Category: Media Relations

The importance of pitching stories

Posted on by Wellons team

When we sit down with clients, one of the first things we hear is some version of “We want media to recognize who we are, what we do and what we offer our customers. What we do is important, and people need to know about it.”

Those are noble ambitions and we agree with that objective.

However, the biggest challenge to attracting media attention is that everyone wants recognition. And by everyone, we mean all products and services in virtually every category. In other words, your product or service competes with everyone and everything in the world for attention.

Our job is to drill down and find out what really makes you unique and how to project that unique attribute to the media. And that leads to pitching – contacting media on a one-to-one basis to let them know how and why you stand out.


Pitching differs completely from simply issuing press releases.
The information within press release stands on its own. If the information is newsworthy, a press release will serve as an effective and useful means of generating news.

Press releases, however, are impersonal. They do not necessarily lead to or promote in-depth or feature coverage about your product or service.

A more tried-and-true method of using your information to achieve greater coverage about you is pitching, which means calling or meeting one-on-one with relevant news sources.

A pitch is a description of a story idea (and why it should matter) to an editor or reporter. A pitch can be delivered over-the-phone or sent via email. It should be crafted to appeal to both reporters and the editors they serve. And, importantly, it should be short and to the point.

Unique and compelling media pitches can lead to coverage that goes far beyond what a press release can provide. Small businesses, in particular, can gain a greater exposure and a larger audience by enabling their public relations team to conduct aggressive pitching.


The benefits of pitching
Media pitching provides three key benefits.

First, pitching provides information tailored for particular media outlets. It serves up news about you that is relevant to their audience. Pitching allows your PR team to raise and answer the question “Here’s why this is important news for you and your audience.”

Second, pitching allows your public relations team to identify what kinds of stories media outlets are seeking. Knowing what media are looking for is valuable information and provides insights into how your information can be employed to answer that need.

Creating real relationships with reporters, bloggers and journalists is invaluable to anyone in the business world. But to build those real relationships you need to be genuine and think more of their needs than your own.

Like everyone else, reporters only have 24 hours in a day, and they’re looking out for their own interests. They want to write about things they are interested in and that will drive lots of traffic and get them paid.


Reason number three: the human dimension
The third reason pitches are effective is that they provide editors and reporters with an actual name and face they can call upon as a reliable, informed source. They create real relationships between you and the media.

When media need someone to comment on a particular story or seek background or clarification on story, they inevitably rely on sources they know, recognize and respect. This kind of relationship often results from having previously presented a newsworthy pitch.

Pitching is a key part of establishing and maintaining those kind of relationships.


So, who actually does the pitching?
The reality is that you simply don’t have time to pitch the media. If that were the case, you would already be talking with them.

The solution is to rely on your PR team to identify which media make most sense for you and which stories make the most sense to the media and then turn your PR team loose to pitch, pitch and pitch some more.

Generating results from pitches can take time, but the results can exceed expectations and have an enormously favorable impact on what you market.


Call us and let us pitch you
Want to get acquainted with our pitch? Call or email me (407-339-0879 or will@wellonscommunications.com) and tell me the kinds of stories you want others to know. Let us listen to your story and share with you how we can go about expanding the kind of marketing-oriented, ongoing news coverage you seek.

Four things you need when distributing your company’s news

Posted on by Wellons team

Suppose you tweaked your product or service so it made you the leader in your particular industry…and no one heard the news. Suppose you landed a huge client that elevated your position to a leader in your field…but couldn’t get the news out quickly enough.

Distributing important information is often as critical as the news itself. Current information, like vegetables in the supermarket, does not remain fresh for long.

If information sits around too long, it’s old news. And media has no interest in information that occurred very far in the past.

Distribution of information is one of those tasks that looks, on the surface, to be mundane, but for clients who want their news and information conveyed to their particular audiences, distribution the right way is critical.

Distribution requires a sense of urgency

If something important is happening with your business and you want others to learn about it, you must work quickly to get the information out.

