GET YOUR NEXT BIG IDEA TRANSFORMED INTO DIGITAL REALITY
Check out INNOVATIVE TOMATO, our sister company that specializes in digital advertising, mobile app development, and video & motion graphics.
What story does your business have to tell, and who would find it interesting? Think about that for a second. If media relations isn’t part of your promotion strategy, maybe it should be.
The Public Relations Society of America defines public relations as follows: “public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” In other words, public relations means you’re working to ensure that investors, customers, employees — any group that matters to your company — and the general public have a good relationship with your company, forming and maintaining a positive view of your organization.
Public relations tactics vary widely and should be dictated by what your company is trying to accomplish, but all have the same basic goal of building a good relationship between your company and its publics. Common tactics include holding special events; giving speeches; promoting educational efforts (for example, a candy company might create a PR campaign to promote safe trick-or-treating); content marketing, which by definition assists your publics rather than selling your company directly (such as this blog!); supporting charities, cultural organizations, or other non-profits through in-kind donations or sponsorships; and soliciting and managing media coverage.
It’s important to note that public relations is distinct from advertising – you don’t exactly buy it, although you can certainly invest money in it — and a paid media buy is often part of a public relations campaign. Generally speaking, public relations is a much softer sell than most advertising.
A lot of times, when people refer to “public relations,” they actually mean media relations. In fact, media relations is a much narrower term, and refers to the portion of public relations that involves soliciting and managing news coverage — which is what we’re focusing on in this podcast.
Today’s news reporters are more strapped for time than ever. The splintering media environment means that fewer ad dollars are being spent in traditional news media advertising, which means newsrooms have fewer reporters than ever before. That means if you can provide the media with a well-written press release on a newsworthy topic, your chances of getting coverage are quite good — you’re providing them with something that saves time.
Avoid anything subjective! Press releases are very factual in nature. For example, while a promotional brochure for this company might read something like, “We have grown to become one of the region’s best-known marketing agencies, and is your single source for all your promotion and branding needs,” a press release might instead read, “Founded in 2005 as a one-person design firm, today we are a full-service marketing agency offering web design and development, corporate identity and design services, copywriting, video services, and more.” The same basic idea is conveyed in both sentences — but everything in the second version is an empirical fact, without any opinion expressed.
Express opinions in quotes. To build on the above example in my theoretical release about our company, I could add a quote from Brian Law, the firm’s president, as follows: “‘I’m proud of the strong reputation we’ve built regionally,’ Law said. ‘We have some of the most talented professionals in the area working for us, and our client list speaks for itself.’” Better yet, I might find a client to give a testimonial quote about our firm.
We’ve discussed how to write a press release just a bit (you can find more in How — and When — To Write a Press Release), but what on Earth is newsworthy?
Business briefs. Business “briefs” are just what they sound like – short blurbs about something going on with your business.
Feature stories. These is are harder to get, but obviously desirable! Potential topics include:
When you’re writing a press release, make sure you include the following information:
When you invest the time and effort into writing a press release, you should also invest time and effort into your distribution list. This requires a little research — you should consider:
Don’t forget to promote your news in your own network, too – AND DO IT FIRST, before you send it to the media. Your own supporters like feeling “in the know,” and it also gives you a greater return on the effort you expend in writing the release. Here are ways you can promote your news:
Then, post the resulting coverage to your own network after it occurs, including hotlinks. That way, you promote your news to your network twice.
By Shelley Johansson, a former staff member Visit Shelley on Google+.Check out INNOVATIVE TOMATO, our sister company that specializes in digital advertising, mobile app development, and video & motion graphics.