An interview with Ory Okolloh

Ory Okolloh, is a Kenyan activist and Africa's prominent blogger. She runs kenyanpundit.com and is also the founder of ushahidi.com, as well as mzalendo.com, initiatives that have garnered immense attention and praise. In March 2010, she was interviewed by BBC on issues of blogging and contemporary internet culture in Africa. Listen to the audio interview below.

Media Relations: Press Releases and Targeting Reporters

Your social enterprise has a cool event or story it wants to share with the world. Perhaps the first conference of African women entrepreneurs is happening in Tanzania on June 27th and you want to tie in an event from your start-up on women artists in with coverage on the symposium. Or perhaps one of your board members will participate in the symposium and you want to let the media know she would be a good go-to person for quotes or commentary in an article they are already drafting about the event. In either case, you will be addressing your intent to the media via press release.

What is a press release?
A press release is a statement directed to the media about a story, a spokesperson, an event, a product, or a service. It's a way of attracting publicity around a story. A press release is sent to members of the media that cover that particular beat, or topic. You would not send a press release about a new pharmaceutical drug to a reporter in the Daily News or Sunday News that writes on politics; you would send it to the reporter who covers health related topics.

The format of press releases differ depending on the intent of the press release but most are no longer than one page. Templates also differ and you can find many examples of press release templates online. Here's what a typical press release authored at my firm would look like:

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COMPANY LOGO HERE.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (in caps): Contact: Contact's name
MM/DD/YYYY or contactsemail@youremailhere.com
DD/MM/YYYY Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx

Use A Catchy Headline Here:

A byline is the line after the headline which elaborates on the story. Not needed for all press releases. Usually italicized.

Location Here, Tanzania (the location will be where the story, person, event, etc. is located) - This is the body of your press release. Paragraph one should include all important information. Reporters are succinct and straight-to-the-point people; they need to be able to get the gist of what your story is in the first paragraph.

You can go into depth on the story here and include quotes from any spokespeople from your start-up, if appropriate and if it adds to the story. Include the how, etc. Write in the active voice: Amy sings sad songs versus The sad songs are sung by Amy, which is in the passive voice and unnecessarily long-winded.

The last paragraph should be a few sentences about the start-up sending out the press release (you).

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Make sure you do your research and identify the key media members for your story. Ask them how they prefer to be contacted and honor the request. If the reporter wants you to email them the story don't call them; if they want it via fax don't email it to them. Create an Excel spreadsheet and input the information for all reporters into it including:

* First Name
* Last Name
* Title
* Beat (Topic they write on)
* Outlet (Are they writing for Daily News or are they a producer for a radio show on RTD?)
* Phone number
* Email address
* Fax number
* Preferred method of contact

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Please note: don't send a press release a day or two days before a story is to take place. If your start-up is scheduling a conference or an important event or if they are participating in an event, make sure you send out the press release ahead of time. Reporters have deadlines on stories and don't appreciate being asked to follow through a story without having enough time.

Furthermore, if a reporter decides to write a story or interview your spokesperson, have all important information available. Let them know you are at their disposal. You don't want a reporter to ask you for the contact information of your start-up's spokesperson and you don't have that information on hand.

READ MORE:
Media Relations 101: Getting media coverage.

Follow Stephanie on Twitter: @radiomorillo

Media Relations 101 - Getting media coverage

I work for a strategic communications firm that caters to a strictly non-profit clientele; as such, I have had to do a lot of research for clients on issues as diverse as arts education, community colleges, healthcare for the elderly, and immigration. Any social entrepreneur will need to learn the ropes about communications and media relations, i.e., getting the word out there. Seeing as there is so much to learn and know, I will be posting up articles regularly on strategic communications. Sharing the knowledge is what it is all about!

What are “media relations” and “strategic communications”?

Every startup wants to project a favorable image of itself in the media. In order to accomplish this, in-house or contracted public relations professionals develop a rapport with media outlets, reporters, producers, etc. This is media relations. If your startup has to do with arts and East African women, you would develop relationships with key members of the media, such as reporters in arts, women’s rights, social issues, economics, business, and education, for example.

