Initially, I did not expect much from the panel, other than comments like “never call me” or “do not leave me voice-mails.” However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that these assignment editors actually are willing to listen to or even read pitches via email, and will get back to PR folks if a press release or media advisory piques their interest.

With shifting beats and changes in the newsroom, the assignment editor is actually a go-to-person we can work with to get our client coverage. From the panel I took away some key thoughts and ideas that I have bulleted below:

The best time to contact reporters and editors is between 11 am – 3 pm.

Editors have 10 am meetings to determine the stories of the day, and by 4 pm they are already on to the next day’s paper and stories.

Editors have final say on what reporters cover, so the panel suggested including both the editor and a reporter in a pitch email.

(As an aside- while pitching for our AAPS client, the big hit we got on HealthDay came through one of their health editors that assigned a reporter to the story).

Keep pitches short, and use language in your releases and emails that a fifth grader could understand.

Editors and reporters are always open to creative angles to a story they have already written.

E.G.: The panel mentioned the amount of coverage the gunman that killed sixteen innocent people in Afghanistan was getting, and how many people were speculating that he may have PTSD. The panel suggested a simple pitch offering an expert on PTSD would be exactly what they would look for in a follow up story.

Do not write long subjects, but make them straight and to the point.

E.G.: “Follow up on recent Afghanistan article, PTSD Expert Available”

The panel also mentioned that it is important to know what they cover and only send them relevant pitches.

Do not “work around them.”

If an editor says he/she is not interested in covering a story do not reach out to other editors or reporters at their publication. They will find out about the “work around” and never respond to future pitches.

It was refreshing to see that assignment editors are open to, and actually take notice of, our pitches. It is far too easy to become cynical about the method when you aren’t having any luck. Taking into account the panel’s suggestions we can make some simple tweaks to our pitching process that will pay big dividends in the future.

In my opinion, D.C. — the “association capital of the world” — does not have enough events geared specifically toward the health care and health sciences associations and nonprofit organizations, which have such a strong presence in this city. Since many of our clients fall into this space, it only made sense that Environics Communications fill that niche by hosting this inaugural event.

And, based on the terrific feedback we received from attendees, we will be looking to host similar types of events in the future.

The event was successful for two main reasons. For starters, attendees had the opportunity to network with health communicators at other associations and related nonprofit organizations.

The second reason — and the main draw — was the panel of well-known, top-notch reporters: Jennifer LaRue Huget, writer for the Washington Post’s The Checkup, a popular consumer-focused blog featuring the latest health news; Margot Sanger-Katz, health care correspondent for National Journal; Scott Hensley, writer for NPR’s Shots blog, which focuses on health around the globe; and Alex Wayne, health care policy reporter for Bloomberg.

We also created a unique twitter hashtag and live tweeted during the event using #PRHealth. At one point during the morning, we were among the top trending topics in D.C. on Twitter!

At the end of the informal discussion and Q&A session, attendees left with new information, reaffirmation of what they already know, and some new professional relationships.

Below are a few key takeaways from our panelists.

Do not pitch reporters on Twitter, unless you know them well.
Do not pitch an awareness month/week/day unless there is real news. How can you tell? The news can stand on its own any other day of the year.
Consider a celebrity tie-in to a disease; some reporters like a VIP connection because it increases readership.
Make sure your release accurately supports your study results.

But the one key takeaway I found to be most interesting: Reporters often get story ideas from Twitter.

And why is this so interesting? Less than two years ago, I wrote a blog post about another media panel, also comprised of reporters from top-tier outlets including the Washington Post. Back then, none of the reporters on that panel used social media, including Twitter, to find ideas or sources for stories.

It just goes to show that in PR, as in life, nothing ever remains the same.

While all this change might scare some people, most of us will see an opportunity to tackle the challenges of this new PR reality. One of the best ways to stay up-to-date – or ahead of the curve – in this environment is to embrace ongoing education.

