Elementary Writing

This is the fourth article in our online course series on the theory, practice, trends and secrets of New Age Public Relations. Other topics that we cover are:

Press Release

Press releases are the single most important tool in PR. This is a short news story you hope will be published by a paper or magazine, or prompt one of their reporters to write an article based on it. And it is all about two profound actions:

• Writing a winning press release
• Sending it to the right people.

If that sounds simple, you’re right. It is simple. But it’s only easy when you know the right steps…

How to Write a Great Press Release

The first question editors and journalists ask when they pick up your release is “Is this important?”. And you know what? – Most press releases do not work.

That’s because they are written in a way that is antiquated, outdated, and deadly boring. These often come as templates in your word processing program. Don’t use them – they’re probably OK for some people, but they are not really good at creating the kind of excitement and interest that you want from the people who are receiving your press releases.

You have to actually have a message that is newsworthy, and if your news is not of such, you must develop the skill of adding a value to your story. (To learn more about art of storytelling in PR please read our recent article on advanced PR techniques).

Press Release Headline

In headline, state your most exciting news, finding or announcement in as few words as possible. Emulate the headlines you see in the newspaper every day.

Bad Press Release Headline:
NEW WEBSITE THAT OFFERS EVERYONE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE LITERATURE ONLINE

Good Press Release Headline:
BIG LAUNCH: ONLINE NOVEL WRITING PROJECT THAT EVERYONE CAN JOIN

You’ve just thrown a meaty hook at the reporter.

The Press Release Subhead

Subheads are remarkably useful tools, yet usually overlooked by press release writers. Basically, the press release subhead gives you the opportunity to flesh out your angle and further hook the reporter, without stepping on the drama of the press release headline.

The Lead

The lead is the most important element in a news story; it is the story opener when written in the inverted pyramid structure. The inverted pyramid is a graphical representation of how information should be arranged within a news story. The most important information – made up of the 5 W’s – comes first and the information of lesser importance follows.

It is essential that the lead catches the interest of the reader immediately and by rule-of-thumb it includes the core information of the story, or the traditional 5 W’s: Who, what, when, where, and why. Its objective is to satisfy the reader’s curiosity.

Occasionally an H, for how, is included in the lead. In addition, a news story usually includes the answer to “what’s next?”.

The Rest of the Press Release

The balance of the press release serves to back up whatever claims were made in the lead and headline. Use enough supporting material to make your case, and to demonstrate that, whatever angle you’re promoting, it wasn’t something you slapped together carelessly.

An important question to ask in addition to establishing newsworthiness is simply: “so what, who cares?”

Quotes

Quotations are great additions to news stories; they add credibility and weight and make your story readable and interesting. Quotations can support arguments and information, as long as you attribute your quote, making it more credible and showing you did research, while avoiding any legal or ethical issues.

Inline Tip:
Never start a story with a quote; your story is what’s important, not your company’s president.

Boilerplate

Finally, spend a sentence or two describing your company and what you do. This paragraph is known as the “boilerplate” — an old newspaper term meaning a block of standard text that’s used over and over again (e.g. the explanation of symbols on the stock price page).

In this case, it’s text that you might use at the bottom of all your releases. Place your boilerplate right above the # # #’s.

Inline tip:
Below the ###’s, add a line that says something like:
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with John Smith, please call Pat Brown at 555/555-2222 or e-mail Pat at pr@yoursite.com

Common Press Release Copy Styles

Press releases falls into a few well-defined categories, each used in accordance with the general format and theme of your headline. The style of copy you use in the body of your release must follow the pattern and pace established by your attention-getter. If you use a direct, factual headline, your body text will usually be most effective if it, too, is factual.

• Straight-line copy
  This is the most frequently used type. It directly follows the headline and proceeds in a straight and orderly manner from beginning to end. It does not waste words, but starts to sell the benefits of your PR subject immediately.
• Narrative copy
  Follows the headline with a story that logically leads into a discussion of your PR subject. This can be a dangerous style to use because you must construct an interesting story that will keep the readers involved long enough to make your point.
• Institutional copy
  Sells an idea, organization or service. Your copy must create confidence in the company or organization, not your PR subjects itself.
• Dialogue and monologue copy
  Permits the person giving the endorsement in your headline to do the selling in his or her own words. The trick is to retain the attention-getting power of the testimonial and at the same time sound natural and convincing.
• Gimmick copy
  Depends upon humor, poetry, foreign words, great exaggeration, gags and other devices to create promotional power. This is rarely used because in most cases you are writing a press release to tell a straight, informative story.

