Tag Archives: Higher Ed

Find me in print and on the road this summer

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I’ll be hitting the road quite a bit this summer attending various communications conferences. A few organizers are even crazy enough to let me speak!

First on the schedule is ALI’s Social Media for Government conference (#smgov) in July in Washington, DC. I’ll be presenting a three-hour (yikes!) pre-conference workshop about “How to blend traditional and non-traditional new media into your government communications plan” on July 12. I plan to share several examples of readMedia clients and other organizations who are successfully adopting modern public relations strategies that incorporate web communications, social media, traditional media relations and multimedia. The rest of the conference kicks off the next day and features a variety of sessions and speakers from local, state and federal government organizations.

If you’re interested in attending the conference, you can save $400 off current registration rates if you sign up by next Thursday, May 20. Click here for more info.

At the end of July, I’m heading to the Windy City to drink good beer with Allan Schoenberg and Mike Pilarz speak at the eduWeb conference about how colleges and universities can generate hyperlocal media coverage in print and online by publicizing student accomplishments in their hometowns. I’ll go over the results of the recent study readMedia conducted that asked editors and publishers of community newspapers for their opinions about hometown news content, and I’ll also discuss how to get more of this content to live online (currently only half of hometown news is published to the web, even though editors say that it’s engaging and important to their audience).

If you work in higher education PR or web communications, you won’t want to miss eduWeb. The schedule is packed and there will be something for everyone. Click here for more info.

Lastly, the Age of Conversation 3 is finally on sale at Amazon! The book is a collaborative effort of more than 171 authors, each contributing an essay on a particular aspect of how to implement social media strategy. All proceeds benefit the Make-a-Wish foundation. You can grab your copy using the widget below:

Where are you headed this summer? What conferences and meetings are on your radar?

How to pitch Op-Eds to USA Today

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I’ve spent this week in Washington, DC at the PRSA Counselors to Higher Education Senior Summit, talking with current readMedia clients and learning about the issues higher ed communicators face. The sessions yesterday were held at the headquarters of USA Today in McLean, Va., and included a panel discussion with three USA Today editors.

I snagged this quick video during the Q&A session, after a participant asked about how to pitch Op-Ed pieces:

There are some great reminders for PR folks: know the outlet you’re pitching and how they operate, be relevant and provocative, and remember that a story idea that doesn’t get picked up the first time around can often be repurposed or repackaged later on.