Tag: PR

Meet Tiffany Ridenour

Hello! My name is Tiffany Ridenour, and I’m one of the bright, new faces here at O’Keeffe. I just graduated from Miami University with a dual bachelor’s degree in Professional Writing and Strategic Communication. During my time there, I was an active member of PRSSA, where I learned a lot about public relations and other career paths. I have a passion for writing and connecting with people, two things that just may come in handy.

I found my way to O’Keeffe PR by not listening to everyone who said the only way to get into the business is networking, even though it’s essential. I’m the first in my family even to attempt college, so giving up wasn’t an option. I found the firm by seeing what was out there and so far, I love what I found. I can’t wait to see where this tribe takes me. 

Why did you choose this industry?

I love writing. I know PR is more than that, but it’s one of the critical things to succeed. You have to be a great writer. Of course, I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me. After taking a few classes in college that had me create PR campaigns and press releases, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the industry?

Don’t wait around for jobs to appear on those career websites. Go out, research companies, network. You don’t need to know someone to get into this industry, even though it helps A LOT. Figure out who you want to work for and reach out to them. The worst that could happen is they say no.

What are some projects you have worked on?

While at Miami, I created a mini social media campaign and content strategy plan for my hometown, the City of Hamilton. I also created a public relations campaign for a local business in Oxford, Ohio where I created and designed a website for a client.

What was the last book you read?

Besides all those dreaded books that college classes make you read? “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. Next on my list is “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen.

What’s your favorite movie genre?

I enjoy horror movies. Like public relations, horror movies have twists that you could never expect or when something will pop up and cause a crisis. It’s hard to predict how everything will turn out, and that’s what fascinates me.

Where do you get your news from?

Like most millennials, I look at Facebook. I use Yahoo when I’m on the go, don’t have time for social media or something important is happening. When I’m home, I’ll probably turn on a local news station.

What is your least favorite word?

Musk. It’s my equivalent to moist.

What profession, other than public relations, would you like to try?

Nursing. I like helping people and making those personal connections is what means a lot to me. Plus, I very rarely get grossed out by things.

Tell me two truths and a lie.

I’ve never been out of the country. I have two dogs. I have a daughter.

How Being a Step-Mother Has Made Me a Better Public Relations Professional (and Vice-Versa)

Looking back, I stumbled into the world of public relations much like I did the world of step-motherhood. If I’m honest, neither were my first choice and had I known ahead of time the hours, frustration and exhaustion each would bring, I’m not sure I would have dove into both quite as fervently as I did. With that said, after time, effort, and a little wine, I know I am exactly where I belong.

Flexibility

When you’re a step-mom, you enter a no-mans-land of parenting. I say no-mans-land because no man (or woman) ever grows up to say they want to be in that land. You have many of the same responsibilities as bio-parents (packing lunches, taxiing around town, sitting through various sports practices and cleaning up vomit) without many of the perks (breakfast-in-bed on Mother’s Day, input in daily decisions and the uninhibited love of the child). You learn early on that the relationship between you and your spouse, you and your step-children and you and the rest of the world is a dance. It’s a constant give and takes and one must be able to navigate and adjust expectations on a dime. Things don’t always go as planned. Many times the only thing you can expect on is the unplanned. These little humans are complex, and so are the many relationships that go along with them. Bobbing and weaving is a daily occurrence, and one must be able to recover quickly or be knocked out of the ring.

Similarly, if you want to succeed in the world of public relations, you must learn to be flexible. We’re talking full-on splits flexible. Clients, media, and even your agency team is ever changing. Agility and the ability to think on your feet are a must. If your client calls you an hour before they’re to appear on a live morning show to tell you they have an aggressive case of pink eye, what do you do? If you pitch your heart out about your client’s new product, and your media friends are excited to tell the story, but at the last minute the product is canned, what do you do? Flexibility is critical, and a level head is a necessity. My stepdaughters’ have given me many opportunities to strengthen my flexibility muscles, and I’m thankful they have, especially since the examples above are real-life pages from my career book.

Gentle Persistence

Secondly, as a step-parent, you quickly learn the art of gentle persistence. No one likes to be hounded. Having someone constantly looking over your shoulder and asking if you cleaned your room, fed your turtle, or used shampoo to wash your hair, is not pleasant. I have learned that my girls hear me ask the first time, but for various reasons (My Little Pony Friendship Adventure is on, they’re making paper bag puppets, or an intense game of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is about to go down) they are “unable” to accommodate my request. While I refuse to give up on my original ask, I step into their world, see the importance of what’s happening to them at that particular moment, and take a step back. Later, when the time is right, I gently remind them of my original request or direction.  While this is by no means fool-proof, and there are times that they give me the proverbial take-a-hike look, most of the time they respond favorably.

Likewise, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our media friends. Many are stretched thin and working against razor-thin deadlines. When you’re feeling that kind of pressure, the last thing you need or will respond to is a PR person asking for the third time if you received their pitch. Conversely, as a PR professional, we still have the responsibility to our client to leave no stone unturned when telling their news. After all, if we’re not gently persistent in sharing their story and telling folks why it’s important, who will?

