PR - Public Relations

Module 1: PR 101: Public Relations and Human Relations

1.1 Introduction to Public Relations

1.2 Making Friends vs. Making Contacts

1.3 Connecting with Journalists

Intended Learning Outcomes

 To learn about what public relations is

 To learn about the different between public relations and human relations
 To understand why traditional public relations methods are hard to use in modern
media
 To learn about “new media”
 To understand the implications of “earned” media
 To learn the benefits of using a Human Relations approach in PR
 To understand what it means to make contacts
 To understand why it is more helpful to make friends
 To learn when to develop relationships with writers
 To understand to initiate contact with writers
 To learn how to develop relationships with writers
 To learn best practices in working writers, bloggers and other influencers

1.1 Introduction to Public Relations

What is PR?

Public relations is what is referred to as the way the groups present themselves to and
communicate with the media.

Someone who works in public relations works to communicate with both the public and with
the media.

Generally, they work to make sure that the organization’s representation remains intact.
Good public relations specialists will be able to create a positive image of the company as
well as build a trusting relationship with a target audience.

PR is press that an organization doesn’t pay for. This is what makes it different from
marketing and advertising.

This definition of PR is broad and vague. It also isn’t very helpful.

This is because the media as it is known today would not be recognizable to people who
lived and worked by this definition. The media today is everywhere. It just not just include
journalists anymore. Today, the media is dominated by influencers. In addition to established
journalists, bloggers and online personalities can now get the word out faster, and with more
force, than ever before.

The media is also everywhere. It is print, television and Internet. It is on devices that we
keep in our pockets and under pillows. It is even on devices that we wear. Understanding
this is important to understanding what PR is and what it does. The world has moved beyond
breaking news. It now looks towards viral news.

“Earned” Media

PR is all about “earned” media. This is press that the company does not “pay for.” In an ideal
world, journalists, bloggers and enthusiasts are happy to print positive stories about the
organization you represent. This is because these stories are relevant to the publication’s
readers. The more relevant and engaging stories that the publication produces, the more
money it will make from subscripts and advertising.

But of course, even if you aren’t buying billboards, this “earned” media doesn’t come free. It
will usually cost you a lot of money to earn “earned” media. This will be discussed later in
the course.

But remember that “earned” media is a double edged sword. In the best of times, a positive
reputation, a disruptive strategy and a great product will earn an organization air time or
press.

But companies can earn their media by being bad as well. If there is scandal, you can
consider that to be earned media as well. Chances are, you will not need to work so hard to
gather press attention if your company has been caught in a compromising position.

What brings these two things together is that regardless of the nature of the press, it is
always carefully controlled by PR specialists.

Understanding the “new media” is important for mastering the art of PR today. Since the
new media offers instant access to dozens, or even hundreds of resources, at the touch of
a button. This content is available on demand. New media includes online newspapers,
wikis, blogs and, of course, social media.

Journalism doesn’t “go to press” anymore. Now, it requires that you hit send. It has lost the
formalities and professional language that it once held on to. These things live on in old
media magazines, nightly news programs and PBS documentaries. But on the Internet, the
tone has switched to be informative but human.

This tone is carried over into the way PR specialists approach the media. In a world of so
much access to so much information, PR needs to offer informative and human relationships
and content.

Before the “new media”, PR specialists would open their rolodexes and dial for dollars.
They’d send out their press kits to everyone they could connect with. That is not how new
media works. New media, and the new PR, is all about relationships.
1.2 Making Friends vs. Making Contacts

Today, the term “public relations” does not fit the job description. PR today is less about
public relations and more about human relations.

What is the difference between public relations and human relations?

Both of these ideas include relationship is building. But that is where the similarities end.

PR is all about shaping the public image. It means remaining in control of the narrative at all
costs. PR is well-planned, carefully controlled and targets a faceless demographic that the
organization wants to sell its products to.

Human relations takes what PR offers and builds on it. This is what makes it much more
effective.

Human relations go beyond the faceless masses of data and KPIs. Instead, PR specialists
who focus on human relations create meaningful relationships between the organization and
its audience. These relationships provide more brand loyalty and last longer than the
relationships created by PR.

Unlike other relationships, human relationships are not ephemeral. They are based on a
personal connection that is carefully curated by the brand.

How did human relations come to be?

Human relations is undoubtedly a product of new media. Without influencers, bloggers and
social media, creating these relationships would be next to impossible. Human relations and
new media go hand-in-hand. They go together to ensure each other’s success.

Why? Because to stand out in a world that offers so much information, you now need to
really grab people. The way that you reach people is emotionally. Why else would videos of
kittens have so many views? Because they tug at your heart strings.