At Environics Communications, ongoing education is an important of our corporate culture. Since the best public relations is research-driven, embracing both formal and informal education allows our team to constantly learn new things and apply this knowledge to client work. Education doesn’t always mean being in a classroom; it can mean something as simple as mentoring a junior worker or taking the time to build case studies for future reference.

Always striving to learn more about the industry has both personal and professional benefits. On the personal side there’s the simple pleasure of learning something new when reading an interesting book or article about PR. Perhaps more relevant though, are the professional benefits to education, including building the foundational knowledge to move up in the industry and stay relevant in a tough job market. Every day new insights into measurement, social media, neuromarketing and other innovations change the ways we can think about communications, branding and consumer insights. With all of these areas constantly evolving, education allows us to bring the latest knowledge to our clients and show them we’ve invested the necessary time and energy to provide informed strategic council.

Here are just a few things you can do (and that we do every day at Environics) to keep your skills and knowledge current and competitive in the evolving world of communications.

Take courses

Continuing education has become an important part of postsecondary institutions across the country. Nearly every college and university now offers courses for working professionals, many of which can be bundled for official certificates and designations. Since communications professionals use so many important skills every day, there’s a wide variety of courses that will serve you and your clients. Everything from theory-based fields like digital anthropology and psychology, to tangible skills like copy-writing, can be improved in a classroom and directly link to a career in PR.

Obtain official PR accreditation

Unlike many other professions, communicators in Canada have the benefit of two well-known and respected professional organizations. Both the IABC and CPRS offer their own professional accreditation programs. For IABC members there’s an ABC (Accredited Business Communicator) designation, and for CPRS members there is a similar APR (Accredited Public Relations) designation. Each of these designations requires that candidates study, take a test and show an examining committee that they are versed in all aspects of the communications process. Working towards official accreditation offers the chance to demonstrate and deepen your industry knowledge while also gaining a valuable designation that both clients and peers will appreciate.

Make use of the many resources all around you

Public relations can be a busy job and formal educational options might not work for everyone. Luckily, we’re all surrounded by resources to continually build our industry knowledge at any pace. Both the IABC and CPRS frequently offer seminars for professionals. These sessions are an excellent way to learn something new with a relatively small time investment. The IABC and CPRS also offer many paid and free research resources, from foundational monographs on important communications subjects to case studies and insights from recent campaign research. Besides these resources, the internet is filled with blogs and information to keep you up-to-date with the latest in communications research.

Education can take many forms, but in a profession that has seen significant change in the past ten years, continuing to build your skills and knowledge will help you stay ahead of the curve and tackle the next decade.

Simple communication with a group.

Ability to gain quick consensus on an issue or decision to be made.

Fast (and free) communication to anywhere in the world.

With proper filing, a reminder of what you said you’d do (or not do) for a client or colleague.

A method to place things “on the record” that may have been agreed upon verbally.

But as helpful as email can be, there are dangers and warnings that we should keep in mind. There are obvious ones like ensuring you reply to the person intended, hitting the “reply all” accidentally, or not replying to all. But there are other not-so-obvious considerations before pressing the send button:

Responding too quickly . . . and emotionally: Some emails cause upset or anger. A reply in the heat of the moment can’t be retracted. Take a breath, maybe work on another task while you calm down and then draft a response. It might be worth having a colleague read your reply to ensure it is appropriately written.

Misinterpretation: We should all get in the habit of reviewing our emails before we press send. And when doing so, ensure the content is crystal clear to anyone who may read it. Content can be easily be misinterpreted which can lead to frustration, hurt feelings or worse.

Knowing when to take it offline:

One can usually tell if someone has misinterpreted your email by the tone and content of their reply. Rather than perpetuating the misunderstanding, take it offline and have a phone conversation to clear things up (and smooth over the situation).

