Topic: Press and Public Relations

Guest Speaker: David Barkoe, Vice President and Director of Media Relations, Attention PR

Date: 10/31/07

1. David Barkoe's Bio

For nearly a decade, David Barkoe has developed, managed and executed strategic PR and media relations campaigns for some of the biggest and most recognized names in consumer products, technology, media, and sports. Utilizing his well honed media relations skills, David has produced results that have helped his clients achieve and exceed their PR and marketing goals.

David is currently Vice President and Director of Media Relations at Attention PR where he directs and manages traditional and online PR outreach for IAC’s Zwinktopia, Gifts.com, and iWon.com as well as for Do Something, Inc. and SchoolNet. Prior to Attention PR, David served as Account Director for RLM PR in New York City where he directed the day to day PR activities for a multitude of consumer, technology and media companies. David led the team that launched Consumer Reports first ever national advocacy campaign on extended warranties that saw coverage in USA Today, NY Post, LA Times, Fox News Channel, CNBC, among others. David also directed the launch of TutorVista.com, an Indian based online tutoring company , which was featured on ABC World News Tonight, the TODAY Show, and in Reuters, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere.

Prior to RLM, David served as Associate Vice President at The Sherry Group in Morristown, N.J., where he managed campaigns for LG Electronics I.T. Brand Division, Wenger Swiss Army, Adams U.S.A., the Tennis Industry Association and Akadema Professional, which helped each company increase sales and generate greater brand awareness.

From 2003-2005, David served as an Account Manager at Four Corners Communications in NYC where he directed all PR activities for MAXIM Magazine and Sporting News Magazine. Before Four Corners, David was an Account Executive at Trylon Communications where he led the launch of Microsoft’s Window’s 2000 and Windows ME operating systems and directed all grassroots PR outreach for NYC2012, New York’s 2012 Olympic Bid committee. David began his career at GCI Group in New York City where he assisted with outreach for Intel’s consumer products division as well as for Pharmacia & Upjohn’s Rogaine product outreach campaign.

2. 11 Great Take-Away Tips

1. Be Quick: Reporters have a short attention span and they don’t like to read very much. So the faster you can give them the information in an e-mail or by phone, the better. Right at the top of your e-mail, tell them who you are and what your project is and how it’s benefiting the community. You might even try putting it into bullet points that clearly define what your program is, what it’s doing, and why it’s a good story.

2. Keep in Touch: Public Relations is as a frequency medium. That means is that the more messages, the more pieces of news you can give to a reporter about something, the better. After your first contact, giving them frequent messages about what you’re working on. Reporters get so many e-mails from so many people trying to pitch their stories that if you keep giving them positive messages and keep giving them bits of news, it’s more likely that they’ll stay interested in your story.

3. A Picture is worth a Thousand Words: If you can’t get a full news story, try getting a photo. Call your local newspaper and asking for the photo desk, and at the photo desk say, “Listen, I have an event going on this weekend, it’s going to feature a lot of young people and I think it would be a great photograph for the newspaper.” They might not run a big story, but a great color photograph of your event is great press.

4. Kids Make Good Television: The one trick to television is, producers of television love nothing more than stories with kids helping kids, kids helping old people, kids helping the environment, kids helping animals. They love that stuff, so you guys have to make them aware of what you’re doing, because that will help get your story on television.

5. Get on the Calendar: Call your local radio station and ask them if they do community news listings on a daily or a weekly basis, of what’s going on in the community this week. E-mail them simple bullet points that give the time, the date, and the location of your event.

6. Reach out to Old People: You guys might pick up the local newspaper every day but a majority of young people don’t read their local newspaper or watch the local news. Try thinking about how parents might be able to get involved too, or even how you can encourage parents to get their kids to participate. For instance, if there are community service requirements at your school, you can say, parents, if you want your kids to fulfill their community service time, tell them to come out to our event this weekend.

