Tweet

Effective Public Relations: The Obama Publicity Strategy

Guest post by: Paul Eze

Article Overview: Politics aside, almost everybody would agree that President Obama is a masterful communicator. Obama is really United State’s first public figure to adeptly embrace the full power of the media. He is seizing both traditional and new media opportunities to deploy his messages in both an expeditious and ubiquitous manner.

Effective Public Relations: The Obama Publicity Strategy

Politics aside, almost everybody would agree that President Obama is a masterful communicator. Obama is really United State’s first public figure to adeptly embrace the full power of the media. He is seizing both traditional and new media opportunities to deploy his messages in both an expeditious and ubiquitous manner.

The sheer volume of his media visibility is what every forward looking firm should copy. According to a recent story in , Obama "has hosted 15 town-hall meetings; appeared in more than 800 images on the White House Flickr photo-stream; and held four prime-time press conferences, the same number held by George W. Bush in his entire presidency."

True, Most times what we really want is control over our message. Advertising buys you such control because you have final say over the content and where and how often the ad is placed--but it is openly biased, with commercial gain (sales) as the goal. PR, on the other hand, earns us credibility because seemingly unbiased third parties (i.e., media) are helping to propagate our message for us. PR is, in a way, a cloaked way to sell our wares without explicitly appearing to do so.

The Obama PR machine seems to be working for "brand Obama" and offers message control lessons for us all in business.

Tapping Into The Obama Publicity Strategy

Transparency

The best way to get something is to give something up first. Transparency is no longer just a buzz word, but an imperative for businesses of all sizes. For example, Obama has committed to publish all executive orders and proclamations on the White House website, something unprecedented.

Companies often get in their own way trying to hide information they feel is dangerous to their reputation. They are afraid of revealing trade secrets or data that undermine their ability to compete.

But this shouldn’t be so. Transparency means companies should no longer appear to be hiding anything from their customers, from sourcing and manufacturing to disclosing conflicts of interest and a rationale for pricing.

Some industries are especially vulnerable to the drive for transparency, especially financial services, health care and our government. That said--all businesses and entities will be better served by using transparency as part of their brand promise, just as Obama has done. Why? Doing so will help create new levels of trust between you and your stakeholders, and that will lead to mutually beneficial outcomes for everyone.

Expediency

A great PR strategy enables a company to have its messages placed among key media in a frequent and timely manner. Contrary to popular belief, frequency is not achieved through a blitzkrieg of press releases. Rather, it is by having bloggers, reporters, analysts and other brand influencers cite you as an expert for his or her "story." He who speaks first often gets the media stage.

The popular "no comment" from CEOs when they think the press or for that matter the public ought not to know anything about their company is an opportunity for someone else. It is an opportunity for guessing and speculations which in the end gives the media a perceived view of issues which may be totally wrong but which they pass on to viewers and readers as the case may be

President Obama makes a habit to quickly respond to issues either directly or through his communications team; every CEO should learn that.

Omnipresence

AccordingAccuracy in Media, Obama is spending $5M a year alone on staff salaries devoted to communications with great emphasis on internet driven communications (Facebook and Twitter), minority-targeted communications, town hall meetings, press conferences and television appearances.

For most consumer-focused companies, being present and proactive on Facebook and Twitter is an important way to stay relevant to and connected with consumers.

All companies should look to social media to at least monitor, listen to and acknowledge what their stakeholders are saying about their brand. Start with baby steps, making sure that you are on Wikipedia and that your website and your releases are search engine optimized. If you blog, do it regularly or don’t do it all. There is no one-size-fits-all social media tactic or program, but piloting a few social media initiatives will no doubt help you continue to protect and grow your brand and your business.

