Great PR Is Great Storytelling: Eight Ways to Boost Your Organization's Visibility Through PR Power Right Now Robb Deigh
Aug 29, 2014
Great PR Is Great Storytelling:
Eight Ways to Boost Your Organization's Visibility Through
PR Power Right Now
Robb Deigh
Purpose of this Presentation: Provide practical, cost-
effective ideas you can use NOW to boost the visibility of your clients’ organizations; and your organization, its services and products.
What We’ll Cover
• Messages: The Secret of Everything in PR• Effective Storytelling• Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning• Personalizing Your Outreach• Write Once: Re-purpose Everything• Social Media: Don’t Use Every Tool• Champions: We Work For Free and We Love It• ROI: Is Your PR Working?
Messages: The Secret to Everything
What are Messages? • Language that says, “Here is what I can do
for you.”
• A powerful tool that unifies and focuses your organization’s formal and informal communication
Messages: The Secret to Everything
Building Messages the Easy Way
The 4-Part Messaging Document1. The “About Us” paragraph2. The elevator speech3. The “must-say” messages4. Everything else
Messages: The Secret to Everything
The “About Us” Paragraph
List all of your attributes and use them to write a 250-word paragraph that says “Here is what we are and here is what we can do for you.”
Messages: The Secret to Everything
About "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" One anchor, five correspondents, zero credibility. If you're tired of the stodginess
of the evening newscasts and you can't bear to sit through the spinmeisters and shills on the 24-hour cable news network, don't miss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the nightly half-hour series unburdened by objectivity, journalistic integrity or even accuracy.
Messages: The Secret to EverythingMessage Doc Part 2: Elevator Speech
• “We help clients win federal business.” -- a defense contractor
• “We know this area better than anyone.” – a Realtor®
• “We rob banks” – Bonnie and Clyde
• “I can see Russia from my house” – Tina Fey
Messages: The Secret to Everything“Must-Say Messages” – the most important
element of your messages.
• 4-5 facts that you want your audiences to remember.
• The only reason to do a media interview• The ultimate answers to all media questions
Messages: The Secret to Everything(must-say messages for a technology company)
• We create custom software for law enforcement. More than 300 police departments use our products.
• Our system help police process evidence data 60% faster than any other product.
• Our clients have, on average, a 35% higher success rate than other agencies.
• Each member of our senior team has, on average, more than 20 years of experience in law enforcement.
Messages: The Secret to Everything
What Are Your Must-Say Messages?
Effective StorytellingEffective storytelling is essential to all communication,
including
• Public/Media Relations • Marketing• Advertising • Sales• Fiction and non-fiction writing, film, etc• Music, dance and other performing arts• Graphic and fine arts
Effective Storytelling
• All stories are ultimately about people• All people have a story• Be anecdotal as well as data-driven• Incorporate your messages into your story
“Man Proposes, God Disposes”- Sir Edwin Landseer,1877
Collection the of University of London, Royal Holloway
Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning
What is effective pitching?
• The most important skill that anyone who deals with the press can have
• The ability to visualize a great story idea, describe it in a compelling way and provide 1or 2 expert sources of information to the right reporter at the right time
Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning
A press interview is like any other business transaction. Each side has something the other wants and is willing to exchange it for something of equal value.
• You have a possible story for the reporter.• The reporter can give you visibility.
Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning
Flacking = Laziness (pitching things instead of good story ideas)
Spinning = “all truth is relative…” the beginning of the end of your reputation
Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning
• Reporters do NOT care about:• Our businesses• Our products• Our services
Pitching Press Without Flacking or Spinning
Reporters DO care about:• Great story ideas about our businesses• Great story ideas about our products• Great story ideas about our services
Ways to Create Story Ideas that Will Get Press Coverage
1) Identify trends2) Read publications that others miss3) Note a "First in a Series" article4) Report results of a timely survey
Ways to Create Story Ideas that Will Get Press Coverage
5) Spotlight avocations of newsworthy people 6) Write a column yourself 8) Send news releases (a tactic, not a strategy)
Personalizing Your Outreach for Maximum Impact
Make an Emotional Connection
Personalizing Your Outreach for Maximum Impact
Help your audiences visualize the benefits you can provide. People respond to the following needs:
1. Business/mission: help them meet their goals2. Social life/lifestyle: make their lives more enjoyable 3. Beliefs: provide a “place,” physical or virtual, where
they can express their opinions.
