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PR Fuel: There Is No Magic BulletThe "magic bullet" theory, that one press release will grab the attention of journalists, is easily debunked. To quote a journalist friend, "Familiarity breeds credibility." One press release won't do the trick; it's that simple.Most journalists cover more than one company. I, for instance, have written about more than 1,000 companies in the past two years. A good friend of mine who covers the Internet sector has covered over 500 companies in the past eighteen months. I asked him how a company he's never heard of grabs his attention. "If the news is big, it always grabs my attention," he told me. Simple enough. But not every company has "big" enough news to grab a journalist's attention. How else can these companies get your attention, I asked my friend. "The more press releases, the more likely I am to write about them," he replied. I was a bit dumbfounded to be honest. We hate press releases, don't we? I decided to do a little research. A non-scientific study of a dozen small Internet and tech companies revealed something to me: the more press releases, the more press. I never thought something could be so simple. I'll be honest, I always felt that putting out an abundance of press releases was like throwing money at problem, and that rarely works. But I've written in the past that it is essential to grab the media's attention using various tactics and I'm going to add multiple press releases to that list. A company the size of Oracle puts out hundreds of press releases each year. In fact, Oracle put out five in one day last week. Not every company has the money or resources of an Oracle, but every company has something newsworthy going on during the course of the year. With that said, I've come up with a plan to promote my own business: quarterly press releases. At the end of every quarter, publicly-held companies must inform the public of their financial status. They do this through Securities and Exchange Commission filings and a press release announcing the availability of such a filing. The press release normally includes some company spin, of course. A privately-held company is under no obligation to release details of its financial performance, but that doesn't mean it can't beat its own chest. Putting out a press release at the end of the quarter touting new sales wins, expansion, the hiring of new executives, the release of new products and other routine business happenings is a good idea. These press releases lay the foundation of credibility in the eyes of journalists. "If a private company keeps me up-to-date on what their business is doing, I'm more likely to write about them," one journalist told me. "Public companies press release everything because they need to keep shareholders informed. Private companies should do the same thing. They're battling larger companies for space [i.e., ink and airtime] and the more their name appears in my inbox, the better." So how do we shape a quarterly press release? Think of it as a newsletter to the public. And ask yourself some questions: What important events have occurred over the past three months? How has the company succeeded? What products or services have been big winners? Have you revenues doubled? Have you expanded to new locations or hired fifty new employees? Releasing information like this is essential to keeping your company in the public's eye. A single press release announcing a deal is unlikely to grab attention. The more information flow coming from your direction, the more likely someone will pay attention. --------------------------------------------------------------- Don't Let The Lawyers Dictate PR Strategy Lewis Lazare of The Chicago Sun-Times takes a look at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide fiftieth anniversary. Why has Edelman been so successful? "Disturbing events in the corporate world over the past couple of years, including the collapse of once-prominent companies such as Enron and Chicago's own Arthur Andersen, make Edelman wonder how many corporations are seeking, let alone heeding, sage public relations counsel," writes Lazare. "'This is a real problem,' said Dan Edelman, who suspects attorneys, rather than public relations executives, are doling out most of the advice to top executives in the throes of a PR crisis. Few, if any, seem to have followed what Edelman believes is the best course of action for a company staring at a major public relations problem: Tell the truth, tell it completely and tell it immediately." This is so dead on. Last week I wrote about crisis management and suggested that companies in the midst of a controversy have a single point of contact: the PR person. The lawyers muck up the PR process and most of them, despite what they think, are not very PR savvy. Journalists and readers have a natural aversion to believing what a lawyer is saying. PR people, believe it or not, will inspire more confidence in both. Read Lazare's profile of Edelman: http://www.suntimes.com/output/lazare/cst-fin-lew302.html
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