It is also easy to get caught in a trap of emailing back and forth with a person (or group) dozens of times on one subject. Think of all the time spent writing those messages. Sometimes a resolution can be achieved faster if you go “old school” and pick up the phone. By having a conversation, you can discuss and then come to a consensus quickly (note: see above re: following up with an email to “put a decision on the record” if need be).

Lacks a personal touch: Some things are best left un-typed. Email will never beat a handwritten card or letter when it comes to relationship-building.

And as a final reminder, an email may not be a “formal memo,” but it should always be treated as such, especially when emailing a client. Use full words (not shorthand), watch for spelling and grammar and, when appropriate, be sure to use a formal opening and sign-off.

Here are a few that currently rattle my head when I hear them:

“Iconic” – Every other thing or person seems to be proclaimed as iconic these days. In fact, iconic status should be reserved for some kind of real hall of fame of historical awareness, gained over many years. Coca Cola is iconic. Lady Gaga isn’t.

“Passion” – Everyone appears to feel the need to be passionate about every other thing they like. “I’m passionate about renovations.” Really? Save your passion for two or three things that really matter, like your spouse or your kids. Bees and flies have a passion for honey, but not you. No, you don’t have a passion for popsicles.

“So” – “So . . .  what I’m trying to say is . . .” “So . . . the cost of Greece’s debt is . . .” “So” has become the new “um. We’re taught to avoid buying time with filler words and phrases like “ya know” and “like,” but “so” is just as bad and it’s still just hemming and hawing.

“Literally” – This won’t go away. Literally. What people mean most of the time is that the cliché they’re using is actually true. It was so hot I could literally fry an egg on the sidewalk. The word you’re looking for is “truly,” or simply avoid the cliché in the first place. Literally.

“Ideation” – Cute, two years ago. Not a word. Stop it.

“Size matters” – This trite phrase populates more headlines than ever, as in, “When it comes to garbage trucks, size matters.” Yes, we get the innuendo. Time to move along, Mr. Kinsey.

There are more. Soooo . . . forgive my large iconic passion for ideation that suggests size matters – literally.

What are your current communications teeth-graters?

We want to be plugged in all day, but we’re struggling to conform to manners that were created before the social media revolution. How can we be expected to respond to our networks at lightning speed while giving a business lunch our undivided attention?

In short, we can’t. If you’re trying to respond to all of the messages coming at you in a nanosecond, take a step back from the smartphone.

The truth is, in-person meetings are more important now than ever before. Since more than 50 per cent of communication is nonverbal, these meetings offer an opportunity to connect in a way that just isn’t possible online.

Charlie White from Mashable put together a handy infographic on the topic of digital table manners. This article is targeted to the dating world, but many of its lessons are relevant in a professional context.

Here are a few tips to keep your professional manners on course:

If you’re expecting to be contacted for a legitimately important reason, let your client/colleague know at the beginning of the meal so that you don’t seem uncouth when checking your phone.

If you have to take a call in the middle of a meal, excuse yourself from the table and keep the call to less than three minutes.

If you have to set your phone on the table, do not use a loud, inappropriate or irritating message alert. If you’re wondering if your alert is any of those three things, you should probably change it.

If you get an upsetting text or email while at the table, do not wear your heart on your sleeve.

Communications are all about relationships, and there are few worse things than communicating to someone that your phone deserves your attention more than the person sitting in front of you.

There will certainly be clients or colleagues who will appreciate a 24-7 zest for all things digital, even during face-to-face lunch meetings. If you’ve established a relationship where digital check-ins are the norm, then by all means go with what works. Tread this line carefully though, and make sure you’re on the same page with your fellow diner.

If you spend so much time online that you’re starting to feel rusty at in-person meetings, check out this Psychology Today article on strengthening your nonverbal communication skills.

The next time you’re attending a business meal, pull up a chair and let your smartphone idle. You may find that a digital break was the missing ingredient to coming up with your next brilliant campaign idea.