That requires two (and sometimes three) components:

  • Developing the information you want to share
  • Distributing the information to media who can use it
  • And, if appropriate, illustrating the information

All of this has to come together while your information is still fresh.

If your information gets to media after it’s “use by” date, media view the information as “expired.” If it happened yesterday or in the past week—and is still relevant—it’s news. If it happened last month, it’s not news.

And keep in mind, the media is not sitting on pins and needles waiting for information about your enterprise. It is up to you (or your PR team) to get the information prepared and distributed to the media.

Distribution requires proper targeting

The act of distribution, unlike an advertising campaign, is inexpensive. What does cost, however, is the thought put into distribution.

Are you reaching all the targets who can use your news? Are there targets who may not be immediately visible to you? Are you including media that might have a tangential interest in your news?

Conversely, are you needlessly distributing your news to outlets who would have no conceivable interest in your news?

Your PR team should have the expertise to develop your news distribution plan, as well the tools that can accomplish distribution quickly, efficiently, and at a reasonable cost.

Timing is essential for distribution

When you submit your information to media is another key factor in generating coverage.

There is no exact formula for timing dissemination of news, other than to avoid issuing news to arrive when no one is in the newsroom to receive it or act on it. Other factors, such as breaking news on a national or local scale, make a huge difference, too, and sometimes there are other industry aspects to consider.

Generally speaking, Tuesday is the best time to issue a press release, followed by Thursday. The worst day to send your information is on Friday. Similarly, the best time to send your press release is early in the morning – at 9 a.m. to be exact, or later in the day at 8 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Distribution requires tools to effectively reach media

Technology has transformed how news and information is conveyed to media.

Thanks to social media, a click can reach media around the world in an instant.

But there’s more to it than simply emailing words to media outlets. Distribution should include graphics that bring your story to life and provide media with the ability to illustrate your story to their audience.

Follow up, on an individual-by-individual basis, is also important. Aggressive publicity requires telephone calls, texts, or emails to specific reporters who will have a special interest in your news. This, in turn, requires that your PR team know your product or service and know who will have a specific interest in your news.

We have the tools and the know-how to get the word out

At Wellons Communications, we offer the whole enchilada when it comes to getting the word out.

We employ national resources that can be tailored to reach just the audience you want, whether it’s distribution to a broad consumer category or a precisely-targeted trade category.

Further, we can arrange to have graphics prepared and attached to your story so that media can use the illustrations to bring your story to life.

When you have news to share, keep us in mind. We’ll be happy to help you craft a news distribution plan that will be affordable, cost-efficient, timely, and well-targeted.

How to make the most of your next media event

Posted on by Wellons team

When people think of public relations, the image that often comes to mind is working a media event, pulling things together while reporters prepare for an on-camera interview. And while those in the biz know that’s certainly not an everyday occurrence, media events can be one of the most fun parts of the job.

They can also be the most challenging, with long hours and lots of logistics.

At Wellons Communications, we’ve worked our share of media events, from restaurant openings with big celebrities to most recently, Altamonte Springs’ Red Hot & Boom. With that solid experience behind us, we have developed a process to help media events go as smoothly as possible.

Here are some of our tips to help your next event go off without a hitch—and with a ton of media coverage.

Target your messages.

What matters to TV reporters might not matter to a freelancer photographer, and what’s important to a blogger might not be what a newspaper reporter wants to know. That is to say, when you’re telling the media about your event, make sure you’re giving them the information they need to do their job. Showing that you understand what they need and will make sure things go smoothly once they’re there goes a long way for getting media to cover your event.

Avoid the one and done.

When it comes to media events, you can’t send it and forget it. Getting live, in-person coverage is harder than getting a publication to run a press release because it involves a lot more coordination on both sides. Make sure you send all of the information multiple times, and don’t be afraid to call to make sure there aren’t any questions.

Be prepared.

When you’re working off-site and out of your element, this step can’t be overlooked. You have to think of everything. Make sure you have a hard copy of any press materials you might need to distribute, but make sure you can access any docs you might need digitally, too. Chance of rain? Think about plastic folders or laminating key documents (yes, we’ve walked out of events with soaking, ruined notebooks before…lesson learned!). Batteries or back-up chargers are always a good idea. And don’t forget to take care of yourself, too! You can’t do your job if you aren’t feeling well. Bring water and snacks, if you need to, and wear weather and event appropriate clothing.