Adopting this mindset is essential for succeeding the media today. This is because social
media is so incredibly personal. People share births, deaths, marriages, divorces and what
they had for dinner on social media. While this is considered to be data by big businesses,
the average person sees it as their life. They want you to see it that way, too. They share
the most intimate aspects of their lives online. In order to interact with them successfully,
public relations specialists have to do the same.

Here is where the value of the human relations mindset comes in. The more you give in the
media, the more you get back from it. From SEO on Google to visibility on Facebook, public
relations needs to now create engaging, valuable content in order to be seen and heard by
an audience.

This shift has changed the way that PR has done immeasurably. You can see this in the
way that social media is run.
Before social media, people referred to the list of people in their list of acquaintances as
contacts. Enter Facebook and now, all of those names are friends. This may sound like a
minor change in vocabulary. It is representative of the way that the media and the world has
changed.

You can see it in the way people talk, work, play and date. Being online no longer takes the
humanity out of daily interactions.

In today’s world, PR specialists are not out to make contacts. It’s not about making
connections, either. It’s all about making friends.

When you think about it, it makes sense. Who would you rather tell your amazing news to?
Your contact or your friend?

Chances are, you’d rather tell it to your friend. Hence, PR has moved away from blanket
pitch emails and cold calls. These things lack the authenticity that the world is so desperately
struggling to find online. Sending out impersonal emails today actually suggests that you’re
desperate for media coverage. Desperation is not attractive to the press or anyone else.

These cookie cutter pitches of the past are now more like spam than business opportunities.
Journalists can spot spam a mile away and some are so good at picking out relevant news
that they won’t even bother to open your email unless they have a good reason. That good
reason may be a working friendship.

Investing your time in building relationships, and making friends, is essential for making in
the new media and in the new PR. Although everyone starts out as a contact, those contacts
need to evolve into friends if you will be useful to each other.

When you make friends, and not contacts, you are making an investment in your business
that will pay off in the long run.

A friend will not struggle to remember who you are. They will know that if you’re contacting
them, you have good information to offer that can boost their career as well as your own.
They will give you real feedback in good time, rather than blowing off your emails or sending
them straight to junk.

A friend can also pass you on to other friends who could benefit from your information. You
might give each other favors and help each other out when one of you is struggling to make
it work on the job. A friendly working relationship provides so many benefits that you simply
cannot get from strangers.

Now that you understand why you should be making friends, it is important to learn how to
do so.

Making friends with the media isn’t like making friends in social situations. The best way to
do this is with small steps. Because you have to build relationships slowly, you should start
well before you need them.
This all goes back to knowing where the well is before you get thirsty. You should work on
building your relationships first. After they’re established, you can ask favors. It will be a lot
easier to take this approach than to run around worrying to satisfy your needs immediately.

Let’s put this into a real world context.

You wouldn’t just sit down next to someone, introduce yourself and then ask to have half of
a person’s lunch. You shouldn’t approach them and make it clear that you are after their
lunch. You need to take baby steps. You need to start by inserting yourself on their radar.

If you’re working on a PR team at a startup, you won’t need huge media contacts right away.
In fact, you won’t need them until the moment is right at launch time. You can’t start using
press pre-maturely or you’ll actually damage your image.

So to get going, you have to reach out. Thankfully, this isn’t too hard now. You can follow
them on Twitter and reply to their Tweets. You can also comment on articles that they have
published online. Just make sure your first encounter is insightful and professional. These
two things alone can leave a good impression online.

If you’re not sure how to strike up professional friendships with someone, you can run
yourself through this exercise.

You are in your favorite coffee shop. Everything is comfortable because you know the place
well. You’re on first name terms with the barista and you have a regular drink. One day,
you’re taking a moment to enjoy your morning coffee when you spot someone you’ve always
wanted to meet in the corner.

It’s a public place. They’re not hiding. It is totally appropriate to go up and introduce yourself.
But what do you say?

Role playing this scenario is a great way to train yourself to introduce yourself to media. On
the Internet, you’re in public. But you’re still in a familiar place because you’re behind your
computer and your profile. The person you want to meet has made themselves publically
available by posting publically online. But you still need to introduce yourself with dignity
because even though the situation is right, that first impression is crucial in determining the
rest of the relationship.

When you’re building new relationships, there are a few tips that you should follow.

Make your introduction brief yet impactful. Give your name and your position and state what
that means to your organization and to them in the media. They need to know why you’re
introducing yourself and why you should matter to them.

Secondly, you need to be real. A genuine introduction gets you further in person and online.
You should demonstrate that you have an interest in their work. But don’t reveal that you
liked the page that their aunt made for her cat. That is creepy, even if the page is hilarious.

Finally, you always need to listen. If the media contact is not interested in working with you,
then they aren’t interested in working with you. Remember, you’re in public relations. You
can’t make people want to be your friend! That almost never works out. Plus, it damages the
organization you represent. If their publicist can’t get it together; why would the press think
that the brand is any different?