7. Get on the Blogs: Go to Google Blog Search or Technorati (www.technorati.com) and search for blogs with like-minded social activism. Put in search terms for the issues you are involved in, and it’ll find all the blogs that talk about those similar things. Reach out to these blogs. If there’s something you see on a particular blog that interests you, comment on it. A lot of people think all bloggers don’t really like it when someone is trying to pitch them something, but if you go into a blog that you like and you want to comment on something, just do it completely honestly and openly—be authentic. That way, they’ll be more likely to appreciate what you say.

8. Be Yourself: The best way to talk to a reporter about your program is tell them your story the same way you would go about telling your friends and family. There’s a difference between talking simply, as if you were talking to your family and friends, and trying to sound like some expert Harvard graduate super scientist. That doesn’t work well because you could end up confusing yourself. So when you’re talking to a reporter or you’re pitching a reporter or you’re calling someone, just tell them your story and about your program as naturally as you possibly can.

9. Be Prepared: Try creating your own messaging. Sit down and write down on a piece of paper: What, Who, Why, and How? What is your program? Why were we created? Who is involved and how does it work? And you’ll see, if you create that messaging matrix, it will help you tell your story more simply.

10. Cooperate: When you’re working with a for-profit company, try to utilize their PR services as much as possible. For instance, if you’re working with a local restaurant, they probably have someone that does their publicity or marketing, so see if you can get them to help you out as well. If they don’t want to participate or they’re too busy, ask them if they know anybody at the local newspaper or if they’ve ever had any past coverage—maybe they can give you some contact information.

11. Don’t Give Up: It might be frustrating at the outset, in trying to get in touch with the press, but again, it’s a frequency medium. If you keep sending them new messages, just be good about looking at your local newspaper, checking the contacts page, reaching out to them continually whether through fax or e-mail about your news, you will make something happen. It does work. Keep at it, it’s not an easy thing do, but good luck!

3. Transcribed Q&A from call with David Barkoe of Attention PR

Q: I have media contacts only from the people who have contacted me. How do I get media contacts for people who haven't contacted me that I want to pitch?

A: The best thing you can do, and I’m sure you all do this already, is start off by picking up your local newspaper or tuning in to your local radio station or even your local TV station. Then check out the local news section and see if there are any stories in the local or the metro section about public grassroots organizations, about other young people doing things, about even adults that are doing non-profit or charity in the community. Read those articles and look at who the author of those articles is. Take a look at who that is, and there’s a few things you should ask.

Now, try to figure out how you can get the contact information for these folks. Every newspaper has a website, and pretty much all of the newspapers have some kind of contact page on the website, whether it’s general information or a full listing of all the people that work there. Check out those pages, it’ll usually give e-mail and phone information there. If it’s got the writer who wrote the story listed on that contact page, shoot him an e-mail. Tell him about yourself, tell him about your project, tell him that you just read his story, and you thought maybe he’d be interested in this as well. Send them some basic information and here’s a trick for working with reporters—reporters, even though they write a lot, have a very short attention span and they don’t like to read a lot. So the faster you can give them the information in an e-mail or by phone, the better. And by that I mean, right at the top of your e-mail, tell them who you are and what your project is and how it’s benefiting the community. You might even try putting it into bullet points that clearly define what your project is, what your program is, what it’s doing. Reporters like that. Like I said before, they don’t have a long attention span; they don’t like to read a lot. And that really helps them get the understanding of it in more simple terms.

Q: What should we do if we only have a media outlet’s general contact information?

A: It really depends. Some of the really small newspapers won’t have too much contact information, but they all should have a business phone number, the main headquarters’ phone number. But you can also, if they don’t have e-mail information, give them a call at that phone number, and when they answer, ask for the news desk. Once you get someone at the news desk, just really, simply tell them why you’re calling. Say, “Hi, I’m local; I have a great community action project that I’m working on this week. We’ve been working on it for a while and it’s doing a lot of good for the community. This would make a great story for the newspaper so people can be aware and maybe people can contribute and participate or start their own programs. Who can I talk to about my story?” And usually you’ll get somewhere—they’ll either say OK, send it to me, or they’ll say, send it to this person or they may even connect you by phone, directly to that person. So if you’re not getting anywhere with e-mail, try using the phone. Also, if they have a fax number, you can try writing up a quick note in the exact same way and fax it over to them and then follow up with a phone call as well.

