how roller derby helped me fall back in love with PR.

In some form or another, I’ve worked in public relations most of my adult life. While I love my ever-evolving day job, there’s a chance some things can feel a bit stale after a while. But I have to admit that doing publicity for Oz Roller Girls has reminded me what I enjoy about public relations.

My day job is for a college that’s also the largest employer in the county, so what we do is news whether we want it to be or not. And sometimes decisions involve what not to write about under the If We Cover That Bake Sale, We Have To Cover All Bake Sales theory.

But with the Oz Roller Girls, it’s like a budding relationship where everything is fresh and new. We’re starting, essentially, from square one, so seeing Oz news releases and photos in the media is exciting again, and watching folks on the team post Facebook links to our coverage gives a sense of accomplishment, of being part of a group that deeply appreciates it.

Since we recently launched the @OzRollerGirls Twitter account, I find myself going back to basics. My regular Twitter account having 1,300+ followers and the college account having 900+ followers has spoiled me. With the derby account, I have to remember how to build an audience again through interesting content and engagement.

It’s also refreshing to write about a new subject and be able to start a campaign from scratch. If I have an idea for a good story, I can just dive into it. The Media Committee also has awesome volunteers ready to help at any time. The whole team is so cooperative and supportive when I need something from them, and the enthusiasm for the sport is contagious and fulfilling.

The Oz Roller Girls are still an underdog in the media game. We’re a novelty act to some, hard to categorize to others, unproven to others still. But as we build toward our home debut on April 23, you can feel a kind of momentum from dozens of skaters and volunteers all believing in something and working together. When they see publicity come through, it’s just further encouragement. And being a part of all that, of seeing everything come together and enjoying every little success, makes me fall in love with public relations all over again.

Postscript: My advice: If you ever feel a little stagnated, finding a volunteer outlet can prove refreshing. You don’t have to get as far in as I have, but just meeting new people and gaining new perspective can really be a boost.

why pros don’t just ‘do some pr.’

The field of public relations has come a long way since Ivy Lee virtually created the profession more than 100 years ago. Unfortunately, perception of public relations — and professional communication in general — remains, in large part, in the stone age.

To wit: I frequently field the following types of requests:

Q. Can you do some PR for our speaker?

Q. Can you help us advertise our event?

People asking those questions always want publicity, not PR or advertising. Some helpful definitions on each to differentiate:

Public relations: Planned and coordinated actions of an entity (corporation, organization, etc.) to promote goodwill between itself and various publics, including the community, employees and customers.

Publicity: Information about a person, group, product or event disseminated through various media to gain public attention.

Advertising: Calling public attention to a product, service or need via paid announcements in such media as newspapers, magazines, TV, billboards or the Internet.

Public relations involves actions, moreover the aggregation of actions, to solve a problem or achieve some planned goal. PR tends to include research and a campaign, determining audiences, tactics, media, messages and desired outcomes. It’s a process, not a five-minute task. You don’t just do some PR any more than I would wander into a lab and do some science.

Put another way, public relations can include publicity and advertising, but these are only tools or components of larger PR efforts. Public relations is a field, a skill requiring a certain amount of education/training and best executed with accrued experience. It’s not just cobbling together a news release. Everyone with Microsoft Word may think they can do some PR, but this is as far-fetched as anyone owning Photoshop thinking it automatically makes them an artist.

So with that primer on public relations and communication, here are the correct answers to our previous questions:

Q. Can you do some PR for our speaker?
A. What is he trying to achieve? Or did he run into the audience and bite a VIP and needs image rehabilitation?

Q. Can you help us advertise our event?
A. Sure! How much do you want to spend? And you realize I get 15 percent for handling the account.

Tune in next week when we discuss why The New York Times doesn’t want to run your news release on its front page.

tabs on all media.

One of my favorite parts of working on campus is the opportunity to guest lecture. In sharing whatever knowledge I may have retained, I often learn from the class as well.

Friday my guest stint was in the Music Business class team-taught by my friends Rob and Dan. It’s a novel offering, where those interested in being musicians or sound engineers or promoters learn a 360-degree view of The Biz. Their big projects are to promote the upcoming Collage concert and — more interestingly — writing, arranging, recording, packaging and selling a single performed by talented twin sisters in the class.

Previous times when I spoke in the class, I gave a rundown on publicity, press releases, working with media and all that jazz. But since so much promotion is moving toward grassroots, street teams and social media, this concentration seemed excessive. In a new wrinkle, I addressed selling a story or idea via the SUCCES points of Made To Stick (the best ideas/campaigns are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and good Stories) plus a bit about writing news releases.

But I also wanted to show them around social media options. They knew much of that stuff — especially with Facebook — but I’m sufficiently immersed in the field that I shared a couple things that seemed new. Only two of them had Twitter accounts, so I showed them the instantaneous nature of feedback by saying Twittizens! I’m showing Twitter to a Music Business class. Say hi and tell us your favorite album. In no time, the Twitterverse responded — about a dozen tweeps chimed on the subject in all.

Fig. A: The Twitterverse responds quickly to an in-class query.

I also let them know how some musicians were using Twitter and how entities used the search tool as a marketing device. Like when I mentioned Whiskeytown in a tweet and ended up being followed by @cardinology, the Twitter account for Ryan Adams’ subsequent band, The Cardinals. @cardinology uses the Twitter stream to showcase new demos, give tour info and post recent live tracks. It’s a safe bet more than two class members are on Twitter now.

But here’s the unexpected: What do you think the class had questions about? Print media! Yes, almost every question concerned where and how to better promote their activities through traditional print media. This is a group that not only reads newspapers, but values them. Take that, those who argue that young people don’t care about print media any more!