But the question burning the country right now is, “Who Pays for Health Care?” Here is a little analogy that might help put it in layman’s terms:

There are four friends who like to stop at the bar and drink a few beers together. Steve has bar insurance through his employer, Bob is self-pay, Jeff has no insurance and cannot pay, and the final one, Russ, is on Baraid.

Steve orders a pricey, imported dark ale. It is $8. He makes a 50 cent copay. Bob orders the same, but since he is self pay and isn’t part of the discounted pricing from group insurance, he pays $12.50. Jeff orders a draft beer for $3, drinks it, and then informs the bartender he cannot pay. The bar absorbs the debt, and charges more for Steve and Bob’s next beers. In turn, Steve’s employer gets a rate increase for its employee Bar insurance. Steve also gets an explanation of benefits informing him that neither the bartender or the bar were in network, so it will only pay 50 percent and he will have to pay the remaining $3.50 from his Flexible Spending Account. Finally, Russ, who is on Baraid, orders a bottle of Budweiser for $5 and pays nothing for it. Baraid reimburses the Bar only $3.50. As for Bob, Steve and Jeff, the bar charges more for their next beer and they all get a tax increase to pay for Russ’ Baraid.

Based on this scenario, this is what they paid for the first round of beer ($28.50):

Steve- $4

Bob- $12.50

The Bar- $4.50

Steve’s Employer- $4

Jeff- 0

Russ- 0

Taxpayers– 3.50

But that was just the bar. Three months later, all four friends get bills in the mail from the bartender, the beer truck company, and the brewery. Bob calls the bar and asks about the charges. The bartender explains that they only paid for the beer from the bar, not the charges for pouring from the bartender, the transport from the trucker, or the bottling from the brewery. “But don’t worry,” he adds, “I will resubmit to your Bar insurance company and they will probably pay some of it.”

Be prepared for the final question

You get to the end of the interview. It has gone well. The reporter asks that last, most important question, “Is there anything you would like to add that I haven’t asked you about?”

This is the golden moment in the interview, yet most people answer with this, “No, I think that about does it.”

It sure does. You just toasted yourself. Yes, you want to get the heck out of this interview, so you take the first opportunity to gracefully bail. Don’t.

The most important question you will ever get, especially with TV reporters, is the last one. This is your opportunity to plug in your key statement and make your pitch. Even if you already had a chance to say it earlier in the interview, who cares, say it again. Your second version will probably more concise and sound byte worthy than your first comment.

Before, during and after your interview do the following:

• Decide on your main point
• Craft a 15 second speech on this point.
• Practice it several times
• Before the reporter asks the first questions, say it. “Before we get started, Sandy, I just want to say…”
• At the end of the interview, say it again

When the interview is finished, say it again, in a different way, while you thank the reporter for the interview.

The key here is to get it said, and repeat it, but without making it obvious. If you bang the nail too hard, the reporter will have a bad taste in his or her mouth and will leave it out.

Good luck with your next interview!

Do not be a barking megaphone: Twitter is about conversation and so is the rest of the online world.

And that is the key. Twitter, and all social media, is about the conversation.  So-called “push” marketing still works in some mediums, but not social media.

If you are using Twitter, here are some very basic things to remember:

1. Tweet about topics other than the main one you are promoting. The idea here is to establish relationships so that when you do have an important message to get out, people will notice and retweet them!

2. Reply to people, often, get in a conversation with them, and be helpful.

3. Retweet interesting tweets, even if they have nothing to do with what you are promoting.

4. Pay attention to who is following you, and engage with them.

5. DM (direct message) people. It is a little-used but very effective form of messaging in Twitter and it’s better than e-mail. I admit it, I don’t like e-mail. It has become a necessary evil.

If you do these five things, you will no longer be a barking megaphone and instead a respected and sought after person in the Twitterverse.

You can overcome writer's block

You sit with your fingers on the keys, but the words just don’t happen. Many writing experts recommend breaking through your creative block by “free writing,” which means typing without thinking until an idea emerges. This can be a great way to tap into your creative subconscious. Problem is, it’s inefficient and not a great idea when you are on a deadline (which we PR practitioners usually are).

When I was freelance writing for newspapers in southern Illinois, I met a terrific reporter with a very tough beat: local hero. She had to create five articles a week, M-F, each about a local hero, and each at least 500 words in length. No time for her to sit at the keyboard, pondering what to write.

I asked her how she did it. It’s not easy, she said, but the method was simple. She would think about the writing first and then write without thinking—sort of a controlled free write.

Here is what you do. Sit down with all your notes and quotes, read them repeatedly for about thirty minutes. The goal during this time is to internalize the notes while answering a very important question: what is the one thing this story is about?

Once she had decided on the one hook for the story and was comfortable with the notes and quotes, she would set them aside, sit at the keyboard, and type the story as fast as she could without ever stopping once to revise a sentence, check on a quote, or ponder if she was on the right track. She stuck to that single hook for the story. If she started to veer off, she steered right back without stopping to delete the sidetrack. The result, a solid first draft in one hour.

For the next thirty minutes, she would check the quotes, revise sentences, and delete anything that detracted from the main idea of the story. In two hours, she had a story. Maybe not the Great American Novel, but hey, she wasn’t writing that anyway. It was a news story.

So grab those notes and quotes, read and re-read, and think, think, think about the story. But, once you put your fingers in gear, it’s full throttle till you get to the end.

Try it and get back to me with your results.

Ready to interview

You have to be ready to interview and you really do have to have one message in mind. How many times have I prepared a laundry list of messages for someone who is about to interview? Don’t do it. One idea. Hook everything to that. Then, no matter what the media may ask, circle back to that idea every time.

Have a memorable factoid or two and hammer on those. If you are asked for specific facts or figures that you do not know, do not attempt to guess. Instead, answer honestly and then go back to your memorable factoids.  For  example, “It is clear we have a lot of people without primary care, but what is more important is we have only 20 primary care doctors in the county.”

Smile! Yes, I forgot to smile in two interviews. A relaxed, honest smile is essential.

Talk to the reporter before the interview. You can get a much better idea what they will ask. If you get a zinger, you can say, “You didn’t mention that one when we were talking, but since you asked…”

Not ready to interview