Thursday, April 03, 2008

Albany Public Relations

My buddy Mark Grimm is also my fellow town board member. Mark really led the campaign and I think his skills in public relations really helped. He has a website for his business: Albany Public Relations. A couple years ago when we sued the Rensselaer DA, Mark set up our press conference and it went very well.

I've learned a lot from Mark, and from my own experiences with the media. One big thing is understanding that there's a lot of randomness. You can get everything set up for your big event, and then some huge news story can come up and the media doesn't come to your event. Imagine if you were doing your press conference on the day the Spitzer story hit.

Another big thing is to be sure you stay honest. It can be tempting to tell little white lies to the media. At least some journalists, and I think most, will start ignoring you if they think you're dishonest. Being honest won't get you in the paper every time you want to be, but being dishonest may ensure you won't get covered even if you have a good story.

There's a lot more to it, but the best way to really understand it is to work with a professional.

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