Use these techniques as guidelines, not as rules. You should practice writing headlines in several different styles and then write supportive body copy for each.

ABC and other press release writing rules

The most common writing rule-of-thumb is the ABC rule: Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity. Even the Associated Press Guide to News Writing begins with a similar message:
“News writing should be clear, concise, accurate and interesting.”

• Your press release shouldn’t sound “hypie”
  Or seem like an advertisement in any way. However, It should be written in a way to not only solve an newsworthy issue, but also to advertise your business!
• Newspapers need information as much as you need publicity
  They are looking for timely, educational and informative information. Conversely, local radio stations may be interested in airing stories that are funnier, quirkier or more controversial.
• The more back-up information you provide the better
  The easier you make it for a journalist to cover your story, the more likely they’ll be to include it. Include photos, samples, interview availability times, research backup, and the like.
• Prepare a draft
  Try it out first on two or three members of your external audience, then adjust as needed.
• Make sure to send press releases to all media in your area, no matter how small
  It’s much easier to get local, rather than regional or national, coverage.

As usual in life, luck plays a role. You may have the greatest story, have done the best press release and made all the phone calls to follow up the release, but there is another big story, for example, a terrorist attack or an earthquake, that overshadows your issue. On the other hand, if you provide your release on a day with little news, you may get a lot of coverage.

Press Release Formatting Tips

Formatting Your Press Release or Presentation can be just as important as content. Read what you write with a red pencil in your hand.

Be brutal. Cut out meaningless words and useless phrases. Combine some sentences and eliminate others. Give your readers a long flowing sentence that combines several thoughts and presents important facts. Then use a shorter sentence to quicken the pace for the reader.

• Mixed case
  Never write your press release in all UPPER CASE LETTERS. Your release will not be approved by the FPRC editors or it would be ignored by journalists.
• Check your spelling
  Errors in spelling and grammar will lower the credibility of your press release
• No HTML
  Never include HTML or other markup languages (like XHTML or XML) in your press release.
• Make sure it is long enough
  Refrain from verbosity and try to keep the release to one page. If you have to go to another page, be sure it has all the contact info again and type “more follows” or the first three words of the next page in the lower right hand corner. If your press release is shorter than 250 words, then it probably isn’t newsworthy.
• Have accurate contact information
  You need a real person who’ll bend over backwards to get the information reporters want. So put a person’s name, phone number(s), email address etc. at the top of your release. Better yet, include an alternate information source for the reporter’s convenience.

Follow up journalists you know to check that they have received the release and have all the information they need. This both alerts them to the release and also helps to prioritize your story in their mind.

When to Send a Press Release

So what is the best time to issue a media release? Well, it all depends on the timeliness and news value of the story. A few events that might justify a press release include:

• offering a new service
• developing a new product
• the opening of a new business
• winning a big order
• moving to new premises
• winning a prize or award
• celebrating an anniversary
• sponsoring a local sports team
• assisting a charity or charitable appeal
• special offers, events, and so on

Inline Tip:
AAP conducted a survey of all News Rooms in Australia last year and found the best time to send a media release is between 6 and 9 am and 3 and 6 pm.

Press Release Checklist

• Is it new?
• Are the main points at the top?
• Is it short, sharp and simple?
• Does it include direct quotes?
• Does it provide a contact name and number for more information?
• Have you avoided jargon, flowery language and generalisations which cannot be supported?
• Have you circulated a copy to everyone from the campaign whom the media might contact?
• Have you made follow-up calls to journalists you know?

Press Release Publishing and Distribution

The media receives thousands of releases daily. With seconds to gain attention, the response your individual release evokes is affected by its relevancy to the editor who receives it, its timeliness and the message it conveys.

Tailored submissions – by state, area code, newspaper circulation, dailies or weeklies, magazine categories, E-zine category, AM or FM radio stations, or even a specific topical or geographic area like Travel or Latin America – means the most relevant media receive your release, increasing the likelihood of media pickup.

Some other places you should consider in your press release distribution campaign are:

• online industry publications
• blogs
• newsletters
• trade associations
• online news sites
• the client’s Web site
• free press release listing sites

Free Online Press Release Distribution Services

There are quite a few free PR distribution sites on the Web. Many of them are not worth the time it takes you to submit a release. However, there are some that are quite good.

