Your Role In PR

In talking to a client the other day, I was caught off guard by something he said. Since he said it, I can’t get it off my mind and thought it is worth writing about to clarify and shed some light on the issue.

This client said he was surprised that since he started the PR program with my agency that he was required to do some work in support of the program. He said he was surprised at the amount of work he had to do as part of the PR we’re doing for him. I asked him to clarify and he explained that he didn’t realize that a PR program would require any of his time.

As we met with him and were putting together the program I explained that my team and I would take care of things like writing and setting up interviews with the media. He took that very literally. As we set about executing on the PR strategy we created I set up some interviews and came back to him to get them on his calendar. We also wrote a couple of press releases and, as I customarily do, I asked him to review it to make sure I had represented everything accurately.

When I said I would take care of everything he thought it would all happen and he could just sit back and watch. While that’s true, it’s only true to a certain extent. I’ll take care of executing on the PR strategy but it will still require time from the client.

With this experience in mind, I’ve listed some of the things a client will need to be involved in when working with a PR firm. By no means is this everything, as your time commitment will differ based on goals and objectives, but these items are things that, in most instances, will require some of your time and commitment.

• Media Interviews: The wow factor of any PR program is the media coverage. In most instances, this is why businesses engage in PR. Media coverage helps build awareness, credibility and establish a company as an industry thought leader or an individual as an industry expert. For the most part, if a reporter is interested in talking to a company they want to talk to the CEO or an executive that can talk about the company, it’s products or services as well as the company’s vision, not the PR person. While your PR team will pitch and set up these opportunities and prepare you for the interview you will need to give the time to prepare and conduct the interview. Most interviews will last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Take these opportunities serious and, even more importantly, take the time necessary to prepare for these interviews so you can maximize the opportunity.
• Press releases and other written materials: Press releases are vital tools to educating the public or your target markets. It’s an opportunity for you to quickly share important news about your company, product or service. Writing a press release often requires the time to share the pertinent details and information with your PR team. Once the release is written you’ll need to set aside some time to review, edit and approve the press release. For one, you’ll want to make sure you’re aware of what the release says and that more importantly the information included is accurate. Once a press release is issued it’s hard to go back and correct the details and can lead to distrust or lack of confidence from your partners, clients and customers.
• Regular meetings with your PR team: The purpose of engaging in a PR campaign is to create awareness and build credibility for your brand. To do this you’ll need to meet with your PR team regularly to update them on progress, company initiatives and other activities so they can do their job effectively. These regular meetings can vary on frequency depending on goals and objectives, but they need to happen to maximize your investment in PR. I always tell clients to tell me everything and then I can tell them what is newsworthy or valuable to the PR campaign. You can keep these meetings short and to the point by creating an agenda and sharing it in advance of the actual meeting.

In my experience the more my team and I know the more effective we can be for our clients. Similarly, the more time the client is willing to spend engaged in the PR program the more success we can generate. I’ve had clients that have said they want to talk to the press, create awareness and credibility only to pass on the opportunities we create. In these instances they have minimal success. I’ve also had clients that are fully engaged in their PR program and are willing and eager to participate and leverage the opportunities we create for them. For those that are committed to PR success and give of their time they are more successful and are able to fully reap the benefits of their PR program.

I’m Running Late. Translation: “I Don’t Care About You or Your Time”

I don’t like to be late. In fact, you could even say I hate being late. So much so that to the irritation of my wife and family I leave early enough that I usually arrive 10-15 minutes early and end up waiting in the car until the actual start time of whatever event we’re attending. I’m the guy that takes the advice when traveling to show up at the airport early to ensure you’re not stuck in the security lines and end up reading a book or magazine for an hour or more while I wait to board my flight.

In my mind, I’d rather be early than late. I don’t want my brand to be such that everybody knows I’ll be late to any and every meeting. It seems like more and more I find myself wishing that others would share this same feeling. The other day I had a meeting with a person that is always late. It’s a chronic issue with this person, so much so that her brand is built upon her tardiness.

As I sat and waited, I got a text saying she was going to be late due to a traffic issue. As I received the text I saw the person getting out of her car carrying an empty McDonald’s bag and sucking down the last of her soda. I laughed but at the same time was thinking, “Typical. “

I was taught that being late was rude and an indication that you don’t care about the others involved in the activity. In essence, when you’re late you’re saying, “Whatever it is I was doing is far more important than what you’re doing.”

