Kiki Keating and I arrived in the Shepherds Bush section of London on May 7, a few days before the MakiNetwork Business Media Conference was to begin. A world traveler, Kiki has been to London many times and served as a good guide in the taxi!

After dropping our belongings in our room about 8 p.m., we wasted no time heading down to the conference room in our hotel, where the first portion of the event would take place. We spent a few hours packing the tote bags—branded by our conference hosts, Imperial College London—with the event agenda, attendee and journalist bios, and fun giveaways. Then, we found a place to eat a late dinner and had a drink at the pub on the corner—until it closed.

We had a day of play on Sunday, traipsing around the city, and then work began first thing Monday morning, as attendees registered, received the goodie bags we’d packed, and settled in for 48 hours of intense learning.

Marketing and communications professionals came from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Amsterdam, Ireland, and England but there were also attendees from as far away as China and Singapore. 

Journalists were presented in groups of three or four on six different panels over the two days, representing top-tier outlets such as Reuters, Forbes, the Financial Times, and BBC News. They spoke to us openly and honestly, passing on everything from the types of stories they are interested in to how they want PR folks to reach out to them.

One theme that resonated with all journalists was the future of work—what models are becoming the norm in our sort-of-post-Covid world and how are these changes affecting businesses and families? And in terms of keeping in touch, they all stressed PR professionals should keep their pitches brief and make sure they are succinct, clear, and well-communicated. They all also noted that because they get hundreds of emails each day, they respond to pitches less often.

In addition to taking in the information being served up, I enjoyed watching Kiki and her Maki co-founder Matt Symonds at work. Kiki has an ease with people; attendees were eager to speak with her and spend time catching up, and she easily shepherded them, answered questions, offered add-on information. Matt introduced the panels and made us laugh often with his witty repartee as he offered questions to our esteemed panelists.

Together, Kiki and Matt ensured that attendees and speakers alike had a positive experience, felt welcomed, and got what they needed from the event.

Kiki and I are a lot alike, personally and professionally, except that Kiki’s sphere of influence and the circles she runs in are far broader. While I excel at promoting clients across New England, Kiki’s reach is global. And while I’m fast, efficient, and enjoy learning and growing, Kiki can outpace me in these areas as well. I am known as a person who introduces groups of women from various sectors to build relationships, but Kiki has friends and colleagues she has drawn together around the world; she is well-known as an inspiring, empathetic, wise machine.

Very humbling. And lots of fun. 

While we worked hard, we also played hard.

I enjoyed taking in the history of London, visiting key landmarks like the iconic Globe Theatre, where we saw “Much Ado About Nothing”, and walking along the Thames and crossing London Bridge; visiting a museum, however briefly; and sampling all kinds of wonderful food.

I lived and learned. What a beautiful combination.

If I am lucky, the Maki Conference in Singapore in December will be in my future.

The post Gaining Global PR Perspective appeared first on Beetle Press.

A year ago, I began working with Kiki Keating, the founder of KikiNetwork, a global PR company based in New Hampshire. I wanted to learn how to swim in a much bigger pond, and I have not been disappointed. 

Kiki honed her PR skills while leading the first-ever marketing and communications department at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. In this long-time role, Kiki built relationships with MarComm professionals around the world as well as with the journalists they need to reach in order to raise awareness about their schools, professors and their research, programs, students and alums.

Ten years ago, Kiki founded KikiNetwork and put her skills to work for her clients, who range from graduate schools to entrepreneurs and the creators of new technology to authors of books.

Kiki is a whirlwind of energy who never stops working—and playing—and she is creative, imaginative, and focused on finding the best PR opportunities for her clients.

In addition to the PR business, she also runs a second venture, the MakiNetwork Business Media Conference, with her business partner, Matt Symonds. Named by blending Matt and Kiki’s first names, the semi-annual event brings together PR professionals from highly ranked global business schools and top-tier international media. 

MarComm professionals make up the audience, and journalists from premier publications around the world come to speak about what they are covering in the news and how to best get their attention.

During Covid, Maki had to go virtual, but came back with a lot of energy this year in London. Kiki invited me to come with her to help with everything that goes on at the conference, and I was thrilled to be included—both for the chance to sightsee and be an observer in a room full of like-minded professionals.

I was so appreciative, I told Kiki I would do whatever she needed. 

Maki was held last week. Tune in next week to learn what I learned!