Brief the whole team.

Even if only a few team members will be working on-site, make sure your entire team is in on the plan. They should know what to do if media members call the office, how they can assist you if needed and how they can reach you in any circumstance.

Celebrate success.

At the end of a long event, we just want to kick off our shoes and relax. But too often, it ends there. People don’t look back on the event and learn. What went well? What can we do better next time? Where did we have success? Experience is the best teacher, and this is the team’s chance to reap the rewards from a hard day’s work.

With this checklist in mind, we’ve had some seriously successful media events, and with these tips in mind, we know you’ll be able to maximize your next live media opportunity.

@NBCOlympics takes gold in social media for the 2018 Winter Olympics

Posted on by Wellons team

The #WinterOlympics have swept the nation and many have turned their attention to Pyeongchang. But the deluge of coverage isn’t just on your TV. Post after post about the Olympics are likely filling up your feeds, from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Snapchat. With such stiff competition, one account has climbed its way to the top in the arena that is social media.

Here are the top five reasons why we believe @NBCOlympics is taking home the gold:

    1. Outstanding preparation.

Those behind @NBCOlympics have obviously done their homework. Just by looking through the various platforms, you can see a lot of preparation was done. One post we believe represents this best is the “100 gold medals” video that was posted immediately after Shaun White took home Team USA’s 100th gold medal in the Winter Olympics. With the amount of research and the emotional pull, it’s obvious this video wasn’t put together in five minutes.

    1. Tapping into what’s trending.

On social media, the conversation moves faster than you can refresh your page. In order to get people to engage with your content, you need to plug yourself into the ever-changing discussion. @NBCOlympics is doing a great job keeping up-to-date with what’s trending. When Twitter exploded over snowboarder Chloe Kim tweeting about ice cream and churros, @NBCOlympics seized the opportunity in the form of a hilarious video featuring a churro in the place of the gold medalist’s snowboard.

    1. Creating shareable content.

What catches people’s attention on the internet and makes them laugh? Meme-worthy photos and hilarious captions. People love laughing at memes and most importantly, sharing them with their followers. @NBCOlympics has been creating some excellent content, balancing the professional and newsworthy with the more light-hearted.

    1. Reacting to outside events.

Just like it’s important to stay up-to-date with what’s trending, brand managers need to keep in mind what’s going on in the world. Valentine’s Day happens every year on February 14, and this year, it fell during the Olympics. @NBCOlympics did a great job using this holiday to write creative and funny posts like these Valentine’s Day cards.

  1. Encourage engagement.

When you’re creating social media content, one of the main goals is to drum up engagement. @NBCOlympics is doing an incredible job creating content that gets people involved with the Winter Olympics. One way those behind the account are achieving this is through #EverydayOlympics. These are videos of ordinary people “competing” in Olympic events in their everyday lives, which both encourages people to create their own content and share with the brand and encourages others to comment and share.

If you’re looking for ways to spice up your social media accounts, get some inspiration from the account that deserves the gold, @NBCOlympics. And if you want some help in reaching gold status yourself, give us a call at 407-390-9999 or email Will at will@wellonscommunications.com. We’re already feeling inspired and can’t wait to help you become a social media champion.

Competing for attention in the Age of Distraction

Posted on by Wellons team

Think for a moment about all the distractions that compete for attention in your work life.

Phone calls, texts, emails, meetings. Questions from employees. Questions from clients. Unanticipated interruptions. Add to this your personal life, which has the same ongoing level of activity.

WC#1-18, Jan 25, 2018The result? Very little time to stop and ask “Where are we, where are we going, how are we going to get there, and what are we going to say about ourselves that will help us achieve our goals?”

Now, put yourself in the mindset of your target audience and your clients. They suffer from the same busy professional and personal challenges you experience.