Obama’s publicity strategy should be the new pointer for us all. The corporate world must have missed a master publicist in Obama to the benefit of politics

Related Articles
  What's Great About PR
  The Difference Between the “Three P’s” – Public Relations, Publicity and Press Releases
  Is Your PR Firm Right For You?
  How to choose a publicist
  Don’t Read the News, Be the News!
  Advertising and Public Relations
  A Series of Strategic PR Tips and Prescriptions, Part 3 From The PR Doctor
  Budgeting for publicity and keeping within limits
  Prescription For Attorneys To Use Litigation Public Relations, From “The PR Doctor
  “Public Relations As A Strategic Tool To Integrate With Your Marketing Efforts, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  2008 PR Trends - What's In, Out, and New for the New Year?
  Explore Easy Ways To Get Publicity
  A Series of Strategic PR Tips and Prescriptions, Part 1 From The PR Doctor
  Why is the President Obama using YouTube?
  Public Relations is More Than Just News Releases
  A PR CONCEPT BORN OUT OF THE RECESSION!
  Three Techniques for Generating Publicity for Your Business
  6 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Public Relations Campaign
  PR – The Tools that Build the Brand
  A Prescription From The PR Doctor To Prevent Unhealthy Public Relations

Article Tags: barack obama, effective public relations strategy, publicity



Related Forum Posts
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital
Book: Secrets of Six Figure Women - Secrets of Six Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to up your earning and change your life Barbara Stanny, 2002 Jacket: Maybe you've noticed - a subtle trend is gathering steam. Quietly and steadily, the number of women making six figures or more is increasing, and it continues to rise at a rate faster than for men. From entrepreneurs to corporate executives, from white collar executives to free lancers and part timers, women are forging careers with considerable financial success. Through extensive research and hundreds of interviews, including dialogs with more than 150 high earners whose annual incomes range from $100,000 to 7 million, Stanny discovered that ...they all had certain traits in common: 1) a profit motive 2) Audacity 3) REslience 4) Encouragement 5) Self-awareness 6) Non-attachment 7) Financial knowhow She amplifies on these in the book itself. Table of Contents Intro: Welcome to the era of the six-figure woman 1. The Queen in the Countinghouse 2. The Lowdown on low earners 3. Raising the bar 4. Strategy 1: The Declaration of Intention 5. Strategy 2: Letting go of the ledge 6. Strategy 3: Get in the Game 7. Strategy 4: Speak Up 8. Strategy 5: The Stretch 9. Strategy 6: Seek Support 10. Strategy 7: Obey the rules of money 11. Claiming our power Appendces: Resources and websites Tips for getting out of dent Investing Basics: Wealthbuilding 101
Re: Obama or McCain? - If I want to be partial , I would say Obama because I am black. But this should not be if you want to vote objectively. Otherwise, I will prefer Obama because of his age, charisma and energy
Re: Still Not Sure Who To Vote For? - Hi IdeasU, Don't worry, I'm still committed to the evancarmichael forum, but I have been very busy since I returned from my holidays with editing work, extra teaching work during college term, several large and complicated orders from my Japanese-games-shop customers and the launch of a monthly PLR article writing service (see sig file!). === Back on topic... If I were an American citizen I would vote for Obama. I explained what did it for me on another thread. My main interest was foreign policy, but the more I watch Obama and McCain the more impressive Obama seems and the less convincing McCain appears. So far, Obama has proved excellent in handling the ad hominem attacks, and McCain's attempts to smear him with "associating with terrorists" look increasingly lame.
Find Me Customers and Get 25% of New Client's Bill - I run Egg Marketing & Public Relations, a marketing and public relations firm. I am looking to grow my business through a viral affiliate marketing campaign, and I need your help. If you know someone (or can find someone) who needs marketing assistance for their business, I'd love to take them on as a client. My firm can: *create marketing plans and strategy *write web and marketing copy *write and distribute press releases *create enewsletter and email campaigns For every new client you bring me, I will give you 25% of their billable hours. For example, my average monthly consultation fee is $1000. That's $250 per month for the life of the client relationship just for a referral! I can provide you information and resources to help you. If you're interested, contact me at smpayton@eggmarketingpr.com and let me know where you're based and how you would go about spreading the word to get new clients for Egg.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Executive Blind Spots

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

20 MORE Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.