Germaine O.

Some years ago, a friend invited me to lead a lunch & learn lecture at her boutique PR agency. I prepared a few notes, no slides, about what works best for media relations in the modern era, describing with examples of what works to remain top of mind when reporters set out to identify new subject matter to cover and depend on sources to fill gaps in their still unfolding coverage. Midway through that session, I paused to field any questions that had sprung to mind for the dozen in attendance. The three questions I received were: What time of day is best to contact reporters, What are the subject lines that work best, and When do you follow up after not hearing back. As politely as I could, I told the person asking that none of that matters. I have come to understand, from attending enough webinars and sessions with other PRs, that these are typical questions in those settings. I never trained to be a PR, having bypassed any agency years, and it's possible that there's an alternative training and methodology that serves well many PRs I don't know. But from where I come, that data is all irrelevant to the task at hand. There are many better questions to ask, when the window opens for questions, that get more directly to the task at hand, which is to come up with original ideas that tie into what reporters are known to write about. Here's a game plan that works for me: 1. Follow as many reporters, broadly, on social as you can locate who mirror what you hear about and know about. Be someone who has opinions yourself, not just someone who is shoveling other people's opinions. Take a position within and around the industry you represent. 2. Engage with reporters regularly so that they recognize who you are prior to ever pitching anything to them. They should get back to you, even if they decline. 3. Suggest via DM grabbing coffee with a reporter when you sense the time is right to shift gears. 4. At that coffee sit down, don't pitch them anything. Hand them a broader overview of your work to date - and where you can be of most help to them. 5. Wait for them to jump in with an active assignment they have that matches to the arena you described your sources can assist best and most. 6. Contact all of those you're assigned to find out if one or more of them will speak with this reporter, thereby keeping the opportunity to yourself by winning with speed. 7. Connect anyone relevant, without being a blocker in the way of progress. Trust them to share what's suitable. Don't join the call. 8. Send a note to the reporter in the days that follow to make sure there's nothing that has fallen through the cracks - and at the close of that correspondence mention that you'd be glad to assist similarly in the future. My best advice for those embarking on or continuing a career in media relations is not to be a very annoying person. The ideal path to prosperity flows through choosing every day to operate as a regular person would, not as a PR is reputed to be.

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AI isn’t killing communications professionals. It’s separating the strategic from the tactical. My July post about traditional PR being broken sparked some interesting commentary, especially around how AI will change the trajectory of PR. I like to think of AI as gaining five new staff members overnight. They're incredibly efficient, never complain, and work around the clock. But like any new hire, they need management by someone who actually knows what they're doing. The best results happen when you blend AI capabilities with human expertise. AI delivers the vanilla version: technically correct, perfectly formatted, utterly forgettable. A skilled communications professional adds the strategic seasoning that turns generic content into persuasive messaging that moves audiences. This nuance is easy to miss. Many companies are using AI as a replacement rather than an amplifier. You end up with content that sounds like it was written by a committee of robots - which, technically, it was. Instead, smart leaders should approach AI integration in three ways: 1️⃣ First, get everyone trained on AI tools, not just the communications team. 2️⃣ Second, use AI for message alignment across internal organizations, so that you stay consistent (and strategic) in your talking points. 3️⃣ Third, treat AI as an additive capability, not a cost-cutting crutch. The companies that will thrive are those that recognize AI's limitations alongside its strengths. It excels at research, drafts, and consistency but struggles with nuance, timing, and audience psychology, precisely the areas where human expertise becomes most valuable. Your competitors who think AI can replace strategic communications thinking will produce increasingly generic, tone-deaf messaging. Meanwhile, organizations that use AI to enhance human strategy will dominate the conversation. See AI as multiplication rather than substitution, and remember that the human touch is your competitive advantage.

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🚨 Today, Muck Rack released a major new report: What Is AI Reading? This is a big win for PR and Comms pros. Why? Because we finally have data showing that earned media doesn’t just inform—it fuels discovery, shapes perception, and drives business outcomes. You’ll see how the sources we pitch and place in are directly influencing AI outputs, and by extension, the flow of information online. 📌 Link in comments. We worked with Eleanor Hawkins for the exclusive story—and I’m so glad we did. If there’s one takeaway for communicators, it’s this: trust your gut and work with journalists who get it. Eleanor has covered our industry with care and depth for years. She didn’t just report the findings—she translated their meaning. Not just for PR folks, but for leaders navigating AI’s growing role in business. Could we have gone with someone who covers tech, business, or marketing more broadly? Sure. But this story needed someone who understands PR + media—and Eleanor nailed it. It's meta: strategic PR about a report on strategic PR through a tech platform built for strategic PR pros with a journalist who covers strategic PR. This is why I choose to do this every day. https://lnkd.in/eTk4v3Nr