Q: Do those contacts with the reporters have to come with lead-in or something that’s happening right now in the community or can it be something that’s just ongoing to let them know about the project and just establish a rapport with them?

A: Oh, it can be both. I think the way to think about Public Relations is as a frequency medium. That means is that the more messages, the more pieces of news you can give to a reporter about something, the better. So let’s say tomorrow you send a reporter an e-mail saying, hey you know what, we just had an event last week and it was really successful. We had 50 young people come out from the community and—let’s just give an example—help clean up a park. And next weekend we’re going to be cleaning up the local playground at the elementary school.

Then, make sure you send them another e-mail after the next event and keep giving them frequent messages because with reporters, the more they see something, the better. They get so many e-mails from so many people trying to pitch their stories that if you keep giving them positive messages and keep giving them bits of news, keeping them aware of what you’re doing, over time, probably by the end of that 3rd or 4th e-mail (maybe a little longer), the reporter’s going be like, "hey, you know what? I have some extra space in the newspaper this week and I need a good story, I remember that girl who sent me e-mails about this project going on downtown. Let me see if we can connect" —and he’ll probably give you a call. Because they’re going to think, you know what, this person kept in touch with me, it sounds like they’re doing really good things and it’s clear that they’re smart—and they’ll probably give you a call to find out more.

So, it can either be something that’s actionable and news-related or it can just be a general FYI thing: This is going on, keep an eye out for it, I’m going to stay in contact with you.

Q: How can I get the local press to cover my event?

A: There are two ways—obviously you can send them a quick media alert, just send an e-mail saying the event is going on to a specific reporter like we just talked about. Another good trick: every newspaper, whether it is a big newspaper or a small newspaper, has a photo desk. Basically, all of the photographers have their own kind of roster of events that they cover. You can try calling your local newspaper and asking for the photo desk, and at the photo desk say, "Listen, I have an event going on this weekend, it’s going to feature a lot of young people and I think it would be a great photograph for the newspaper this weekend." They’ll probably ask you to send more information. And that’s one way to get media—they might not run a big story, but a great color photograph saying this weekend, the so-and-so organization had an event, and you get the tag line that it’s your event.

Q: How about for television?

A: Most television networks, whether it be local or national (mostly local), have contact information listed on their websites, and they’ll have some kind of e-mail there. And if they don’t, call the main number, and ask for the news desk. Usually when you call a television station and you get the news desk, the person who answers will be an assignment reporter, and that person is in charge of assigning reporters or producers with what news story they’re going to go after or report on that evening, that day, that week. If you can reach out to them and say, "hey, we’ve got a great event going on this weekend, we’d love for you guys to come out, maybe come out and have the local weather guy do the weather from our event or just come and do a quick interview with the local kids," and tell them the story in the same way as you told the newspapers—they’ll probably ask you to send an e-mail—and just bullet point out for them why they should be interested in your event, why they should come, and why it would make good television.

The one trick to television is, producers of television love nothing more than stories with kids helping kids, kids helping old people, unfortunately you know, anything dealing with kids that are ill, helping the environment, they especially love anything uniting the environment and young people, they love that stuff. Anything with pets or animals or kids, I know it sounds funny, but they love it, I mean you watch the news, you see—every year they show the picture of the waterskiing squirrel. You’ll always see that story. Or you’ll see something about kids that go out with their pets. They love that stuff, so you guys have to make them aware. And again, it’s frequency, if they don’t come out the first time, make sure you send them the news the second time, the third time, even the fourth. Keep calling, keep trying to find the e-mail contact, and then try in that direction. So that would be a successful way as well, especially with broadcast. And again, even with print just do the same thing.

Q: And radio?

