Tips for Getting a Journalist Interested in Your Story

April 25, 2016 by Andrea Groznik in PR

I still remember the first time I got press coverage for a client. I worked at a boutique marketing firm in what can only be described as "a closet with a window." Only an imaginative landlord could describe the space as an office. The creative director sat with his back to me. Talk about pressure to perform!

After days of pitching various media outlets for a new client with no luck, I abandoned my usual cold-call approach and tried something different. Here's what worked for me...

Do This to Get a Journalist to Read Your Email

June 30, 2015 by Andrea Groznik in PR

Last week, I wrote about how to identify journalists who will be interested in your business. This week I want to take it to the next step and talk about connecting with them.

Building a Movement: What I Learned from One NYC Councilman

April 28, 2015 by Andrea Groznik in PR, Presenting

One of the first public relations campaigns I worked on was promoting the environmental argument against this new form of oil and gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing. I was working for Councilman James F. Gennaro, a local elected official in the New York City Council. Though “fracking” has since become a national debate, in 2009 it was still a relatively new process and the environmental concerns were even more nascent.

What Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs Can Teach You About Presenting

March 31, 2015 by Andrea Groznik

On Sunday morning, I caught an interview with Fareed Zakaria talking about his new book “In Defense of a Liberal Education,” where he mentioned an intriguing quirk about Amazon headquarters.

Zakaria said Bezos forces his executives to write out initiatives and plans in narrative form rather than in the standard PowerPoint because narratives show the obvious gaps in logic. Steve Jobs of Apple also hated PowerPoints and banned them from meeting rooms because he believed presenters should know their content well enough not to need projected cue cards.

Why Knowing Too Much Is Hurting Your Business

March 18, 2015 by Andrea Groznik in Marketing

In several meetings recently, I've talked a lot about the benefits of getting an outsider's perspective on your business. Partly because I want you to hire me for the perspective but also because I believe it can be a real eye-opener.

In “Made to Stick,” my favorite book about effective communication, authors Chip and Dan Heath tell a story about what they call “the curse of knowledge.”

What Is Newsworthy?

March 03, 2015 by Andrea Groznik in PR

A reporter from the Centre Daily Times told me last week that less than half of his stories come from news tips and pitches. That tells me one of two things – either not enough people in the community are reaching out to him or what they’re pitching isn’t newsworthy.