Thoughts & Facts re Social Networking

Some call it “Social Networking,” and some call it “Viral Marketing” (which sounds sick-making). Anyhow, here are some facts on the subject compiled by the Michael Saunders real estate organization in Sarasota…

Of eight couples married in the U.S. last year, one met via social media. That’s more than 12%, and it’s growing.

Facebook added 100 million users in fewer than nine months, with the fastest growing segment made up of females 55-65 years old.

Blogs are omnipresent: there are more than 200 million now. -



Ronald T. Smith

JOURNALISTPR LLC

Newsman Joins Journalist PR

SARASOTA FL -- Tom Toolen, a one-time New York Daily News journalist, has joined JournalistPR (www.journalistpr.com) as a media relations consultant.

JournalistPR is believed to be the only PR agency in the Tampa Bay area that is staffed exclusively by journalists. The firm believes that it gets stronger results with journalists talking to media journalists.

Mr. Toolen was a reporter, feature writer, rewrite person and editor for The New York Daily News, before shifting to freelance status to report, write and edit articles for the New York Times, Daily News, Reuters, United Press International, Newark Star Ledger, San Francisco Chronicle and such magazines as Luxe, Money, First for Women, New Jersey Business and New York.

He was on the founding team for several publications, including New Jersey Times, a weekly; and Luxe magazine, a glossy lifestyle magazine based in New York. He also was a ghost writer for several books for business leaders in the insurance and real estate fields. For several years, he wrote a weekly human interest column for The Bergen Record newspaper in New Jersey.

He also served at separate times as Journalism Adjunct at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J.

Over the years, his journalism assignments covered a wide range of page one stories, including the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul's visit to New York/New Jersey, major financial and corruption cases involving government and business leaders, Mafia chief John Gotti's trial, the Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King tennis showdown and civil unrest and turmoil in Harlem, Newark and Jersey City.

Aside from his responsibilities with JournalistPR, Mr. Toolen is also associate editor for two monthlies in New York, The Medical Herald and The Spiritual Herald, and operates a website where he writes articles commenting on news events.

He lives with his wife, Carolyn, in Venice and they have two grown children.

Writing Tip #7

If you're hiring someone to dig up and report press releases for your firm, find a journalist. A journalist will already know these rules.

writing Tip #6

Avoid calling an editor and saying that you have a great idea for him or her. It's their decision, not yours, as to how powerful your idea is. I counsel courteous diffidence: "Do you have a couple of minutes to hear a story idea?" (When press agents would call me as a New York editor proclaiming a great story, my response would be, "I'll tell you if you have a great story for us; please don't you tell me." Arrogant, but true.)

Writing Tip #5

And write that nugget in the style of your target publication! Better still, find a section or category which your target uses, and write in that style, and propose it as the next entry in their series.

Writing Tip #4

To get a major interview or feature, don't write the entire proposed piece. A quality news organization -- the kind you really care about -- will assign a staffer to do it. All you need write are a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs with the core of your story idea. If they want you to write a draft for their consideration, then ask "How long, and by what deadline?"

Writing Tip #3

Keep your lead (or lede, as some misguided newsrooms call it) paragraph brief. One or two lines, ideally. Amateurs commonly write overwhelmingly long opening paragraphs -- six or eight lines -- and such ponderous, turgid openings simply make it difficult for the editor to understand your story in the 15 or 20 seconds he or she will give it before deciding whether to use or discard it.

Writing Tip # 2

Avoid opinion words or phrases. Words like "proudly," above, are verboten. So is the phrase, "A leader in something..." which is meaningless and not journalistic. Instead, if you can rank your company, you're home free:
...has been announced by XYZ Company, one of the half-dozen largest research firms...etc.

Seven tips for writing stronger news releases: Tip # 1

Seven tips from lifelong journalist Ronald Ted Smith (ex-executive editor of United Press International in New York) to help your press releases get more media attention. The author is managing member of JournalistPR LLC (www.JournalistPR.com) which serves clients in Tampa Bay and elsewhere from its headquarters in Sarasota, FL. The company produces press releases for clients, and major interviews and articles, and also offers social networking, viral marketing, and web services.

1. You're writing for a news organization, not for your management. So if you have a management willing to learn, then resist starting with your company name and braggadocio. Try to figure out what is the news, and lead with it. To illustrate, DO NOT start this way:
XYZ Company, a leader in something, proudly announced today...
Instead, start this way:
A cure for cancer has been announced by XYZ Company...etc.
Or, given that a cure for cancer is going to attract a lot of critical attention, you might start qualifiedly like this:
What is described as a likely cure for cancer has been announced...
It would be even stronger if you added:
What is described as a possible "or even likely" cure for cancer...
And then within the first few paragraphs, quote someone as saying, "...even likely." You need that quote to back up your lead.