Following are the 4 criteria that you should consider while evaluating a list of the top free press release distribution sites.

• Page Rank
  It is the Google page rank of the site. You should only run for PR sites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. To determine the page rank of a site, you may use Page Rank Checker free online service.

  Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

  This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

• Google News
  This service contains most of the press releases that are published by the site picked up by Google news? To find out if a PR distribution site is getting their content indexed by Google news, go to Google News and do a search for “site:sitename.com”. This will show all of the stories by that site that have been indexed by Google News. As an example, a search for all press releases for the free PR site BigNews.biz, would look like this “site:BigNews.biz”
• Traffic
  Does the free press release site get any traffic? For this list you should use Alexa.com to check traffic. You will have to set your own standard for what you feel is acceptable, e.g. you may accept any site that is ranked above or around 300,000 by Alexa.
• Cost
  You are looking for sites that are primarily free. However, they may offer additional services for a fee or some premium paid services.

Keeping in mind the 4 points listed above, here is a list of the top 10 Free Press Release Distribution Sites:

1. PRLog.org – PR:5 | Alexa: 12300
2. Merinews.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 12900
3. PR-Inside.com – PR:4 | Alexa: 19100
4. IndiaPRWire.com – PR:6 | Alexa: 18400
5. PR.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 26300
6. OpenPR.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 40400
7. ClickPress.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 42450
8. PowerHomeBiz.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 44000
9. 24-7pressrelease.com – PR:4 | Alexa: 45200
10. NewsWireToday.com – PR:5 | Alexa: 44750

To How Many Distribution Services Should You Send Your Press Release

Don’t forget to spread out your releases over a few days, and don’t submit them to everyone, editors are in charge of several sites at once.

Instead of submitting to all, submit only to 5. Then use the rest of the time to find the top 10 editors, journalists or bloggers on your topic and send them an e-mail, linking to the release somewhere it was published. If you really got something interesting to tell the world about then this will get you more mileage

Sample of Effective Press Release

BIG LAUNCH: INTERNET NOVEL WRITING PROJECT THAT EVERYONE CAN JOIN

[For Immediate Release]

Novel “People” – The collaborative community endeavor of making and publishing the first, solid state fiction book online, officially launched.

November 29, 2008 – Make Literature Online, the fastest growing collaborative writing community, today announced the launch of its first fiction book writing project: The novel “People”;

A tale of people that collide into each other. That fight with each other.
That seek for acceptance, friendship and love.

Since its launch in April 2008, Make Literature Online website was quickly became the favorable collaborative writing environment for writers, readers, pros and enthusiasts, and has quickly gained a substantial following.

Armed with little more than a desire for a fresh literature experience, users of all backgrounds and skill levels have unique opportunity to take equal part in shaping the storylines of new novels, by submitting inspiring ideas for new stories, new chapters for ongoing fiction writing projects, or by selecting the best writings from an online catalogue and discussing the submitted stories in forums.

“People” – the novel, is the first result of this collaborative community effort. One which storyline was selected among numerous of other submissions as most interesting and inspiring to launch new novel creation process that everyone can and should contribute.

The proof of this open concept is the storyline author itself: Raluca Enescu – young student of sociology and philosophy from Romania, in her words “a bit of a hippie, a bit of a thinker and somewhat feminist”:

“I’ve seen the movie »Crash« a while ago-and I guess that’s where I got the idea of people of different backgrounds, views and mentalities colliding into each other. Let’s just say it’s a »critical thinking« experiment. It’s an exercise of »how to see trough the eyes of the other« – which, I believe, is much needed for living in the real life, among real people.”

Asked to comment on how does she anticipates her storyline developing on the course of this project, Raluca said:

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make any predictions. I think this is up to the ones who will write the story, not to me. The thing is- everyone who will contribute will have a very different view on the storyline and the characters. There can be very conflicting views. That’s the beauty about collaborative writing.”

At the dawn of the 21st Century and Social Media revolution, new media is forcing the rapid evolution of communications and is reinventing the conventional fiction writing into the art of “personalized” storytelling. This is the practice of matching our stories with the preferences of those we wish to reach, through the active communication and interaction with the audience.

The destiny of “People” novel is now entirely in hands of the online community and its vast creative potential demonstrated so many times in recent years. If successful, this project may mark a new chapter in the history of modern fiction literature, and be the roll-model for many similar ventures that are jet to come.

You’ll be able to follow “People” daily progress on its official blog at www.MakeLiterature.com.

