Inspired by a Speech on Kindness and a Decal Application Task, I Raised My Hand for a Bigger 2024 PRSA Management Role

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Michelle McIntyre

I enjoyed being a part of the PRSA Silicon Valley team in 2023 and that was especially true the night of the annual Media Predicts event Dec. 6th at The Grand Bay Hotel on Redwood Shores.

I had so much fun I raised my hand to be vice president of marketing for the chapter this year. In other news, Tara Thomas stepped up and will continue in the programs executive role. Yay team and I’m already looking forward to Media Predicts 2024. In other big news my South Bay buddy Mike Sanchez took on the PRSA SV Secretary role.

Part of the reason I like volunteering is that I’m a freelancer: PRSA SV gives me teammates and dare I say, friends. Face it. We do develop friendships at work. You spend 30 to 60 hours a week working so this is goodness.

I have partnered with other freelancers to serve clients and pitch prospects. I recommend it; the slight downside is you DM a lot which is time consuming. This could be an upside if you are friends. Having a bad day? Message your freelancer partner for a few kind words of support.

Truth be told, I also made friends working with my 2023 robotics software client. Our interviews were in person (TechCrunch’s Brian Heater, Mercury News’s Sal Pizarro, several broadcast. Shameless plug, i know.) and it gave me a chance to better get to know them.

Anyhoo… back to Media Predicts. Head of programs Tara noticed my early arrival to the hotel and relaxed stance. Someone had plopped a glass of wine in my hand so I looked pretty ‘cushy.’

Everyone else is running around setting up with serious looks on their faces. Meghan Fintland was on stage practicing her welcome. Jeannie Entin was helping the 11 student volunteers get situated.

My typical volunteer roles are writing and editing: I’m an extrovert and it’s hard for me to ‘focus’ during events. Give me a great meal and a dance floor. The food was surprisingly good and we did leverage the dance floor and DJ at Media Predicts.

Flashback memory of another volunteer gig: I tried to staff the welcome table at a TEDxSanJoseCA event but was quickly pulled off because an attendee wanted to have a deeper conversation. I did better handling the publicity. At Santana Row, KTVU interviewed Gold Medalist Swimmer and Speaker Dana Vollmer. Dana who held the Gold Medal in the butterfly overcame a heart defect. The same reporter interviewed a scout leader when I volunteered at council. I enjoy working with broadcast. (Shout out to Sharon Chin, Scott Budman; the list of on-air friends whom I greatly respect goes on and on.)

Back to MP23. Tara quickly assigned me to window decal application. That went fine and the space looked captivating with the next level decor including the lit-up letters spelling PRSA. (Tara: The S is in my garage. Readers please see the S photo below.)

I finally felt useful on event night and the decals were not crooked. Yessss.

5 Honorees

Who got awards that night? PRSA Silicon Valley Chapter President Meghan Fintland and President-elect Jeannie Entin presented awards to three PR professionals, Camille Clark and Alannah McDermott co-honorees for Board Member of the Year and Jeremiah Lineberger who achieved the Young Professionals Award. An older person can win because the point is to be new to PR. In fact to this day I have no idea how old Jeremiah is.

Former National PRSA President Gerry Corbett presented David Vossbrink with his PRSA Fellows Medallion. I was honored to be at Gerry and David’s MP23 table. (Some of my awesome table mates are below.)

Kindness Counts, According to Honoree

Global PR Powerhouse Yvette Noel-Schure was presented the chapter President’s Unity and Purpose Award by Rochelle Nadhiri.

Noel-Schure’s award acceptance comments brought audience members to tears. The comment that stuck with me the most is, “The secret sauce is to continue to operate in kindness.”

She mentioned several entertainers that she represents including Chloe X Halle, John Legend, and Jessica Simpson. Yvette Noel-Schure spent most of 2023 as the publicist for Beyoncé’s record-breaking Renaissance World Tour. To my friends who like Prince: She represented him too!

The 2023 Media Predicts panel included Moderator Rochelle Nadhiri, Shawn Chitnis, Connie Guglielmo, Kayli Hays and Eric Savitz. That story with their comments is here.

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Who am I? I’m Michelle McIntyre, the new PRSA SV VP of marketing, a PR freelancer, IBM vet, and author of this story. I’m accepting new clients in 2024. Please hit me up for a breakfast meeting to discuss how to get your business attention. I like Bell Tower cafe in Saratoga. If you don’t want to talk about work, the drinks at night option works too. I love going up to Berkeley!

