21st Century Secrets to Effective PR

Linda Pophal

Copyright 2017 Linda PophalAll rights reserved

Published in eBook format by eBookIt.comhttp://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2910-6

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Contents

21ST CENTURY SECRETS TO EFFECTIVE PR

Decline of Traditional News Media Holds Opportunity

The Power of PR Messaging

The Power of Word-of-Mouth

How Social Media is Changing Advertising and PR

The Blurred Lines Among PR, Marketing, Advertising and the Like

Big Benefits for Even Very Small Businesses

MEDIA RELATIONS

Creating a Media Outreach Plan

They Call It Public RELATIONS for a Reason

It’s Not About YOU. It’s About Them!

How to Connect With the Media

Through Twitter and Other Social Channels

Through Email Pitches

Editorial Calendars

Newsjacking

Using HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and ProfNet

The Importance of Visuals

5 Reasons the Media Isn’t Picking Up Your Stories

Acing the Interview

News Releases: Who Needs Them?

Tips and Best Practices

Big Blunders and How to Avoid Them

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Building Your Expert Status Through Strategic Communications

Establishing Yourself as a Thought Leader

Best Practices for Becoming a Thought Leader

Building Thought Leadership Through Blogging

Measuring Results

Opportunities for Contributed Content

The Basics

How To Do It

Leveraging Your Contributed Content for Maximum Awareness

Self-Publishing

Publishing on LinkedIn

Influencer Marketing

CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

A Cautionary Tale

Anticipating, and Preparing For, Bad Publicity

A Formula for Dealing With Negative Publicity

Respond Quickly

Be Up Front

Remedy and Move On

Preparing for a Social Media Crisis

MONITORING AND MEASURING YOUR MEDIA COVERAGE

SELECTING A PR FIRM OR CONTRACTOR

BONUS FEATURE: PR Experts Weigh in on 21st Century PR Practices

Peter Baron – Carabiner Communications

Tami Belt – Blue Cube Marketing Solutions

Bob Geller – Fusion PR

Bev Jedynak – Bevlyn Consulting

Sarah Johnson – Fit Small Business

Jackie Jones - TruthPR

Katie Kern – Media Frenzy Global

Sabrina Kidwai – ASAE

Kimberly Lancaster – Caster Communications

Tim O’Brien – O’Brien Communications

Sean O’Leary – Merritt Group

Rob Pasquinucci – Intrinzic

21ST CENTURY SECRETS TO EFFECTIVE PR

There’s a lot of buzz these days about “fake news” and the diminishing value of the traditional news media. And, as President Trump and others have so clearly demonstrated, we all have the potential now to be our own newsmakers — we can reach audiences directly through social media and other online channels. Gatekeepers who buy ink by the barrel and control the airwaves no longer hamper our ability to get our messages out to the masses.

Or do they?

I think the biggest myth about public relations (PR) that I continue to hear is that it is becoming less valuable, or valued, in this social media era, and that social media will eventually take the place of PR. That sentiment, I believe, is patently untrue. In fact, I think the situation is exactly the opposite. Why? Because there will always be a demand (and a need) for content curators — gatekeepers who determine what is valuable to a particular audience. In fact, as both concerns about fake news and the use of online channels for communication become more prevalent, I believe the demand for these gatekeepers — and the need for more traditional PR activities among those looking to build credibility and thought leadership — will continue to grow.

In my opinion, PR is more relevant today than ever and is rapidly supplanting the value of advertising. I make the following distinction between the two:

• Public relations is unpaid exposure — you benefit by third-party coverage or commentary about your products or services; it’s other people talking about you.

• Advertising is paid exposure — you are paying to place your messages and, by definition, talking about yourself.

The internet has made the possibility of sharing information about others and their products and services more readily available at significantly less cost than any other form of media exposure. Does PR matter? I’d turn that question around to ask: Does anything other than PR matter?

Today’s PR, though, is different from the PR of years gone by. Today, it’s not only about getting reporters, and other gatekeepers, to cover your story. Today, there are new channels for gaining public exposure — through social media, through blogging, through content creation and curation — all of which serves to boost thought leadership status for yourself or your organization.