###

If you’d like more information about this project, please call Dusan Knezevic at Make Literature Media Inc. : (+381) 64-318-6567 or e-mail Dusan at knez.dusan@makeliterature.com

This is the first article in our online course series on the theory, practice, trends and secrets of New Age Public Relations. Other topics that we cover are:

.

If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget
I’d spend it on PR!

Kevin Johnson
group vice president Microsoft
sales and marketing

What is Public Relations

It seems difficult to believe at the dawn of the 21st Century, that there exists a major discipline with so many diverse, partial, incomplete and limited interpretations of its mission. Here, just a sampling of professional opinion on what public relations is all about:

• talking to the media on behalf of a client.
• selling a product, service or idea.
• reputation management.
• engineering of perception
• attracting credit to an organization for doing good.
• limiting the downside when it does bad.

By definition, public relations is the art and science of establishing relationships between an organization and its key audiences. Public relations plays a key role in helping business industries create strong relationships with customers.

There are different types of public relations, some companies call it investor relations and yet others will call it financial public relations, but what companies do not realize is the fact that public relations is an extremely essential and integral marketing tool.

Basically, the general idea of public relations is advertising, branding and marketing. Anything that involves the media is the responsibility of the public relations officer. He encourages magazines, newspapers, radio and TV to print or air good things about the services and the products. This promotion will reach their targeted customers therefore generating an increase on sales and patronage.

People act on their perception of the facts; those perceptions lead to certain behaviors; and something can be done about those perceptions and behaviors that leads to achieving an organization’s objectives.

That leads us directly to the core strength of public relations.

When public relations creates, changes or reinforces the general opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Brief History of PR

Public relations arrived with the development of mass media. At the turn of the 20th century, “muckraking” journalists were stirring up public dissent against the powerful monopolies and wealthy industrialists who ruled the day. Early public relations firms combated the bad press by placing positive stories about their clients in newspapers.

Former journalists, such as Ivy Lee (considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations), used the first press releases to feed newspapers “the facts” about his misunderstood clients, namely the railroad and tobacco industries, and J.D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. The term Public Relations is to be found for the first time in the 1897 Yearbook of Railway Literature.

Lee and company became so good at whitewashing even the darkest corporate sins that PR professionals earned a reputation as “spin doctors.”

Edward Bernays was the profession’s first theorist. He drew many of his ideas from Sigmund Freud’s theories about the irrational, unconscious motives that shape human behavior. Bernays authored several books, including Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), and The Engineering of Consent (1947). He saw public relations as an “applied social science” that uses insights from psychology, sociology, and other disciplines to scientifically manage and manipulate the thinking and behavior of an irrational and “herdlike” public.

In 1950 PRSA enacts the first “Professional Standards for the Practice of Public Relations,” a forerunner to the current Code of Ethics, last revised in 2000 to include six core values and six code provisions. The six core values are “Advocacy, Honesty, Expertise, Independence, Loyalty, and Fairness.” The six code provisions consulted with are “Free Flow of Information, Competition, Disclosure of Information, Safeguarding Confidences, Conflicts of Interest, and Enhancing the Profession.”

Much time has passed since the days of Ivy Lee, and to label today’s PR professionals as dishonest would be to ignore how pervasive and important their work has become to people and organizations of all shapes and sizes — small businesses, authors, activists, universities, and non-profit organizations — not just big business and big government.

Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising ?

You will often find that many people confuse public relations with marketing and/or advertising or vice versa. The most apparent reason for this is that the clear-cut distinctions are disappearing as each strategy’s different awareness building efforts become more and more integrated. While all those components are important they are very different.

Marketing

Marketing encompasses every tool used to help your target audience buy your product and make you money. You can do this through advertising on billboards, TV, radio, in magazines and newspapers, online with Google ads, on banner ads on other people’s websites, on Facebook, etc.

A company’s marketing department could be subdivided into several smaller sections that are responsible for: public relations, advertising, customer service, market share research as well as pricing, distribution and product placement. They all work toward the same ultimate goal – which is the success and growth of the company

Advertising

Advertising, in plain word: putting your product or service where the public can see it. Advertising lets the consumer know:

• What it is that you have to offer
• Why exactly they need it

The cost of advertising is expensive. The most effective advertising campaign also requires that you have several different advertisements in different areas of any one location.

