As summer approaches, I recently thought about how during the tech boom of the mid-80s, vacation meant unplugging from the office and being completely out of reach to spend time with those most important to us – family and friends. But with today’s wireless connections, I’ve found vacation for many people isn’t the same, because we’re still technically reachable on laptops and cell phones.

This summer, as myself and Carabiner team members take the time to go on those family vacations, I’m reminded of the true value of prioritizing personal time with as much emphasis as that focused on business. It’s easy in the heat of the business moment to only concentrate on tasks at hand and the looming deadline of quotas and project delivery. Looking back to summers past, though, I don’t remember the details of what I was working on when I was under pressure to stick by my desk without taking a break.

But, when I did re-focus my emphasis on family and splurged on a vacation I thought we couldn’t afford or took time away from the office at a time I thought I couldn’t, the results were more fulfilling than anything I could’ve achieved during that time at the office: we never missed the money spent and to this day, I savor all the memories from those special trips.

So, here’s a friendly reminder to unplug completely this summer for a special trip or time away from the office. Download the favorite songs to the family iPod, load up the SUV and take that summer vacation – you won’t regret it.

Enjoy!

Peter

While You Were Away…How to generate media coverage when everyone else is on vacation

Competing with the Summer Sun

As PR and marketing professionals approach the summer, we’re challenged to keep our clients’ media coverage momentum going despite hard news drying up, media and client spokespersons taking off for vacation, and a lackadaisical, let’s wait until the fall attitude around the office.

What some see as vacation time, though, wise PR folks should take as an opportunity to get the working media’s attention while their email traffic and competition for coverage is down. When your company lacks hard news to help generate media coverage, a successful approach to take is crafting and pitching ‘soft story’ news. These pitches are great tools for packaging story ideas for the media that highlight unique benefits of your company and services, customer stories, expert testimony and thought-leadership ideas and vision from your company’s executives.

Catching the Media
at the Opportune Time

Pick up the phone to call a reporter on a busy news day and it’s not uncommon to hear “I’m on deadline – call me back later!” from even the friendliest of media people. However, this is not a typical response heard on slower pitching days – like when company announcements and news release email pitching is down during summer vacation months. Targeting who to pitch during the summer has benefits especially for more trend-related and feature stories.

“Newsrooms often hire interns during the summer and, in general, those interns tend to have less editorial experience than full-time staffers,” said Evan Schuman, Retail Technology Editor for eWEEK.com. “Interns offer a different kind of PR situation. Trend stories and others might be considered intern appropriate so a story pitch that failed in early May would perhaps have a different kind of shot in mid-June. Full-time reporters often take vacations in the summer, which means—more often than typical—you’ll find reporters covering for other beats. Any change—even a temporary change—in newsroom personnel should factor into a PR person’s strategy.”

Summer is also a time for decreased business travel for the corporate events, customer meetings and industry trade shows that compete for the media’s time during the busier season.

“We’re probably more accessible for the summer with the exception of our own vacations,” said Ken Congdon, Editor for Integrated Solutions and Business Solutions. “It’s easier to get a hold of us. The real factor, however, for selecting a story to run with still depends on how closely it fits with our magazines and how much interest it will be to our readers.”

Persistence Is Key

Successful story pitching may require patience and persistence battling vacation schedules, but it’s worth it if you can take advantage of decreased competition for media’s attention. Summer’s also a good time to think like the media and work the advance deadline angle.

For example, trade magazines typically have a two to three month lead time. So, if there is a conference occurring in October, you could use pitching time in July and August to get ahead on a magazine editor’s radar for show coverage. Many consumer publications’ seasonal stories like Thanksgiving and the December holidays originate as far as six months out. So, for the holiday-themed pitch, start outreach in June and July to get the media’s attention early in the editorial planning process.

From the Horse’s Mouth: straight talk from the media on PR tactics

In PRSourceCode’s “Lunch with the Editors” Series, media from Forbes.com, InformationWeek and the Financial Times shared the following PR tips:

Peter Kafka, Editor, Forbes.com

• Just because a client is small or mid-sized doesn’t mean Forbes.com won’t cover them. But you have to realize it must be linked to some larger all encompassing trend or important market topic.
  
  
• On trade show briefings: Peter holds most of his appointments on the first day of the show. After that, the schedule almost always inevitably falls apart and briefings tend to start sounding the same. To catch him at the best time, get him the first day. Or, try and schedule a briefing when his schedule’s more flexible, like a coffee or lunch appointment near Forbes’ New York City office.

Rob Preston, Editor-in-Chief, InformationWeek

• On pitching InformationWeek: Blogs are driving many of their print stories. Public relations practitioners should get familiar with this area of their site. They post eight per day.
  
  
• InformationWeek has an ‘audience’ - not just a readership. With podcasts and webcasts, they have viewers and listeners, not just readers.
  
  
• InformationWeek no longer views the audience as tech buying machines but well-rounded consumers, what and how they cover it is changing to reflect this and they will be looking at more consumer, early stage innovations.
  
  
• Don’t come to them with ‘pitches’ and product briefings. Open a dialogue with news editors and reporters that cover your area and talk to them about how technology problems are being solved.
  
  
• Best way to get an appointment with him and your CEO? Come to discuss macro issues, and have a customer with you, if possible, to talk about problems, not the party line stuff; get real about technology issues.

Paul Taylor, Technology Editor, FinancialTimes.com, Consumer Electronics Reporter, Financial Times

• Paul sees blogs as important and complimentary to the news gathering process. Financial Times writers frequently use blogs as resources when writing an article.
  
  
• Biggest challenge to Paul is time and information management – managing the excessive inflow of information when you have a daily deadline is difficult. It’s the most enjoyable part of the job, but balancing 100+ new emails a day and deciding what to cover on a limited time budget is challenging.

Carabiner Signs Four New Clients

Carabiner Communications announces the signing of the following new clients for PR and marketing services:

Hannon Hill Corporation makes web content management solutions that give people the freedom to manage their Internet, Intranet, Extranet and Portal content with ease. For Hannon Hill Corporation, Carabiner Communications will build a comprehensive communications campaign to help the company reach key industry verticals including education, healthcare, technology and publishing. Additionally, Carabiner will lead the PR initiatives for upcoming new global product launches.

Invistics provides manufacturing solutions for complex, asset-intensive industries such as consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals. Invistics selected Carabiner for media relations, analyst relations, and speaking placement programs within its targeted vertical markets.

Germany-based matrix42 is a leading developer of system management software. Its suite of Empirum products supports lifecycle management for enterprise networked devices, helping to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). Carabiner Communications will provide competitive analysis, message development, media outreach and analyst relations services in strategic North American markets.

For Synaptus, a consulting firm that helps executives improve business performance by connecting strategy to performance, Carabiner will provide a comprehensive executive visibility program, focused on thought leadership development and executive speaker placement. Carabiner’s services will span content creation, conference research, speaker pitching, and speaker event logistics.

Carabiner Launches Speaker Tour for Dennis Stevens, Synaptus

Dennis Stevens, CEO and Founder of Synaptus, was recently selected to speak at the monthly luncheons for Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Birmingham and Atlanta Chapters, PMI Atlanta’s Professional Development Day 2006 and the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 16th Annual Southeast Human Resource Conference. Carabiner provided Synaptus with end-to-end speaking engagement services, including the creation of presentation abstracts, content, obtaining the posts and handling all arrangements for the events.