Author Archives: Amanda Hicken

Customer Content Specialists: What’s in a Name?

Posted on August 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

Content specialists in our Cleveland office. (Hi guys!)

When I walked into my first day at PR Newswire six years ago, I was excited to start my new job as an “Editor.” The news junkie in me was thrilled that I’d be spending my days proofreading and distributing organizations’ press releases to the media.

However, over the last six years, my job (along with my colleagues) has evolved to stay ahead of the constantly changing Communications industry.

Just as PR Newswire is now much more than a text wire service, I no longer perform only the duties that editors at PR Newswire once did. While we still process and proofread your press releases, our role is more about adding value to your content, helping it come alive, and increasing the visibility of your message.

This change didn’t happen overnight, though. It’s been a gradual evolution. As our industry has changed over the last few years, PR Newswire’s editors have likewise learned how to advise you on keywords, SEO, social media, the benefits of multimedia, and other ways to deliver greater audience engagement for all of your content.

And now I’m proud to say we have a new name that truly reflects what we are capable of:

The PR Newswire Editorial team is now Customer Content Services.

Your Customer Content Specialists are here to

  • help find a distribution that will gain you the results you’re looking for;
  • serve as a liaison between you and the audiences you want to reach by providing the know-how and technology needed to reach them;
  • take an active interest in how PR Newswire can best tell your stories to the world by counseling you on communications best practices;
  • and help measure and understand the success and reach of your messages.

Our editors haven’t gone anywhere and you won’t experience any changes in the service you have become accustomed to. Rather it was recognized that the title of ‘Editor’ was very limiting in what it conveys to you.

My colleagues and I can help you during every stage of the process - before, during and after each news release is distributed. From identifying how to best meet your objectives all the way through evaluating and measuring your message’s overall success, Customer Content Specialists are available 24/7 (even on holidays) to provide guidance.

Although we still proof and format your press releases and are available over the phone to answer questions about your account, we are also looking at how we can optimize your messages for search engines and social media; whether a localized, national or global distribution is best; how to target your news to media or investors specific to your industry; and how to best incorporate multimedia content.

Ultimately, our job revolves around driving your – our customers’ – content in a constantly changing industry, and improving the results our work together generates.

As happy as I was to be called an Editor when I first started at PR Newswire, my colleagues and I are energized by the change in our title.

And we hope you are too. By more accurately identifying ourselves as your Content Specialists, we hope you will actively take advantage of all we have to offer beyond just editing your news release.

Amanda Hicken is a Senior Customer Content Specialist in PR Newswire’s Cleveland bureau.  In her free time, she pens the blog Clue Into Cleveland and can be found on Twitter @ADHicken45 tweeting about comic books and the city she loves.

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Mind Your S and Ds: Answering the EDT vs. EST Question

Posted on May 20, 2011 | 5 Comments

This is the latest in Beyond PR’s monthly series Catching up with Editorial, where a member of PR Newswire’s Editorial department shares tips and tools you can use to catch typos in your own content.

When announcing an event, it helps to identify the time zone for any times you have listed. This is especially true if you want to reach a broad audience.

For instance, if your event is taking place in Chicago, but you are hosting a webcast of the event that will be readily available online, you may want to specify the event starts at 2pm Central Time. This way, potential audience members in New York know to tune in at 3pm Eastern Time.

If you do decide to include the time zone, be careful. There are a couple mistakes waiting to happen that you can easily prevent:

Convert between time zones correctly

On occasion you may need to include the time of an event in multiple time zones. For instance, your sentence could read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 2:45 p.m. PT.”

Did your eagle eyes notice the mistake in this sentence?  There were two.  First, there is a 3 – not 2 – hour difference between Pacific Time and Eastern Time.  Additionally, when converting Eastern to Pacific Time, the hours count backward not forward.

With these catches, the sentence should have read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 9:45 a.m. PT.”

Although these are both easy mistakes to make, they are also easy to prevent.  I always recommend using an online Time Zone Converter or World Clock, especially if you need to verify time zones in different countries.

Daylight Saving vs. Standard Time

When including time zones, many writers in theUnited Statesprefer to specify whether it is Daylight Saving or Standard Time (abbreviated EDT and EST, respectively, for the Eastern time zone).

