There’s an old adage, “All public relations is good public relations”.
There’s another one, “less is more”
Leaving the clichés aside, the latter philosophy is the one I follow.
I’ve seen and heard of a great many businesses which have invested heavily in maintaining a fairly constant barrage of releases to mainstream media.
Let me assure you and I can’t say this strongly enough, it has to be NEW and WORTHY of column space, airtime etc. If you do have a PR representative, they ma y not have explained to you that it’s in their best interest to provide their media contacts with information which is going to further their relationship with this contact – to the benefit of their clients – YOU!
Sending out press releases it can be a daunting task and cause more problems than positive outcomes. If you think the best way is to send weekly “announcements” or other “news”, it can turn a journalist off very quickly, to the point where, they may hit delete every time they see your email address.
Certainly, there may come a time when you have to issue a number of press releases in quick succession, but the important thing to remember is that these stories must all be NEW and WORTHY. Here’s an idea for a string of releases; create a headline with subsequent follow-up sub-headlines.
So, how do you know what to send and what not to send? That’s where a qualified PR consultant can come into play. An experienced PR consultant will be able to make a newsworthy piece from your “latest wins”, new product-releases or other business related news stories and make sure the story goes to the correct media outlet and contact, as opposed to a generic media email address.
The other element regarding press releases and engaging with the media that many companies fail to realise is that, a major part of a PR consultants job is follow up. Once you hit send on a press release, unfortunately, it doesn’t automatically turn into media coverage.
PR’s spend a majority of their time finding out exactly how each media contact likes to be contacted (phone, e-mail, text, twitter even Facebook!) and we act accordingly. It takes time and effort to ensure our clients news is heard – before it even is considered as a news story. Then the follow-up one to one contact to the media recipient massages the message, doing the final sell to close the deal and assure placement.
My three tips for figuring out if your story is newsworthy are as follows:
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1. If you’re sending the release yourself, think about the media outlet you’re considering. Think, is this the right fit for them and for my business story? If the answer is yes, you have the right contact details and you’re ready to send it to the media and conduct your own follow-up, go for it! If you’re not , ask a colleague or someone externally for their thoughts on the story.
2. Leave the story to sit (if possible) overnight. Look at it with fresh eyes in the morning – you’ll be able to see if there are any mistakes and you may even find additional information to add or subtract making your story “juicer” for the media.
3. Have a chat to a PR consultant. Let them know what your thoughts are and see what they can do to help. Many companies are happy to work on a project basis and may tailor fees to suit your budget requirements.
Brooke Simmons
This is a sample chapter taken from the book Insiders Know-How: Public Relations. Pick up your copy from Amazon
