Publicity, Public Relations and Paparazzi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are cheating againbut PR Daily does a fab job of touching on some of the pain points we face as PR agencies. This article Your client’s news didn’t get covered—now what? talks about a PR perspective regarding what we do if there is no coverage – a no brainer if you are a PR agency or a good PR practitioner. I am more interested in sharing some insights into how as a PR client, you can help your agency with this.
Be understanding and your expectations reasonable
I was always taught that if you keep your expectations low (or reasonable), everything extra is a bonus. If you are expecting your story (important to you) to be important to the journalist, you have to give him/her what they need for their readership to make it interesting. Your PR team can help with that but if they’ve flagged it as boring, then DON’T insist.
Sometimes the news you tell or the interview you had does not rock the editor’s boat or gets pushed aside because something more interesting or newsworthy has come up. Its not always the PR person’s fault. Sometimes re-sending or pitching the story to a couple of key media after a gap of a few days can help.
Media training
Or sometimes its the way you share the news. Have you wondered sometimes why you gave an interview and it never generated a story? Going beyond the content (which is never really ignored), its also the delivery. If you (or your spokesperson) is not media trained and were so caught up in what you were not supposed to share, you did not actually share any information except we have a box and its wonderful. Saying, I cannot comment is not handling the situation. It should usually be I cannot comment on this but I can share this and share something that is meaningful and gives the editor something to create a story with. There are some pretty interesting links on YouTube that give you very handy tips.
Joining the bandwagon
Staying with the trend is a good idea but unless you are genuinely doing something different that contributes to a growing trend, don’t just use the buzz words. Journalists see through it completely (as do PR agencies – at least they should).
At the end of the day, the agency wants publicity (the right kind) for you as much as you do. Their reputation is on the line too. But don’t pick yes men to do your PR job because somewhere down the line they will use unethical tactics for coverage and you don’t want that to reflect on you. Better for you to treat them as partners and grow slowly and steadily.
