So much to say but so little time. Who has time to listen to me ramble? Poorly written pitches and press releases are a waste of both a journalist’s and my time. So, it’s important to me – as a communicator and PR professional – to constantly sharpen my communication skills to be able to communicate clearly and concisely. Here are a few tips I like to keep handy to strengthen my writing, especially for PR:

Be concise and include key information first. Like Carrie mentioned in her tips for writing a press release, don’t bury the lead. This also applies to PR pitches, e-mails, and more. Also, see if you can remove unnecessary words like just and that:

“I just wanted to let you know that new reports have found that we are being attacked by space invaders.”

or  redundant words: use “several, a few or many” rather than “a number of” or “same” instead of “exact same.”

Use active language. Write as you normally do, reread to identify passive sentences and rewrite those in an active voice if appropriate. Passive voice isn’t wrong but it’s often wordy.
“Mistakes were made by me” could be changed to “I made mistakes.”

Maintain a focus. Stay on topic rather than trying to cram all your information into one piece. Is your new product creating hundreds of jobs and conserving energy and saving the dolphins? Great. Break it up into three separate pitches.

Use proper grammar and follow the AP Stylebook. Because as a public relations professional, the AP Stylebook is my Bible and yes, I judge you when you use poor grammar.

These are just a few tips to get you thinking. What advice do you have to help strengthen writing for PR and marketing?

Flights and hotels go hand in hand; one part of a trip is getting to a destination, and the other half is figuring out where to stay. For those of us that do PR in the hospitality industry, realizing this simple notion is the basis for many story angles to pitch media. A few of these include coming up with creative hotel packages to help clients boost PR and sales, and tying hotel or travel clients into current events to maximize marketing opportunities.

Earlier this week, the Golden Nugget saw a great opportunity. On the heels of Southwest Airlines’ announcement of its $39 birthday special, the hotel came out with a $39 room rate good for the same dates as Southwest’s deal. Clever?

Let’s look at the flipside, too – perhaps a less tactful approach.

In the same week Southwest celebrated its 39th birthday with a sale on rates, Spirit Air launched its “Check Out the Oil on our Beaches” advertising campaign, offering a discount on airfare to destinations in the Gulf of Mexico. Hmm, I don’t think anyone finds the oil spill funny. Perhaps this is a lesson learned for Spirit?

I’m lucky to work on an account like The San Diego Museum of Art as there are endless PR opportunities for museums in traditional media. Between fundraisers, events, new exhibition openings, educational programming, gifts to the institution and more, there is always something going on and something to talk about.

While landing national and international stories and exhibition reviews will always be exciting for me (on the PR side) and the Museum (as this helps raise the Museum’s reputation among other institutions), we challenge ourselves at Bailey Gardiner to apply what’s new and next in marketing, advertising and PR to help the Museum meet another goal – bringing people through the door to appreciate the art on view.

Adding to Steve’s blog post on online opportunities for museums, I’ve found some pretty impressive ways museums are using PR and marketing – beyond Twitter, Facebook and YouTube – to help audiences connect their online experience with the offline:

Try your hand at curating
A fashion exhibition, American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection just opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the museum partnered with fashion/social shopping site Polyvore to, in a sense, put visitors in the shoes of a curator. Using a computer kiosk on site, visitors can create their own fashion sets using objects from the show, and select sets can be seen Polyvore’s website.

Foursquare badges
After checking in on Foursquare at the Museum of Modern Art, an art critic – who had just participated in a performance art show at the museum – tweeted that she had unlocked a secret Foursquare badge. The result? The line of people to participate in this performance quadrupled. (UPDATE: So this was really a joke and it didn’t happen. But, I don’t think this means it was a bad idea)

Interactive quizzes
For an exhibition that follows the lifecycles of Greek heroes, the Walters Art Museum created an online quiz to help audiences identify which mythological hero they are most like. After taking the quiz, people could then follow their mythological hero through the show. The Heroes exhibition is coming to The San Diego Museum of Art this month – look for a similar online/offline experience from BG and the Museum.

Quick response codes/Mobile phone apps
I think this is one to watch. It looks like Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has been using QR codes for some time. Used at this year’s SXSW, QR codes are special bar codes that can be read by mobile phones and from there, link to a website with more information. Museums could use these to provide visitor with little-known knowledge on the works hanging on the walls. PlinkArt, which was snapped up by Google last month, is a similar point-and-shoot mobile app that provides more details behind works of art.

And I’m sure the list goes on. In terms of PR and marketing for museums, what have you seen lately that’s impressed you?

