By Leo Valiquette
One of the guiding principles at our affiliated PR agency inmedia Public Relations is that real work has only just begun when you hit the “Send” button on a news release blast. But this of course raises the next obvious question – how much “work” is warranted once that button has been clicked?
Let me back this up a bit. There are two key activities that must first be carried out before your itchy cursor should drift anywhere near the Send button: The development of the media materials and the development of the media list.
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By Leo Valiquette
Last week I talked about how any media coverage can be good media coverage if it provides an opportunity to establish rapport with a journalist.
Of course, this statement comes with a big fat caveat – it’s only true if said journalist is not on a witch hunt and sizing up you or your organization for a stake and a pyre. But if you have bad news to share, or find yourself embroiled in some kind of juicy scandal, then what you need is a program for crisis communications. That’s a different beast and not my focus here.
Instead, let’s look at how you can go about getting the media’s attention when journalists don’t have an obvious reason to come to your door or don’t know your story well enough to understand why they should.
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By Leo Valiquette
Business and trade press journalists regularly find themselves in the position of needing owners or executives who are willing to talk about specific issues in their industries and how their businesses have dealt with them.
For a PR practitioner it’s the classic dilemma – the goal is to drive earned coverage of a client’s story (as opposed to paying for an ad) when many of the media who are receptive may have a different agenda in mind. Hard-nosed and busy executives often brush off interview opportunities if they feel that the nature of the story will not provide a clear and obvious promotional advantage for their organization. “Why should I talk to this reporter about X when that doesn’t highlight the value proposition of my business?” they ask.
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By Linda Forrest
In the modern age of wikis and intranets, there’s no excuse for your PR program to fall apart when there’s a change in personnel.
Here are some top considerations for when your account director leaves and what succession plans should be in place to prevent all the tangible and intangible data associated with managing your PR program from walking out the door when you change account teams or even agencies.
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By Linda Forrest
Ah, the end of the year. A time when PR practitioners far and wide dust off their crystal balls and prognosticate about what lies ahead in our industry for the year ahead.
My Twitterstream is positively jam-packed with predictions for public relations in 2012. The aim of this post is to provide a quick round up of the top trends PR practitioners see emerging and what they feel the impetus is for said trends. I trust you’ll forgive me that the brunt of the prose comes from elsewhere; my mind is filled to the brim with if not dancing sugarplums, at least my distressingly long “still-to-do” list.
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By Leo Valiquette