Decline of Traditional News Media Holds Opportunity

Pew Research Center annually evaluates the state of the news media. Its 2016 report showed downward audience trends for most outlets.

Pew’s findings, upon first analysis, appear to be nothing but dismal. The report indicates that newsroom cutbacks and smaller budgets continue to plague the traditional media outlets. For instance, they note: “The latest newspaper newsroom employment figures (from 2014) show 10 percent declines, greater than in any year since 2009, leaving a workforce that is 20,000 positions smaller than 20 years prior.”

But, for businesses, would-be thought leaders and business professionals, there’s a silver lining here.

This continued erosion of news reporting sources, says Pew, has converged with “growing opportunities for those in politics,

government agencies, companies and others to take their messages directly to the public.”

We’ve seen that trend in action, actually. It is increasingly common for us to be able to submit work on behalf of our clients as “contributed content” to both new and traditional media. That means we’re writing the content and submitting it, and the news media are publishing it with our clients’ bylines. That means increased – and very credible – exposure for our clients, and less work for the media.

The Power of PR Messaging

Consumer perceptions generally are influenced in four ways. In order from most to least impactful they are:

• Through their own experiences — trying a new restaurant, for example

• Through recommendations from others (word-of-mouth)• Through what they read or hear about companies, products,

services and service providers via various trusted media channels — channels that, to maintain that trust, must use respected gatekeepers to discern “facts”

• Through messages that organizations and individuals share about themselves through traditional advertising, websites and online communications (including Twitter and other social media channels)

We trust our own experiences. We trust respected friends, relatives and colleagues. And, to a certain degree, despite a media environment where trust is at an all-time low, we continue to trust certain media outlets.

Traditional advertising, while diminishing in value, is still important and still has the power to influence if done effectively. Public relations is gaining in impact, I believe, because of the ability to leverage online communities and social media outlets to

spread the word in ways that capitalize on personal and word-of-mouth recommendations that can be positively affected through online PR efforts.

In an increasingly competitive — and global — business environment, PR is a necessity. Organizations and individuals absolutely need to manage their brands, their images and the perceptions of consumers toward the products and services they offer. They can do this through a strategic focus on public relations as part of the overall promotional mix (that will include traditional advertising, events, etc.). To do this effectively, businesses must fully understand their audiences, what those audiences want, and how what they have to offer can help to meet those needs — all while also considering how their offerings, and audience perceptions, are affected by competitors.

Ideally, your overall goal with your public relations efforts should be to get those third-party influencers — whether media outlets, bloggers or participants in online conversations — saying the same things about you that you are saying about yourself. The closer the messaging across all channels, the more positive the impact on your brand. The greater the disparity between these messages, the more your brand will suffer and the more trust in your brand will erode.

I started Strategic Communications in 2008 and, at that time, assumed that my work with organizations and individuals would involve both traditional and digital marketing along with a heavy dose of traditional PR or media relations. What I’ve found, though, is that much of our work today is focused on PR through a combination of outreach designed to gain coverage through various media outlets and the use of social media channels and content marketing. These efforts work together to drive that all-important word-of-mouth, which studies continue to show has the most significant impact on both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) purchase behaviors.

The internet and social media have impacted the power of word-of-mouth immensely. Satisfied customers and clients tell others about their experiences, as do unsatisfied customers, and reputations are built — or destroyed.

Businesses can nurture the recommendations they receive through their services and quality as well as through leveraging and extending that communication through other means that might include traditional PR or online social media efforts. The “big value” in PR-related communications is that the messages come from someone else — others talking about us and saying, basically, the same things that we would say. But, again, the fact that others are saying these things wields significant power.

Years ago, with limited choices for products and services and limited communication venues to hear about those products and services, companies could offer a product and expect customers to buy it. Customers had limited knowledge of what else might be available — they were part of captive markets. Customers aren’t captive anymore. They are not only able to be more aware of competitive offerings available around the globe (rather than through our local vendors), but also able to find out about what other people think about those products and services like never before.

It’s word-of-mouth on steroids.