Daylight Saving Time, which refers to when we “spring ahead” by one hour, begins in the U.S. in late Winter.  In 2011, for instance, we changed to Daylight Saving Time on March 13.

On November 6, 2011, we will switch to Standard Time when we “fall back” one hour.

When we spring ahead and fall back, it’s important to not just remember to change your clocks, but also keep an eye out for the correct usage of EDT and EST in your news releases.

A month after we changed over to Daylight Saving Time, Diana Dravis, an eagle-eyed editor in our Washington,D.C. bureau, was reading through a press release and noticed the client had used the EST abbreviation instead of EDT. After confirming the change with the client, Diana corrected the timing throughout the news release.

Although this mistake most commonly occurs around the months we make the switch, the rare EST vs. EDT typo does crop up on occasion throughout the year.

One way that this can happen is when someone copies the template of a press release they used earlier in the year.  If you do this, always doublecheck that you’ve updated any timing references — as well as years, months, dates and days of week – with the correct information.  Some individuals also shorten the abbreviation to ET to avoid any confusion.

Although Daylight Saving and Standard Time are common references in the United States, not all countries use it or they recognize it at different times of the year.  If you plan on targeting your announcement to a specific international audience, World Clocks can provide you with the correct local times if you want to include them in your announcement.

When promoting an event, it’s essential to provide accurate timing information to your potential attendees.  And by keeping global considerations in mind, your guests will know when to arrive on time – no matter where they’re coming from.

***

In April 2011, PR Newswire Editors like Diana caught 10,895 errors; year-to-date, our bureaus in DC, Cleveland and Albuquerque have made 44,726 “catches.”  Our April “catch rate” (an internal metric we track which measures the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) was 667 catches per 1000 releases.

Author Amanda Hicken is a senior editor in PR Newswire’s Cleveland bureau.  In her free time, she pens the Clue Into Cleveland blog.

Image courtesy of Flickr user futureatlas.com

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Press Releases Are No Joke on April Fools’ Day

Posted on March 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

Friday is April Fools’ Day. And although it may be fine to prank your friends and family on April 1st, press releases are not a laughing matter.

 

One of the key roles of a well-written news release is to build your organization’s credibility by sharing accurate information with the media and public. Providing valuable information helps set you apart as an expert in your field.

 

Subsequently, when a fake press release is sent to the media, you put this credibility at risk.

 

From a media relations and journalist’s perspective, hoaxes create a host of problems.

 

“While the issuer of a fake release may think it’s funny, it’s no laughing matter for the reporter on the other end who’s under deadline. Running a story based on a fake release is not only a waste of their time but it can have dire consequences, especially when it’s market moving news,” advises Brett Simon, Manager, Media Relations at PR Newswire.

 

Around this time of year, the media are always on the lookout for fake releases. However, if a media point is fooled by too subtle of a joke and reports on it as legitimate news, their credibility is not only damaged, but their perception of you as a trusted source may be permanently ruined.

 

Fake press releases for publicly traded companies are especially inappropriate – and can even lead to criminal investigations – because of their potential to impact the markets. There are stringent regulations set forth by Congress, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and other major exchanges about material news and publicly traded companies must always be in compliance with these rules.

 

“I remember there were a few fake releases around the same time last year. Once discovered, our reporters investigated the bogus releases by following up with the companies and by trying to find the perpetrator,” recalls an editor at one of the financial wires who asked to remain unnamed.

 

Finally, there’s the danger of annoying – or worse, offending – your readers if they don’t find the humor in your gag. By making light of a serious issue, you could end up alienating consumers and other audience members from your brand.

 

Because these risks far outweigh the benefits, PR Newswire will not knowingly distribute a news release that is a hoax or prank.

 

The media look to PR Newswire as a trustworthy source of legitimate news and such releases run the risk of seriously damaging this credibility.

 

Amusing though they may be, parodies and hoax releases are not appropriate for the public wire.  And that’s no joke.

 

Author Amanda Hicken is a senior editor at PR Newswire.  In her free time, she pens the Clue Into Cleveland blog.