The post Supporting a Global PR Guru appeared first on Beetle Press.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the Media Consults I offer to professionals of all types who want to either learn basic PR skills or refine the skills they already have. Shortly after the blog was posted, I received an email from Mary Knight, the communications chairman for Zonta International District 1.

As the head of her local Zonta chapter, Mary oversees all PR efforts. She had a great event planned and wanted to invite community members to take part, but in the past, she had written and distributed press releases but got no pick-up. 

Mary wanted to increase her chances for success.

In half an hour, I met with Mary on a Zoom call and taught her the basics in a consult. We reviewed a press release she had penned, and I edited it with her by sharing my screen, so she could see what I was doing and follow along.

I helped Mary with everything from developing the content of the release to understanding the strategy of distributing her release to key media in Western Massachusetts. About a week after Mary sent the release we’d worked on, I began to see it get picked up—first in The Republican and BusinessWest.

Mary emailed me to say, “Meeting with you was a home run. All six of the publications contacted printed my press release! A first!”

Next week, I’ll offer a Q and A with Mary so you can learn more about her organization and the Media Consult. She talks about what she learned, specifically.

I really enjoy doing Media Consults; the work brings out the professor wannabe in me and gives me pleasure to teach others a skill that is second nature to me.

If you’d like to schedule a Media Consult, email me!

The post Client’s Release Picked Up in Six Newspapers appeared first on Beetle Press.

Many entrepreneurs don’t know how to write and send a press release, and those in leadership roles in marketing or communications simply don’t have the time. That is where I come in. 

But for those who enjoy learning and doing on their own, I can also help by teaching you the basics. PR 101, so to speak.

If you are the new head of your company’s marketing or communications team, and the PR strategy recently fell in your lap, I can teach you. Or if you have a new junior member on the team who’s charged with PR, I can teach them, too.

I call this service a Media Consult, and in such a session, I teach people everything they need to know about writing a press release and getting it where it needs to go. I discuss what is and isn’t news—what editors do and do not want to hear from you—and I brainstorm topics that would make sense for each businessperson or organization leader.

I’ll also walk you through a sample release, using a topic that makes sense for your business to flesh the release out and complete it. Finally, I’ll pass on the key contact information for some of the region’s editors and teach you how to send your release to them.

Over the years, I have done many media consults with entrepreneurs—mostly small business owners but also with new members of a communications or marketing team—and I’m always proud to see their releases getting picked up in the news in the months that follow. 

Honestly, it’s not a fine science. It’s a logical, formatted process.

After a consult, some clients find that PR work is more than they have the bandwidth for, and they turn back to me to prepare and send their releases anyway. That works, too!

If a Media Consult might help you get noticed more often in the media, please be in touch.

I love sitting in the teacher’s seat as much as I like writing and editing!

The post DIY Media Relations appeared first on Beetle Press.

Just as I do when working with clients, I started the work of shaping a content campaign to raise awareness about my own business by strategizing. I thought about the big picture first and communicated what I do and for whom, and then I planned how I would roll the details of the story out over time. 

In the past month, I told you that COVID-19 set me back and that I’m energized to rebuild my business by storytelling and creating new content for my website. I also told you why I was taking this approach: Because…content drives sales.

So, over time, I will show you what I do for clients, who I help and how, and most importantly, how you can raise awareness through storytelling on your website and social media platforms—and by outreach to the media.

If you don’t have the time or the experience to launch your own storytelling campaign to raise awareness about what you do, please reach out. I can help you strategize and roll out content that will get you noticed.  

Because everybody has a story to tell that will get them noticed. Stories connect us to the people we serve.

I tell stories for my clients who are successful CEOs, marketing directors, executive directors, entrepreneurs, and leaders of nonprofit organizations to raise awareness about what they do, what sets them apart, and what value their clients get from them. 

I partner with my clients on varying levels, which range from full consulting and strategy, along with writing press releases and other content, to simply writing content in following their lead. 

We talk together in easy, efficient conversation so I can assess what is new, what successes they’ve had in recent months, and how they’ve helped their customers and clients improve their lives.

I shine a light on my clients and help lift them up as thought leaders—the people you’d want to turn to when you need a retirement community for a parent, a bank to apply for a mortgage or open a checking account, or a nonprofit to support with your time and financial resources.

I might start a campaign with a story about the business owner’s inspiration for the work he or she does. And I might follow that up with a blog about a new service and the value it adds. 