What do businesses need to do to survive and thrive in this environment? The same things they’ve always needed to do, but the pressure has intensified. They need to:

• Find a niche that isn’t being filled effectively and fill it.• Thoroughly understand market needs and competitive

pressures.• Provide a product/service that customers value.• Make sure customers know about and have easy access to

their product/service.

• Listen and be ready to adapt and shift as the environment changes.

PR today isn’t just about influencing traditional reporters to cover you and your products and services in their traditional publications.

PR today is about influencing anyone with an audience to spread the word.

In a world of “citizen journalists,” you can benefit from PR on steroids. Traditional journalists and reporters are still important, but savvy communicators know that any third-party recommendations, referrals or endorsements matter — always have and always will.

Easy? No. Rewarding? It can be. In this book, we’ll offer advice and expertise based on experience on both sides of the PR equation — from the standpoint of business journalists who often receive pitches or responses to queries from those seeking media exposure, and from the standpoint of a consulting firm that works to gain positive media exposure for our clients.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth

When it comes to making an impact on consumer buying decisions, word-of-mouth (WOM) matters. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) released a study in 2014 that “found that the value of a word-of-mouth impression is anywhere from 5 to 100+ times more valuable than a paid media impression.”

From professional experience when working in the healthcare industry, I know our own consumer research indicated that more than 50 percent of the consumers in our market said word-of-mouth was the most significant influence on their choice of a provider.

From personal experience, I know that I, like many consumers, am certainly influenced by the opinions of others. In a tight economy, that's even more the case.

The significant impact of word-of-mouth can be good news to those organizations and individuals who have a great product, or service, that is readily available and meets customer needs; generating positive word-of-mouth is virtually “free marketing.”

Word-of-mouth can be bad news for others, of course. Given the influence others have on our buying behaviors, it would seem to behoove marketers to make sure they're spending time and effort:

• #1 - creating and delivering a good product/service.• #2 - "wooing" the customers they have.

What's even worse than not doing No. 1 and No. 2 is doing what many business owners do — spending a lot of time and money promoting products and services that are not good and that customers do not value. They’re creating word-of-mouth all right, but not the kind of word-of-mouth they had in mind.

Questions to ask yourself (and your customers):

• Does my product/service provide value?• Is my product/service highly rated compared with other

available alternatives?• If not, what can/should I be doing to improve quality and

perception?• If yes, what can/should I be doing to encourage and

increase WOM?• If not, should I be spending any more time/money

promoting my product/service when the outcome might actually mean I'm spending money to generate more negative word-of-mouth?

There are two key factors at play here:

• First, word-of-mouth, as demonstrated through the WOMMA study and others, definitely has an impact on consumer perceptions and, ultimately, sales.

• In today’s digital communication environment, the ability for word-of-mouth to reach audiences is heightened significantly, consequently, having the potential for greater positive, or negative, impact.

It used to be that word-of-mouth was managed primarily through providing great service. While companies might have received negative feedback from consumers, that feedback was not likely to reach far beyond their four walls — unless the media picked up on a story. Today, of course, the media picking up on a story is not an organization’s main concern. Today, organizations are equally, if not more, concerned about what the general public is saying about them through online channels where digital messages have the power to reach millions in minutes.

How Social Media is Changing Advertising and PR

In the “old days,” there was advertising and there was PR. Advertising was paid communication that we created about ourselves. PR was communication that we earned through creating relationships and clever pitches to the media gatekeepers who would then share information about us on our behalf. Social media represents a new communication option that has had, and will continue to have, a marked impact on both advertising and PR.

Advertising is expensive. It costs a lot to get our messages out in a way that will be meaningful and impactful, especially given the cluttered media market. To stand out, we have to be bigger, bolder and in front of people more often than all of the other messages — not just our competitors’ message, but all other messages. That can be tough and costly.

PR, while not paid media, is still expensive. It’s time consuming. And we lack control over when, if, or how our messages will be conveyed (although in a media environment where newsrooms are increasingly short-staffed, it’s more likely that our releases and contributed content will be picked up than in the past).

