Fifteen years in the newsroom taught me that journalists are called on to be knowledgeable on a variety of subjects and experts in practically none on a daily basis. Deadlines and relentless editors tend to dictate as such.

This presents a glorious opportunity for savvy public relations professionals.

To the rescue are online services that allow newspaper journalists – not to mention the hundreds of other writers, including bloggers, freelancers, book authors, producers, the occasional stoned slacker, etc. – to submit interview requests for experts (i.e. PR clients) or real-life subjects (i.e. PR clients) on their topic du jour. Popular connectors are ProfNet and Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

The majority of queries are legitimate and offer a virtual gold mine for industrious – and quick-thinking – PR folks to secure media coverage for the people who pay their salaries.

Some requests, however, are rather odd.

A valuable lesson can be learned from the following sampling of unusual requests: For PR professionals, nothing is impossible when dreaming of client coverage; for journalists and related ilk – y’all can be just plain cray. The below requests (names of publications withheld to protect the not-so-innocent) are rated on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being “Kanye West Krazy.”

Note: These queries were culled from only the past month or so.

Category: Health
Subject: Drunk eyes
Outlet: National news website
Quick synopsis: Writer was wondering: Is there a physiological explanation for what we’re terming “drunk eyes?” Writer’s theory was that alcohol causes muscles, including the ones surrounding the eyes, to relax, and sought an expert to confirm this.
Kanye West Krazy Scale Rating: 4

Category: Lifestyle and Fitness
Subject: Taboo: oral sex
Outlet: Radio show
Quick synopsis: Oral sex is taboo, but why? Everyone does it, but it’s such a big secret! (Emphasis not added).
Kanye West Krazy Scale Rating: 5

Category: Health
Subject: Sneezing
Outlet: Women’s health website
Quick synopsis: The article will cover five things a person might not know about sneezing. For example, plucking your eyebrows can make you sneeze. Caveat: For each sneeze factoid or scenario, writer needs any applicable science to delve into the how and why.
Kanye West Krazy Scale Rating: 6

Category: Home
Subject: Waxing a toilet bowl with car wax
Outlet: National magazine geared toward women
Quick synopsis: Writer needed to chat quickly with a plumber to confirm if waxing your toilet bowl with car wax is safe.
Kanye West Krazy Scale Rating: 8

Category: Lifestyle and Fitness
Subject: Looking for people with fetishes/dungeons/kinks
Outlet: Anonymous
Quick synopsis: Verbatim: “Do you have a not-so-secret fetish? Do you have a dungeon, swing or other elaborate sexual set-ups in your home? If your freak flag flies proudly, you and your frisky pad could be featured on a new series for a major network!”
Kanye West Krazy Scale Rating: 9 (Editor’s note: Be wary of “anonymous” outlets. But at least this query would fulfill both lifestyle and fitness categories).

So take heart, PR professionals, when you’re at rock bottom and in desperate need of a client hit, you never know when that tailor-made query might arrive in your mailbox, gift-wrapped and ready.

And for you journalists, take comfort in the fact you’ll always have a fertile audience.

Calling Kanye…

During a pre-tour conversation, we mentioned that an insatiable thirst to consume information—reading national and local media outlets, trade publications, blogs, etc.—was one of the most important, and perhaps most overlooked characteristics of a good PR pro. When we asked these budding PR practitioners what media outlets they consumed regularly, their responses caught me a bit off-guard. Nearly every one of them named Twitter as one of their top sources for media consumption.

Now, before I launch into my rant, I’d like to preface it by noting that like everyone else on the planet, I recognize the power of Twitter and the positive impact it has made on media and society as a whole. It’s also an invaluable tool for PR pros; not only for engaging with reporters, but for engaging with publics. But it should NEVER be considered a top source for consuming media. By anybody. Ever.