 

Image courtesy of Flickr user Mykl Roventine

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Press Release Pitfalls: Don’t Let a Typo Ruin Your Social Media Campaign

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

Some Editors in the Cleveland office take time out to smile at the camera

Welcome to our latest edition of Catching Up With Editorial – a new series on Beyond PR where PR Newswire’s Editorial team shares client catches that were made during the month and how you can avoid similar mistakes on your own press releases.

In our last entry, we discussed how to avoid math mix-ups in your press release.  This month’s topic focuses on how a minor typo can have significant impacts on your social media campaign.

 

If you follow Beyond PR, you’ll often read excellent insight into how you can utilize social media in your PR and Marketing campaigns. From increasing visibility with consumers and journalists to brand engagement and previously-untapped customer service opportunities, there are plenty of ways an organization can benefit from a well-planned social media strategy.

However, sometimes a typo in a news release can weaken these social media efforts.

Editors in our Cleveland office hard at work.

In February, one of our senior editors was checking the websites in a client’s press release and noticed the client had also included unlinked Twitter handles.  When the editor searched for those handles on Twitter, she discovered the client had included an extra underscore at the end of the Twitter handle which directed readers to someone else’s Twitter feed.

So, for instance, my Twitter handle is @ADHicken. However, if I accidentally include an underscore at the end, I’ll unintentionally direct readers to @AdHicken_ which goes somewhere else.

In our client’s example, the editor contacted the client, updated the release with the correct Twitter handle and later received excellent feedback from the customer when they emailed us to say: “We really appreciate the editor’s diligence in figuring this out. Please express our ‘thanks’ on our behalf.”

While it’s a good idea to double-check that all Twitter handles are typed out correctly in the text of your release, I would also recommend hyperlinking the text to the actual Twitter pages.  Hyperlinking @PRNewswire, for instance, will remove an extra step for readers who may be interested in following this Twitter feed.  It’s always best to create a direct link to the social media asset you want potential consumers or media heading to.

Twitter links aren’t the only social media where mistakes can happen.  If you are including links to your brand’s Facebook page, YouTube or other social media sites, double-check that the links go to the correct pages.

Something we see often in Editorial is a company linking just to Facebook.com instead of their organization’s specific Facebook page.  It’s better to give readers direct access to your page, because the assumption that they are willing to go to Facebook and search for your company is not always the reality.

Additionally, if you are going to embed your social media links within phrases in the text, follow anchor text best practices and link to phrases that are relevant. For instance, you can embed a link in a more descriptive phrase, such as “Follow PR Newswire on Facebook“  instead of words like “click here” or just “Facebook” and “YouTube.”

Anytime you include a hyperlink in your news release, PR Newswire’s Editorial department will double-check that it works properly.  Including the catches mentioned above, we caught over 10,875 client errors in February alone.

However, with these tips, you can prevent typos from occurring in your news releases before you submit them to PR Newswire’s Editorial department – typos that could hurt the social media campaign you’ve worked so hard to maintain.

Author Amanda Hicken is a senior editor in PR Newswire’s Cleveland office.

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Avoid Common Press Release Pitfalls: Advice from our Eagle-Eyed Editors

Posted on January 27, 2011 | 3 Comments

The Catch of the Month board in our Albuquerque office

Even the most careful writer is susceptible to making a mistake. If that typo is in a company’s news release or other marketing materials, it can lead to substantial embarrassment and come at a great cost to you and your company’s reputation.

Fortunately, the most common pitfalls are easy to avoid if you know how to watch for them. Throughout 2010, PR Newswire editors caught more than 127,000 mistakes in press releases. Here are four of the most common mistakes we found, and how to avoid them.

Misspellings that could be caught in a spell check

From your company’s name to the spelling of a common word, conscientious use of a spell checker can prevent many embarrassing spelling errors.

The underused Ignore All button is your friend. When a word pops up that you know is correct, select the Ignore All – instead of the Ignore – button.  This often helps catch inconsistencies in the spelling of acronyms, proper nouns, and industry jargon mentioned multiple times throughout your text.

Of course, spell-checking programs aren’t perfect. They will pick up words that are spelled correctly in the text but not in the application’s dictionary. Don’t select Change or Change All unless you are absolutely certain the change is correct.  The last thing you want to do is accidentally change your CEO’s name from Galo to Gala because that’s what your spellchecker  suggested.

