Making your PR work harder, Part 2

It may seem like an obvious point, but…

I recall when working as a business editor on daily newspapers and industry magazines that amongst the plethora of PR submitted for consideration on News and Feature editorials, much of it was sub-standard: too fluffy, no news value, poor angles, too much selling, not relevant to the readerships, awful images, or no accompanying images…to name but a few of the common errors in basic media relations.

You might think that these errors came from untrained, hopeful business owners or marketing directors? No. I am reffering to PR delivered by ‘professionals’ on behalf of clients. Clients who were being mis-sold the promise of effective PR to the Press.

When I use the phrase Press, I mean editors working online, offline and in any media medium which readerships might visit: let’s face it, the days of newspaper dominance are long gone, and any PR who is not advocating to clients utilising a mix of digital PR in their media relations efforts is seriously mis-representing any client in the UK today.

So, to make your PR work harder – as well as introducing SEO copy into your quotes for online PR submissions, also consider the following: industry forums, commentary opportunities on relevant newsfeeds, search engine keywords into your press releases for posting on your blog and online within your networks where relevant. In short, utilise the web. It works if you work it!