Follow Up Is Key

Don't call me after you send me a press release. If I'm interested, I'll cover your news.

In PR, we hear this all the time. Many panelists at "Working With The Media" seminars will grumpily and firmly dispense that advice. No follow up. Period.

It's the wrong advice.

It may make life easier for the media, but it won't get you results.

The right advice would be "don't call me just to ask if I got your press release."

It's surprising how many PR people do just that.

Rookie mistake.

PR is about relationships. A relationship means regular contact between people. If you're doing your job right and you've sent out a press release, the next natural step is to touch base with your media friends and chat about what they're working on. You may find that they volunteer that they've received your press release and they even ask for more information.

If they don't volunteer that tidbit, think about how the focus of your release might serve that writer's current needs. If it doesn't, eventually move on to what you've been working on and ask if it is a fit for them currently.

The logical flow of the conversation should lead to asking if they "received the info I sent you on that a while back.” If they haven't seen it, offer to send it again.

This approach is organic. It feels natural. You're not checking up on the writer — you're touching base with them. And you're showing interest in what that writer is working on. You'll be more successful if you remember that it's not all about your press release. It's about two people helping each other to spread news.

Most press releases are sent via email today. Emails can get buried or diverted into spam folders. So, you can't assume that your press release has even been seen. But there's a way to approach the media about your news that's helpful to the writer — and can ultimately net you the coverage you want.

PR is all about relationships. Successful PR pros know that it's never about “hey, did you receive my press release?”

BP, What Are You Thinking?

BP has a PR disaster of mammoth proportions on its hands with the actual oil spill.

So why do they continue to soil their image even more with insensitive remarks from the highest level of the company? Maybe both the BP CEO and the Chairman need a little PR 101.

Both have made public statements that are clear PR blunders. This is like pouring salt into an open wound of a public disaster. And that sticks in the crawl of all the people who are suffering out there. Even worse, they've given the media some pretty pithy sound bites to play over and over.

Even a student in PR 101 should know not to say this:

I want my life back, whined a weary Tony Hayward, BP's CEO. Well, yeah Tony. And so do the millions of people whose lives are now on hold, not to mention the sea animals who have and will lose their lives thanks to the tragedy.

We care about the small people, said BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, by way of explaining that BP is not just a greedy company that doesn't care. Okay, to be fair, we all know what he really meant and there's that pesky language barrier that made him apologize later for speaking clumsily. But a company like BP should have access to some of the top media trainers in the business. Where are they and why are BP officials speaking publicly without them?

The PR gaffes are a little breeze in the midst of the oil-spill tempest and, if BP makes good on its promises to restore the health and well-being of that which it has damaged, all just could be forgotten. But then again, video shot today can have an extrordinarily long shelf life. Can you say YouTube?

Make Social Media Your Hub But Keep The Spokes

Online communication is the new darling of PR. Done well, social media programs are especially efficient and effective — and platforms like Facebook make it easy to do analysis of your efforts.

The best online communication programs are integrated with other PR tools. By using multiple channels – including social media – to communicate your message, you can stretch your PR dollar and your reach.

Think of social media and your Web presence as the hub of a wheel. Other PR tools lead into that hub and reach out from that hub. They include a solid press kit, newsworthy press releases targeted to the right media, features you write and provide to media, the leveraging of national trends, any events or awards you receive, relationships with media leading to emerging editorial opportunities and connections to key bloggers.

The hub is the key part of the wheel, but it needs the spokes to be fully functional. 

Integrate all these PR tools and you'll get the most bang for your PR buck.