The spelling program won’t pick up all misspellings. It will overlook mistakes such as manger versus manager and the misuse of homophones like affect/effect, complement/compliment or it’s/its. To avoid a dependence on spellcheck, read your writing a few times out loud before running it through your spell checking program.

Nonworking or incorrect website links

Including the wrong website in a press release can carry significant consequences. Inverting two letters in a URL, typing .com instead of .org, or breaking the link with a space can keep readers from visiting your website.  You also lower the effectiveness of your SEO efforts by backlinking incorrectly or not at all.

Fortunately, there is a fast fix for preventing these mistakes – you just need to check that all of the links work (even the ones in your company boilerplate).

You can check a website by copying and pasting the link into your browser or hovering over the hyperlink in Word, hitting CTRL and clicking it.  To check an embedded backlink, right-click the linked phrase and select Edit Hyperlink.

When you visit the URL, check for two things:  one, that you don’t get a page error; and two, that the link actually takes you to the correct page. Sometimes a minor typo will take you to the homepage of another organization who uses a slight variation on your name. Or you may have linked to the webpage for Product X, when you intended to link to Product Y.

Don’t forget that websites aren’t the only hyperlinks prone to this mistake — more often than not, email addresses are incorrectly linked as well.  Although your text may include the correct email address, check that the backlink goes to the same place.  If the backlink in your address goes to your colleague’s email address, readers who click on it will be directed there instead of to your email.

Incorrect Contact Information

Incorrect email addresses are just one type of error that can crop up in contact information. You should also check that all phone numbers and names are correct.

Common phone number typos include using “800” instead of “877” in a toll-free number, providing the wrong extension, or accidentally including a mobile number instead of an office line. Check all numbers against an office directory or company website you know is accurate. If you’re still unsure, call the number. You should also use a trusted resource and follow the spell checking tips above to prevent the misspelling of a contact’s name.

What if the contact information is your own?  Don’t assume you’re safe from a mistake. Typos in our own name or phone number are the most common because we’re so used to seeing it and assume it’s correct.

Number Discrepancies

Discrepancies in numbers are not only common, but frequently difficult to spot. The good news? You can train yourself to keep an eye out for these most common culprits:

The date and day of the week don’t match: When you mention a day of the week in connection with a specific date, check it against your calendar. Make sure that January 31, 2011 is a Monday and not a Tuesday.

The year is wrong: Although this most frequently happens at the end and beginning of a calendar year, you should be on the safe side and always check that the year you’re referring to is the correct one.

The time zone conversion is wrong: If it’s necessary to write “12 p.m. Eastern Time (9 a.m. Pacific Time),” make sure you’ve converted your times correctly. Fortunately, you can find global time zone converters online that will convert both domestic and international time zones.

Errors in monetary amounts: From product pricing to a public company’s financials, an error in a monetary amount can have serious consequences. Be careful that decimal points are in the correct place, numbers haven’t been inverted, parentheses are included when you’re referring to a negative amount, and that you’ve included million and billion when necessary.

Multiple references to amounts are inconsistent: When a headline says there were 25 scholarship winners, make sure it says 25 throughout. If a bulleted or numbered list details each item, count them to doublecheck that the sum equals the total number you mentioned in other places.

Why you need a second set of eyes

It is essential to proofread, then proofread again to ensure a well-written and error-free press release. However, even if you’ve read the piece a few times and followed the above advice, it’s easy to overlook something on occasion.  Ask someone else to also proofread your work. A fresh set of eyes will often catch something you missed because you wrote it.

PR Newswire understands the importance of a second set of eyes – it’s why our Editorial department checks over your press release before distributing it.  We’re experts at proofreading, catching 127,584 mistakes in press releases in 2010 alone. From minor typos to incorrect financial figures, PR Newswire’s editors are the last line of defense – saving you not only the cost of fixing it after the fact, but also your company’s reputation.   In the meantime, we hope these tips help you catch mistakes in copy before it leaves your desktop.

Authored by Amanda Hicken, senior editor, PR Newswire.  Amanda pens the Clue Into Cleveland blog.

Want to fine-tune your press release SEO, and build visibility in search engines?  Read Press Release SEO: Writing Press Releases Effectively for Search Engines.

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