We might continue the story with blogs on new staff members or team leaders, highlighting their experience and the ways they expand the reach or improve service in the organization.

In the late spring, when shops and storefronts were opening up again after the pandemic, to the joy of us all, I helped Thornes Marketplace in Northampton tell the story of its reopening. I wrote a press release that went out to the media and brought the television cameras in. (Read some feedback from Thornes co-owner and marketing director Jody Doele.)

I turned that PR into a blog that Thornes posted on its website.

This spring, I also highlighted Florence Bank’s Customers’ Choice Community Grants program, again with a press release about the annual awards celebration, during which bank leaders offer grants to several dozen local nonprofits. 

Again, a television crew and several print journalists came to tell their stories of the awards event. 

And I penned a blog about it for the bank’s website.

The stories I tell with and for clients take different forms, depending on the audience and who my clients want to reach. 

When you’re holding a public event or want to announce an anniversary, an award, a new service, or new member of your staff team, I would recommend and write both a press release—to reach your customers in the community—and a blog and social media posts—to reach those in your online audience.

If you feel stuck and want help getting started on your storytelling campaign, please reach out to talk. I can explain the varying levels in which we could partner to help you raise awareness and get results. 

I can also help you brainstorm your business or organization stories. I am certain there are many waiting to be told.

If you are not signed up for my blog, sign up here so that you don’t miss a post or a tip or idea.

This is a great time for rebuilding. Let me help.

The post Starting a Campaign to Raise Awareness appeared first on Beetle Press.

I feel energized, and I’m hoping to inspire you.

After a COVID year, I’m headed back to Start in the game of business development, and that means I must return to the basics of using public relations—or PR—tactics and getting the word out there about what I do. 

Fortunately, this comes easily to me. I will simply do for myself what I do for clients.

I’m starting a series of blogs in hopes I might give you some hope and passion to reinvigorate your business by ramping up your presence online and in the local media.

In early March 2020, my to-do list for client projects was so long it gave me angina. By St. Patrick’s Day, I did not have a to-do list. That was the blow that the COVID-19 pandemic dealt to me and Beetle Press—and hundreds of thousands of other businesspeople across the country.

One by one, clients canceled projects for various reasons. They didn’t have the funds. They couldn’t hold the events they had planned. They were afraid to talk about their COVID protocols because at any minute they might have to change them. 

Time passed, and some clients have come back to work with me. Others are still affected by the loss of income. They are doing without a public relations partner at this time, or they’ve added the responsibilities for blogging and creating content for newsletters, social media, and other platforms onto the shoulders of already-busy staff members.

This all means that today, as we sit perhaps on the precipice of a new Delta Variant attack on health and economics, I am among the businesspeople across the world who are focused on regrowth, rebuilding, reshaping, rebranding, and restrengthening. 

I’m a storyteller, and I use my fact-finding, writing, and editing skills to help my clients reach out to their various audiences to share their important news and also to explain what they do, why they do it, and how it helps those they serve. 

With today’s blog, I will move away from posting the stories and press releases I write for clients, and I will return to writing posts that educate my readers about content, its importance, and how I can help strategize the best use of content and also produce it. 

I have been fortunate in this past year. Because I have a second business focused on book development, I have kept busy—mainly writing my own books and getting them on the market. “Willful Evolution” came out several months ago and has received much praise from a mainly female readership; women and men tell me the book is powerful, honest, and inspiring.

Many businesses are not diversified in the same way I am, though, and they have struggled.

I hope that in putting more energy into Beetle Press and talking with you all about the whys and how-tos, I can help you learn how to promote yourself through PR or show you that I can do it for you, affordably.

Reach out today to learn how I can help you make a COVID comeback. 

I can help you strategize.

Share your important news with the media.

Create blog and social media posts and newsletter content.

And if you don’t have a newsletter yet, I can get you started. 

I want us all to recover together. Please be in touch.

The post Focusing on Strengths in Covid Recovery appeared first on Beetle Press.

Vincent “Vinny” Valetutti is my friend Becka’s partner. I met him several years ago when he offered to drive our entire book group to a vineyard in a van so we could all relax and enjoy. Meeting all of us for the first time, Vinny was friendly and pleasant, and also a good driver!