Can Twitter break big stories? Yes. It was widely reported that news of Osama bin Laden’s death broke on Twitter and that Whitney Houston’s death hit Twitter 27 minutes before the press. But how many times has Bill Cosby been reported dead on Twitter? After one particularly viral episode of Cosby’s demise (there have been several), TV’s Dr. Huxtable went so far as to call in to “Larry King Live” to echo Mark Twain’s famous sentiments regarding the reports of his death. This is an admittedly silly example of how Twitter “news” is propagated, but it’s a solid representation of Twitter’s validity, or lack of validity as a reliable source of information.

I realize I’m not breaking any new ground by chalking Twitter up as a dubious source of information, and that the vast majority of people know to seek information from other outlets; but knowing and doing are quite different. Today, it’s estimated that you’re likely to spend more than 11 hours consuming information—reading blog posts like this, watching TV, flipping through a magazine, or grazing on your Twitter feed. If you sit in front of a computer screen for most of your day, you’re probably spending even more than 11 hours a day. But if you’re spending the majority of your time on Twitter, you’re not getting the full story.

What does this mean for our PRSSA friends from Bloomington and soon-to-be PR pros everywhere? I’d urge you to take advantage of the staggering amount of information that’s readily available. According to storage company EMC, there is presently 800,000 petabytes (a million gigabytes per petabyte) in the storage universe, and according to the University of California in San Diego, American homes consume nearly 3.6 zettabytes (a million petabytes per zettabyte) of information per day.

Read as much as you can from varying sources. When you enter the PR world, the only way you’re going to be good at what you do is by immersing yourself in your clients’ industries so I can spot trends before they do and recommend strategies that will allow them to stay ahead of the curve. You can’t do that if you’re only consuming information in 140-character nibbles; especially if those few characters are wildly inaccurate. Just ask the aforementioned purveyor of pudding pops.

What do you think? Is Twitter a legitimate source for news? Or is it just a starting point that can tip you off to story so you can investigate further?

During a panel at SXSW in early March, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, did more than hint at the intention of Google’s Panda rollout:

“We are trying to level the playing field a bit. All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly SEO—versus those making great content and great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, whether they throw too many keywords on a page, or whether they exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect in a particular area. It is an active area where we have several engineers on my team working on this right now.”

On March 23, Google released Panda 3.4., announcing the update via Twitter:
So what’s the big deal? Well, if you’re not an SEO cheater, Panda 3.4 won’t do you any harm—it may even improve your rank since overly optimized sites will be taking a hit. But there are plenty of cheaters in the search marketing world who employ blackhat link building schemes such as creating paid backlinks from blogs without genuine content. In fact, there are entire blog networks that allow users to distribute their keyword stuffed “articles” to hundreds of different blogs to quickly (and unethically) generate hundreds of backlinks. If you need some help determining the legitimacy of your SEO efforts, Douglas Karr, CEO of DK New Media offers some great tips on how to discover an SEO cheater in your midst.

Essentially, GoogleBots used to scan website content to determine its relevance. So if you had a website about underwater basket weaving, Google would be looking for repeated use of the phrase “underwater basket weaving.” Sites with the most relevant keywords would then get ranked highly. But there wasn’t much Google could do to determine the quality of the content aside from counting the number of backlinks to those sites. As a result, link building schemes became all the rage.

With Panda, GoogleBots don’t just “scan” website content, they can practically read content. It’s no longer useful to have hundreds of backlinks from overly optimized sites; Google’s looking for the best—and only the best—to put on page one. Simply put, if your website isn’t up to that standard, it’s going to get removed.

This is really bad news for SEO cheaters and great news for PR pros. Focusing solely on the benefits of PR as they relate to SEO, the purpose of PR is to facilitate link building by creating genuine backlinks from sites that create high-quality content—national and local media outlets, trade publications, and blogs and other news outlets of considerable repute. When our clients are featured on CNN or Mashable, there’s no risk that an algorithm update from Google is going to render those backlinks worthless. It’s a simple matter of quality vs. quantity that will make the difference between page No.1 of Google’s search results, and being buried in the double digits.