Social media is the next evolution of PR. It lies somewhere in between. Unlike advertising, it’s not paid. Unlike PR, it’s not someone speaking on our behalf. Social media is us, and others, talking about us, in forums where we may or may not have control. And that’s where the evolution begins. When social media works well, it is affected by input and spread by others. Our initially controlled message is responded to, forwarded, appended and carried away into cyberspace where it can develop a life of its own.

Because of social media, traditional advertising is becoming less important to many organizations, while PR is increasing in importance. Yet how we practice PR is changing. With the growing popularity of social media, the “work” of public relations is far different from what it used to be. Traditional news releases are arguably becoming, if not outmoded, at best “different” in use and purpose. We now have the ability to research and reach out to media around the globe in an instant and the ability to research (i.e., “spy on”) media outlets, reporters, sources, etc. Not to mention a much greater ability to monitor and measure results.

Even if your target audience for a media message is not on social media (which may still be the case in some situations, according to Pew Research), social media is changing the way PR people connect with the media, the way the media connect with its audiences and, increasingly, the way we all work.

Because advertising can be expensive, and because social media opens up new opportunities for us to get our communications out to our audiences, traditional advertising is likely to continue to pale in comparison to other options.

But, because consumers still need and, arguably, will increasingly need some sense of assurance that the information they consume is credible, PR will continue to play an important role for communicators. Social media will serve as a tool both to convey our messages directly to our consumer audiences and to affect and influence the traditional media gatekeepers.

The Blurred Lines Among PR, Marketing, Advertising and the Like

There's a raging — and quite interesting — debate that I continue to see taking place in various online forums about the relationship between PR and marketing. I’ve found it especially interesting because I recently was engaged in the same debate while teaching PR courses at a local university. Surprisingly to me, there is a group that believes quite strongly that PR is not part of marketing: that it is a separate and distinctly different function within an organization.

Frankly, that’s just “crazy talk” to me. I tend to be a marketing purist; my marketing paradigm has always placed PR under the promotion “P” of the 4P’s of marketing (product, price, place, promotion), along with advertising, sales, etc. Many agree — but not all. For example, here’s a representative comment from a LinkedIn forum I participated in:

“... companies need to remember there is a difference between PR and marketing. The departments within companies are separate. There is a PR department and a marketing department. The reason they are separate is because they have different purposes.”

And the rebuttal:

"These are very interesting arguments and opinions. Someone who thinks PR is not marketing needs to have his head read."

I tend to agree with the latter (although I would probably have tempered my comments just a bit ...).

Having been fortunate to be responsible for all elements of communication (internal, external, PR, advertising, etc.) as director of corporate communications in the energy and healthcare industries, I can’t imagine separating the two. They’re simply two tools that organizations can use to forward their overall marketing strategies.

Seems like common sense to me. And, in fact, I’d go even further than trying to tie just these two communication methodologies together — I think all communication efforts within an organization (internal and external) need to be carefully aligned, implemented and measured as part of a unified effort.

Our publics converge more often than we realize — and more and more every day. Without coordination and consistency, we’re at risk of sending mixed — and even misleading — messages.

Regardless of the definitions and the professional sensitivities on both sides, depending on which academic path or which profession you currently work in, I think we’d all serve our clients and companies most effectively if we crossed the line (especially in organizations where these functions are in separate departments/divisions) and learned to work together toward mutual communication goals.

Still, it’s a question that comes up in many venues: on Twitter, in LinkedIn groups, in business meetings and in university classes. What is the difference between PR, advertising, marketing, branding, etc.?

This is the answer I generally provide:

• Marketing is a broad organizational function that encompasses the traditional "4P's" (price, product, place and promotion).

• Under the category of promotion are a number of elements that go into what is often called the "promotional mix." These include both advertising and PR, as well as social media. As previously discussed, advertising involves paying for your messages to reach desired audiences; PR involves influencing others to share messages about you.

• Branding is a process that involves establishing a “personality” for a company or product/service in the minds of some target group — generally customers.

