Old Dogs Learning New Tricks

By Junior Account Executive Bridget Veltri

The days of sending Fido, the family dog, out to fetch the newspaper in the morning may be numbered but newspapers are not dead…just adapting.

Workin’ the Weekends

By Bridget Veltri, Junior Account Executive

The news knows no day off. Fortunately, as public relations professionals we have the luxury of taking weekends (most of the time) but sometimes working the weekend can make the difference in getting your client covered.

When it comes to local media the weekend staff at news stations and papers are the equivalents of nocturnal animals, rarely seen or recognized but magnificent creatures starved for content. Here are a few things to keep in mind when working with weekend reporters.

How to Pitch Your Local Food Writer

From President, Abbi Whitaker

Local food (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Restaurant PR isn’t all cocktails and five star dining.  Food editors, writers and bloggers are constantly approached by PR people to cover the latest and greatest restaurants, recipes and products.  Because let’s face it — we are not going to hit a home run with Epicurious.com  or Food & Wine every time.  As PR people it’s our job to work journalists from most markets to keep our clients in the media. How do you break through the onslaught of bad e-mail pitches, long winded phone messages and off-topic  Tweets to get through to these local industry influencers and get your clients those much coveted regional and  local kudos?  And once you’ve broken through the clutter how do get your fair share of press?  As more and more papers turn to social media to drive traffic back to their websites PR people should be thinking of viral additions to their written pitches – include a YouTube video, a Flickr photo gallery or a pin board on Pinterest.  Offer these writers some additional resources that they can then use on their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and Pinterest boards.  Think about making their job easier and giving them more to work with.  Chances are  your e-mails will get more than a second glance.

Pitch that Party: 5 Tips for Pitching Events

By Junior Account Executive Bridget Veltri

Publicizing events and parties just isn’t like it used to be in the good ole care free days of college. Back then all you had to do was create an event on Facebook (or for the older ones: Myspace), invite some people and promise beer.

At The Abbi Agency, what we enjoy more than attending a good party is pitching one (maybe that is a slight exaggeration) But, we relish the fact that we’ve put on stellar events like Canfest and the CAMPO opening benefit.  And after all, isn’t an event only as good as the number of people that attend it? Here are five tips that help us when pitching our client’s events.

Now I know my AB Z’s

Like others we at Abbi Public Relations  lovingly refer to our Pro Martial Arts Franchise owners as the “Z’s.” Here are 5 tips that we at Abbi PR use to help keep franchise owners happy and in the loop.

Free Tools to Build Media Lists

By Abbi Whitaker

Building Media Lists

The Abbi Agency Tools to Build Media LIsts

Driven by a blogging boom and fast-growing digital media, public relations professionals have to wrestle with ever-expanding media lists. Luckily, the same growth that is lengthening these lists is also making them much easier to expand, update, or even create. Here are seven digital tools to make sure that your media list is as fine-tuned as your pitches.

7 Ways to Lend a Hand

By Leah Scherschel, junior account executive

We live in a society where money and time are highly valued and difficult to part with. Simultaneously charities are in need of contributions. At Abbi Public Relations, we believe that it is our civic duty to make a difference, and though we cannot give money every time, we have found that lending a hand isn’t limited to giving a dollar.