Negative examples always stay with the audience, so Matthew Mezey's example of how not to interest a journalist in a press release will be remembered well by everyone who attended his talk on PR and media know-how, the second in a series of professional development seminars held by CILIP's Commercial Legal and Scientific Information Group. Matthew, a journalist, is News Editor of Library and Information Update
With the attention-grabbing subject line of "FW: Information from NNNN" it was a masterpiece of dullness, concealing whatever story there might have been in irrelevant verbiage. I have disguised the organisation's name to spare their blushes, though it is well known to me, and should have know better. Clue: they failed to give me a job once, but then that's true of many organisations in library and information work.
Matthew's talk was rich in advice and tools that I and others in the audience will be following up as soon as they can. Both librarians and journalists face the threat of disintermediation, and as well as traditional methods of reaching journalists and managing communication within an organisation, Matthew advised us on PR 2.0, the use of social networking tools to reach an audience. He gave us pointers on web usability, search engine optimisation, developing online communities, using link- and widget-bait and monitoring and metrics. Should CILIP set up a PR wiki for groups/branches and members, he asked at the end.