The Changing Ways of Public Relations
I recently had a discussion with a principal of a successful Twin Cities public relations agency regarding PR and the internet. Words like “Search Engine Optimization” and “online video content,” seemed to confuse this highly successful executive leading this person to immediately confess that they doesn’t get involved with those things. Technology was not an area in which this person felt comfortable and language such as this were not part of the agency’s lexicon. I left the conversation feeling that if we, public/media relations professionals, are not actively trying to help our clients reach their customers on the world wide web we are doing them a tremendous disservice.
Let’s face it. Print and broadcast journalism is changing dramatically. Have you noticed how many newspapers now have video content on their websites? Have you noticed how many television stations provide viewers the opportunity to watch portions of their newscast on their own websites? There once was a prevailing belief among some news directors that “we don’t want to send people to our website to watch the news, because then they may not watch our early or late evening newscasts.” Well guess what? They’re not watching those shows anymore. At least not like they used to watch them.
That brings me to this: How do you find information about the things in which you’re interested? Pick up the phone book? An encyclopedia? Wait for the late evening news? No. In almost every instance, those of us who are under the age of 50, we go straight to the internet (this is not to say those of you over 50 don’t do the same, but for a few folks, the internet is still a strange place). And when you get there, what do you want to see, an advertisement? On the contrary, typically we want information. Show me something, teach me something, give me a reason to engage with your business or organization. Provide a compelling reason to come in and see you or visit your organization.
For years, this is what public/media relations has done. On behalf of our clients, we’ve tried to cast the biggest net possible, to reach the largest audience possible through the media. What’s more we’ve used that opportunity to help communicate our client’s story, their event, their new product. We’ve tried to help educate the audience and motivate them to buy our client’s products, or support their organization. But with fewer and fewer people consistently turning to those traditional sources of information, don’t we owe it to our clients to find innovative ways to reach their target market? Isn’t the internet that space?
We’re all trying to figure out the best way to do this. Is it online news releases? Facebook? Linkedin? Twitter? Can we take control of our communication and send out our own “interview segments” by putting video on our websites that tell our story? Does it work? Is it cost effective? Personally, I would say yes to all of the above.
Does anyone have all the answers to these questions today? No, but is it not our job to open our minds to the possibilities? By shutting down and saying it’s “too much for me,” are we not saying to our clients, “hey, I’d do it, but I just don’t really get it and I don’t really want to take the time to learn?” We owe it to our clients to deliver the most powerful methods of communicating their story no matter how scary or daunting the task may appear.
Ed Heil is the owner and president of StoryTeller Media & Communications an inbound marketing and public relations agency and video production company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Ed blogs on topics related to inbound marketing, social media, media relations, news media, video production and crisis communications.
No comments yet.