The point? Offices – and the people who manage and work in them – are enormously busy. In short, offices are centers of multi-tasking that offer little or no time to pause and contemplate the next steps.

Working in the Age of Distraction

Cal Newport, a computer scientist at Georgetown University, is the author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Newport points out that constant distractions that challenge our work life tend to dominate our work life. They take away from what Newport calls Deep Work, which is the ability to focus without distraction on a demanding task.

According to Newport, Shallow Work (the opposite of Deep Work) fragments and pre-empts one’s ability to come up with one of those benchmark “A-ha” solutions that can make your unique selling proposition stand apart.

Apply Deep Work to communications and you get a sense of how important it is to think differently and clearly, without distraction, and how it can transform how you go about your business and what you say about it.

You can get learn more about Deep Work in a fascinating report that recently was broadcast on National Public Radio.

Getting your message past the distractions

So, how does Wellons Communications help you succeed in the Age of Distraction?

We adhere to the notion of keeping it simple. We develop strategies, approaches, and messages aimed at battling through the communications clutter.

When possible, we use simple, declarative sentences. And we project the same message over and over again, using consistency to ensure that once we have captured attention, our message is reinforced until our audience has absorbed and agreed with it.

What does simplicity do for your marketing?

Our “keep it simple” approach delivers three key benefits to your overall marketing approach:

1. Simple messages are easy to understand.

2. Simple messages answer “What’s in it for me?”

3. Simple messages attract attention.

The most visual example of great message-making in its simplest form is a billboard. They are quick to read, present a single thought, and tell you what they think you need to learn.

Let us simplify your public relations and communications.

If you have read this far, you’ve been distracted enough. If our message has worked, we hope you will want to learn more about how Wellons Communications can assist you in marketing your product or service. You can reach me at 407-339-0879 or by email at will@wellonscommunications.com.

Believe me, I will be happy for the distraction.

How to get more media coverage for your company

Posted on by Wellons team

Sometimes you make news and don’t even know it. Other times, you have a big story to tell, but you fail to capitalize on it.

Companies that generate positive publicity are often the first to respond to opportunities and take advantage of them. They move with a sense of urgency and find a way to cut through the approval process to put their message ahead of others competing for recognition.Past deadlines

Journalists, no matter what media they serve (TV, online, print), work against deadlines — and that means those who recognize deadlines and respond to them as quickly as possible are often those chosen to be quoted or recognized, particularly in fast-breaking news situations.

Here’s the formula: Editorial need + Content = Publicity

Editors have an insatiable need for content. The journalists who serve the editors (and ultimately, their audience) are required to create that content — and deliver it in time to meet demanding editorial deadlines.

Publicity-hungry companies, however, often drag their heels in making decisions about getting ahead of the news or responding to it. They often bring too many people into the decision-making process which slows up the approval process and causes them to issue news after it has already broken or moved out of the news cycle.

Jack be nimble. Jack be quick

Take a close look within your organization and identify who can (and should) make decisions on issuing news information.

The list should be short (the fewer the better) and limited to those who can make on-the-spot decisions while still ensuring whatever you issue is accurate and meets the criteria of what editors or journalists are seeking.

Strive for decisions that allow your publicist or PR team to get the news out the door and to the media. Drafts of press releases, quotes, plans and programs that sit in inboxes don’t have a chance until the information is actually distributed. And if that information is issued after a deadline, fuhgeddaboudit, as our friends in Manhattan would say.

The companies who make the news first are often those who reacted quickly or anticipated a journalistic need.

Be a soothsayer. Identify — or announce — a trend.

Sometimes news exists where you least expect it — like in research about your industry or observations from your staff.

If you can recognize a trend, you can own the trend. But you have to tell people about that trend before they can recognize it.

If you see, for example, that contract managers are overwhelmed by data, resulting in missing contract expiration dates or the information in the fine print, say it. And back it up with data that makes your observation valid.

Even if the information is old hat to you, it may be brand new to a journalist, particularly if that journalist is new to your beat.

Editors love to “discover” trends and reporters love fleshing out what might be totally new information for their readers and viewers.