Public Relations

There are two vehicles for having your company’s information show up in a media: pay to advertise or let the press do it for you. The latter occurs as a direct result of public relations (PR) efforts – actively seeking publicity as a form of marketing communications.

Public relations is kind of like advertising’s less obtrusive brother. At the same time it is more effective and cost-saving than traditional advertising methods because it places exposure in credible third-party outlets, thus offering a third-party legitimacy that advertising does not have. In other words if you get someone else to talk about how great your company is then you are much more likely to gain public trust and have an easier time selling your products to them.

Off course to do this you need to make media wants to tell your story. That is the principal task of efficient PR. As media expert Peter Hannaford, reminds us:

“Reporters want stories to be about what is out of the ordinary,” Hannaford said. “Dog bites man is not a story because it happens frequently – ask any mailman. But man bites dog almost never happens and is news.

If (reporters) didn’t write stories about what was out of the ordinary, if they didn’t write about controversies … then there wouldn’t be an audience,”"

The Role of Public Relations in Branding

Branding is the idea that a particular set of attributes will encourage the public to have positive thoughts about a particular company, product, service, or individual. The job of public relations is to encourage the public to have positive thoughts about a particular company, product, service, or individual. It’s a subtle distinction, but an essential one.

When products are assigned personality traits or attributes by the public-”friendly,” “environmentally aware … concerned with quality … accessible”-it means that public relations, in conjunction with advertising and marketing, has done its job. But because the public is naturally wary of advertising and marketing, and because those disciplines are considerably more visible than public relations, it is possible that PR makes the most honest, and deepest, impact on the public’s psyche.

Public relations practitioners are particularly well suited to the Branding concept, since they are well versed in the techniques and practices that create a public identity very close to the central idea of a brand. And many experts on Branding espouse the opinion that public relations are a vital part-if not the most vital part-of the Branding process.

PR Management of Corporate Reputation

Corporate reputation is the sum of the values that stakeholders attribute to a company, based on their perception and interpretation of the image the company communicates and its behavior over time.

For business leaders, it is important to listen to what is being said, especially if messages are negative. More and more companies are suffering because they are not listing to the consumer.
Public Relations is developing slowly into a more strategic and holistic discipline termed reputation management. Unlike traditional approaches to Public Relations, the reputation management approach does not just seek to offer promises, but actively and strategically guides a brand in such a way that delivers on the promise.

The hub of the reputation wheel is brand, as it is around this construct that most reputations are lost and made. A positive brand reputation brings trust, confidence, and sales, which are ultimately reflected in revenue growth and profitability.

Brands make promises; reputation is about the delivery on such promises.

Public Relations and Crisis Management Planning

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world, business is news. Plant closings, mergers and acquisitions, unemployment, strikes, labor negotiations, company expansions, building projects, construction-related accidents and catastrophes are often the lead story on the front page or the six o’clock news.

Yet many organizations are totally unprepared or at least ill-prepared to handle the public relations and crisis management aspects of these events. This unpreparedness can lead to many negative and undesirable results for you, your employees, your clients and customers, your company and your business and industry sector.

Custom PR Executed Steps in Order to Properly Manage a Crisis

• Address the public immediately following the discovery of the crisis.
• Maintain honesty – the public is more willing to forgive an honest mistake than a calculated lie.
• Be informative – the media as well as the public will create their own rumors if no information is given to them by the corporation in crisis. Rumors can cause significantly more damage to the corporation than the truth.
• Be concerned – show the public you care because people will be more forgiving if it is clear that the corporation cares about the victims of the crisis.
• Maintain two-way relationships – the corporation can learn a lot about the status of public opinion by listening.

In House PR vs Outsourcing

Executives must determine how much of the PR effort should be outsourced, which functions should be retained in-house and which agency is the best fit. Making the decision to use an outside agency to handle all or a part of a company’s communications can be a complex process, but it’s one that offers the chance for adding considerable expertise, professional skills and activity to the company’s PR function.

In examining the value of inside vs. out-of-house public relations staffing, your should consider the following advantages of each alternative and reach a blend of outsourcing and inside capabilities that works best for you.

