THREE BASIC ESSENTIALS ABOUT PR YOU NEED TO KNOW
IT\’S ABOUT NEWS
People ask me all the time, what is PR?
In a nutshell, it\’s about news. Yes, it\’s about other things but public relations is news.
That\’s what drives it. Literally, it\’s the word \’new\’ with an \’s\’. If it\’s new it makes news, and then it goes into print, online or the Nightly News.
If you have something new; a new solution, a new product, a new opening, a new service, then it\’s a great time to engage in a public relations campaign.
And everyone needs news. Here\’s a taster of why; last year, in April 2016, Buzzfeed.com published 6,365 posts and uploaded 319 videos. That\’s a lot of news, opinion and content required.
What PR isn\’t is the forum to tell you how special you are, how pretty you are, how great you and why everybody should sign up for your course.
IF YOU DON\’T HAVE NEWS?
If you don\’t have news personally, the next best thing is to plug into the news cycle of city, state or country.
Focus on what\’s going on in the world as there is always a news cycle.
Mother\’s Day comes around every year. Christmas happens every December. Thanksgiving is always scheduled. You can count on it. The turkey people are already getting ready, as are the people who make Mother\’s Day cards, Christmas wrapping and Valentines candy.
There\’s always something in the perennial news cycle that you can plan to plug into.
Are you a CPA that has a solution? Can you show me the top five common mistakes that small businesses make? Great, that\’s newsworthy the month before taxes.
Are you a therapist who might have solutions for people who are melancholy during the holiday season and a five step plan on how to triumph? That\’s going to be needed. The second Halloween is over, you\’re up. You can ride that story November through January.
Are you a weight loss expert? Every Christmas people want to read or hear tips on how to get into shape or keep on track through the holidays.
Someone out there is always looking for a fresh spin and there will be a whole bunch of news cycles begging you to participate.
BE PREPARED
You need to have all your materials prepared. Unless you sleep with a Kardashian nobody is going to discover you. Your story need to be fully produced and ready to go.
Expect no-one, no news outlet or journalist to be putting all the pieces together for you. That went out with eight track tapes (look it up kids!) and I can promise you, it is never coming back.
Everyone needs to be their own personal news organization and their own publishing platform.
Plug in to the news cycle, offer solutions and be prepared.
That\’s the basics of PR and it\’s how you will get your message out into the world.