A: Reach out to your local radio station. Call and ask for the news producer of your local radio station. Ask them if they do community news listings on a daily or a weekly basis, of what’s going on in the community this week. They’ll probably tell you yes—most do—and they’ll ask you to fax over or e-mail some information. And again, e-mail the simple bullet points that give the time, the date, the location, what’s going on, who’s going to be there, especially if you have any local officials at your event—mayor, councilman, or whoever there might be, principals, teachers that might be there—let them know that, they like to hear that those people are involved in projects. So those are just a few tips in terms of your event and getting folks to come and getting press to cover the event, whether it is just a listing or having them actually cover it as well.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the media outlets, locally, especially TV and newspaper, it’s more the parents that are reading it, and the popular radio stations are pretty corporate-controlled and the ads are expensive.

Q: How can a grassroots community organization best work with local media to effectively reach teens?

A: That’s a very good question. That’s something that we struggle with. You guys might pick up the local newspaper every day but a majority of young people don’t read their local newspaper or don’t watch the local news because they don’t get their news from those places, they get them from the web and things like that. But I think you can try talking about how parents might be able to get involved too, or even encouraging parents to get their kids to participate. For instance, if there are requirements in your high school or in your college for community action or community service, you can go at it that way. You can say, "parents, if you want your kids to fulfill their community service time or community action time, get them to come out to our event this weekend, or our drive this weekend." So even that’s kind of encouraging the parents to get their kids involved. It certainly is a challenge to get people to react and respond, so hopefully parents pass these things along or at least kids see it somehow—some newspapers do have teen and youth sections.

Just for example, the Atlanta Herald-Constitution has an All About Kids section—the Kansas City Star. Some of your newspapers may have teen/youth writers; you can try to reach out to those folks as well. And they might be able to help with reaching teenagers or at least reaching young people. This is another way as well. When you call the newspaper, just ask if they have a teen or a youth events writer or a youth action writer or, you know, youth issues—those kinds of things. Even parenting writers could be people to reach out to—it could be a matter of how to get your kids involved in a cause.

So, that’s another way. Hopefully that helps, but it certainly is a challenge these days.

Q: How can I use the social media and internet to market my organization/event?

A: Sure, obviously social is the way to go these days. I have to imagine most of you have Facebook pages or Myspace pages. There are ways for Do Something to send out bulletins from your facebook page or from your myspace page, looking out for similarly like-minded groups or organizations. Also, another thing you can do is a quick blog check. You can go to Google Blog Search and there’s also a website called Technorati (www.technorati.com). Here, you can search for blogs with like-minded social activism. You can go on that and put in search terms for the issues you are involved in, and it’ll find all the blogs that talk about those similar things. Then you can reach out to those blogs. If there’s something you see on a particular blog, and there’s the comment section below, you can go and put in your comment. A lot of people think all bloggers don’t really like it when someone is trying to pitch them something, but if you go into a blog that you like and you want to comment on something, just do it completely honestly and openly—be authentic. Say, "I just read your story; you guys should also check out this website, we’re a local organization that does such-and-such." That should enter the conversation, and that might link people over to your website, or might get people e-mailing you or contacting you.

That’s a really simple method we’ve had a lot of success with at Do Something in recent months—there are a lot of people who go link back to Do Something, and those links get passed along. A lot of people are going to Do Something, and the site traffic goes up, people are talking about it more and more in the blogosphere—about the organization, the Del Monte grants, the KeySpan grants—so we’ve had a lot of success with that and it can work for you guys as well. You can also look for blogs online that relate to what your cause is, and then reach out to them the way you reach out to the media. Do it by email; most blogs have contact information. Tell them about your project; they might write about it. Send them information, send them pictures.

Q: What are some tips on giving press interviews?

A: In terms of kids like you giving press interviews, I’m going to tell you guys the same thing I was telling the executive of a Fortune 500 company. The best way to talk to a reporter about your program is tell them your story the same way you would go about telling your friends and family. Keep it simple; just like if you were telling your mom what you did at school today. There’s a difference between talking simply, as if you were talking to your family and friends, and trying to sound like some expert Harvard graduate super scientist. That doesn’t work well because you could end up confusing yourself. So when you’re talking to a reporter or you’re pitching a reporter or you’re calling someone, just tell them your story and about your program as simply and as naturally as you possibly can.

