How to Create Newsworthy PR
In today’s business world, Public Relations is made up of a handful of definitions. Investopedia defines PR as the “art of managing the spread of information about an individual or company, how it is disseminated to the public, and attempting to frame that information in a positive light”. While Entrepreneur.com says it is “using the news or business press to carry positive stories about your company or your products; cultivating a good relationship with local press representatives.”
Really, let’s just simply put Public Relation as your way to build awareness, credibility and better reputation. Through effective PR efforts, you are able to send out your stories, gain more supporters and expand your reach within your targeted community because you are using different media channels and platforms.
Unlike marketing where the focus is to promote your products, Public Relation is about communicating the goodwill of your company to your consumers. It could be any method that reaches the audience. An event, a social network paid “post” and even blogging can be considered as PRs.
Most PR networks determine which stories they would distribute. Big magazines and TV stations hand pick only the best stories for publishing. As for you, you want your PR material to be newsworthy so it’s easier to pitch it.
What makes PR material newsworthy?
First, is it has to have a significant impact to your target audience. The subject matter has to catch the interest of a large number of people who you consider as your future potential customers. The bigger the target audience is, the broader the impact of the story and the more newsworthy the story becomes.
If you are a business targeting local audience, you may consider local community channels as they are likely to publish stories centralized within the specific demographic. Of course, as always, be timely when you pitch your story. If a newsworthy story happens today, the PR has to get out there at the earliest possible time. Timeliness is applied wherever you intend to pitch your PR materials whether it may be on local channels, the national TV or for international reach.
Consider getting PR for having “prominent” people in your event. Is the local mayor attending? A popular DJ to host the event? Or did your company win a special award from the national government? Events like these is newsworthy material.
The bizarreness or oddity of an event can also be use for your Public Relation efforts. Think of something unique and correlate it with a story about your company or your brand. The National No Bra Day for instance is a loud bang among news channels for its uniqueness. Although it evokes controversies, The National No Bra Day is able to do its job to capture people’s attention for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month every October. Just remember the three key U’s when using oddity as a part of your PR material: Unexpected, Unusual, Unorthodox.
Anything that draws the human interest is also PR-worthy. The story of a dog saving his “human”, yes, that’s definitely a tearjerker. The man who successfully climbed Everest even with just one limb — that’s a great inspiration. Anything that touches the audience heart can be used as good PR material as long as you are able to relate the main message of the story to your brand or business.
Before you start your PR campaigns . . .
When building effective PRs’, it’s important to analyze the following factors:
- target audience
- the message you want to convey
- the kind of stories that replicates your business or brand’s cause
- industry trends you can join in
- the solution you bring to solve a problem
- the interesting discussion you can create around community
Before anything else, think of Public Relations as a ticket to good publicity. Once you put a PR campaign out there, all channels can possibly distribute it across your targeted community so every effort has to be newsworthy.