In the experience I shared above, the person has been branded by me and others she deals with as always being late. People that deal with her know that no matter the meeting or appointment she’ll be late. That’s a brand I never want to be saddled with.

Here are some tips to arriving on time and not being branded as the person that can’t ever show up on time.

• Prepare in advance. Take some time to think about how long it usually takes you to travel or get from one place to another. Think about the other tasks you have to accomplish and prioritize these activities. I start every day by creating a list of the things I need to accomplish. I prioritize those activities and start with the most urgent tasks. If something unexpected comes up, I know which activities I can postpone in favor of the unexpected emergencies that sometimes come up.
• Create a schedule. A schedule should give you a checklist to work from. In my experience, it’s nice to have a list to work from and to ensure that you’re not forgetting something. I travel once a quarter for onsite meetings with a client in another state. For these meetings I create a schedule to help ensure that when I arrive onsite for the meetings I have everything I need.
• Start early. My wife taught me this. When we have a vacation or event like a holiday to prepare and plan for she starts early. She creates a list of the things we need to do to be ready for the event. If the event is a vacation, her list includes things like arranging for mail to be held during the trip, cleaning the house, packing luggage and paying bills in advance. She even plans grocery shopping and charging camera batteries in advance. By doing this, we’re not waking up the day we leave for vacation trying to pack luggage in time to catch our flight.
• Plan for unexpected events. I set up an interview with one my clients the other day and on the way to the interview my client was involved in a fender bender. It wasn’t his fault, he was rear ended by another motorist. This was certainly something that was not expected but he had left early enough that even while waiting for the police to come and issue citations he was still able to get to the interview on time. Things like this happen all the time, but if you plan and leave early enough you can still keep and make appointments.

There are always exceptions to arriving on time and being late, but when it’s a chronic problem there are no excuses. An inability to arrive on time is a sign of laziness and demonstrates that you don’t care or that a meeting or commitment is unimportant. In the business world it can destroy your brand and reputation. By being prompt and keeping commitments you build trust and demonstrate your commitment to your career, your clients and the others you work with.

A Deadline’s A Deadline Is A Deadline

In public relations (PR), the most important thing to remember and master is the ability to meet a deadline. Deadlines get tossed about in every profession and rarely are taken that serious, but in PR, specifically when dealing with the media is not something to take lightly. Fortunately for me, I learned the value of meeting a deadline at a young age.

When I was in college I took a class on news reporting and the professor would give very specific deadlines for our assignments. She was a former newspaper photographer and took deadlines very seriously. I’ll never forget the first day of class she told us that if we miss a deadline we might as well not even show up for class that day because if we’re late, even by a second we wouldn’t get credit for the assignment.

It didn’t’ take long before this rule was put to the test and proven by the professor. One day, shortly after the start of term one of my classmates was a few minutes late. Our professor would stand at the door with a watch in hand keeping track of the official time. The deadline was set by that watch and she kept time using that watch for all assignments. True to her word, she did not accept the assignment. From that point on we knew she meant business and we all set our own watches by that watch.

One day I woke up and my wife told me that it had snowed overnight and that traffic was going to be slow due to the unexpected snow. I peered out the window and was shocked at the sheer amount of snow. The first thought that crossed my mind was my deadline for my news reporting class. I had worked hard to complete the assignment and was suddenly worried that I wasn’t going to make it on time and get credit for the assignment and all the hard work.

I left immediately. The trip to campus took longer than I had anticipated and as I pulled in the parking lot I was the first car to approach the empty parking lot covered in a fresh blanket of about 15 inches of snow. I pulled into the parking lot and was immediately stuck due to the deep snow. I had about five minutes until my deadline so I abandoned my car and made a mad dash for the classroom.

I ran as hard and fast as I could and finally reached my classroom. As I entered I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass door and realized I was covered in a layer of snow. As I walked in, sure enough, my professor was standing there watching her watch. I handed her my assignment and she responded with, “Just in time. You’re the first and only student here and the only one that truly understands a deadline.” She proceeded to inform me that as of that moment the deadline had passed and nobody would be getting credit for that day’s assignment.

I felt a huge sense of relief and explained to her how I made it. She laughed and informed me that she didn’t care about the how, only that I made my deadline. She then dismissed me to go free my car.

As I left to return to the parking lot to try and free my car I remember thinking that I really did understand what it means to meet a deadline. With this experience in mind, I’ve listed below four tips consider to ensure that you successfully meet your deadlines.

