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You will get better results if your publicity has a strategic purpose

Written by: Kim Harrison

Article Overview: Too often, business people try to create good news coverage whenever they see an opportunity. They don’t give any real thought about the strategic potential of the news coverage. Instead, best-practice media relations activity involves a clear, strategic link to your organizational mission and goals. This article outlines the key elements of strategically based media relations

You will get better results if your publicity has a strategic purpose

Media relations is the term for liaising directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features in the mass media. The goal of media relations is to maximize positive coverage in the mass media without paying for it directly through advertising.

The challenges of liaising with the media are in knowing what the media want, and in helping them to present images, ideas and information accurately and fairly. The news media can’t be controlled – they have the ultimate control over whether the news angle you put to them is of interest to them, and in turn, to their audience.

The two main advantages of news coverage over advertising are:

1. There is more credibility in positive news coverage than with paid advertising due to the implied third-party endorsement of the journalist or quoted person.
2. The cost of coverage in the news media is substantially lower than the cost of advertising.

The media are fundamentally in the business of sales. They sell their audiences to their advertisers and program sponsors as potential buyers of their products and services.

Newspapers package the news into the blank spaces that are left after the advertisements have been placed. They want the news material you supply them to be sufficiently interesting to help them increase their circulation. They stand to gain financially from the cover price paid by their customers.

Television, radio and the Internet-based media use news as a drawcard to attract a bigger audience. In turn, this makes them more attractive to potential advertisers and program sponsors.

Obtaining news media coverage is not easy. There is a lot of competition for the media’s limited space and air time. Therefore, your media relations role is to make the task of covering your issues and your organization as easy and attractive for the media as possible. It is a percentage game: you do the things to maximize the possibility of creating news interest in your issue or organization.

The aim of publicity is to make something or somebody known through the media. Publicity is a strong but not overwhelming influence – it doesn’t sell products, raise funds or win elections. But it can convey ideas and information that can shade people’s interpretation of what they see, read or hear – and therefore it can influence opinions.

More often, publicity can set an agenda of issues for discussion rather than change attitudes or behavior because people don’t change easily from their existing attitudes and behavior.

Positive publicity, through the implied third-party endorsement of the journalist or a quoted source, can strengthen the credibility of your organization. The credibility-building role of publicity helps your organization to strengthen its customer and employee relationships.

In an era of increased accountability, more managers are beginning to understand the interrelationship between effective media relations, good corporate reputation and sales performance. They recognize that good media relations activity can get their target audience to accurately perceive their organization’s policy or performance.

Media activity should be part of your larger business plan, with every communication directed at a specific audience. This, of course, requires a clear understanding of your organization’s mission, including its sales and marketing objectives. The following factors also shape the media relations function:

· type of organization
· potential media interest in your products and services
· potential media and investor interest in your corporate performance
· your senior management’s expectations of the media relations role

Best-practice guidelines

Too often, business people, including entrepreneurs, try to create good news coverage for the sake of creating good news coverage without any real thought about the strategic potential of the news coverage. Instead, best-practice media relations activity involves a clear, strategic link to your organizational mission and goals.

Key elements of strategically based media relations are:

· Your media strategy is documented and implemented according to agreed principles. If you are not experienced enough in this area, get a PR professional to help you.
· A media policy is drawn up with responsibilities, profiles and positioning as defined and agreed between management and the public relations people - either internal or external.
· Media activity is planned to reach target audiences in direct support of your organizational mission and goals.
· Media contact is broadly divided into proactive (planned) and reactive (opportunistic and defensive) activities.
· Systematic use of consistent messages is made (eg. about your organizational performance, issues, use of new technologies and corporate behavior including environmental policy, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility);
· Spokespersons’ roles are documented, communicated and supported (training, advice, background information).
· Decisions are agreed beforehand on the follow-up activities after media coverage (interview, survey, discussions with key opinion leaders).

If you formulate a media relations strategy, your organization will benefit from more efficient application of publicity and a closer link to your bottom line.

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