Twitter is a great platform used by individuals and businesses alike, but it can be challenging to come up with a way to create tweets that are relevant, interesting and carry substance. Working at one of Indianapolis’ top PR agencies, I’m often tasked with running social media campaigns for various clients. All too often, we come across Twitter accounts that are lacking or being used inefficiently.  With social media being a key ingredient in the majority of successful communication strategies, it’s our job to make sure our clients’ accounts don’t fail.

When using Twitter for your business, here are six great tips to keep in mind.

1. Define your purpose and goals. Twitter isn’t just a way to drive people to your website; it’s about the creation of interactions between people and organizations. Before creating your client’s account, discuss how Twitter will be used to achieve those goals.
2. Create links to your website or blog. It is okay to let people know where to find out more information about your client or to share links showcasing a recent award or media coverage, just be sure to go easy on tooting your own horn. Again, Twitter isn’t about me, me, me (at least not for companies which want effectively engage with their followers!); it’s about using social media to interact with others and form beneficial relationships.
3. Keep up with the buzz in your industry. Don’t just post about what your company is doing, ask questions and interact with others within the industry. Twitter is great for getting opinions about new technology, products and ideas, remembering too, that it’s an open market.
4. Network with like-minded people. By following people with similar thoughts and passions, there’s a good chance you’ll find a way to create even more connections with those who follow that person. Make sure to engage your followers and those you follow by commenting on their tweets or retweeting what others have posted. Get other tweeps to notice you. If you build contacts, you potentially have the opportunity to build revenue for your company as well.
5. Show some personality! This is the perfect opportunity to cultivate your client’s voice. Yes you are limited to 140 characters, but that doesn’t mean that all tweets have to be matter-of-fact statements. Speak freely and let humor come through from time to time; followers and those who aren’t following yet will notice and appreciate it. If your tweets are too boring or include too much jargon or promotional-speak, you will get unfollowed by many.
6. Use #hashtags correctly. For those who don’t know Twitter speak, the # symbol is a hashtag, and is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. You can do searches for different topics, for example a simple search for #winning will yield you hundreds of tweets and very few will be from Charlie Sheen. Not every tweet needs to have hashtags, so remember to use them only on tweets relevant to the topic. Also, don’t use hashtags that are too generic or hashtags that can be related to something completely different than your client.

For example, MapMyFITNESS, an app that allows users to live healthy and active lifestyles by tracking their fitness, could use haghtags like #fitness or #mobileapp. The hashtag #map would be too broad.

To date, Twitter has more than 200 million users and is a valid and valuable platform to engage and interact with others. With the potential to reach anyone in the world with only 140 characters, it’s important to make sure the message you’re sending to followers is clear cut and easy to understand. Most importantly, make sure each tweet is representative of your brand and your company; handling a company account is not the time to discuss your personal life or what you had for breakfast.

When used correctly Twitter can build brand awareness, increase networks and boost revenue; it’s quite the powerful little bird.

I’ve found that these three skills, among others, are essential to being a successful PR pro on a daily basis. The catch? They aren’t necessarily something you’ll pick up in a classroom environment.

Multitasking  
I can’t begin to count the times I was encouraged to focus on one thing at a time and scorned for multitasking – in or out of the classroom. Truth is, if you cannot multitask, you simply cannot survive a day in public relations. Especially in a top Indy agency, PR executives must be comfortable thinking on their feet while also managing more than one project (for more than one client) all at the same time. Say, pitching four different story angles to media contacts nationwide, while prepping a press release, finalizing an expert byline and managing multiple social media accounts. Phew!

Communication never stops, so multitasking can carry past the 9-to-5 window. No matter what the demand or deadline, it’s important to know what skill sets are required for each task and when.

Persistence
PR pros can’t be scared of a little rejection. Some days it might feel as if you all you hear is ‘no,’ but the ability to turn a negative response into a positive one is a skill that can go a long way. If your pitch wasn’t enough to catch their attention for a story, how you respond to the rejection might open the door for another opportunity.

