Guidelines for a Darn Good Press Release Headline

Editors and journalists get a ridiculous number of press releases in their inbox every day. It isn’t just this week’s news that a press release completes with – it’s releases from prior weeks, being re-sent and re-packaged to find new coverage. It’s a tough, competitive world for each press release. Even if you have a newsworthy story, getting eyes on it isn’t always easy. For yours to win, you need a great press release headline that grabs attention, tells a complete story, and makes a reader want to know more.

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Embrace the Paywall Future – Because it’s Coming

For several years now we all have lived in luxury, enjoying free content on the Internet that’s paid for through ads and data mining, with no paywall to contend with. But, as many prominent media outlets have noted, things are beginning to change.

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Unless You're Monitoring the Media, You're Missing Out

In college, I had a journalism professor ask our class how many of us had signed up for Google Alerts as a media monitoring tool to support our coverage areas. Aging myself a bit, Google Alerts was a relatively new idea then. All the same, when no one in the class raised their hand, we all got scolded. It’s a painful memory.

Luckily, I never forgot the core tenets of that lesson. Media monitoring is crucial for anyone with a media life, including healthcare tech companies. If you don’t know what is being said about your area of expertise, it’s hard to keep up with the conversation. And, more importantly, unless you’re actively keeping an eye on what the web is saying about you, you can miss out on valuable media coverage, not to mention all the insights hidden within the coverage you didn’t get.
 

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Agility PR

Have Press Releases Seen Their Day?

I'm quoted in this blog:

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What Star Wars and Loot Boxes Can Teach Us About Avoiding a PR Crisis

If you follow the world of video games like I do, you’re familiar with Electronic Arts (EA), a wildly successful, publically traded, developer/publisher whose industry prominence has earned them exclusive licenses to some of the world’s biggest brands, including the NFL, UFC, and Star Wars. EA is no stranger to controversy, be it a conflict over pricing or their purchase of smaller development talent. However, in late 2017, the company’s stock took a $3 billion hit after their latest controversy became a full-blown PR crisis, prompting legislative action that equated EA’s business practices to gambling, in addition to a major drop in consumer sales.

While the situation now stands as a shining example of a communication failure, the truth is, things should never have spiraled out of control. Hidden within this PR nightmare are lessons to be learned for communication professionals in every industry on how to better manage a crisis.

  

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Customer Spokespersons: The Path to PR Success

For companies looking to breathe new life into a PR or marketing campaign, product launches are exciting, as is news on awards or other recognition. But, nothing is more powerful than an advocate who can praise your company without sounding like an insider – yes, I’m talking about customers. Customer spokespersons are the special sauce of any PR campaign.

  

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Media Relations Pitching Pitfalls that Kill Relationships

Media relations pitching is challenging to say the least. Editors are busy people. Writers and journalists are often on the run, facing tight deadlines and email boxes that absolutely never get read down to zero.

When pitching a potential story, getting an editor to open your email is already a challenge, albeit one that can be overcome with a good subject line and some follow-up phone calls. But believe it or not, that’s the easy part.

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Should You Bet It All on a Trade Show Launch?

I contributed to this blog.

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Tips for Social Media Success

For many, social media is a mysterious beast. In part because it’s such a new means of communication, but also because the primary social media platforms we all use and love – Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter – can feel like a sea of noise in which developing best practices to engage human users (as opposed to the spam bots) inherently brings with it some challenges. That said, social media marketing in today’s world is a must if you want to engage potential clients, spread the word about what your company is doing, and support your brand with a robust online presence.  

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The Cinematic Tangent Participates in #12DaysOfChristmasMovies

The Cinematic Tangent attempted to watch Christmas movies as part of Twitter's #12DaysofChristmasMovies trend. Below are links to my associated reviews. 

• 'The Christmas Bunny'  
• 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'  
• 'Elf' 
• 'Christmas with the Kranks'
• 'Christmas Vacation'
• 'Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever'  
• 'Four Christmases'

Health Management Technology - November/December 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the November/December 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

*The magazine has been removed from the web*

 
 

Samples From the Issue:

• Rising Stars of HIT Leadership 
• The 2016 HMT Salary Survey
  

 

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Heath Management Technology - October 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the October 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

PDF Backup

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Movie Review: Don't Breathe

Another flawed-but-effective horror film from director Fede Alvarez.

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The Cinematic Tangent

Heath Management Technology - September 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the September 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

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Heath Management Technology - July/August 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the July/August 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

Read the PDF Here

Visit HMT's Website