This spring, I assigned a student intern working with me in my PR business to interview Vinny and write a press release on the traveling, thirty-foot-high, mock Sea Level Rise Ruler he created to raise awareness about rising sea levels. When standing next to the ruler, one has a close-up, dramatic view of how high the sea would rise if only five to ten percent of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt. 

Vinny towed his ruler on a trailer and parked it in a lot in downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, so people could visit it and learn more about one impending circumstance of climate change. Earlier this month, he towed his giant ruler to Washington, DC.

Helping get some media attention on this innovation gave me a deeper view into the mind that is Vinny’s. So, when he contacted me a few months after his initial outreach and asked for help with a book, I was interested in working with him. I have since learned much about the man behind the ruler.

Vinny grew up north of New York City and began to be fascinated by how things work at a young age. A retired engineer, Vinny has a great deal of experience in energy conservation and with heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in office buildings. 

Vinny’s career and his travels inform and inspire ideas of all kinds. As he imagines, he meshes his deep passion for the environment with his knowledge of history and politics, his global savvy, and his lifelong experience as a pragmatic, creative problem-solver. 

His book, due out this fall with a working title of If I Were President: 29 Unique Ideas for Solving Global Problems. As the name suggests, Vinny offers 29 ideas in his book, presented in these eight categories: Invitation to All World Leaders, Military, Constitutional Amendments, Capitalism, Social Issues, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Taxation, and Patents. 

Many of the ideas are interconnected. Some have the basic premise of supply and demand at their core, and others were inspired by Vinny’s take on the bible from his childhood learnings. 

Vinny says he sees the world differently. His lens doesn’t focus solely to the left, or the right, and it also doesn’t land in the center. “Think of my mind like a sphere,” he explains. “You have a diameter, and you have the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. I’m anywhere in the volume of the sphere. Sometimes, I also think outside the sphere—kind of like thinking outside the box. I’m a warehouse of boxes, and sometimes, I think outside the warehouse.”

Vinny offers the disclaimer in his book that his proposals are not intended as fully formed concepts, and they are not intended as facets of a presidential platform. They are simply food for thought for all of us.

I offer the disclaimer that the Janice Beetle Books indicia on the book jacket does not signify an endorsement of the specific ideas within but rather wholehearted support of the author’s creativity and innovative thinking.

I hope you’ll check out this title when it’s released. It’s interesting reading in difficult times.

The post Helping an Author Get His Book Out appeared first on Beetle Press.

By Gabby Freel

My final semester at Westfield State University was made whole by interning with Janice Beetle at Beetle Press. This internship was more fulfilling than I ever thought possible, and I’m truly grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Before coming to work for Janice, I had mainly done creative writing. My forte was poetry, and I had no idea what a press release was supposed to look like. I thought blogging was just talking about your favorite recipes on Pinterest or Tumblr. I had a lot to learn, and Janice had a lot to teach.

One of my first tasks as an intern was to read a client’s manuscript and give any feedback or edits I thought were necessary. This was a new experience, and I learned from Janice some ways in which creative license can be applied.

After the manuscript came blog writing. This is the 20–year anniversary of Beetle Press, so I was tasked with interviewing some of Janice’s first clients and writing blogs on their experiences in working with her. My first phone interview was with Rich Cooper. I was terrified of the phone at the time. I was barely able to muster the courage to enter into an interaction to refill a prescription, never mind interview a stranger.

Nevertheless, I was adamant about facing everything that was thrown at me head on and at full speed. Of course, I wasn’t thrown overboard without a life vest. Janice picked Rich to be first knowing that it would be easy to talk with him. She even did a mock interview with me in the minutes leading up to my phone call with Rich.

After assisting with the blog on Rich, I interviewed Janet Grant and Bonnie Zima Dowd. (Bonnie’s entry will post in two weeks.)

In a not-unusual overlap of relationships in Beetle Press, I continued to work with Rich, but on a project of interest to him and Janice’s colleague at the Springfield Republican, Cynthia Simison. Rich and Cynthia are leaders of the Northampton chapter of Dollars for Scholars, and they were interested in having Janice and I write brief synopses on each of the scholarships, telling the story of the people for whom they are named.

Writing press releases was another skill I was able to hone during this internship. Janice showed me a couple of press releases she had written and then sent me off to try a few myself.

One of the last major tasks that I am still working on is tracking the recent press releases for Beetle Press through an Excel spread sheet. Each time Janice sends a press release to the media for a client, I add it to the Excel file and then indicate where each release is published thereafter. Janice used to be able to track pick-ups using only her memory, but with the volume of press releases she is distributing, that’s now impossible.

