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Personality Profiles :: More than Pre-Obituaries

Photo Credit: "REBOOT!" by Mark Magnusson

In reviewing the Personality Profiles written by my PR Writing students over the last several semesters, I’ve discovered that there are several common errors that seem to show up. Avoiding these common errors will help ensure that someone might actually want to read the story you have written.

  • Treating the story as if it’s a pre-obituary… you know, the obituaries that newspapers and TV stations have waiting, just in case someone famous dies. They tend to simply recite a few key facts from the person’s life. These pre-obituaries, posing as personality profiles for my class, are flat and fail to engage the readers. Yawn.
  • Telling the story in chronological order.Just because we live our lives in chronological order doesn’t mean that is how the stories should be told.
  • Writing a snoozer of a headline. Something like “A True Leader in Our Community!” is not something that would entice someone to read the story.
  • Not reading well-done personality profiles before starting out to write one. People magazine and Sports Illustrated always have numerous profiles in each issue.
  • Not interviewing the person you’re writing about. You can typically learn more about your subject in a face-to-face interview in 30 minutes than you can by reading things others have written for three hours. (Okay, I made up those numbers, but you get my point.) Spend some time learning who the person IS, and then you can better write about what the person DOES.
  • Lack of quotations. Using the words of the subject of the story and those who know the person well can bring the story to life. Aim to incorporate quotations in every three to four paragraphs. They don’t need to be long ones, just ones that punctuate the point you are trying to make.
  • Using the first paragraph or two to recite the subject’s job description. Try leading off with something that might be interesting to the readers instead. You can add in bits and pieces of the job description throughout the story if needed, but please don’t lead with them.
  • Focusing on only one part of the subject’s life. In addition to describing the subject’s connection with the client organization, it’s smart to also sprinkle in some details about outside interests.
  • Making the subject seem superhuman or saccharine. Even if the story is for your internal company newsletter, it’s important to make the subject seem like a real person that others can aspire to becoming like. If you put the subject too high on a pedestal, there’s the danger of creating a persona that is not likable.
  • Failing to use standard news release format. Remember that a personality profile is just a specific type of news release. Datelines, contact information, -MORE-, slugs, end signs and perhaps even boilerplate information are still needed.
  • Neglecting AP Style. See my post on 8 Common Errors for more details on this.

What other tips would you add for creating an effective personality profile?

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8 Common Errors in News Releases

Photo Credit: Untitled, by PotatoJunkie

After reviewing all the first news releases in PRCA 3330 & COMM 4333, I am generally pleased with what I saw, considering it is the first news release that many of you have written. The best stories were ones that passed the “So What?” test; they were newsworthy to those outside your client’s organization. They were well organized and clearly written. You must have remembered what you learned in your Intro to Journalism class!

Here are some common errors I saw:

  1. Using “we” or “our” when it’s not part of a quotation (a news release needs to sound like a story one would read in an impartial newspaper, not in a company newsletter). News releases need to be written in third person, not first.
  2. Improper use of commas (either too many or not enough)
  3. Puffery (making statements in the news release that don’t seem newsworthy. Some of these would be okay as part of a quotation, however.)
  4. Calling women “girls” or “ladies” (even though it’s common in sororities to do this, AP Style calls for the use of the word “women” when you are writing about female adults)
  5. Abbreviating the word Georgia as GA (rather than Ga.) or Florida as FL (rather than Fla.).
  6. Improper formatting on dates, times, numerals, etc.
  7. Format (forgetting to put an embargo date or For Immediate Release, end sign, page slugs, letterhead with mailing address, etc.). Check BlackBoard or GeorgiaVIEW for the template I provided to you; this will help with basic formatting.
  8. Including a headline that is not compelling. Your headline should be active and entice the reader to dive right into your story, not bore him or her to sleep.

Be sure to avoid these errors when writing future news releases. And you might want a quick refresher of how to flag your AP Stylebook for easy reference, if you haven’t flagged it yet. It’s a real time-saver; I promise. I’ve been using AP Style for all of my adult life, and I still need to look some things up.

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AP Style Bootcamp :: Flagging Your 2010 AP Stylebook

Get out your 2010 AP Stylebook, Post-It notes and a pen and get ready for a short bootcamp by Barbara Nixon. Learn what the five most important things to know about AP Style are, and even get a bonus at the end. Flag your book as you go along, pausing the Prezi below when you need to.

If you have the 2009 AP Stylebook, then see the Prezi I created earlier this year for the 2009 edition.

AP Style Bootcamp :: 2010 Edition on Prezi

Want a PDF of the 5 Things and their page numbers that I refer to in the Prezi? Here you go:

AP Style Bootcamp 2010

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10 Blogging Tips That Will Change Your Life (or Grade, at least)

Originally published on 9 December 2009 & featured in Ragan’s PR Daily. Updated on 20 May 2010. Updates are in italics.