Does all this guarantee news coverage?

Nope.

When you compete for news, you are up against more than your competitors.

You are battling for share of mind and space against everything else in the world. Presidential tweets. Kim Jong Un’s latest missile test. Taylor Swift’s hairstyle. Tropical depressions in the Caribbean. Solar eclipses. The latest diet trend.

Your news has to battle its way through a maze that is constantly shifting, with stories moving up and down in relevance.

News shape-shifting is the primary reason no one can guarantee publicity.

You must be willing to release information on time, with the same sense of urgency editors and journalists live by. You must provide information that makes sense for each media’s audience. You must put your news into a competitive posture…and the simple act of getting it out there is the first step. You news cannot make news while residing an inbox.

We work to serve our clients…and the media in which they want to appear.

Our team has experienced how news teams function…from both sides of the desk. We know how challenging news-gathering can be. And we know how challenging getting news out to editors and reporters can be.

If you want to get more news coverage, particularly coverage that defines you as a recognized leader in your chosen field, call on us.

We work quickly, effectively, and with the kind of savvy that comes from working in a newsroom.

Find out more. Call me at 407-339-0879 or email me at will@wellonscommunications.com.

Social media lessons from The Bachelorette

Posted on by Wellons team

Whether you love it, or love to hate it, The Bachelorette is one of the most successful reality series on TV. But perhaps the only thing more entertaining than the on-screen drama is the social media drama that seems to follow contestants. As season 12 of The Bachelorette winds down, we thought it would be interesting to reflect back on lessons learned. No, not love lessons, but rather lessons you can use to build your social media following.

Promotion is everything

Robby better #TeamRoJo instagram

Brands use social media to promote their goods and services. Bachelorette contestants use social media to promote themselves. Robby Hayes is a perfect example. The Florida native has made it to tonight’s finale, in which he will either propose to JoJo or be left heartbroken in Thailand. Robby’s motives have been called into question multiple times this season. Check out his Instagram and you’ll understand why. He broke up with a long-term girlfriend just before learning he’d be a contestant on the show, he has tried his hand at modeling, and he’s constantly working on improving his image. He’s even been rumored to have paid others to promote his brand using #TeamRoJo. And while we certainly don’t recommend being quite as smarmy as Robby, his tactics certainly keep people talking.

Give the people what they want – content

Providing your audience with newsworthy and authentic content is important in today’s social media-crazed world. No Bachelorette contestant has done that better than resident villain Chad Johnson. Despite being kicked off early in the season, Chad’s bad boy persona has grown immensely on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. He has dated his fellow co-stars exes, he’s bought the domain names of other contestants and he’s created hashtags for his ridiculous insights (#Chadisms and #BadChad). His content might be crazy, but it’s exactly what people expect from the memorable contestant, and he provides it often.

Chad Twitter

Say yes to engagement

Wells Twitter

No, not the engagement we expect on tonight’s finale—the social media engagement! Responding to and interacting with followers is important to building a brand. Making them feel like part of a community is essential to growing that community. We can think of no two contestants that have been better at interacting with their fans than Wells Adams and James Taylor. Both adorable underdogs of the season utilize their social media to engage their followers. Whether it’s Wells’ drunken Snapchat stories as he watches The Bachelorette on Monday nights, or James Taylor’s hometown concert contest, they reach out to fans like no other. Any brand would do well to borrow from their tactics when connecting with followers.

James Taylor Insta - interaction with fans

We know we can’t wait to see who is “the one” for JoJo on tonight’s finale —and we can’t wait to put some of these social media strategies to the test.

Online reading: Changing the way we think

Posted on by Wellons team

In today’s society, it’s getting easier and easier to reach for our phones and tablets to read the latest news story, article or book. Businesses and classrooms are turning away from mail-outs and textbooks in favor of marketing emails and ebooks. But what does that mean for the way we take in information?

Digital reading Apparently, a lot. According to The Washington Post, your brain doesn’t comprehend the information you read online the same way it does in print. Digital screens seem to cause people to focus on the information they are reading at the time instead of how it fits in a broader context.

