3 Ways PR Can Improve How They Work With Media

As an organization embarks on its journey from one employee to having a team around the globe there will be moments of highs and lows.  Stories about the highs and lows of your company will usually make their way onto the pages (or screens) of a media outlet, sometimes they are brought to attention by a public relations person who pitches it, other times the outlet might receive  tip.

Public Relations are guardians of the brand

As a public relations person part of your role is to ensure your brand (or brand that you represent as their agency) is covered fairly and in a positive light in the media.   The last thing that you want is for your brand to be part of have a negative story so bad that you have to bring in a crisis communications team to fix the backlash.

There are many tools in the market that can help with media monitoring, however on thing no tool can do – no tool can replace the human element. The most basic part of the public relations industry is the relationship between media and public relations.

Here are 3 ways that you can ensure you have a positive relationship with media:

• Build A Relationship – Send an email or pick up the phone. One on one communications will ALWAYS trump a social media rant. It demonstrates a level of professionalism among your peers, competitors and customers.
• Be Authentic, Be Accountable – The days of “no comment” are long gone, there simply is no point hiding behind questions from the media. If there is even one part of a story that is correct – own up to it, use it as a starting point to work with media to add your side /the positive aspect of the story.  Steve Pearlstein shares some interesting points on how things have changed, and not for the better.
• Don’t Boast, Back Up –  If you are going to claim that your product is great, or your company is growing then give some quantifiable facts. Journalists don’t want puff pieces. According to this article there is still a perception that public relations is still full of spin stories.