According to CharityVillage.com, March alone was National Epilepsy Month, Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month, Kidney Month, Help Fight Liver Disease Month, National Colorectal Cancer Month, National Nutrition Month, Polio Awareness Month and Red Cross Month. March also celebrates National Pharmacy Awareness Week, World Glaucoma Week, World Tuberculosis Day, Purple Day (Epilepsy) and National Sleep Awareness Week. This list doesn’t even include non-health related awareness occasions such as Fraud Prevention Month.

Overwhelming, right?

Here are a few tips that may help with cutting through the clutter of Awareness Months:

Know your audience – There are many social media sources at our disposal so follow reporters at a specific outlet that you want to get into. Have they Tweeted support for a friend suffering from a particular condition? They may be covering City Hall daily, but approach them with a customized pitch letting them know that you are aware of their personal connection to this cause and they may be willing to learn more about the story idea.

Start early – Reach out to the media before the month in question begins. Get it into their heads that March is Kidney month, for example, so a topic like kidney cancer becomes timely to write about. You may even want to go beyond an e-mail and send them a desktop knick-knack that can act as a constant reminder.

Give them the information they need – Provide journalists with the information they need: current issues or trends; `firsts’ or `bests’; human interest and an impact on people; stories with conflict and chaos; or stories that are just plain quirky. Avoid stories with a narrow focus.

The angle, not the basis – Use the awareness month / week / day as an angle but not the basis of your campaign. That way media can cover it outside of that time.

Visuals, visuals, visuals – In a recent Augie post, Lorna Freeman wrote “storytelling is among our greatest strengths. But what about story-showing?” Create visuals to tell your story. Produce an infographic to showcase your stats in a creative way. When a reporter checks his or her e-mail, seeing the information will help.

When you wrap up an awareness campaign, share your successes / challenges / learnings with your colleagues. After all, the more we know, the better we do. Good luck in the coming months.

But with today’s continued growth of social media and smartphones, you don’t need to be a professional photographer to capture an event in the moment and share a picture with the world. According to research firm IDC, in 2011 some 491.4 million smart phones were shipped worldwide giving more people access to a camera and an instant connection to the internet than ever before. Today more and more Facebook users are taking pictures on their phones and instantly posting them with a mobile upload, or “mupload,” as my friends and I say.

This growth has also resulted in the launch and success of several iPhone applications, websites and Tumblr accounts. Have you ever noticed those vintage looking pictures that keep popping up on your friends’ Facebook and Twitter accounts? They come from Instagram, an iPhone app that currently has 27-million users and is getting close to launching its app for Android users as well. The concept is simple: take a picture with your phone, click through all the different vintage-looking filters on the app, select one, and automatically post it to Twitter and Facebook or email it to a friend.

With Instagram’s growth, other picture-oriented apps have started to spring up like Frametastic or Frame Magic that allow you to combine your photos into one frame and connect them with Instagram and your social media sites.

Perhaps the biggest photo-oriented platform to take off is Pinterest, a website based around the idea of creating photo “boards” and “pinning” images you like, while of course connecting to friends and sharing your boards with them. As of February 2012, Pinterest had 10.4 million registered users with nearly 98 percent of them being women.

But picture sharing isn’t just for women and wedding planning. Breakout NFL quarterback Tim Tebow gained attention this year and sparked the phenomenon of “Tebowing,” leading to people everywhere taking pictures of themselves in his prayer-like bended-knee stance and share the images. The concept even has its own Tumblr account. And remember the buzz that Angelina Jolie’s leg created at the Oscars this year? Yeah, that got its own Tumblr as well.

So do you think this new age of picture sharing will continue to grow? Will we continue to see more and more applications and websites get developed or is the space already too crowded? Do you use any of these tools when you share photos?

Happy muploading, instagraming and pinning!

Doing so could start a dialogue, leading me to see the error of my ways. But even if I hold true to my initial views, since our conversation happened on a public forum, onlookers could witness our back and forth and become engaged in an issue that wouldn’t have caught their attention otherwise.

