TIPS FOR PUBLICIZING YOUR EVENT

 Babson College

Public Relations Office

Millea Hall

Michael Chmura, Director, x 4549; mchmura@babson.edu

Barbara Blair, Assoc. Director, x 4621; blairb@babson.edu

Nancy Sullivan, Specialist, x 4623; sullivann@babson.edu

Judith Burke, Assistant, x 4548; jburke1@babson.edu

The press and your stories:

--   Link your story to current news; e.g. hiring outlook, war on terrorism/impact on economy, economy in general, politics, business ethics, etc.

--   Reporters are not interested in advertising for us. The reporter is asking, “How does the message affect me? What is the value of this information to my listening/reading audience? Are other schools doing similar things? Is there a trend here?” – media loves trend stories, and unique, counter-to-trend stories.

--   Our job is to promote Babson to media. It is our responsibility to be reasonable about what we send. We want them to know us as being responsive to their requests for business experts, and as a resource for business education and new business stories with students and faculty. We don’t want to turn them off by burying them in releases they can’t use.

--  Calendar advisories (for event listings) should answer the questions: “who?, what?, where?, when?” Please provide this info to us as soon as you have it; calendar sections want it one month in advance. This is not the place for details on guests.   

--      We’ll send to appropriate and targeted media –business, arts, calendar, etc.

--      Hometown newspaper announcements are sent when awards earned, etc. (We have no MBA database for personal info. MBAs are invited by email to provide info and their hometown papers when they’ve earned special recognition.)

--      We have no control over whether a story makes it to air/print, or not. News of the day, location of event, and space available are all relevant considerations. 

--      Media are less likely to come out to cover evening and weekend events - unless they deem it significant to their audiences.

--      If a reporter comes to cover a speaker event on campus, they will expect to be able to interview the guest. Please check in advance with guest’s publicist on speaker’s willingness to be interviewed and availability (usually immediately before or after their presentation).

If you are to be interviewed by a reporter:

--      If you get a call from a reporter and aren’t prepared to comment, ask if you can call them back offering a specific time (within a half hour or so) to gather your thoughts and any appropriate data.

--      If you have been left a message that a reporter is interested in interviewing you, feel free to first call the PR office for a briefing, and then return the call to media ASAP. Reporters may have made several calls before yours, and the first to call them back is usually the one they quote.

--      Know your key message points; these can be used to bring you back to the main point if the reporter seems to be leading elsewhere. Feel free to discuss them with us if you want tips/feedback.

--      Put personal opinions in proper context when you are representing Babson.

--      Nothing is “off the record;” everything you say can be printed or aired!

--      Always be honest. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it and offer to get back to them later with an answer.