I love Bravo TV shows. A lot. My newest addiction is Kell on Earth because 1) I love (and work in) PR and 2) I love fashion. To bring you up to speed, Kell on Earth follows PR fashion guru Kelly Cutrone and her publicists at People’s Revolution. While some of the stuff they show is pretty cutthroat (think tears, firing people, yelling, messy desks, meltdowns), it’s reminded me of a few truths about PR:

1. Yes, we sometimes work long hours: Junior Account Exec. Stephanie Skinner puts her heart and soul in People’s Rev, pulling 11-hour days and even choosing her job over her boyfriend.  While that’s not exactly standard, there are times when a publicist must work beyond the 8:30 to 5:30. This could include being up well before sunrise to make a 6 a.m. live, in-studio interview with a client, mingling at a gala fundraiser until 10 at night, or even pulling an all-nighter to put together a killer RFP.

2. We stay together till the end: In this past Monday’s episode, Kelly yells at Skinner for allegedly sending the new girl home early and tells her that at People’s Rev they stay together till the end. I LOVED Kelly for this. It’s important to remember that working at an agency, you work on a team. For example, the accounts handled by Bailey Gardiner’s PR team each have at least two people per account.  So, we’re in it together – for the good and the bad.

3. Small firms can deliver big results: People’s Rev (at the time Kell on Earth was shooting anyway) only had a handful of publicists but delivered fantastic results for big-name clients like Agent Provocateur and Genetic Denim. Hiring a big agency isn’t necessarily the answer to success. Creative agencies, like Bailey Gardiner, may be small in terms of number of employees but are big in terms of handling national accounts and providing stellar results.

4. Well, number four isn’t really a truth about PR at all but I guess you could say it’s a rule to live by in life: Don’t shop at Walmart.

Remember when the Academy was against social media and forced YouTube to pull thousands of clips from the awards show in 2007? Well, guess what? The Academy is finally getting with the times and embracing social media for the Oscars.

In 2008, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created its own YouTube Channel offering behind the scenes footage, interviews, highlights and more. So, did this help? Well according to an article in AdAge, last year’s Oscars was the among the lowest-rated broadcast in its televised history. Ouch.

One reason this might have failed is because social media is about  strategy, and not just the tools.  Anyone can throw up a Facebook Page, YoubTube Channel or Twitter handle, but without a strategy tying these to a traditional marketing campaign, you’re likely set up for failure.

Third time’s a charm, right? The Academy is back with a new social media strategy for the 2010 Oscars. A Facebook Page for the Oscars was created with shiny features like a live stream and a chat on which they streamed the nominees. Taking note of the fact that people love to guess who will take home golden statues that evening, the Academy released an iPhone app allowing fans to make their own predictions to compare against other fans.

Is this a recipe for success? We’ll find out soon enough.

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

If you work for a public relations firm, why wouldn’t you do your own PR and practice what you preach?

A while back, Jennifer from our advertising team blogged about Bailey Gardiner’s ad in USA Today. But like she mentioned in her post, advertising is only part of the strategy in branding yourself and working with the types of clients you want to represent. Creating an integrated strategy by adding public relations and social media to the mix is like the one-two punch. Ready? And go.

Here are just a few ways to PR your agency’s work:

Share Agency News

You’re proud of the work you do, right? Announce new hires and share your agency wins with PR trades like PRWeek and Bulldog Reporter as well as local business publications and online. PitchEngine is great service that makes it easy to create a social media news release and your own social media newsroom.

Utilize Social Media Platforms

Whether it’s creating mobile video or doing industry-specific public relations,  showcase your agency’s brilliant thinking on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, or make it easy for people to find you with a Twitter handle or Twitter hashtag.

Position Key Staff as Experts

Another way you can use PR to promote your agency. Pitch senior staff as experts available for interview and for speaking opportunities.

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

Media relations and writing successful pitches are two skills that get better with practice, much like how wine and cheese get better with age – two of my other favorite things, in addition to public relations. My first successful pitches were written during my days as a PR intern at Bailey Gardiner, and I’ve since learned a few tips on writing pitches that work and deliver results, like one to LA Times’ Brand X for Electra Bicycle Company.

Electra bikes featured in LA Times' Brand X

• Consider starting with a question and keep the intro brief. I started this pitch by asking, “Are you familiar with Electra Bicycle Company?” Then, I summarized what the company is known for in one sentence. Reporters are people. Have a conversation.
• If what you’re pitching isn’t new, make it sound new. It’s all in the delivery and how you phrase your sentences.  Are you pitching a story angle the publication has not yet covered? Can you offer the reporter an idea of what’s to come next from your client and when?
• Pick one angle and stick to the point. Electra has four bike lines and more than 200 different styles of bikes. Where to start? I picked three bikes and explained in three bullet points why readers would want these specific bikes.
• Be specific in your ask. Instead of closing with something general like, “Please feel free to contact me with questions or more information,” try closing your pitch with something more specific. Offer photos or an interview.