Be aware that PRSA Silicon Valley is devoted to diversity and mentoring. We invite you to get involved and check the website for new scholarship opportunities. Proceeds from MP23 went to diversity programs.

Photo credit: I took them with my iPhone 14 Pro. Camile Clark took the first photo selfie-style. I can’t remember who took the one of the group of us but it was taken with my iPhone.

How a Stunning Photograph Can Lead to Media Coverage

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Michelle McIntyre

I often remind my PR clients and CEO friends to create stunning photographs if they want big media attention. A clear photo with great lighting that tells a story can be the difference between starring in the lead of a story, being buried in the last graph or not being mentioned at all.

Therefore, prior to a publicity push, hire a photographer, like Paul Sakuma who is in the Silicon Valley, or take some clear and pro-like photos with a high-end smartphone. Only use your phone as a last resort. Maybe you have bootstrapped, early-stage startup. A quality photographer’s work is priceless and the investment will be well worth it.

For executive head shots, go to a nearby studio or set up a shoot at a nearby park. (And follow the pro tips for head shots like don’t wear a logo on your shirt and long sleeves look better than short.)

A phenomenal set of images can mean the difference between being featured in several minutes of a TV spot or 10 seconds. What’s neat is that a set of photos can be run as a video on a TV or online show. CNBC, Cheddar, Bloomberg TV, or the local and national networks like ABC, CBS and NBC all appreciate a nice set of photos.

My neighbors run an IT company that helps Silicon Valley companies set up their new offices, onboard new equipment or workers, and transition employees to work anywhere roles.

Early on they were asked by The Mercury News for an interview about how a husband and wife can work so well together personally and professionally. This was around Valentines’ Day. They asked me for a tip before the interview. The franchise PR team had set it up. I was asked for the special sauce in helping the reporter.

I told my friends, “Own the photo. When the newspaper writer asks if you are free for a photo shoot, say, ‘Yes,’ or proactively invite them to your office for the shoot.” They did and they ended up being featured in a big part of the newspaper section that morning. Their photo was large and it got their brand positive attention. People saw it and their brand name whether they read the story or not. They starred in the lead of the story.

The co-founders of the IT company have been in business about a decade; they just acquired another franchise office so they are doing well.

A photograph that is clear and tells a story will be welcome by journalists. photo credit: Canva

The other example happened recently. Although I’m known for technology media relations for software as a service or SaaS companies, I also volunteer helping local not for profits, e.g. the Boy Scouts of America council. (The big campaign we conducted recently was telling the world about the first female Eagle Scouts: That got awesome coverage by the way.)

Anyway, a local major broadcast network wanted to cover various summer camps opening up after a lot of people in Northern California got the COVID vaccine. The TV reporter asked for photos of a particular camp, Hi-Sierra for the show. Note that these were photos for a TV spot. Most people think you have to have b-roll. You don’t. Anyway, the BSA team had a stunning collection of high-resolution camp photos all in one place. I was able to scan the group and pick out the top ones to make the journalist’s deadline. They were featured in a slide show on TV along with an interview with the camp director. It was beautiful coverage.

Just yesterday a business reporter asked me if any of my PR agency clients had photos of their cool local work sites I could share. At about the same time a trade reporter asked for photos for a story based on a press release about an award. I was pleased when my clients gave me quality images for them. The writers were quite pleased as well.

In summary, if you want your organization to star in a story or get more time in a TV news spot, hire a photographer to take a set of quality photos for your next public relations campaign. As an aside, a phenomenal image can also make your social media posts pop.

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Michelle McIntyre consults for Aircover Communications. An IBM PR vet, she also runs her own freelance PR practice and is a ranked future of work influencer. @FromMichelle on Twitter.

PR Advice for Tech Startup Founders With One of A Kind Products

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Michelle McIntyre

by Michelle McIntyre

As a seasoned public relations professional, I’ve enjoyed many productive and passionate discussions with genius technologists who want their “one of a kind” startup product covered by the media.

shutterstock_374219557

Here’s a tip for inventors. Quality feature stories are written because something is societally relevant, interesting cocktail conversation fodder or a unique problem solver. Journalists do want to know, how will this change the world?

