Knowing what to share and when to keep quiet is critically important to a brand’s image and can sometimes make or break its’ success. Making good decisions on when and what to communicate and will save you from becoming one of ‘those’ parents who could talk for hours about their child’s first trip to the toilet.
When you are close to your business, something that might seem like news to you shouldn’t necessarily be immortalised in print and becoming better accustomed with what passes for news is an excellent way to avoid this mistake.
5 tips on when to make or not make the news
1. NEW doesn’t always mean news. You might be excited about a new addition to your product line, an equipment upgrade, a new offer or special you have on board but unless the product has the capacity to revolutionise your industry, or affect the greater public in a significant way chances are it won’t make the cut.
2. If it happened a week or a month ago, forget about it! It might still be rocking your world, but from an editorial point of view its dead and buried. Make sure you feed your publicist information as early as possible, so the maximum results can be achieved.
3. Know which stats to pull. Assessing the knowledge gaps in your industry and commissioning a study that addresses them can be an effective PR exercise especially where consumer attitudes and opinions are involved. Research is a great way to position your brand as a thought leader in your industry, but it’s important to know which findings to publicise and which to bin. Figures that fly in the face of assumption, go against the grain or have the capacity to affect the public at large always make for interesting news.
4. Don’t underestimate your own knowledge bank. Start thinking about how you can educate people on the topics you know best. Chances are if you own a business you have some fairly valuable insider knowledge – share this with your publicist, so they can position you as an expert in your field. The kind of credibility this type of profiling can bring to a brand cannot be paid for in advertising dollars.
5. Understand what you can ‘leverage’. So you have seen an article in the paper featuring one of your competitors or a topic that relates to your industry and you are thinking – I want to be in there! It’s important to know which articles can be leveraged off and which cannot. If the publication has already run a general piece on your industry featuring a competitor as talent, chances are they won’t run another for some time. In this situation the best way to win might be to approach the competing publication with a different and better angle. You WILL be able to leverage off articles involving contentious aspects of your industry, especially if you are willing to provide expert comment on the issue. When in doubt ask you publicist for advice on what is possible – they may even have a creative solution that can get you across the line.
For further advice on what makes news, contact Red PR Brisbane (07 3252 5735) or Blue by Red PR Sydney (02 8218 2172).