I truly valued the experience of being an intern for Beetle Press, and I’m grateful that Janice wants me to continue working with her. I’ve officially graduated from Westfield State University and can put my real-life PR experience to work.

Thank you, Janice. You’re a wonderful mentor, and I’m lucky to also call you my good friend.

The post Life as an Intern at Beetle Press appeared first on Beetle Press.

When Gabrielle Freel headed to college five years ago, her thought was to become a criminalist. She loved shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS and wanted to learn more about profiling.

My intern for the spring semester from Westfield State University went into her freshman year thinking she would major in criminal justice and psychology. Then, the poetry portion of Gabby’s first creative writing class in her junior year sparked a literary flame she hadn’t felt smouldering before.

“There were so many things that needed to be written—that I needed to write,” Gabby says, noting that her path was suddenly just a bit clearer than mud.

Gabby began at Beetle Press a few weeks ago. She is organized and eager to learn, and I am enjoying the process of getting to know her and her work style.

Before Gabby knew she wanted to focus on writing, she spent her junior year with a literature concentration to be on the track to teach English at the secondary level. That was a turn in the wrong direction as well because she realized how structured the education field is.

That’s when the creative writing course came into play, and Gabby changed her focus from teaching to writing. Her professors told her she was a natural born writer.

I am seeing the same thing. Many young writers tend to be cliché and disorganized in putting their thoughts down, but Gabby coins her own phrases and uses metaphor well.

As part of her internship, she will help me review two client manuscripts and move them closer toward publication, and she will also help me with research and with blogs for clients and Beetle Press.

She is currently at work writing some brief pieces on the people behind some of the scholarships granted by Northampton Dollars for Scholars.

Wanting to write and learn more about the craft is what led Gabby to this internship.

I was pleased to have her tell me that the Beetle Press opportunity was pitched to her at school as the “premium internship.” Gabby thanks professors George Layng and Leah Nielsen for those sales pitches. I thank them too!

I have also heard George say that the Beetle Press internship is ideal because students can work with me on everything from PR and learning to write press releases to offering feedback on clients’ books and my own.

Gabby calls what the work here can offer her “a perfect smorgasbord of writing skills and publication knowledge.” She hopes that what she learns with me will launch her into her own writing career, and I am sure that is true.

Gabby has a lot to learn, but this is definitely the perfect environment for her to craft her skill and learn the essentials for having a successful career in the professional writing world.

“I finally feel like I’m on a straight path,” Gabby says.

The post Spring Intern Inspired to Write appeared first on Beetle Press.

EASTHAMPTON—Janice Beetle, principal of Beetle Press, a public relations and communications firm, recently announced she will celebrate 20 years in business in 2018.

Beetle established the business in 1998 after working as a journalist for 15 years, first as a beat reporter for the Springfield Republican and then as a writer and editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. That training has helped her assist clients in connecting with the media via press releases.

Beetle works with a diverse range of clients from the nonprofit and private sectors. She writes for and edits print pieces such as magazines and annual reports. She creates editorial calendars that include print and online media channels, and she supports digital marketing efforts for clients, writing blogs, enewsletters, and website content.

In 2013, Beetle introduced book development to her roster of services, and has since helped launch many authors’ publications.

To mark the 20th anniversary for the business, Alison Winkler, a graphic designer native to Northampton who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., adapted the original Beetle Press logo design by Lisa Stowe of Florence, creating an anniversary version.

For a number of years, Beetle promoted her business as a “one-stop shop,” offering writing, editing and graphic design services. Today, Beetle has returned to her roots, focusing on writing, editing and PR services. When clients need more comprehensive services, she partners with colleagues Ruth Griggs, a marketing strategist, and Maureen Scanlon, a graphic designer, in a collaborative called The Creative.

Beetle holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Westfield State College. Since 2003, she has mentored dozens of interns from Westfield State and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She now employs four former interns on a freelance basis: Shelby Ashline, a graduate of UMass; Shannon Grossman and Ashley Pond, graduates of Westfield State; and David Kennedy, a current Westfield State student.

Clients of Beetle Press include Westfield State University, Glenmeadow, Florence Bank, Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, Sports Travel and Tours, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

For more information visit www.beetlepress.com.

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