During an initial consultation with a founder usually I start out by asking what is different about their new product or service. Sadly 75 percent of the time the answer is, “There is no other product like ours.” And it’s hard to respond without objection because 99 percent of the time that’s not true. Usually I can find an example of several similar products via a simple internet search.

The secret to a company getting coverage is simple. Leave the ego at the door. Quit thinking a product is the only one of its kind and ask others like an experienced PR professional what is really interesting about your story.

One founder I met with was finalizing an app that tracked a child’s to-do list. I searched and found another app that made the exact same claim. They in turn switched to a communications plan that made more sense having to do with showcasing their expertise in productivity instead of touting its uniqueness. It had a beautiful interface by the way.

Another tip is when you share information with the person you have assigned PR to don’t hold back on the good stuff. One founder I worked with waited a few weeks to disclose he was born with a serious medical problem and had several surgeries to correct it. Through diet and exercise he overcame it. His online fitness community he created was partly born because of this rough start in life. As soon as he told me, I told a Business Insider writer. She liked this angle about the founder and wrote a feature about him and his co-founder.

This app was also quite unique though. It weeded out bully comments automatically. That in fact was an impressive feature and resulted in nice coverage in TIME. But when you start with a claim, that a new product is super unique, unless you have a third party expert saying it, it’s usually a turn-off to writers.

To quote Journalist Dean Takahashi via a story he filed on PR tips in Venturebeat a few years ago, “What I love is finding something unique and interesting to write about. I want to find something magical, and I think most journalists, even the most cynical of the bunch, share the joy of discovering something really cool. Sometimes the real story isn’t the game itself. It’s the person who made it.”

I don’t mean to call out a founder who is a hard working, award-winning and an obviously smart inventor. The point is be very careful about telling someone your product is one of a kind. It probably is not.

I worked with a brilliant technologist with an artificial intelligence startup who wrote a celebrated technical paper years before the formation of the company. The technological phenomenon discussed in the paper was “in” iPhone’s Siri. When I pitched a writer I started with that detail, its impact on technology that tens of millions of people use. (Last I checked around 41 million people used the Siri voice assistant.)

This business reporter filed a story soon after. And that story focused on the startup solution, the funding and its venture capitalist. But the hook was the impact of what was in that paper.

In summary, journalists get pummeled with hundreds of pitches and press releases a day. Make sure you leave your ego at the door when talking to them: test your story line or pitch on a friend or family member to see if they say, “That’s interesting.”

Let others decide what’s interesting about your startup story, trust their feedback and go with it. Be careful going down the path of saying it’s a one of a kind product. It likely is not.

Photo: Shutterstock

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Michelle McIntyre is the president of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, a seven year old tech PR consulting firm. She’s the recipient of 11 awards for outstanding results mostly from IBM. She’s held numerous nonprofit executive board positions focused on enhancing the lives of children. @frommichelle on Twitter

Thou Shalt Follow These 10 PR Commandments

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Michelle McIntyre

A commandment is defined as a divine rule. If you want to be a devout public relations professional, follow these 10 PR commandments in 2020.

Thou shalt spell check PR materials. Let pitch notes, press releases, client reports, blog stories, speeches, video scripts and so on sit overnight. Proofread it again in the morning or have someone else look at it. Sometimes editors will share an error-filled pitch or press release over social media to showcase poor communication that they have received.

Thou shalt keep thy PR message brief. Pitches more than 250 words might be hard for a top tier writer to comprehend. Some writers receive 400+ email pitches a day. Get to your point concisely.

Thou shalt surprise thy journalist. When you write a press release, ask yourself, did you include something new, interesting or surprising? Did you explain how it would improve someone’s life or improve a business process?

Thou shalt have a PR coverage goal. When you set out to garner attention for a company, concept or product, set a success bar. How much attention is considered successful? For example, your goal could be one feature print story, two TV news spots and five million impressions. A tool like Meltwater could help.

Thou shalt not annoy an editor with too much follow up. Too many follow up messages might get you blacklisted by a writer. Use logic when following up. Instead of asking, did you receive the pitch note, ask something else like, are you back from holiday? Or, how was the trade show?

Thou shalt not abuse a mobile phone number. When a writer gives you their mobile phone number, don’t call it unless the situation is urgent. Typically people now can receive an email or direct social media message pretty quickly.

