When approaching this topic, two things come to mind: The emails I receive from people who say they just need help getting press and the Samantha Jones from Sex and The City and her famous tag-line, “Samantha Jones, Public relations.”  To many people, public relations is somewhat of a nebulous thing floating between marketing and advertising or they think it is a compilation of the two, while others think it is just getting into magazines and on Television. Here is the text book explanation of what it really is as explained by PR News online, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitude, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and patience.” The Leila definition is a little more simple and states, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates one’s actual and perceived value, and creates and implements a plan to enhance and maintain both.”

A solid PR plan is not based solely on press placement and will rarely be effective if your branding/online presence,  portfolio work, networking and industry contacts are not up to par. With my coaching program I often hear my clients saying one of their top priorities is to get press and almost every time I tell them it’s not going to be in their next 1-5 steps. There is a lot to do before you start promoting yourself.

Here are 5 components of Public Relations:

1) Research: Thoroughly understand not only your company but your clients and potential clients. How well do you meet their needs? What do you offer that is unique or special?

2)Strategic Planning: Identify your target audience, your marketing goals, and what needs to be done to actualize these goals.

3) Communication: Your outward communication to vendors, clients, and media is one of THE most important uses of PR. You screw someone.. guess what?? That’s bad PR. They are going to talk about it. When you are emailing and reaching out that is your brand speaking loud and clear. Are you portraying yourself accurately?

4) Internal Relations: Employees are your internal audience and good staff is hard to find. They are a reflection of your company and how you operate it. Be sure that your internal relations ( including your own relations with others) is on point!

5) Publicity: Simply put as said by PR guru, Eric Yaverbaum “getting ink and air time!”

Image found on : Guide Spot

5 Reasons WHY Public Relations is Necessary and Relevant for you:

1) You’re a little Fish in a Big Pond: So how do you stand out?

2) Your product or service is the best and nobody knows about it.

3) Traditional marketing is not working as well as it used to:  Public Relations is the most cost effective form of marketing.

4) Your competitors get all the good press.

5) In a down economy companies are forced to get more creative in the way they make their services appear necessary and relevant.

(again the above are inspired by PR guru Eric Yaverbaum)

Where are you at in developing your public relations plan? Do you really need a publicist? Often times the answer is no, but if we can help you get on the right path, let us know!

*This post was originally published September ’09*