You can’t be afraid to put yourself out there, get on the phone, follow up (respectfully), or be put on the spot. The ratio of hits to misses might be discouraging; however, fearlessness is your friend when it comes to public relations, media relations and communication.

Creativity
Staying on top of trends, in addition to new media outlets, isn’t always easy. The daily grind of media relations calls for new angles to promote your clients, both creatively and consistently.

PR pros that follow relevant blogs, news outlets, vertical markets and the like are most successful with media relations. Unfortunately, that can only take you so far – so, go-getter personalities, creative minds and proactive ambitions makes the difference between stagnant and flourishing PR.

Have more essential skills PR pros should know about? Share with us on Dittoe PR’s Facebook page.

But for a few brief moments, before she shredded the “Running Man” and before the ill-fitting tiara proclaiming her queen of the freshman dance wrapped around her head in an awkward embrace of rhinestone angst, she represented rejection. Shrill, Vanilla Ice-voice inducing pain aimed at the gut.

Why did she embody such torture to be compared to the worst in White Boy rap? Because, at the last moment, after her date had clipped on the hand-me-down tie and tucked it underneath the previously-worn beige vest that rested underneath the oversized jacket of his Goodwill suit, she called to say she would not be arriving at the dance in his arms. The corsage fell from his hand. He was crushed.

But he would have redemption among his peers. Her bony hand in his sweaty palm at midnight felt like jewels that might slip away with the slightest tug – for he was king of the freshman dance.

The same awkward ritual plays out in modern-day PR offices around the world. Flacks spend hours crafting the perfect pitch with the hopes of luring that sequined journalist to the dance floor, only to be flirted with – sometimes outright rejected, inducing epic mascara runs  – and left wondering if their date will show. But when he does, he gleams like Deney Terrio (look him up kids) and spins their PR dreams to all corners of the media world, their client gladly clapping in the background while clasping a stogie.

It’s a tumultuous relationship. Fifteen years spent in the bowels of a newspaper – the last nine in the newsroom of a major metro – saw the dance played out on every stage imaginable.  From the journalist’s perspective, it begins with annoyance, because, like that skinny rail of a freshman weighed down with Coke-bottle glasses, the PR pro might as well not even exist. The truth hurts like a bad 90s ballad.

PR pros would do best to not take it personally. They wail in pain, “Why won’t this (expletive) reporter respond to my emails? Why is this (expletive) ignoring me? This. Is. A. Great. (Expletive). Story!” The beating of breast commences. The truth? Your story sucks worse than White Lion’s “When the Children Cry.” And like that crappy ballad, your pitch took up four minutes of valuable time and singed ears.

The news hole has shrunk. Air time has been squeezed. As a PR pro, you have to realize that reporters get exponentially more emails than requests you receive to brainstorm ways to publicize your clients.

Think outside the dance floor. Remember that scene in “Back to the Future” when Marty McFly’s image is slowly fading from the photo? That’s traditional journalism. Be the smacker that George McFly plants on Lorraine at the “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance to resurrect Marty’s “Johnny B. Goode” electricity by offering digital/social media avenues, like video easily attached to a website. The news cycle has evolved, so capitalize on the social media-driven world of people checking smart phones before the early morning bathroom break. The best part of waking up is your client’s news alert.

Like the king who overcame rejection, do not take a reporter’s distaste of you personally.

At the end of the night, with his second-hand suit crumpled in a heap near his Sega Genesis game console, the freshman king of the dance stared at his bedroom ceiling. Vanilla Ice was a distant memory. He could still feel the queen’s soft lips on his cheek, the pat of classmates’ hands on his back.

Rejection can be so sweet.

According to CareerCast, public relations executives make the list of the top ten most stressful jobs. They cite several reasons for the 47.56 stress score that ranks PR at number seven, but compared to the stress score of an enlisted soldier, it’s not so bad.

As a seasoned PR pro navigating her daily life in this demanding yet exhilarating field, I’ve come to learn the ups and downs of the industry. Even though stress can present itself every day and with each individual client, I’ve found my career choice to be incredibly rewarding.  Although an array of reasons have been discussed following the news, I wanted to take a minute to provide my very own.

