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Project PR has a brand new name and a brand new website. Rebranded in May 2011 as Genesis PR, we are a smart thinking, multi-award winning public relations agency that gets results.
To keep up-to-date on our new blog, please visit http://www.genesispr.co.uk/blog/.
Leading industry magazine PR Week recently asked the editors of some well-known magazines and newspapers “What are your PR pet peeves?” The answers were straight out of a text book:
“When they ring me up to chase their press release”, “When they have not done their homework about what sort of things we publish”, “generic press releases”, “ringing to see if I have got their press release”, “when they don’t take time to find out who our readers are”, “when they blatantly have never seen a copy of our magazine” and so on.
Getting our clients into the media is the bread and butter of what we do in the PR industry, so it is essential that we build good relationships with journalists, and create a good reputation for ourselves in the process. It is vital that we do our research and take time to find out about the outlets we hope will cover our stories, giving us the best chance to develop a good relationship with them and secure the coverage our clients.
We are now in an age of 24/7 news. Journalists are busier than ever as news is constantly developing, so they need to be able to rely on us to give them good material. It is important that when an email arrives in a journalist’s inbox, they recognise the sender, and instantly know that the content is going to be interesting, relevant, and something they want to use. If the sender has been known to issue press releases that are too generic, or not relevant to their audience, the journalist will more than likely ignore or delete it if they are busy. And that could be the one press release that would have become their front page…..!
It is worth spending that extra little bit of time to research the publications you wish to target. Buy a copy and spend ten minutes flicking through to see its style, its content, how it is written, who its readers are, and the publication’s opinions on topical issues. If you can, try to target your press release to each publication, changing the focus of each if necessary, to ensure it grabs the attention of the journalist who picks it up. The same applies to local and regional media. Ensure you know which areas the publication covers, and try to ensure your releases include specific detail relevant to that newspaper. This is especially important to local newspapers that only cover small towns – there is no point sending them a story that is region-wide if they are only covering very local news.
Another of the pet peeves mentioned by editors is the idea of PRO’s calling journalists to check if they have received a release, or to follow it up. One editor added to her comment by saying: “if you don’t get an out of office, or it doesn’t bounce back, then assume we have received it. If it is good, we will use it. If it’s not, then we won’t. We are too busy to take calls about every release we receive.” This is important, and goes back to the point I made in the second paragraph. If your release is relevant and newsworthy, and you sent it to the right person then you are almost guaranteed coverage. If your release isn’t what they are looking for, and yet you still chase them with a phone call at their busiest time, you are likely to blacklist yourself even further. If you ensure your release is targeted to their publication, is salient, relevant and well written, then you don’t need to worry about following it up with a call. It will speak for itself.
However, there are some instances where a call to a journalist can make all the difference. If they work for a national newspaper or popular magazine they are likely to receive hundreds of emails per day. In this case, you will be fighting for both space and their attention. Call them first and tell them about it. They will soon tell you whether they are interested or not, and if they are, they will look out for it when you send it over.
Another important point to keep in mind when sending press releases to the media, is your timing. They will all have press days and deadlines, and some consumer magazines work up to 3 months in advance. It all goes back to doing your homework and giving yourself the best chance of getting your news into the press which you are targeting.
To sum up, do your research. Don’t just expect that your piece of news will automatically be printed; you are up against a world of 24/7 news and you need to make sure that yours stands out, and gets to the right people at the right time.
One question that PR teams will be hearing regularly from management in these times of recession is “how do we tell our loyal employees the bad news?” Plenty of companies have been in the news recently with first class examples of how not to do this, but there have been very few cases of successful delivery of the words none of them want to hear.
The key to making redundancies or implementing pay cuts without causing too much heartache and protest is simple. Keep employees informed, involve them as much as possible in the planning stages, ask for their opinions, and recognise their loyalty to your business.
We all saw the pictures of protesters outside the MINI plant who turned up to work only to be told there were no longer jobs for any of them. They were given no prior warning, no explanation, and no financial help or training to help them find new employment. They felt as if they just didn’t matter.
If employees are involved in important decisions made by their employer then they will feel a sense of solidarity and ownership towards the business. They are more likely to club together and unite behind the cause, and will be more willing to take a day’s unpaid leave, or a pay cut, because they feel like their contribution is helping save the business they are proud to work for.
This recession is played out 24/7 on the news, radio and in the written press, and everyone knows what is happening. Employees understand that businesses across the world are struggling, and they are intelligent enough to know that no one is safe, including them. They will see other businesses on the news making redundancies, and will be hoping that it won’t happen in their workplace.
If you start to notice a slip in business, call a meeting to warn your staff. If you start thinking about redundancies, get your staff together to brainstorm other ways of saving money, and ask them what they would be prepared to sacrifice. If you really need to make people redundant, speak to them personally in advance, and offer anything you can to help make the process easier, such as one day training courses, days off to attend interviews, or excellent references. Don’t be scared of being honest. Your employees will respect you for this and will be much more cooperative.
Don’t forget the unions, which can be particularly influential, both positively and negatively, in these times. Involve them from the start, work with them, not against them, and they will be more likely to fight your corner. Hide things from them, and spring redundancies on employees, and they will incite protest, disloyalty and resentfulness.
Train your middle management and line managers to ensure they know the key messages and are capable of presenting to their reportees. Arm them with as much information as you can so they can answer anything the employees have to ask. If you are reading this and you are a senior manager, make yourself visible, speak to your staff and make sure they know just how important they are to you.
Finally, make sure your plans don’t get leaked to the press. They don’t want to read their job is in danger on the front page of the newspaper! They might just choke on their cornflakes!
