In 2020, a “Thought Leader” is just a Regular Person

The phrase “thought leader” is one that is thrown around a lot in public relations. And it’s understandable: For any public facing organization or business, it’s important to have experts on hand who can speak to the public.

However, as someone involved in day-to-day media relations operations at an award-winning PR and marketing agency, I have a major gripe with thought leaders, and I wrote this blog specifically for them and their coaches.

In short, my gripe is this: You need to be able to talk about something else other than your products and services. You must be able to speak about something other than your business and your brand.

If you can’t do it, you’re not a thought leader, you’re a spokesman. And there is a difference. 

 

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Ethical Wins: Navigating Media Relations in a Pandemic

In this time of uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic, the seriousness of the issue presents a variety of social, economic, and health challenges for all of us.

While practicing “social distancing,” many of us are often glued to news services, looking for the latest updates, valuable survival tips, words of wisdom, and glimmers of hope. For me, as media relations professional, it presents some distinct challenges both functionally – that is, the success of my ability to pitch media and earn placements – and ethically, since I’m a person with a social obligation to my peers.

I want to offer some tips to navigate a unique media landscape where only one story is on everyone’s mind. Now, more than ever, all of us in marketing and public relations must think about everything we’re doing before we do it.

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The Basics of Healthy, Happy Relationships

Building relationships with journalists takes time. Smashing them to pieces takes little time at all.

One terrible, irrelevant pitch and you could end up on a journalist’s blacklist – and that isn’t where you want to be. Because as any good media relations guru will tell you, we need journalists more than they need us.

To build strong relationships – and maybe fix bad ones – there are some basic rules of the road anyone out there sending pitches should follow, lest you end up in the SPAM folder – where email goes to die!

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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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