Be your own Public Relations Firm and Create BUZZ

So Why is PR better than Advertising???

Advertising is clearly understood by your audience as coming directly from the sponsoring business and, as a result, is usually taken with a grain of salt. So anything you say or write is always thought of as a “sales pitch”.

However, an article initiated (or “placed”) by publicity efforts is viewed as the product of the reporter who wrote it – an objective, third party observer whose positive comments about your business will carry great weight.   Not to mention it doesn’t cost you anything to get articles written or to get interviewed it just takes your time.

“If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations.”
- Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder

So how do you do this if you’re not a PR professional?

What’s the secret to getting free publicity? It’s not a fancy press kit. It’s not having a superstar spokesperson. It’s not hiring the world’s biggest PR firm.

Actually, the ultimate insider secret is quite simple:

You need to think like a reporter.

That’s it. Told you it was simple.

Of course, this is ”easier said than done”. Most of us are too tied-up in our own world to really look at our businesses objectively and come up with a newsworthy story angle that can lead to free publicity.

That’s why millions of trees are needlessly slaughtered each year to produce press releases that will never lead to a single news story. Reporters have a special place in their circular file for fluff and sales pitches. If you want to avoid this fate, then you must learn to think like a reporter.

What does that mean?

• Being able to separate real news about your company from promotional fluff
• Being able to deliver a sharp story angle that will be of real interest to the news reporter or viewing public
• Being able to deliver this angle in a professional, courteous way.

Some Basic Truths
Here are some truths that you ignore at your own risk:

• Reporters typically don’t want to talk to you
• Reporters get calls from PR people all day
• Reporters don’t care about what you’re selling or what’s new with you…..UNLESS…….

…..you are providing something that helps make their job easier — that is, a really good story.

In that case:

Reporters love you.

Reporters are happy to take your call.

Reporters are fascinated by your website, your book, your products and maybe even your life story.

So what’s the bottom line here?

At the same time you design your public relations campaign or develop your angles or develop your media materials or begin contacting the press, always think:

“What can I do at this step that will make this more useful to a journalist?”

That means:

• developing story angles from a reporter’s perspective, not a business owner’s
• conduct yourself in a manner free of hype, clichés and sales fluffery
• Using proper etiquette when contacting a reporter or editor (when and how you contact them is a whole other article and can make our break your success)
  

What does it mean to “develop a story angle from a reporter’s perspective”?

Have you ever met someone who has gotten way too absorbed by his/her hobby? He can go on for hours about his car collection or his coin collection. He can’t possibly imagine why you, or anyone else, wouldn’t be riveted by his in-depth discussion of Peruvian 19th century coinage.

He’s far too close to his hobby to be objective. As it turns out, most business owners are the same way about their company. If you spend all day absorbed in the world of art, health, nonprofits or selling your widgets — you can lose sight of the realization that most of the rest of the world doesn’t really care.

Public relations opportunities exist not only in traditional print and TV but now with the internet there are thousands of places you can get publicity.  The internet has transformed the PR industry and this transformation has opened the doors for “do it yourself” PR experts.

We provide training on “how” you can be your own PR agency and take the guess work out, contact us to talk about what works for you.

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Tagged: advertising, creating buzz, grassroots marketing, online PR, Public Relations

Posted in: Entrepreneurs, Grassroots Marketing, Public Relations online, Uncategorized