Five communications lessons from Rajan Zed

"America's most media-savvy Hindu priest". Hindu priests listen up.

1. Define the agenda - make everyone else respond to it. Zed does not release press releases in response to other people's press releases. He's making the news. He looks for opportunities to create newsworthy events as a strategic platform.
2. Keep pushing your strategic agenda in every press release. In Zed's case he has three things that he is promoting, no matter what else is in his press release: that he is an acclaimed Hindu leader (promoting himself as an authoritative spokesman), that Hinduism has a billion followers and is the third most popular religion in the world (seeking respect for Hinduism and Hindus), and that Hinduism's goal is moksha (promoting a unifying element of an otherwise diverse phenomenon - one that potentially excludes/marginalizes ISKCON). In contrast, see if you can discern ISKCON's Hindu leadership strategy from our press releases. It's not so clear. I couldn't tell you what it is, and I'm a member of the organization.
3. Write your press release as a print-ready article. Zed writes his press release like a news article, and many news sources simply reprint it as is. Readers want to feel the people in the story. Even if you use "we" - have a person say it: "'We believe this,' says Joe Bloggs, senior leader of the organization." In contrast, the ISKCON NA press release has no person in it. You can't have a story without a person. This will reduce its spread.
4. Send it to everyone, personally. Zed sends his press releases to my email inbox. Beat that. No seriously, beat that.
5. Keep on keepin' on. Rajan Zed has a crystal clear strategy and he is working to it. He's not sitting around waiting to react - he's proactively seeking openings to promote his strategic agenda. Two points there - 1. Have a strategic agenda, 2. Pursue it, relentlessly.