1. The never-ending workday. In our line of work, there’s no such thing as down time. There is always media coverage to be obtained, so work becomes an ongoing process with no clear end in sight. Fortunately, this means something new each time you step in the Dittoe PR office.
2. The love/hate battle with to-do lists. Many public relations employees find that a to-do list is a great way to stay organized and keep on task with what’s expected of you that day. It is orderly and outlined, but it will most often get disrupted by something that is out of your control. When interruptions occur that cause your list to get thrown out with the lunch you don’t have time to eat, it is important to remember to stay flexible and go with the flow. In PR, your daily plans can change with one email or phone call, and it’s much easier to welcome disruptions rather than fight them.
3. The lack of control. Clients are all different, but without them, our jobs wouldn’t exist. Unrealistic expectations and deadlines are just a few of the ways clients contribute to our anxiety. Or, is it insanity? Of course, a lack of control also comes with the media. Knowing that you have briefed and prepped your relevant media members is a surefire way to outsmart the stress. Preparation is an integral component of any project in public relations, and you’d be surprised by the difference it can actually make in the day-to-day life of a PR enthusiast.
4. The need to become an expert many times over. It’s not easy to deliver big-time results, but investing valuable time in research leads to increased knowledge and insight pertaining to clients, their competitors and overall industries. From healthcare to tech startups to education, PR pros are required to cover a lot of ground when it comes to having a well-rounded viewpoint on each client’s industry. What many quickly realize is the scope of work keeps you on your toes at all times. Although I’ve had my share of stress-filled days, weeks and months, there is no better reward than seeing the fruits of your labor with a client’s name in the headlines. With the expansive responsibilities come a season professional readied to take on any client’s requests.

NEWS
PR News: By studying the industry, PR News provides you with the trends and programs in play in PR, including what’s working now and how you can be more successful in your job.

PUBLIC RELATIONS
Beyond the Hype: Self-described as a vehicle to talk about how to do PR right, this blog focuses on the changing approaches in PR, and offers practical and prescriptive guidance on using new digital tools as part of integrated communications strategies.

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
Journalistics: At the intersection of public relations and journalism, you’ll find stories, writing advice, ethics, media, online journalism and more.

SOCIAL MEDIA
PR-Squared: Recognized globally as a social media & public relations innovator, thinker and lecturer, Todd Defren blogs about social media and marketing.

PR PROFESSIONALS
Steven Silvers: Described as one of the nation’s top related PR bogs, Silvers has a veteran reputation as a communications strategist. His blog counsels corporate and nonprofit clients on public relations, issues and crisis management.

With more than just a good press release at stake, today’s public relations professional has to be knowledgeable on online reputation management, blogger outreach, industry news, communication trends and social media. These five blogs offer some of the best advice and topics to keep you in the know!

According to a PRSA/MWW Group study released last month, 93 percent of top executives say they think public relations is just as important to their companies as other forms of communication like marketing and advertising. Well would you look at that!

The study, which gathered information from more than 200 companies, also found that 97 percent of business leaders surveyed think that CEOs should understand the role of corporate reputation management and 98 percent say they think it’s important for other C-level execs to have some knowledge of PR skills.

Click for more information on the PRSA MBA Initiative and to see the full infographic

Many of our clients’ key executives have differing views about PR. Some are well versed, asking pointed questions about strategic outreach and ad rate values. Others are happy just to see their names in headlines. As PR professionals, it is helpful to have client contacts who understand the business, and know how many hours of work can go into one or two good media hits. If those contacts understand that a great feature in a top publication is worth a little waiting, it’s likely they understand the return on investment that PR provides.

The truth is advertising and marketing are not always enough. Consumers want facts and can often recognize propaganda. Seeing a makeup brand that’s been advertised in well-produced TV commercials simply can’t have the same effect on a woman as seeing it recommended by an editor at her favorite magazine. Good PR builds credibility and increases brand recognition. Some marketers believe PR to be the toughest discipline to measure ROI. But for those of our clients who track the website clicks following a big media hit, the boost is almost always obvious.

