You've got the hottest new widget, and you want the world to know about it – That's understandable. But, before you go off spamming the world, take a minute to develop an appropriate target list of individuals who will take an interest.

I recently read a disgruntled blog entry about spamming from Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired. He proceeded to rant about PR individuals who do not take time to get to know the people they are pitching. Therefore as a result of averaging more than 300 e-mails a day, he decided to publish a list of e-mail addresses that have been blacklisted for frivolous spamming.

Thankfully, no SCPR addresses were found on his list.

Lesson learned: Take time to research the people you are sending your press release, and other news. It is far better to send your information to 10 people you know are going to respond favorably, rather than shot gunning 1,000.

To read the full story, click here.

Don Osmond

Senior PR Associate

Cheryl sat down with long-time technology editor, James Gaskin, to impart PR advice for small and growing companies.

Don’t forget your name! One thing that you need to remember when being interviewed for television, radio or a podcast, especially if it refers to a product and or your company, is to state your product or company name a lot. Instead of saying, “We are proud to ….” make sure you should say, “XXX Company is ….” or “ABC Product helps….”

Why?

Because in television pieces the super (graphic) shows up for only a few seconds — 3-5 seconds max — and can be easily missed since stories are fairly short and if you miss it you might be out of luck; unlike print or online where you can go back and reread the piece to see who the quote is attributed to.

 Clayton Blackham

Senior PR Associate

Being interviewed can be intimidating. The reporter is there, pen in hand, ready to write down every word you say. And if you're lucky, he/she has a voice recorder to capture sound bites – possible ammunition to later debunk any claims you make during the interview. If you're not careful you may feel as though you are in an interrogation room.

This may be your initial reaction to an interview, but the truth of the matter is interviews are conversation-like. And the more prepared you are, the better chance you have of making it more of a conversation rather than an interrogation.

It's true the reporter will write down a lot of what you say, so use that to your advantage. It is best to have two, maybe three main points you want to get across during the interview. As frequently as conversation allows, return to those key message points throughout the interview. The more you return to those points, the better chance you have getting the reporter to take notice and include them in the article. Repetition is key – just make sure you don't sound like a broken record.

Just remember to keep it conversational. Chose your words carefully; remembering that this is an interview and not mindless chitchat with your drinking buddy. Anything you say can, and will be used… It's up to you to get your point across clearly and concisely.

Don Osmond

Senior PR Associate

An interesting thing happened the other day during a face-to-face media briefing with a client. The CEO being interviewed came straight from another meeting and unexpectedly invited the reporter to his office for the interview. During the course of the interview, we got to a point where it was time to demo the client's product. The demo was done from the CEOs laptop which was sitting on his desk. In order to see the computer screen, the reporter moved from his table in the center of the office to the CEOs desk.

I accompanied the reporter to the CEOs desk and was standing behind the seated reporter taking notes and listening in to the demo. As the client was answering a question I looked down at the CEOs desk and noticed a company bank statement sitting on the desk in plain view. I quickly sat on the desk to cover the statement up.

There is nothing better than a face-to-face briefing with the media. However, prior to conducting the briefing take some time to look around the room where the interview will be held. Make sure that confidential or road map information is not written on a white board, chalk board or left out in the open for unauthorized eyes to see.

If a reporter sees it, it's fair game. The reporter does not have to indicate what he's seen but is free to use the information gathered as he pleases. By leaving confidential information out in the open you may give the reporter an unintentional exclusive while exposing confidential information that is not yet ready for public consumption.

Jeremy Kartchner

Senior Account Director

Looking for a simple way to keep tabs on the latest news, events or industry happenings? Take a look at Google Alerts.

This little tool can help you stay on top of the latest relevant Google results (business, web, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic and the best part is it's free. It should be noted that while this service can be a great way to help you keep on top of things it is by no means a comprehensive way to track news and internet postings.

Setting up an alert is very easy and will only take a minute or so of your time, but make sure your key search terms are as specific as possible. Otherwise you'll get an inbox full of alerts for things you're not interested in.

Google Alerts offers four types of alert searches: “News”, “Web”, “News & Web”, and “Groups".

• A News alert is an email that lets the user know if new articles make it into the top ten results of his/her Google News search.

• A Web alert is an email that lets the user know if new web pages appear in the top twenty results for his/her Google Web search.

• A News & Web alert is an email that lets the user know when new articles related to his/her search term make it into the top ten results for a Google News search or the top twenty results for a Google Web search.

• A Groups alert is an email that lets the user know if new posts make it into the top fifty results of his/her Google Groups search.

According to the Google Alerts website, some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• Monitoring a developing news story

• Keeping current on a competitor or industry

• Getting the latest on a celebrity or event

While it may not be the best solution, it's a handy way of making sure something doesn't accidentally fly under the radar.

Matt Stubbs

PR Associate