Over the past few semesters, I had nearly 450 of my students blogging as part of their grades in public relations courses. And this semester, I have more than 75 more. Based on their experiences and mine, here are some tips for maintaining your blog (especially when it’s graded as an assignment):

  1. Your professor may require a certain amount of posts on specific topics and perhaps even a specific length. Follow these guidelines to a T. Refer to the assignment sheet/post often to be sure you’re doing what’s needed.
  2. There may be interim deadlines for your blog posts. Keep up. Even if there aren’t interim deadlines, blog throughout the semester. If you do all your posts toward the end (or even the day they’re due), it’s not to your advantage. It will appear as though you procrastinated. Your readers will likely not read more than a post or so a day, so piling a bunch into one day actually hurts your readership.
  3. Make an editorial calendar for yourself based on the blog requirements. Consider using Google Calendar to keep track of posts you intend to write and when they should be written. (Google Calendar can even send you text message reminders.)
  4. Stuck for topics? Ask your readers at your blog what they’d like to see, or ask your followers on Twitter for help. Read Ragan’s PR Daily and listen to PR podcasts for additional ideas.
  5. Proofread. This should go without saying, but since I’m saying it, it apparently doesn’t. Misspelled words and poor grammar significantly detract from your credibility. If you know you’re not a great speller, then write your posts first in Word, where SOME misspelled words and grammar errors show up more easily. Partner with a friend and proof each others’ posts, too. (NOTE: If you write in Word first, be sure to use WordPress’ “Paste from Word” feature, or else you will end up with some really ugly formatting.)
  6. Write in short paragraphs. Long paragraphs are really grey and hard on the reader’s eyes.
  7. Use photos licensed by Creative Commons to add visual impact to your blog. I recommend Compfight for finding images.
  8. One of the best ways to become a better blogger is to read & comment on others’ blogs, too. It’s not all about you. Once you start commenting on others’ blogs, you may notice that your readership will increase (because of people clicking on your name in the comment and finding your blog.)
  9. Change the name of your blog from whatever WordPress “gave” you as the default (which may be something like Bnixon13’s Blog) to something more professional and interesting. Though you cannot change the URL for your blog, you can easily change the name. And definitely change or get rid of the default tagline “Just another WordPress weblog,” which screams N00b.

Yikes! I promised you 10 tips, and I only gave you 9! I need your help. What’s one more tip you’d provide to round out this top ten list?

barbara_is_listening

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Media Contact List :: #PRCA3330 #COMM4333

Rolodex by renaissancechambara.All successful public relations practitioners have their own media contact lists that they maintain on a regular basis. They will contact different members of the media depending on the messages they are seeking to share on behalf of their clients. In the “olden days,” we would maintain our contact lists in our desktop Rolodexes.

For our PR Writing class, create a Media Contact List. With your specific client in mind, create a media contact list that will be helpful when you are seeking to share messages on behalf of your client.

At a bare minimum (to earn a C), your media contact list must include at least one radio station, one TV station, one blog and three print publications. Use a table to compile this list; you can use either Word or Excel.

Contact info will include:
  • Organization
  • Contact’s Name
  • Title
  • Snail Mail Address
  • E-mail Address
  • Phone Numbers (phone, fax, cell . . .)
  • Website/blog address
  • Twitter username (if relevant)
  • Comments about this contact
  • AND, rationale for including this media outlet
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Photo and Caption Assignment :: #PRCA3330 and #COMM4333

toy camera tower by .m for matthijs.Public relations practitioners are called upon to take photos on occasion for their clients. For this assignment, you will take a photo and write a caption, with the intent that the photo and caption could stand alone and be published without an accompanying news release / article.

Using the rules of great photography you learned in your textbook and in the Language of the Image course you took at NewsU, take one photo of someone or something that is newsworthy and would benefit your client. (If you cannot come up with a photo idea for your client or if your client is too far from where you are living now, then take a photo that would benefit the Communication department.)

Then write a caption to accompany the photo using the four-part process described by Lori Oglesbee in the Journalism Education Today articled titled Captions, and add a photo credit. Your caption will contain the following elements:

  1. Headline
  2. Identification Sentence
  3. Secondary Information Sentence
  4. Quote
  5. Photo Credit

To submit this assignment, use one Word document. Put your name and course number at the top. Paste your photo into the Word doc; size it so it’s five inches wide (and whatever height it needs to be to be proportional). Write your caption, including photo credit, beneath the photo. Turn the assignment in using the usual method for our class.

NOTE: I do NOT need the original, high-resolution photo for this assignment.

To see how this assignment will be assessed, see: Rubric: Photo with Caption Evaluation

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Writing a Personality Profile

For my PRCA 3330 and COMM 4333 classes:

Want to show your publics the human side of your organization?

Write a personality profile.

For this assignment, write a personality profile about someone associated with your client’s organization. It could be about a leader in the organization, a member or maybe even a client. However, it must be about a real person (though not about you).

Chapter 7 in your Public Relations Writing & Media Techniques textbook provides a good overview of a personality profile on pages 173-174. Additionally, see pages 175-179 for more information on writing a feature story in general.

Keep these things in mind:

  • Use letterhead from your client for the personality profile (just like you would for a news release)
  • Include pertinent contact information (just like you would for a news release)
  • Write a catchy headline (just like you would for a news release)
  • Be creative, not mechanical, with your lead (see p. 177 for suggestions)
  • Use AP style and standard English grammar (though you can get away with occasional phrases, rather than complete sentences, for dramatic effect)
  • Your personality profile will be much longer than most news releases. Aim for a story between 750-1000 words.
  • Since you also have an assignment of a photo with caption due when this personality profile is due, why not take a photo of the subject of your personality profile when you are interviewing him or her?
  • Consider posting your personality profile on your blog (not required), after you get your graded assignment back

Check your syllabus for the due date for this assignment.

(NOTE: It’s a good idea to read 8-10 personality profiles from your favorite newspapers and magazines before you write your first one.)