The CleanPix Blog

It is holiday time and I was thinking of pudding. You know figgy pudding. I have never had any but some how I started to think of the term the proof is in the pudding. I have no pudding today but I  have had some recent conversations with some of our clients about their PressBriefs. I thought I would share them with you and their recipe for PressBrief success. (for the Post Hotel Chrismas Pudding … see below.)

Here are the main ingredients they use in their PressBriefs:

1. Be Brief  (Pinch of This) I mean just a sentence or two.

2. Sell the Media to be interested in the story. (Use Sizzle) The media will write the story not you.

3. Variety in your PressBriefs Culture, Environment, Events. And, it is ok to have a few that are longer in length. That said a PressBrief, is a media PITCH,  it is not a press-release that you have to labor over for hours and let steam over several pages.  ( Think of your Brief as a deligthfull and appetizing Hors-D’oeuvres.)

4. Taste test what you are doing. Look at the reporting and see what is getting the views. Taylor your Pressbriefs to their taste.

5. Link your PressBriefs to the story Ideas page on your website.

6. Refrain from using PressBriefs for postings of a full or partial year events calendar. If you have 10 calendar events, make 10 individual “PITCH” puddings, I mean PressBriefs. Yes, follow the best practice of  a media PITCH, one story with its few sizzle points, fresh hot from the stove. If you make 10 PressBriefs you are launching 10 search leads on Google and feeding multiple RSS feeds … So you see…brief is most effective.

7. Make the PressBriefs fun!!!!!!!!!!!
Example: “It is cold here but fishing is hot“
This one liner was responded to in 5 minutes after being posted on Pressuite.com

8. Try to add in your weblink an image selection or key picture that is consistant with the PITCH. This way the images are immediatly available to the media professional to construct a story for their publications or blogs.

9. Don’t limit yourself to just images. How about adding video to make it more delectable.

10. Weather you cook it at -10 or + 34 degrees Fahrenheit, a few minutes is all it needs from start to finish and you will smell the success.

Pressuite has over 3500 media specialists, journalists and travel-writers from all over the world and 3-5 new members are added every day awaiting to hear from you. They all need fresh pudding to feed their own news networks and blogs…Get cooking… Publish a new brief today.

Enjoy the results and happy holidays. Here is the delicious Figgy Pudding Recipe provided from one family member The Relais and Château Post Hotel.

“Après -Ski” Christmas Pudding
from the Post Hotel, Lake Louise.
(serves 8)
110gr. (3 ½ oz)        Beef Suet
110gr. (3 ½ oz)        Breadcrumbs
280gr. (10 oz)        Dried Mission Figs, cut in cubes
180gr. (6 oz)            Sultan Raisins
120gr. (4 oz)            Brown Sugar
50gr. (1 ½ oz)        Sliced Bleached Almonds
50gr. (1 ½ oz)        Candied Lemon
2                Lemon Zest
3                Whole Eggs
3cl.                Whisky

Mix all above ingredients together and place in buttered Christmas pudding mould. Poach for 3 hours just before serving at 275 F.

Today Internet is on cloud nine. Bravo! It has changed the way we live. 40 years ago, spam was something I put on my toast. Like many of us, I was not wired, 8 to 10 hours a day, in front of a computer screen, did not wear reading glasses, nor did I drive home from work with my GPS and my iPhone in one hand and the proverbial cup of coffee in the other, watching simultaneously the weather forecast projection on the windshield of my hybrid, while the energy consumption indicator pulsed in a 3-D rendering on the LCD dashboard. Let’s celebrate!

My zen guru texts me that multi-tasking does NOT exist. I obstinately pretend it does as I am oohmmmm…ing along. Surely she was right when she said, with great wisdom, that “suffering is optional!” Perhaps the Internet suffers from too much attention from us all.

Just now, I clicked via Google on the link to the UCLA engineering site, where the birth of the Internet took place 40 years earlier. The link showcased, the ephemeral nature of the Internet with — a site error message! … I guess they are busy celebrating!

Coincidence or not: Bats are migrating during the month Halloween is taking place. As a result, Enmax, one of our local energy magnum’s, has mandated a slow down to stand-still of it’s windturbine farm during the bat migratory season. The reason: The turbulent trail of the 3 winged eolian energivores has been found to be deadly to the little bats or at best making them “sickly” green, gasping for air. As a results, the poor things are found by the thousands with their lungs collapsed, lying dead at the feet of the towering white giants.

Contrary to their colleague the birds, bats seams unable to deal with sudden air de-pressurisations flowing in the trailing path of the turbine blades. In the course to design highly efficient wind turbines, who would have thought that bats would get in the way. The cause of their sudden and large mortality rates was but recently discovered thanks to a small team of researchers.

A marvelously simple insight: “the tiny bats don’t like to fly in high winds”, said U of C biology professor Robert Barclay.

…. On the up side, its likely that new university classes on bats are about to be integral curriculum to the equations of aero-dynamic windturbine design? Course: Bat-turbo-eolian dynamics 101.

At the CleanPix head office, we use 100% “green” windturbine generated power, so we are concerned. But do not be scared, we will still be pixing along during the Halloween night. Right now, I have to contact our “green” energy provider friends at Bullfrogpower to find out if they are, like Enmax, scheduling a powering down of their windturbines and leaving the bats migrate though and happily without a further breath of convincing.

—————–
What is nice and to shout the obvious:

First: Green power has admirably more nuances, scruples, self-examination, and instant democratic reactiveness at being eco-friendly in a way never concerted or previously observed over other type of energy generation.

Second (green or not): Clearly using less energy all together is far more palatable and beneficial in real time if one compares it to the efforts it takes for any power generation solutions.

Not that I am in the habit of drooling over photo gadgets, but I must say, when my partner Inese Birstins give me the BBC link below, I was truly dazzled. Our previous entry was all about archiving and the issue of storing/archiving files, ever-increasing in number and size. This new panoramic photo system is breaking all records in this regard: it is about to deliver a gargantuan appetite for storage but, nevertheless, an amazing visual and affordable way to create such files. This is all too dangerous. It works, it costs around $350-$500 (including a low-end digital camera), and it’s fun. The truth is there have been less than practical attempts to replace the legendary Swiss-made Alpa ROTO 360 panoramic camera that cost, in the eighties, a mere $25K. This just does it…  I need one.

Imagine being able to zoom into any part of a panoramic photograph that catches your eye. Plus, even seeing people miles away when the picture was taken.

Richard Taylor Editor, BBC Click

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8004657.stm