As with marketing, branding is impacted not only by promotional activities, but also by:

• price (a “high-end” brand will generally have a high-end price point and vice versa)

• product (e.g., quality and service attributes and experiences customers have with the product or the service they receive)

• place (which also includes access/availability — exclusive products are often difficult to access/in limited supply, adding to their “allure”)

• promotion.

Many people wrongly assume that brand is about logos, taglines and corporate colors; they are an element of the brand but, as explained previously, just a part of it.

• Advertising is not marketing.• PR is not marketing.• Branding is not marketing.

Marketing is everything a company does to deliver a product/service to its target markets. That means product development. It means pricing strategies. It means customer service. Marketing communications generally refers to the promotional elements of the marketing mix that take place in support of the company’s overall marketing goals/objectives. What is usually called a

“marketing department” is, in reality, actually a “marketing communications” department. In most organizations, this department is not responsible for product development (although the product obviously affects marketing effectiveness), pricing (although pricing certainly affects marketing effectiveness) or service.

Do these distinctions matter? In most cases, no. As long as an organization's communication activities are being well coordinated and are consistent with the desired brand image, what you call things is probably irrelevant. It’s just, as they say, “semantics.” Problems can arise, though, when these activities are not well coordinated, and that generally occurs because of organizational turf battles that place responsibility for various communication activities under different leaders.

These would include the elements of the promotional mix mentioned earlier: advertising, PR or media relations, and branding.

The bottom line: what matters most is that the organization is able to effectively communicate with its key audiences to achieve its goals. Whether PR reports to marketing or marketing reports to PR is really irrelevant as long as those communication objectives can be achieved. It may be an important issue to the leaders of those individual functions, but, in the big scheme of things, this ongoing discussion and debate is a huge distraction — and detraction — to the organization’s overall marketing effectiveness.

Big Benefits for Even Very Small Businesses

Publicity is key for any business, and while most companies probably think first about paid advertising, there’s no reason you need to spend money to get the word out about your product and service offerings. Savvy marketers are always looking for ways to get free publicity through third parties, such as news outlets or celebrities. For example, having a popular sports figure wear your

company’s clothing or shoes can make your brand seem trendy and relevant. An industry publication mentioning an award or positive survey results your product or service received can add credibility and a sense of value. A news story about a grand opening of a new branch of your business increases consumer awareness.

It’s not just the fact that the publicity is free that makes third-party promotion so desirable. Such publicity conveys an added sense of credibility because it’s neutral. As noted in an article titled “How Public Relations Can Help Your Small Business Grow” for Cision PR Newswire: “When a consumer sees third-party coverage of a product or service, it is perceived much differently than a traditional advertisement. When we see an advertisement, we know the company is trying to sell us something. When a third party, such as the media, endorses a product or service, the company gains credibility.”

So how does one conjure up such useful third-party publicity? There are several avenues for business owners to generate third-party publicity through self-promotion, and we’ll talk about them in this book.

Services such as HARO and ProfNet are good examples of tools that even very small businesses can leverage to learn about opportunities for media coverage. The connections made through these channels can help to build an ongoing network of media contacts, assuming the businesses are able to be responsive, thorough, on point and non-promotional.

Social media channels like LinkedIn (B2B primarily), Facebook (B2C primarily) and Twitter (both) also can be used to not only build audiences but also identify and connect with reporters and journalists online. Following key journalists in their industries/markets can provide insights into what topics they’re covering and what they’re interested in, which can open the door for online interactions.

As an article for Kabbage states, “Know your target market, and know the target market of the major publications you are looking into. What kind of press does your target market typically listen to? Once you respond to that question, the answer is the best place to start when it comes to generating good media coverage.”

What’s most important is that small businesses interested in generating media attention focus on providing content that is valuable for the end user audience, i.e., readers or viewers of this content. It’s not about self-promotion; it’s about providing useful information. If you can do this consistently, the reporters will be calling upon you!

As we’ve seen, today’s public relations efforts can take a variety of forms. In this book, we’ve broken the topic down into three parts: media relations, thought leadership and influencer marketing. We’ll also take a look at crisis communications and offer some “bonus material” at the end of this book with insights and perspectives on the current state of PR — what’s changed and what stays the same in a digital media environment.