Thou shalt read a recent story by the writer before pitching. Read a recent story by the journalist before reaching out. If you don’t see any stories published in the past couple of years, they may not be worth your time. Maybe they took a job in PR, which is common these days. The exception is someone who edits but doesn’t have bylines. But lately it seems that editors publish as well.

Thou shalt not pitch via public Twitter profile. Journalists like scoops. They are not likely to discuss a solid story idea over their Twitter account for the competition to see. Some read direct messages but to send them a message they have to be following you. So it helps to have a quality Twitter profile and messages.

Thou shalt listen to what the writer wants. If a writer wants to only talk to customers and not the CEO, don’t keep offering interviews with the CEO.

Thou shalt say, “no” and add “try this instead.” When the lead marketing executive demands that you issue a press release on a drab, me-too, follow-on product, don’t be a yes man or woman. Offer a better idea like production of a video featuring a happy customer of the first product. Or write a pitch featuring a happy customer and success story: offer the customer as an interview source to a favorite writer. Mention the new product briefly as an aside.

Save the in-depth new product description for direct communications with customers and prospects and/or the right social media channels.

Boy praying photo: Shutterstock

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Michelle McIntyre, an award-winning IBM vet and blogger is the president of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, a tech PR consulting firm in the Silicon Valley. McIntyre has served on several nonprofit boards and was named VLAB Volunteer of the Year in 2017 for her marketing and blogging efforts. @FromMichelle on Twitter

Succeed In 2020 With These 9 PR Tips

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Michelle McIntyre

To succeed in public relations and marketing communications you must stay on top of the trends. Here are 9 timely tips from the experts designed to help startup founders be successful in 2020. They cover keeping it personal, conveying timely messages, using visuals that pop, how to stick with a writing goal, the importance of content marketing and teaming with other PR professionals.

Here are my favorite PR tips for 2020 and the expert associated with each:

1) Use easy-to-understand visuals that pop when storytelling.

Who’s the expert? @LouHoffman of @Daily Brew aka #IshmaelsCorner blog

The first tip comes from Lou Hoffman, head of Hoffman Communications. Hoffman loves incorporating visuals when conveying a message. More specifically he advises, “Dress up the company timeline as a storytelling vehicle.” And do this in an easy to understand attractive way. I particularly liked his advice to not make infographics too busy or overly complicated. A company timeline could become a bear image if not managed right, for example, don’t make someone tilt their head sideways to read a timeline. Hoffman has done a decent job establishing his agency as a top one in the Silicon Valley with a very strong presence globally especially in Asia. He’s also a really good speaker.

2) Be timely in your PR messages.

Who’s the expert? Melissa DiMercurio @StantonComm

This tip comes (indirectly) from Stanton Communications a PR firm serving corporations, industry associations and not for profits globally. As I was looking up hot PR trends online I came across a super timely December blog post by Melissa DiMercurio on the Stanton website with the headline, “Iced Holiday Beverage, Peloton Backlash, Baby Yoda and More.” I was impressed they just blogged about very current image related news hitting all of the key words and saying intelligent things. A lot of time people blog about something more evergreen or out of date. They were quick and smart enough to write something that was timely that day and get it published fast. Nice.

3) Add a human element to your PR campaign.

Who’s the expert? @Jalila as quoted in @AdAge

Jalila Levesque of a company called FF said in a recent blog post, “In a world that’s becoming increasingly ruled by algorithms and robots, PR strategy must be driven by emotion and have that human element to be more meaningful and lead to a growing focus on expert, local and enthusiastic micro-influencers, instead of macro-influencers.”

Yes, we keep hearing that PR needs to focus on analyzing results using digital tools and incorporate more AI, yadda yadda yadda and so on. But behind all the digital activity that might include Meltwater, Sprout, Cision or Hootsuite tools, keep the human touch alive.

4) Share knowledge with other PR professionals.

Who’s the expert? Hailey Johnson of @ThreeSixtyEight

Hailey Johnson recently said in a 2020 AdAge trends article, “PR professionals and marketers working together and sharing knowledge is the new trend.” She adds that if a PR pro has a specific capability you don’t have, hire them to help.

I agree. I reviewed all of the ways I got new business since I became a consultant: surprisingly a significant portion came through key PR contacts either via referral or through directly hiring me for a project. Stay in touch with your PR friends by joining @PRSA or inviting people to lunch. It’s also fun hanging around your PR peers.

