shankman’s (from the HARO site), “I built this list because a lot of my friends are reporters, and they call me all the time for sources. Rather than go through my contact lists each time, I figured I could push the requests out to people who actually have something to say.”

Shankman started HARO up in March 2008, on Facebook.  The sources list quickly exceeded Facebook’s 1,200-name limit; within a year, Shankman had nearly 70,000 members (including me).

Shankman sends out up to three email messages a day, labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, with anywhere from 15 to 30 queries per message, topically sorted (based on the checklist on the web query entry page).

There’s no charge to HARO queriers or sourcers.  Shankman is covering costs and generating revenue, currently through in-message text ads.  “HARO is profitable,” according to email I’ve just swapped with him. “We’re generating a fair amount of revenue.”

I’ve now used HARO three or four times.  It works.  In fact, so/too well … one recent query got at least 150 potentially useful replies!  (I’ve learned to include an “include HARO <topic keywords> <your name/etc>” in the subject line, to make it possible to organize and search within my mail files.)

I know there are a growing number of other ways to find sources.  I’m sure that there’s some way to leverage Twitter, etc…. assuming the folks I want to reach are on Twitter, etc.

But for now, HARO is so useful that I need to try and only use it when I’ve exhausted my other avenues; I don’t want to make it my default first port of query.

Thanks, Peter Shankman!

Subject: Countdown: One week away! Register today!

[EVENT NAME HERE] Expo + Conference

ONE WEEK AWAY! REGISTER TODAY!

Last Chance to Register in Advance for the 2009 [EVENT] Expo + Conference!

What’s missing from the entire message is any mention of where — like a city and state — the heck this event is.

Yeah, I was able to determine the location within one copy/paste/click to Google in my web browser… but I shouldn’t have needed to.

Similarly, here’s a text-averaged version of a kind of message I typically get one or two of per week. (I’ve used a real month, for simplicity.)

[COMPANY] will unveil [NEW STUFF ]in October and would like to brief
you on the new offering at [EVENT NAME] if you will be attending.

If available to schedule on either Tuesday, October or 14th
or Wednesday, Oct. 15, [etc]…

Again, see the problem?

Here’s a reply I’ve put together… although I may not actually use it.
(I do have a standard “Thanks, but I’m not planning to attend this event.”
boilerplate message, which I do use frequently.)

Dear PR person,

Thanks for the invite.

There are a lot of events out there.  I haven’t heard of
many of them, and don’t know where or when most are.

While the odds are I won’t be attending most events, you’d
make it easier for me to consider your invitation if you
included the location and date in your email invite –
preferably in the first or second paragraph.  Including
the full name of the event, and URL, wouldn’t hurt, either.

Yes, I can usually suss this out in three seconds via Google.
But there’s no reason to make me do this.

Thanks,

In case it isn’t clear, here’s the take-away advice:

Include City/State Location And Date In All Event Invites/Reminders

You won’t necessarily get any more press to attend… but who knows?  I do my best to poke my head in at local events when I can… but won’t necessarily chase down the “where’s it at” that would let me know it’s local.

(I suspect you’ll also pick up more non-press attendees.)

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.)