Another good tip is to try to create your own messaging. Sit down, take a look at what your project is, what your program is. Sit down and write down on a piece of paper: What, Who, Why, and How? What is your program? Why were we created? Who is involved and how does it work? And you’ll see, if you create that messaging matrix, it will help you tell your story more simply.

So, for example: What is Do Something? Do Something is a not-for-profit that inspires teenagers to change the world. Why? Because young people are more and more active and need a place for resources, information, and grant money. Who? Do Something is made up of over however many young people who have all chosen what their something is. How? Dosomething.org, where there’s resources, information on grants, information on what celebrities and famous people are doing as well. So if you take those simple messages, it will help you tell your story more simply and more succinctly when you’re reaching out to the press, or even reaching out to possible donors or organizations to get grant money or seed money—it’ll help you tell your story more succinctly to them so that people grasp the concept more quickly.

Q: In our own PR efforts, we often want to include pictures of teens participating in our work, as well as sometimes their writing or quotes from them. Even through we use parental consent forms, I'm still worried about posting images or other reproductions of their likeness online. What are the legal liabilities here?

A:Consent forms should be enough, as long as the consent form says clearly (and it doesn’t have to be long or drawn out): We are going to take your picture at this event and we’re going to use this picture for our own internal and external publicity purposes and there is the possibility that this picture could be published online and possibly in newspapers or elsewhere. If they sign it, I’m pretty sure that pretty much covers you guys. Obviously it can be difficult to get people to sign these things—they’re afraid that they’re signing their life away, which is kind of silly sometimes. Obviously you guys are not a large multinational organization, you’re not using them for the wrong purposes, you might put it on your own website or talk to a reporter who asks, Hey will you send me a picture of what’s going on? You shouldn’t get in too much trouble; nobody is going to sue you—unless of course you’re using your pictures in the wrong way! But, if you can get them to sign a consent form, you should be OK.

Q: What tactics do you recommend for a non-profit when co-branding a service/product with a for-profit company?

A: In terms of tactics for promoting that partnership, I would certainly tell you to utilize their PR services as much as possible. If you’re working with, let’s just say a local restaurant, they probably have someone that does their publicity or marketing…see if you can get them to help you out as well. Say, hey, can you help us reach out to the local newspaper; we’d like to announce this. Or if they don’t want to participate or they’re too busy, ask them if they know anybody at the local newspaper or if they’ve ever had any past coverage—maybe they can give you some contact information. Also try to get your organization’s information on their website, see if they want to do any events, or if they just want to leverage their name as much as possible when you guys do your own outreach. So, certainly that helps as well. If you plan on doing everything personally but with a partnership with a for-profit organization, try to get a quote from an executive from that for-profit organization, something really simple that says something like, “we’re very happy to be working with this organization; they’ve done a lot for the community, et cetera, et cetera.”

Q: Any final tips?

A: I just want to say that, PR-wise, reporters, producers, and media outlets are always looking for good stories. It might be frustrating at the outset, in trying to get in touch with them, but again, it’s a frequency medium. If you keep sending them new messages, just be good about looking at your local newspaper, checking the contacts page, reaching out to them continually whether through fax or e-mail about your news, you will make something happen. It does work. I’ve seen it work over and over again for big companies, small companies. I’ve seen it work for Do Something. A particular example with Do Something—Nancy Lublin really wanted to get in the Wall Street Journal, and then finally this summer we had three stories in the Wall Street Journal! So it’s just a matter of time and energy, and getting your message out to the right people. And certainly, if any of you have additional questions for me, you can feel free to send me an e-mail, dbarkoe@attentionpr.com. So feel free to email me any questions whatsoever and I can help you guys going forward. So all I can say is good luck, keep at it, it’s not an easy thing do, especially not PR, it’s definitely not easy, but good luck!