Public Relations Opportunities
Depending on your business or organization, you may already have a grasp on PR. The question is, are you continually looking for ways to improve or update your PR campaign?
According to the Public Relations Society of America:
"Public relations is more than managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. It is a communications discipline that engages and informs key audiences, builds important relationships and brings vital information back into an organization for analysis and action. It has real, measurable impact on the achievement of strategic organizational goals."
With the value of public relations in mind, here are some simple PR ideas that you may want to consider implementing:
Media Relations
Learn the basic media relations guidelines and principles between journalists and public relations professionals.
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Pitching: Throwing out a news release to random media entities won’t do much for the organization. Unless some alarming headline in the subject line is present, journalists and editors will usually treat the e-mail as spam or junk mail with little sympathy, moving on to the next release that might better serve them. The best way to have a news release or material published is to build rapport with the reporter with a comment such as, “I really enjoyed the article you wrote last week regarding city parks and recreation and thought you would like to write a story about an upcoming event our organization is promoting.” Journalists want to receive information on a more personal level; thus, establishing a relationship of confidence and trust is crucial if materials are to be used. If reporters sense that an organization only wants material to be published for the self-serving purpose of publicity or free advertising, the e-mail will most likely end up in the Trash bin or ‘Deleted’ folder.
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Media Kits: A good media package will include a personalized pitch letter to an editor or reporter, a news release, a company or event/product background sheet, and a list of frequently asked questions with their corresponding answers. You can also throw in an attachment or a link to the organization’s logo so they can use it in their article. The same principles apply when sending a media package to a news entity: build rapport with the agency and journalist and they will be more open to using the materials.
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Web Helps: Web material should be brief and to the point. Releases posted on the company Web site should not be exceedingly long, as most readers only scan material without delving too much into the information. This involves short sentences and paragraphs in active voice. Bullet point lists and sub-headings are effective measures to better organize the material.
Fact Sheet
Create a fact sheet about your business or organization. This is a great piece of material to have ready and on hand to send out with press releases, post online, or to merely have your major talking points all organized in one place. Here is an example of Thanksgiving Point's Fact Sheet.
Press Releases
Learn how to write press releases so you can contact the media about news or upcoming events. Check out the Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau's press releases to see examples.
Editorial Calendar
Here is a good example of a tourism related editorial calendar. This gives general ideas of when you should pitch events and other news to the media.
Other Communication Channels
There are many ways to get your message out other than via press packets or press releases. Some of these other ideas include: articles, websites, customer success stories and reviews, giveaways, letters to the editor, press conferences, interviews, seminars and event sponsorships.
Media Contacts
See a list of Media Contacts in Utah and surrounding areas.
Networking
Network with others. Join any related local or national associations, or become a partner with the office of tourism, chamber of commerce and other agencies that will help promote your business.
Consumer-Based Website Tracking
Begin tracking your business on some of the major consumer-based websites such as TripAdvisor, Kayak, Yelp, etc. to learn what customers are saying about your business. Use this information to help you determine how to better target certain markets and create more focused key messages to change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Just be careful to always be transparent about who you are if you choose to post or respond to reviews (be sure to verify if the site allows posts from employees of the property otherwise they may be taken off). You may be able to reach out to an unhappy customer to help them come back to your property.
One of the best practices is to let people know what is new at your property (ie. new renovations, upgrades, new events, etc.). By placing a generic post on the site focusing on new improvements you can help the view of your property as a whole.
Social Networking Resources
Dive into using social networking resources to benefit your business. Here is a useful document about the basics of social media, which include details about: how to configure a Google Alert, RSS Feeds, Using Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook personal and business page accounts.
It’s the thing to do these days. Companies are now “out of touch” if they don’t have a corporate page or presence on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Another popular item is to have a blog to give a more personalized feeling for the company and its products or services. Advocacy is crucial in these settings; never write anything about the company or its services without publishing your name and position within the company to avoid misrepresentation. Many executives have gotten into trouble by ghost writing about the company when they did not identify themselves as representatives of the company.
There are hundreds of social networking sites out there, but here are some of the more common or popular social networking sites.
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Facebook
: General social media site.
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Bebo: Similar to Facebook; popular in the UK and Europe.
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Orkut: Similar to Facebook; popular in South America.
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Myspace: Popular among youth and musicians; rapidly losing traction in the marketplace.
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LinkedIn: Professional networking website.
Travel and Restaurant Sites
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TripAdvisor: Travel-focused website compiling user-generated reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc.
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Fodors: Travel-focused website with active message boards.
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Frommers: Another travel-focused website with active message boards.
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Yelp: User-generated restaurant/business review site, geared more towards locals than vacationers.
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Citysearch: Similar to Yelp; has a reputation for extremely biased reviews and has lost significant traction.
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UrbanSpoon: Similar to Yelp and Citysearch; picking up traction recently.
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Dopplr: Users list their upcoming trips and learn if other people in their network will be at their destination.
Photo Sharing Sites
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Flickr: Easy uploading, organization, and sharing; has a very active photo community. The most popular photo-sharing website.
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Picasa Google: Google’s Flickr competitor; lacks some social aspects.
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Smugmug: Similar to Flickr, but more customizable.
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Photobucket: Competitor to Flickr; popular with teen media fans.
Social News Sites
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Digg: Users contribute and comment on stories, and rate existing stories up or down based on interest.
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Reddit: Major Digg competitor; uses the same concept.
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Slashdot: Social news site focused on the tech world.
Link Sharing Sites
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MetaFilter: Combines social news with general interesting links in a community weblog. Each story usually includes several links on a topic.
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StumbleUpon: Users rate sites randomly shown to them with a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” using a free web browser toolbar.
Other Popular Sites
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Ravelry: Incredibly popular social networking site for knitters.
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Etsy: Handmade objects for sale.
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Dogster: Editorial content, advice, and community for dog lovers (and their pets).
ROI - Tracking Media Results
There are several ways to track the articles that are written about your organization. Here are just a few ideas.