Creativity

The next thing my girls have taught me is that creativity is king. Like adults, their brains are being bombarded with thousands of messages every day. From school to friends, to PBS Kids, they’re being served up lights, sounds, and ideas that make my faux-momma mind tired. If I want to cut through the clutter and make memories with my girls, I need to be memorable. I need to think of new ways that will engage them and give them something to think about after the day or the event is over.

Equally, as PR professionals, we must be able to think differently.  Every day we are tasked to be creative, whether we’re approaching an old story in a new way or taking a story and making sure we tell it in a way that it receives the attention it deserves. This skill is necessary for both roles, and I am grateful my girls have pushed me to develop this ability, even on my off days.

Thick Skin

Let’s be real for a minute. I love my girls. They are a part of my life that I never thought I had room for, but I do. They have expanded my heart and made my life fuller (and more chaotic). With that said, I’m not their bio-mom. I never will be their mom. Remember what I said above, as a step-mom you do many of the same dirty deeds that their birth mother does, but often you don’t reap the same rewards. I’ve learned not to take this personally (most of the time).

PR professionals need to apply the same roll-off-your-back mentality to avoid burn out. There are many time times that we hear no thanks (or just NO) from a reporter, journalist or client. We can’t take this personally; it’s the world we work in.

As for my girls, many sweet moments happen, too. The way they snuggle in for a story at night or to watch funny animal videos on YouTube, the good night hug, and even when they tell me that my Ranch dressing is better than their mom’s (I’m #1 at something!). I relish these special moments the way I relish when a reporter does an amazing piece for my client. You take the good with the bad, and you choose to remember the good when the laundry is piling up, and emails and phone calls to your media friends go unanswered.

Focus on the Relationship

Lastly, my girls have helped me hone my relational skills. Just because I married their Dad, doesn’t mean that instantly we felt like a family or that they trusted me. Quite the opposite. I sat on the sidelines for longer than I’d like to admit before I realized that if I wanted to be embraced, I needed to embrace. I needed to dig in and show up for them. I needed to read books with them, play Calico Critters, watch Larva (if you don’t know what this is, you should). I needed to get to know them and what makes them tick before I could put any expectations on them. The same goes for our clients and media friends. We need to do our research and make sure we’re bringing them stories that are right for them. Everyone prefers to spend time with people who have taken the time to invest in them. My girls have taught me to put the time in before expecting the reward.

When I started my career in marketing, I had no idea that I would one day be a part of the PR tribe. In the same vein, when I started dating my husband, it hadn’t occurred to me that I would enter into the position of bonus-mom. Both were unexpected and at the time, challenging. Now that I have *ahem* a few years under my belt, I can say both are exactly what I want for my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My girls have shown me how to be a better bonus-momma at home and a better PR professional at the office.

Why Media Training Matters

If you work in the PR industry, booking an interview for a client is only half the battle. What happens when you send that person into the interview without any media training? Often times, it can resemble an on-air or in-print implosion if they haven’t been adequately prepared for what to expect. Media training is a necessary asset in our trade, but one thing many don’t talk about is how media training can go terribly wrong.

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte recently lost four massive endorsement deals after his scandal in the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Many might look back unsurprised, but how many people would have been able to predict this before it happened…and during his pre-scandal press interviews, no less? Well, seasoned PR professionals could have smelled something fishy, and it wasn’t new doting-dad, Olympic fish Michael Phelps.

As I watched interview after interview with Ryan Lochte before the scandal took place, there was a sneaking suspicion I just couldn’t shake. His responses seemed entirely canned; they were so utterly repetitive that it became very clear to me that he was media trained in the same way that a parent forces memorization on a child with flash cards in the 4th grade. Broken record responses such as, “I felt like a big fish in a small pond,” and “I guess I just matured” swirled about when he was asked how he emerged from his scandalous party-boy reputation from Olympic eras past. I wasn’t buying it.

I get it; even the finest PR professionals in the world can only do so much when it comes to media training someone who’s not grasping it. However, here are just a couple quick tips that come to my mind when working with someone like Lochte.

  • Spin your talking points throughout various interviews; it offers the audiences of different media outlets new glimpses into who you are, and builds more credibility. You don’t want to risk being perceived as a talking head. (Unless you’re David Byrne, that is.)
  • If you make a claim, do everything in your absolute power to back it up. Lochte lost all credibility by painting one picture in his media interviews, and behaving the exact opposite less than a week later.
  • Believe what you’re saying. If your PR person tells you to say something that you don’t feel accurately represents you, find a way to massage that statement into something that is at least 2/3 accurate. We don’t recommend lying, but saying you’ve matured when you’re still a platinum-blonde-bleached party boy in Rio is the worst kind of oxymoron.
  • Realize that once you’ve said it on the record, there’s no going back. Although, here’s one silver lining in the news world: you (and Lochte) can take comfort in an interesting quote from Jack Warner of Warner Bros. fame: “Today’s headlines – tomorrow’s toilet paper.”

I recently watched Florence Foster Jenkins. Working in PR, one scene particularly amused me. Spoiler Alert: a New York Post critic decimated affluent, yet terrible operatic singer Florence after her volunteer performance at the Carnegie Hall. Her (somewhat) dedicated husband bought every New York Post paper within a mile radius the following day to prevent her from reading it. That was 1944. This is 2016. We live in a highly digitalized world where negative media is transmitted like the common cold. So just remember, next time you have a date with the media, consult a good PR expert for some effective media training first.