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Daily media coverage and intelligence reports aren’t optional in PR—they’re non-negotiable. The challenge is the time commitment. Early in my career at PR agencies (Burson, Weber Shandwick) and in-house at eBay, I spent hours every day compiling reports and even weekends sifting through Google Alerts to prep for the week ahead. Later, as a manager PayPal and Under Armour, it was tough to watch my team invest more time than necessary in reporting when they could be focusing on projects with greater learning opportunities. Regular media intelligence reporting is essential for managing up to your C-suite and board. It not only shows which external media coverage advances the company narrative but also surfaces strategic moves—like removing a mention from a story or shaping competitor narratives—that build reputation capital. I was excited to get a sneak peek of Clipbook (thanks Grant Manley, Parth Badhwar)—an AI-first research and analysis platform built for the modern comms era. It makes creating custom daily reports seamless and saves communications teams countless hours by visualizing mentions and analytics across social and emerging media. Congrats to Adam Joseph on the launch. For more info and to see a demo visit https://lnkd.in/eMstgRWm

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Every CEO must have an AI strategy. I did not expect to become the case study, but I was happy to share my journey with Stephanie Mehta and Fast Company. Six months ago, I started turning my Office of the CEO at Weber Shandwick North America into an AI laboratory. We built specialized AI agents, connected them to our organizational knowledge, kept tinkering and refining, then watched what happened. The result? It's saving me and my team at least 8-10 hours weekly. But more importantly, it's helping me scale myself: my time, my knowledge, and my decision-making. My top two takeaways for other CEOs: - Most AI gets you 90 yards. The last 10 requires what I call "digital gardening"—the constant iteration and custom integration work. CEOs expecting magic off the shelf will be disappointed. - AI layering is key. Stack capabilities that amplify each other instead of hunting for one perfect tool. The work we've done with my office is getting scaled company-wide through Weber Shandwick's HALO platform, our agentic operating system that gives all employees access to custom agents that use our collective organizational knowledge. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about 5X and the Intelligence Economy. And it's just the start. http://bit.ly/42565Rt

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It’s no longer just about who sees the article—it’s about whether AI can see it. Today ChatGPT has more than 500 million users, with over 28% of employed adults in the U.S. using it as part of their daily workflow. This explosive growth in LLM usage has brought major change for communication professionals—introducing a new battleground that brand and comms leaders must learn to navigate and win: Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO). At their core, LLMs are trained on massive layers of data—social content from platforms like Reddit and Instagram, owned content like blogs and press releases, and of course, earned media from national, trade, and local outlets. So how exactly do platforms like ChatGPT gather and present information about your brand? New research from Muck Rack points to earned media as a major piece of that puzzle, with 85% of AI-generated citations originating from earned placements. That means strategic earned coverage is directly shaping how AI platforms construct brand narratives. But are all media placements treated equally by LLMs? Not quite. We are seeing outlets like Axios, People Magazine, and Forbes offer a strategic advantage. These publications carry both editorial authority and cultural weight—yet much of their content is accessible to AI systems because it is lightly gated compared to sights such as the Wall Street Journal and thus are used more frequently by LLMs. In addition, depending on the platform a user chooses and whether that system has licensing deals in place with media publishers (like ChatGPT’s agreement with The Washington Post), the value of a media mention in an LLM environment can vary. For brands and executives, earned media has always been a tool to build trust, shape perception, and foster connection with target audiences. Now it also plays a critical role in how AI platforms learn, respond, and represent your brand across AIO environments. What To Do? Start with doing an audit. To understand what comprises the answers AI delivers, PreBunk™, a state-of-the-art solution within PRISMA, measures not only which LLMs over-index with your key stakeholders, but also digs deeper into those systems and explores which media outlets are actually driving the LLM’s viewpoint. The stories you and your team secure are already influencing how tomorrow’s AI will talk about you. #pr #ai #mikeworldwide Resources: https://lnkd.in/e2-Nh-bP https://lnkd.in/ecHZJrjX

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Artificial intelligence is dramatically changing public relations. Whether that change is positive or negative remains to be seen, but there are some early indications that an over-reliance on AI to generate content quickly and inexpensively could erode authenticity in communications. I explore this further in my latest piece on Substack. #publicrelations #AI #PR #scicomms https://lnkd.in/gD9UmZP5

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The heart of PR has always been people…. relationships built on trust, emotion, and meaningful stories. As AI reshapes our industry, we face a critical question…how do we embrace innovation without losing the human connection? AI empowers PR with speed, data, and personalization…but while it can generate content, it can’t replicate lived experience, empathy, or vulnerability. IT CANNOT REPLACE HUMAN RELATIONS! The brands that truly resonate are the ones that sound human, feel real, and show up with sincerity. That means going beyond automated messages and algorithm-driven content to focus on genuine storytelling…. founder journeys, shared values, and client impact that evoke emotion. PR professionals must now lead as the guardians of brand humanity. Our role is not just to craft campaigns, but to build trust, shape narratives with empathy, and create space for real dialogue. In the age of AI, being human isn’t old-fashioned… it’s a competitive edge. The future of PR belongs to those who can merge smart tools with smart hearts. #humanizePR #AI #PR #UAE #zeinaakkawi #business #futureofpr 

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