The Advantages of Handling PR with In-house Staff

• Convenience
  Having someone nearby can mean the difference between getting it done today and waiting for a phone call tomorrow. This also allows for immediate follow-up and quick response time in crisis situations.
• Understanding the client
  In-house PR departments are directly affected by their actions. Aspects ranging from managing their overhead to understanding their organization’s needs are factors that an outside PR firm often cannot provide. The more familiar people are with their client, the more likely they are to aim for greater results.
• Responsiveness to opportunities
  An in-house PR professional is on site when developments occur. A trained PR specialist who participates in company meetings to discuss future programs will be able to point out possible opportunities that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

Outsourcing PR to an Agency-The Advantages

• A team of professionals
  By outsourcing to these specialists, businesses need not worry about compromising their message for the sake of publicity; because they have well-respected, well-established professionals on their side.
• Media and vendor relationships
  Agencies through their many employees can put a client in touch with a wide universe of media and provide a breadth of media contacts that an in-house PR department cannot.
• The outsider’s perspective
  It’s easier to ask an independent party to sum up the image of the company than to ask an internal PR person, who may paint a picture stamped with bias. Moreover, an outside professional works with a number of clients, generating a wider perspective on an industry and a deeper understanding of the issues confronting it.

What is Media Kit and Why you Need it

A media kit is a folder of information that will help reporters write an accurate story. It should include whatever facts you want them to know about.

Media kits also show that you’re media-savvy and understand how the news game is played, as it help reporters save time and improve accuracy because everything is there in black and white. They don’t have to spend time calling the source to ask for more information, or double-check numerous facts.

Regardless of what your business offers, at the very least your media kit should include:

• A history of your company
• Professional profiles of key executives or officers
• A basic press release detailing the company objective
• A copy of the annual report – tucked neatly into a professionally printed folder
• Press releases on upcoming company endeavors
• Information on the latest product or servise releases
• Black and white or color photos
• A business card

Some companies that want to make big impressions with their media kit will go far above and beyond the minimal. They could trade in the professional, but conservative folder for some bigger, brighter packaging and include things like audio CDs or DVDs along with brightly colored flyers and product samples.

Media kits can be used for far more than just the media. Use them as marketing materials to share with potential clients. Take them to trade shows. Give them to your sales people to use on sales calls.

Public Relations Professionals – PR as Career Opportunity

According to the forecast of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States , the field of public relations will continue to reap thousands of job openings in the next few years. With so many fields requiring the expertise of public relation officers, such as medicine, science, finance, etc., many people consider taking public relations careers to gain profits and recognition.

Bachelors’ degree in any discipline preferably with social sciences, liberal arts and humanities is required to take up a course in this field. Apart from this there are also short term certificate courses. Most training programs in Advertising also include public relations. Some institutes have entrance exams while others prefer admission on merit basis.

Most public relations practitioners are recruited from the ranks of journalism. Public relations officers are highly trained professionals with expertise and knowledge in many areas, for example shareholder management during a crisis, in-house public relations, account management, financial public relations, consumer public relations, public relations software etc.

Good public relations professionals network well and have media contacts the rest of us don’t!

He must be skilled in many tactical disciplines. To name just a few:

• media relations
• public speaking
• writing
• financial communications
• organizing special events
• issue tracking
• crisis management
• campaign consulting

What PR professionals usually do for their clients?:

• PR people read and watch and listen to the news, always on the lookout for stories that may dovetail with your message. Then they call the writers, editors or producers responsible for that news with a story angle, suggesting you, your product or your service as a focus point. They answer the question the media always wants answered: “Why you? Why now?”
• PR specialists also push “perennial” or “timeless” stories, those not dependent on an event or particular news story. These feature stories can be invaluable when added to your corporate marketing materials and sent to clients and prospects.
• PR professionals may act as “spin doctors,” – There are times when bad things happen and you need to manage the crisis somehow. With persistent, consistent public relations. “Tell the truth, tell it all, tell it fast” PR professionals may practice the most effective recipe for crisis management.

The Bottom Line

Public relations, usually known as just PR, sounds like such a small thing but is really the cornerstone of any business. Whether your business has its own PR department or contracts that work out, it’s important to have a method of getting information about your company, products, and services to your target market.

On a more personal note, we all have public relations – what opinion people have about us as individuals; what our friends, family, employers and employees think about us…

“It’s in times of uncertainty and ambiguity that good PR becomes ever more critical, doesn’t it? CEO’s have seen the studies that show outreach cuts (e.g., PR, marketing, ads) can cost much more than they save. The large PR shops seem to be about as busy as ever, there doesn’t appear to be a catastrophic drop in PR job openings. Sure, the online sector has taken a hit. But considering the statistical take along with the practical realities, it’s looking like PR overall will weather the current storm well.”

Ryan D. May
Public Relations Society of America