• Prioritize: Some projects or assignments are more important that others. When you have more than one project you’re working on you should know which ones are more important than others. If you don’t ask your boss or supervisor. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one of the characters is stealing a TV. He’s got the TV rested on his shoulder when the police arrive and one of the officers points his gun at him and yells, “Freeze! Put your hands in the air.” The thief stands there and the cop asks him why he didn’t do what he was asked to do, and he responds, “Well which one is it? Freeze or put my hands in the air?”
• Communicate: If a boss or supervisor comes and gives you an assignment, don’t be afraid to tell him or her what other projects you’re currently working on. If they give you a new assignment with an aggressive deadline and you’re already working under another tight deadline with this boss, remind them of that fact. Provide them with a recommendation and strategy for how you’ll accomplish both but emphasis that it may require a delay in one of the deadlines. By talking to them and communicating these issues they can agree to your strategy or provide other input. Either way, they’ll be aware and you’ll have their buy off.
• Set milestones: I believe that milestones play a critical role in accomplishing and meeting any deadline. In the first bullet point I described my son’s book report assignments. When my son tells us about these assignments, my wife and I (usually more my wife than me) sit down with him and set goals and milestones for accomplishing the book report. We start by setting a date to have identified a book for him to read. The next step is setting a goal for reading the book followed by a target date for writing the report. If one of these milestones is not accomplished we can sit down and review why it wasn’t met and identify what we need to do to still meet the deadline.
• Plan for the unexpected: In the experience I shared above, the snowstorm was unexpected. That didn’t matter to my professor though. I didn’t’ necessarily plan for this and there was really no way that I could have, but I acted immediately upon learning of the snowstorm. I didn’t waste time but rather made the most of the time I had. I’ve learned since then to allow for and plan to give myself plenty of time so even if I get a flat tire I can still be on time and meet my deadline. At times my insistence on leaving early drives my wife crazy but I’d rather be a little early and end up waiting in the car than be late and miss a deadline.

Deadlines are critical to a successful working relationship with the press. An ability to meet a deadline will help you build long-lasting relationships of trust with the media and will help you accomplish your goals and secure the desired coverage for your business or clients. By following these tips, you’ll have a significant leg up on understanding and meeting critical deadlines.

How Much Is Too Much?

Sometimes you don’t know how much you know until you are asked to tell somebody. I run into this all the time as I deal with clients, specifically when we first start our client/consultant relationship. It’s often when I start digging and asking a lot of questions that the full story starts coming out. When this happens its usually surprising at just how much information or knowledge the client has that could be useful to me doing my PR job.

In these instances I typically ask why they didn’t share this info before and the response is usually a blank stare followed by simple shrug or a, “I don’t know.”

Sometimes the fault is mine. In those instances, I explain to the client that the more information they can share with me the better. This explanation is usually followed with a variation of the question, “How much information is too much?”

The question is fair enough considering that most people don’t realize just how much knowledge or information they know. With that question in mind, here are five tips for knowing which information you should share with your PR team.

• Product related information. If the knowledge you have is related directly to your product, you should share it with your PR team. This doesn’t just apply to the benefits and features of your product but also to the weaknesses or faults in a product. Your PR team can help you identify the right messages for both situations and coach you on how to best communicate these to the media.
• Industry trends. The media loves to know trends and be up on the latest and greatest developments. If you have industry knowledge or expertise about a specific trend in the marketplace, by all means share that with your PR team. This information will allow your PR representative to help establish you as a thought leader and industry expert.
• Time sensitive information. Chances are, if something is time sensitive it’s important to share with your PR team. I once worked with a client that would plan events, including press conferences and fail to notify me until the last minute. Shortly before the press conference date I’d get a series of calls telling me the date of the press conference, venue and other important details. Sometimes I’d find these details out by reading the clients Facebook page.
• Milestones. Milestones and significant achievements are often newsworthy and can be used to show the media that the company is progressing and growing. Sometimes people don’t want to brag, but sharing this information is helpful and demonstrates progress.
• Product/company road map. Every business has or should have a roadmap for their company and or product. This is information that should definitely be shared with your PR team. A good PR person will use this to help shape the PR strategy moving forward and can tell you which elements are newsworthy and can be utilized to generate interviews and media coverage.

So often I see clients say something like, “I knew that” or see an article that applies to their industry and they try to or want to say, “Me too.” By this time it’s too late, unless you can add something that ‘s unique or different you’ll end up being that person that’s always saying, “Me too, me too.” By sharing your expertise and knowledge you can lead the way and have competitors or others in the marketplace saying, “Me too,” to the things you’re doing.