This is what happened recently between Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Fluke in the United States.

A short recap (for those who aren’t familiar with the story):

Georgetown law school student Sandra Fluke testified before Congress on behalf of a friend who required prescription birth control to halt the growth of ovarian cysts

Rush Limbaugh responded to this by calling Fluke a slut and a prostitute on his national radio program

The media quickly picked up the story, and the majority of Limbaugh’s sponsors cancelled

Rush Limbaugh issued a formal apology

Cable news and the internet continue to keep the story alive, via interviews with Sandra Fluke, editorials, and the like.

There have been many calls to cancel Limbaugh as a result of his comments and this attitude frightens me. Rush Limbaugh should not be cancelled.  I don’t agree with his views (I strongly disagree with them, in fact), but as a communicator I would rather know about the opinions that offend me than pretend they don’t exist. Putting cotton in my ears, or silencing a man who – sadly – continues to reflect the opinions of many Americans, is not the answer. Communication and dialogue are the answer – and that’s the path that will lead to social change.

This is why any good public relations professional keeps his or her ear to the ground and, when appropriate, engages in dialogue with those who disagree with them or their client. Imagine for a moment what our job would be like if when we disagreed with a blog post, a broadcast or an editorial we could simply have a story pulled or a journalist fired.

As a former history student, I’ve read about numerous societies where that approach was used (Nazi Germany comes to mind). Thinking that this approach is making a comeback, however justified, makes me shudder.

When will we learn?

Oliver’s Twist

Oliver’s Twist, the recently published autobiography by CTV News chief parliamentary correspondent, Craig Oliver, pans an extraordinary professional and personal life. Raised on the remote northern shores of British Columbia by divorced alcoholic parents, Oliver unexpectedly lands a summer job with the local CBC Prince Rupert Radio and the rest is history – news stories across CBC and then CTV on major political figures spanning four extraordinary decades and in regions as far flung as Saskatchewan, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington, Nicaragua, the Falkland Islands and more.

This was a book about many things:

A memoir of a person’s unique life ­– a life that takes twists and turns across daily news, Washington intrigue, war correspondence, and Parliament Hill.

Endless “anecdotes and close-ups” of politicians, their staffers and the press that follow them – providing invaluable content and context about events that have shaped our recent Canadian history.

And a book that demonstrates the art of negotiation – an art that I think is critical in our role as communications consultants.

In fact, my favourite passage in the book compares the art of negotiation with “seducing” a river. An avid outdoorsman who has a passion for Canada’s wilderness, Oliver provides an analogy that struck me on many levels, including as a consultant who spends her days guiding and persuading clients, stakeholders and their influencers.

You do not run a rapid; you negotiate it, just as life itself is a series of negotiations. Chart your own course and trust the compass, but heed the counsel of those who have done this trip before you. Foolish bravado or rash decisions can end a (canoe) trip and too soon. If circumstances land you in a bad spot, you must try to think rationally and stay cool. Whenever possible, avoid confrontation with powerful natural forces that can undo you. Join the mainstream and shape its power to your own ends. Point the prow gently into the strong current. Edge it out by degrees, delicately absorbing the impact of the surge against the gunwale. Then, as far as you can, go cheerfully with the flow. But don’t commit yourself unequivocally to the direction of the current, for it may lead into a fool’s bay or to disaster over a ledge … Coming troubles always announce themselves noisily. Be prepared to slow your forward progress momentarily, to back paddle, to ferry back and farther, dodging the silent sweepers or deadly logjams that await the careless. Practice flexibility at all times, not rigidity. Become part of the river; harness its force to control your speed and direction. In the worst of rapids, look sharp for openings to thread your fragile craft between granite and undertow and the large curling waves that can swamp you. Then, seeing the safe line, throw caution to the winds and dig hard for your objective. The calm, still pool on the other side will be your well-earned lasting reward.

Thanks, Greg MacEachern, I enjoyed every word!