Personalizing Your Outreach for Maximum Impact
4. Reputation: help enhance or protect their reputations
5. Identity: help them connect with other who share similar (or completely different) ethnic, racial, religious, geographic or other traits
6. Altruism: help them to help others and feel good about themselves?
7. Fantasy/Escape: help them get away from the mundane and routine, at least temporarily?
Personalizing Your Outreach for Maximum Impact
• Humanize your outreach! – Be anecdotal – Case studies that describe how your team
helped clients– Photos of your team on your Web site– Involve clients in your storytelling; give them
visibility
Write Once: Re-purpose Everything
How to create “new” communication materials the easy way
Write Once : Re-purpose Everything
Write a column yourself. Somewhere in your organization are written materials you can cut to 800 words and submit as an Op-Ed or "expert" column to a trade publication or local business journal. Buy reprints and add them to your sales and marketing materials.
Write Once : Re-purpose Everything
Other sources of good written material you can use: • Speeches and other presentations• Booklets and other marketing materials• Case studies• Award applications, • Results of a poll or other study
Write Once : Re-purpose Everything
• Edit it into: – A column for the Washington Business Journal– A byline piece for your industry’s trade journal– Articles for the web (more about that later)– Items for your e-newsletter, Web site– Handouts
Social Media: Don’t Use Every Tool in the Shed
Blogs, e-newsletters, Twitter, article marketing, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Friendfeed, podcasting, wikis, Plaxo, RSS feeds, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr, Technorati, SecondLife, mobilemarketing
Social Media: Don’t Use Every Tool in the Shed
Before you use Web 2.0 tools put your basic communication tools in order: • Messages• Research• Media outreach• Marketing/press materials• Story pitch ideas• Networking• Web site (Web 1.0)
Social Media: Don’t Use Every Tool in the Shed
Article Marketing:
The placement of short articles on topic-specific Web sites that
are looking for good content.
Social Media: Don’t Use Every Tool in the Shed
Free:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.articlebiz.com
Fee-based:submityourarticle.com
articlemarketer.com
Champions: We Work For Free and We Love It
• Champions: “people who love your company, products or services, may have no vested interest, but who want to see you succeed.”
• How to recruit? Just ask! Few people do.
Champions: We Work For Free and We Love It
1. Speak with reporters on your behalf2. Write testimonials 3. Put their byline on an article4. Brag about you to prospects5. Serve on an advisory committee.6. Mention your org. in presentations
Champions: We Work For Free and We Love It
• Customers• Former customers• Board members• Trade association
members• Employees• Former employees
• Vendors• Partners• Investors• Friends• Family
members
ROI: How to Know Whether Your PR is Working
• Number of TV, Radio, Internet appearances?
• Stack of media clips?• Advertising equivalent of clips?• Sales are up on the day of your big
announcement?
ROI: How to Know Whether Your PR is Working
Quantity vs. Quality• Are your most important messages
found in that stack of press clips, TV/radio interviews, product reviews, testimonials, industry survey results, customer blogs?
ROI: How to Know Whether Your PR is Working
Other Indicators That Your PR May Be Working:
• You get more press calls. • Questions from reporters indicate they know more about
your organization.• Press pitches succeed more often • Your press releases are picked up more often• Members of your team are quoted more frequently
Summary:How to Boost Your Organization's Visibility
Through PR Power
• First, get your messages together• Be an effective storyteller• Personalize: “Here is what I can do for you.”• Don’t write. Re-write.• Start with 1 or 2 Web 2.0 tools• Recruit champions• Your PR ROI: Are your messages out there?
Great PR Is Great Storytelling:
Eight Ways to Boost Your Organization's Visibility Through
PR Power Right NowRobb Deigh
703-401-6339