This goes to say that when your startup wants to let the media know about something your organization is doing or premiered, you would probably release a press release and pitch a story to the media. We’ll have more on that below.

Strategic communications means developing communications plans and initiatives to further an organization’s goal. Web sites, news conferences, brochures, and social media are all examples of strategic communications. How does your web site further your goal as an entrepreneur? What can the website do for you? What aims will social media address? These are questions you should ask yourself.

The first thing I’ll discuss today will be “pitching” a story and creating a reporter’s database.

What is “pitching”? It means getting on the phone or e-mail and letting reporters know what’s going on. How do you know which reporters to target? If your startup is local, regional, or national in focus, it should target media outlets that also have coverage on that level. However, some media outlets with national coverage also have local bureaus depending on the locality; you can also contact them if you want to target a local, audience for example. Once you have honed in on what kind of publication you want, read the paper, listen to that radio station, or watch that TV news channel. Look up on Google or on the outlet’s website “education, arts, women, East Africa, social issues” and see which reporters are writing about those issues. Sometimes you can get the reporter’s e-mail address from the website; if not, phone the media outlet and ask for the reporter’s contact information. When you are pitching, you want the reporter to know you have read their articles. For our example, you may want to tell the reporter you have read their latest article on an NGO using theater to empower women in small villages, and you thought they would be interested in knowing about an event a women’s arts organization will be hosting.

Before you start pitching, you should begin with researching media outlets and reporters who may be interested in your story. Identifying key players is of utmost importance. You don’t want to contact a reporter who writes about parenting if you really want to speak with someone who writes about business; in the event you don’t know who to contact, call the media outlet, and briefly explain your aim. Then ask who would be the right person to speak with. If there are many, ask for an editor.

You will want to create a database of names and contacts for that particular story. If your arts and women’s startup wanted to get coverage of a panel discussion from business leaders who will be talking about arts and business, make sure you target those kinds of reporters. On a simple, Microsoft Excel worksheet, put in pertinent info such as “Salutation”, “Name”, “Outlet”, “Beat”, “E-mail”, “Phone”, “Website”. A “beat” is the topic a reporter covers; a business reporter’s beat will be “business”; a news reporter who writes about “social issues” will have “social issues” as a beat. Once your list is completed you can start pitching!

Another important thing; don’t pitch the same story to two or more reporters in the same media outlet; if an education reporter and metro (or local news) reporter from Newspaper X find out they are to cover the same event, they’ll get annoyed. The key is identifying THE key folks, and no one else.

Follow Stephanie on Twitter: @radiomorillo

READ MORE:

Bad Pitch Blog - things to do and NOT to do when pitching to journalists. Great resource and links to many other sites.

Welcome to *Badilisha Poetry X-Change.

Badilisha is a project of the Africa Centre, which promotes Pan-African poets through: Badilisha Poetry Radio, the only poetry podcasting platform dedicated exclusively to the voices of Africa and its Diaspora; and Badilisha Live which hosts two annual poetry events that include performance, workshops and lectures in Cape Town, South Africa.



Badilisha ni mpango wa kituo cha Afrika, kinachosaidia washairi wa Pan-African kupitia: Radio ya Washairi, jukwaa pekee linalojikita kwenye kupaza sauti za washairi kutoka Afrika na wale WaAfrika waishio nje ya bara la Afrika. Badilisha Live huandaa tamasha la ushairi mara mbili kwa mwaka, kukiwa na utambaji, warsha na mihadhara huko Cape Town, Afrika ya Kusini.

Mpango huu unazidi onyesha ni jinsi gani tunavyoweza kutumia majukwaa mbalimbali kuwasilisha matatizo yetu na kujadili masuala yanayojiri katika jamii zetu. Hii ni changamoto kwa sisi vijana, kwani kama sisi ni asilimia sitini ya watu wote Afrika, lakini kundi letu pamoja na kundi la wanawake, ni makundi makuu mawili yaliyosahaulika, hivyo kuna haja ya lazima kutafuta mbinu mbadala za kutetea haki zetu na kuhakikisha sauti zetu zinasikika.

Did You Know? 3.0

Some interesting data on education, technology, and society.