C-level executives can be as involved or uninvolved with their company’s PR efforts as they like. While it’s beneficial to have an open and communication-driven relationship, we can handle C-level execs who would prefer to be out of the loop. What we do hope those business leaders understand is that yes, PR does cost money, but it’s worth it if you’re using a top PR firm. In the end, PR makes executives’ lives easier. We build brand recognition, increase visibility and help bring marketing efforts full circle by spreading key messages. Plus we act as researchers, writers, social media experts and company spokespeople: talk about bang for your buck!

From my standpoint, this study demonstrates a positive shift. As PR pros we have always known we need our clients. It’s good to know that our clients are seeing our efforts more and more as a need as well.

As the director of business development for one of the country’s best high-tech PR firms, I get to meet a lot of cool startups (check out Quipol, uFlavor and Musical DNA). Now, it’s fair to say that most startups (at least the ones that I have had the pleasure of meeting) have limited budgets for marketing. My advice? Rather than trying to do everything right off the cuff, invest in one form of marketing and do it well.  Here is why I believe, that for startups, PR should be the single-line item in their marketing budget for 2012.

Creates brand awareness. PR is the quickest way to share your brand’s story with the masses. Consumers look to the media for insight on the latest and greatest.  Receiving editorial coverage on TechCrunch, Mashable, Rolling Stone, The New York Times or WIRED can catapult your brand to a whole new level.

Builds authority in search. It’s no secret that a successful PR campaign can boost your SEO. That’s why I asked our partner Douglas Karr, CEO of DK New Media, author of “Corporate Blogging for Dummies” and founder of the Marketing Tech Blog, for his thoughts on the subject.

“Much of the Internet, including what you see in search results and promoted socially is found and ranked based on authority. In search, authority is measured in backlinks from authority sites.  In social, the voice is amplified further based on the authority of the person talking about it. Since authority isn’t something that a startup has, it’s something they have to acquire. While it is possible for a startup to build authority without help, it takes months to see any gainful results. This is crucial to the health of a startup. The reason why we push a public relations strategy with all of our startup clients is because they’re able to jumpstart their authority online by actively getting in front of influencers. PR also trickles down, providing great backlinks in search results and tons of attention socially. Public relations should be a foundation for all startups. In other words, our startup clients are able to get to market faster and get greater results quicker with a PR strategy than without.”

Saves valuable time. When you’re at the helm of a startup, you’re wearing a hundred different hats.  When you’re responsible for everything from coding to customer retention strategies, chances are PR will slip to the bottom of your endless to do list.  When you hire a PR agency, you’ll have a dedicated person or team devoted to PR responsibilities.

“As any entrepreneur who has dabbled in PR knows, it’s incredibly time-consuming to research the appropriate media outlets for their startup, find the right contacts at each media outlet, develop attention-getting pitches, write press releases and follow up with writers to see coverage through,” says Lauren Sanders, partner and vice president of account services at Dittoe PR.  “With a PR agency, you’re able to take a very time-consuming role off your plate and focus on other areas of the business that need your attention.”

Helps define your brand. In addition to the time factor, another great reason to hire a PR agency for your startup is to get an unbiased yet knowledgeable perspective on how to best position your startup to the press.

“As an entrepreneur, you get so close to your ‘baby’ that it can be difficult to take a step back and determine the best way to describe your startup to the media,” says Sanders.  

A PR professional is constantly communicating with a variety of media outlets, journalists and bloggers and they have a keen sense of what certain outlets and reporters respond to best and what they would find interesting about your startup.

Garners attention from investors. As you can probably tell, we’re no stranger to working with startups. We’ve had more than one client catch the eye of venture capitalists through media coverage that we have secured for them on sites like Venture Beat, Tech Crunch, WIRED.com and Mashable. After all, the best way to get noticed by top investors is to get out there and make some noise.