Researchers from Dartmouth College and Carnegie Mellon came up with different experiments that could compare the effects of reading on different platforms. In one experiment, a group of participants read a short story online and another group read a printout of the story. A pop quiz was given to the participants once they were done reading, and it revealed that the physical-copy readers scored better on questions requiring participants to make inferences, while digital-copy readers scored better on concrete questions about the text.

According to the researchers, the results of the experiments show that our reading comprehension is changing as it is becoming more typical to read information on a digital platform. Our thought processes may slowly be evolving so that we will have to make an effort to look at the bigger picture.

So what does that mean for PR? Even though communications professionals will likely still make use of digital tools, the study shows the key is to try and make digital audiences think more abstractly. When writing an article that is going to be consumed via screen, try to challenge yourself to put in context which will help readers think critically along with the facts of the story.

Advice for new PR and communications graduates

Posted on by Wellons team

It’s almost unavoidable on social media this month. Tons of photos happy college graduates in caps and gowns are filling your feed.

But what kind of future awaits these new job seekers, especially those new grads looking to go into PR?PR graduates

In 2013, PR Daily published this advice for PR and communications graduates, and while much of it is still sound, we at Wellons Communications wanted to provide an update.

Here’s our take on what today’s PR graduates should know.

Writing is key.

In today’s media landscape, it’s easy to discount the old-fashioned pen and paper and chase the next social media craze. And while social media is certainly an important tool today, we agree with PR Daily here: Writing skills are essential.

Whether you’re crafting a news release, media pitch, award application, email—or yes, even web copy, a Facebook post or tweet—it’s all about being able to effectively put your ideas into words.

Agency life is a great way to gain experience.

Again, this is solid advice from PR Daily. Working in an agency gives you the opportunity to build skills in a way working for a client doesn’t always. You get to be a jack of all trades, becoming a pro at working with media, crafting social posts, planning and running events and communicating with clients.

You also have to learn to be organized and to juggle multiple projects on varied topics—all skills that will transfer to a variety of fields and positions.

Your online presence matters.

When employers look at your résumé, you want to jump off the page. One way to add depth to your job applications is to build an online portfolio. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but this is one way to share more about your style and personality with employers. Be sure to include a short summary of your work and professional interests, a link to your résumé and links to work you’ve done in internships or classes. Also, don’t forget to update this so you can be ready when the next opportunity comes.

And while you’re working on your online persona, now is a great time to give yourself a social media makeover. As fun as it is for you to live tweet The Bachelor or the NBA finals, employers might not be as interested. Have fun, but add your voice to industry topics. Also, check to make sure your privacy settings are where you want them to be—or just remove any materials you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see.

You don’t know everything.

You’re young, you’re excited and you have so many ideas. It’s hard not to get cocky about your job prospects. But just like when you went from being a senior in high school to a freshman in college, you’re the low man on the totem pole again.

Don’t expect to be in your dream position right away. Nearly everyone has to start from the bottom and work their way up. Also, the job world might be different than your college classes. The best way to overcome it is to stay positive, work hard and try to soak in as much as possible. You might not know everything now, but you can learn more each day.

Good luck out there, graduates!

Council of 101 Hosts Festival of Trees Media Preview

Posted on by Wellons team

The 29th Annual Festival of Trees took place at the Orlando Museum of Art. We have had the pleasure of working with Council of 101 for several years, and it was an honor to organize their media preview kicking off the 2015 Festival of Trees event.

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A media preview is beneficial to any business. It can offer a promotional boost in advance of an event opening or product launch, and it gives you the opportunity to spotlight your unique angles for an audience that is equipped to spread the word far and wide.

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Media events rely on having not only the proper contacts, but the right approach. A specific structure is expected for a successful media event as well. We pride ourselves on our ability to help you put your best foot forward for the most appropriate audience.

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Many thanks to the media guests in attendance, and kudos to Council of 101 for another enchanting display! The organization has raised over $6.5 million dollars benefiting the arts, children’s programs, and the museum.

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