5) See PR as part of the big marketing campaign.

Who’s the expert? Vicki Ho, Movement Strategy

Vicki Ho of Movement Strategy a “social-led creative agency” said recently in an AdAge 2020 trends story, “One of the most important trends I’m seeing within public relations on the agency side is the value the industry is placing on our strategic role within a larger marketing campaign, rather than just being valued for the end results.” Her firm has done campaigns for Party City, Netflix, Under Armor and others. I’ll add, think about how you fit into the whole picture and create ideas from that perspective.

6) Use a thesaurus when writing.

Who’s the expert? Laura Hale Brockway via a Ragan @PRDaily quote

Laura Hale Brockway likes to write about writing. In mathematical terms she’s like writing squared. Her recently story caught my eye that listed 50 alternatives to the word “excited.” This is a great headline because marketing and PR people use “excited” as a default in press release quotes, e.g. “Our two awesome companies are excited about collaborating on this project.” Ugh. Don’t do this.

Hale Brockway says, “A thesaurus can come in handy when crafting a press release, especially when using the same old words. Here is a list to help strengthen your pitching vocabulary.” I agree. Shoot down those overused starting-to-sound-meaningless words in favor of more expressive writing like “eager,” “thrilled” or “animated.” This takes risk so my other advice is to be brave.

7) Content marketing will be the queen bee of 2020.

Who’s the expert? Michelle McIntyre MMC PR @FromMichelle

Content marketing is going to be the queen bee in 2020. It’s the top way to garner attention for your business. Here are some ideas about how to do it. Blog about advice related to your industry. Blog about trends in software as a service, AI, quantum computing, future of work, collaboration, printer security, or whatever problem your company helps solve.

The problem is wanna-be bloggers have trouble with headlines and deadlines. Headlines are what you are going to write about. A PR expert can advise you on that. But, how do you achieve deadline goals? We all know it’s smart to write on a regular basis like six or 12 times per year. Simply set up a reward or hammer system. If you write six blog stories over six months reward yourself with a monthly subscription to a new streaming video channel like Hallmark or Hulu.

A hammer is more of a self-punishment. Laura Hale Brockway advises how to achieve writing deadlines via hammers in her Impertinent Remarks blog. She said if you don’t make your writing deadline get creative, for example, force yourself to donate to a political campaign you are against. That’s innovative for sure but on this end I will stick to rewards.

8) Become a thought leader in your industry on something specific.

Who’s the expert? @WendyMarx, Author and President of Marx Communications

Wendy Marx says be a thought leader on something specific in your industry to garner attention. She elaborates in a LinkedIn story, “At first, many people make the mistake of claiming expertise in everything. But realistically, it’s just not possible. Especially in the beginning, it’s important to focus on one main area.”

She’s right. From a PR standpoint if you stand for everything and are all over the place no one knows why they should buy your product, hire you or interview you for a feature story. Tell a prospect, “I offer a freemium consumer app that tells you the least expensive parking space available now in San Francisco” instead of “I make busy people’s lives easier.”

9) Public relations are personal relations.

Who’s the expert? Warren H. Cohn, @WarCo1 of @herald_PR via @Forbes Council

Warren H. Cohn who started a couple of communications firms elaborates on keeping communications personal in a recent Forbes Council post: “For PR specialists to thrive, they must research their target audience and deliver personal messages.”

He’s right. Spray and pray PR pitches often fail. In a world where everyone depends on technology to communicate, break down digital walls to keep business personal, and your results will reflect your efforts.” As a side note, even though Forbes Council stories are paid content, some of the advice is quite good.

I agree with this especially in this age of “automate everything.” Yes, I believe in digital transformation and incorporating tools like artificial intelligence, but not at the expense of developing relationships with people.

In summary, some of the PR trends to utilize for success in 2020 include visual storytelling, hyper personalizing, more content marketing, seeing PR as part of the big picture and being specific in your thought leadership message.

What trends do you see?

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About the author: Michelle McIntyre is founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, a seven year old Silicon Valley public relations consulting firm. An IBM PR vet, she holds 11 awards for outstanding results. @fromMichelle on Twitter

Photo credits:

2020 Road image: Shutterstock

Thesaurus image: Canva

Michelle McIntyre image: Michelle McIntyre

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Category Archives: storytelling

PR Advice for Tech Startup Founders With One of A Kind Products