Now, it’s about landing the PR hit by following up and calling the reporter. What other tips do you have for writing successful public relations pitches?

I spent a good hour and a half with my friend last night in American Apparel lost in some sort of glorious, shiny spandex heaven. Which got me thinking… do I need to incorporate shiny high-waist hot shorts into my wardrobe? Not sure society is quite ready to embrace that. Working  at Bailey Gardiner in San Diego and doing public relations for a bicycle company, I’ve certainly noticed the reverse -  biking apparel has become more fashionable. Interbike brought back its Urban Legend Fashion Show (check out BikePortland’s fantastic bike fashion slideshow) in which girls rocked the runway in skirts and dresses. Love it. But what about the opposite? Is everyday apparel turning more bike-y?

Shebeest makes great women’s cycling apparel that’s functional and sustainable. Even though I’m not a bike commuter, I’d wear this green jersey on casual rides. The racing stripes would make me look fast.  I give founder Claudia Ried props for  creating the first women’s only bicycle apparel brand.

Earlier in ‘09 Topshop partnered with Cyclodelic to make its line of cyclingwear for women. Hey, if Kate Moss chooses to design padded bike shorts, too then count me IN.

And finally, let’s talk tweed. SF Tweed regularly puts on tweed rides in San Francisco. Um, I need to be there. Next on my shopping list: tweed, an Electra Amsterdam Royal 8i in Pearl White (or Ticino in Creme Fraiche) and a plane ticket to San Francisco!

We’re the PR firm for Electra Bicycle Company. You might know that by now. Two weeks ago, we wrote about how doing PR for a consumer product is pretty much dictated by a magazine’s schedule, but if you’re wondering what else it takes to market a bicycle brand, here’s a peek at what else it entails:

• Following news and current events – Rising gas prices, holidays and even things like the winter thaw are important to us.

• Paying attention to several industries – These include fitness, fashion and the bicycling industry – all which have their own cycle. For example, we’re in the middle of Spring Fashion Week right now. Next week, it’s off to Interbike where Electra will debut its new Ticino line. We’ve placed Electra in everything from Fitness and Style.com to Bicycle Retailer.

• Knowing your audience – We use different communication styles for sales reps, bike dealers, consumers and media. Different levels of bike language, if you may.

• Being on celebrity watch – One of my favorite parts. Electra bikes are loved by celebrities. Recent celebs seen with Electras include Queen Latifah and Kelly Osbourne. An Electra Amsterdam was included as one of Ivanka Trump’s favorite things for fall. We have our sources, but we also stay on top of celebrity news.

• Reading everything – We’ve said this before, but I can’t stress how important it is for PR professionals to know the publications they’re pitching. Bicycle Retailer has become my Bible for the bicycle industry, and I also keep up with publications and blogs like W, Us Weekly, Shape, Men’s Health, BikeRumor.com, and more.

Call us crazy, but we love bikes and we love what we do.

Lately I’ve met with quite a few people who want to talk to me about how I got into PR and how I landed a position at marketing agency Bailey Gardiner. Flattered that so many people want my job…I mean Bailey Gardiner is a pretty cool place to work. Outside networking and job hunting 2.0, I share with you, aspiring publicists, a few practices that worked for me:

•  Do your research. Learn about the PR/marketing industry, the agency for which you want to work and its clients, and get familiar with other agencies in the area.

• Read and watch everything. As PR professionals, we spend a good chunk of the day talking with media. So, we need to know what’s happening in the news. For me, this includes watching everything from Good Morning San Diego on KUSI and Good Morning America to Extra TV and E! News, and reading anything I can get my hands and eyeballs on from blogs, the New York Times and USA Today to Us Weekly and InStyle.

• Find an internship or schedule an informational interview. An internship is the easiest way to test the waters and see if public relations is the right industry for you. I had two PR internships before landing a full time position, and I’m grateful for those experiences. If there aren’t internship opportunities available, see if you can schedule an informational interview at an agency you’re interested in.

• Maintain your professional connections. I’ve kept in touch with marketing professors, past colleagues and former bosses. Whether it’s a friendly e-mail or lunch date, find a way to stay connected.

Anyone else have tips? Good luck, job hunters!