1.3 Connecting with Journalists

In the last section, you learned about basic ways to introduce yourself to journalists. Using
these methods of get off the ground when introducing to journalists will help you get further.

But before you start that introduction, you need to learn more about what it means to connect
with journalists.

The whole process starts on your end. It begins with a lot of research about the kind of
journalists and influencers that you need to get in touch with.

Even if you’re using a personal method of getting in touch, connecting with journalists who
are not within your niche will not help you because they still will not want to write your story.
It won’t make sense to them, even if they like you as a person.

First, you need to identify the right writers for your goals and for your niche. If you are
representing a finance startup, you will be looking to finance writers and startup writers. If
you’re a lifestyle business, you’ll be looking to those who cover lifestyle pieces.

Introducing yourself as a tech startup PR specialist to a fashion and beauty blogger will get
you nowhere. In fact, it will be pretty weird for everyone involved. Unless you’re working in
their niche, do not worry about them. The number one rule in finding journalists is quality
over quantity. If they wouldn’t write a great piece that targets your audience, don’t cultivate
a relationship with them!

You can find these journalists by reading the publications that you would like to be published
in. You can use RSS feeds and Google Alerts to find pieces that relate to your area and find
the writers that created them.

It would serve you well to read some of their work as well. This is a great way to confirm that
they are a good fit. It will also help you connect with them because they will be able to tell
right away that you didn’t just pick their name after the list. The introduction will be more
personal!

After you have sourced your journalists, you can begin the processes discussed earlier and
begin reaching out to them through small meaningful steps. Sharing their stories, adding
insightful comments and discussion and following their social media are, again, great ways
to do this.

The hard part begins when you need to begin reaching out to them to start working on the
relationship.

This is always tricky because you do not want to ask for too much too soon. However, there
are things that you can do to soften that first pitch.

You need to put yourself in the writer’s shoes.

Writers are busy people. You will probably find that the majority of people that you work with
consider themselves to be overworked, underpaid and constantly afraid of losing their job to
someone at Buzzfeed. So don’t send them invitations to meet up, hang out or get drinks
sometime. Unless you’re some kind of Edward Snowden, with rare and stolen information,
they won’t bite.

Instead, start a conversation with them. You should ask the about what they are currently
writing. You could also ask them what kind of stories they are looking for and if they are
currently swamped with strict deadlines. A conversation is a great way forward. If you just
talk at someone, they’ll probably find you to be too much and kind of annoying.

So, when you get the go ahead from the writer that they are interested in you AND your
story, you need to send it in a format that they can use.

Pitching your story in a media friendly format is essential because it shows respect for their
profession. You cannot send the same kits to every single person. This goes back to that
annoying cookie cutter pitch email. Nobody likes them. They feel like spam. And they are a
waste of time. As noted before, writers rarely have the time to dig through pages of
information just to hope that they, maybe, have a story. You’ll learn more about creating
media friendly releases in the coming modules.

The respect demonstrated by creating media friendly, tailored pitches is the beginning of a
great relationship if you follow it up with being a reliable source.

Your reliability will be your biggest asset once you get your foot in the door. Reliability comes
in several packages.

First, you need to be img-fluid. That means that you need to answer their emails quickly and
efficiently. Again, writers work on deadlines. They don’t want to miss their deadlines because
you took two days to answer an email. If you can’t respond promptly, all that work that you
did will be for nothing because they will dump you as a reliable source.

This reliability also means that you need to be a good resource of information. When work
is slow with your clients, you can point the writer in the direction of PR friends of yours. You
can also point them in the direction of other stories that you know of and aren’t involved in
but think that they might find interesting. If you can demonstrate that you are willing to help,
even when it’s not to your benefit, you can cement yourself as an excellent resource for
writers.

This section has talked a lot about having respect for writers, journalism and the media. This
is because respect is important in any relationship. It is not meant to make the media sound
like an all-powerful presence that should be feared.

One of the best things that you can learn to do as a PR specialist is not to be afraid of
anyone. You should treat everyone as equals because after all they are just people. Whether
you are pitching Wolf Blitzer at CNN or the editor of Glamour magazine, you’re pitching to a
real life person. There’s no reason to be afraid of them or their position.

Unless, you’ve found yourself emailing Anna Wintour. You’re only human if you’re a little
nervous to be speaking to the infamous editor of Vogue.
Recognizing your writers as people goes a long way with building a relationship. Even if
you’re not actively sending out pitches for stories, ask people you’re working with how they’re
doing every once in a while. It will be nice for them to see that you care and that you’re not
just using them for their page views.

Module 2: Creating a PR Strategy

2.1 What a PR Strategy Is & Why You Need One?

2.2 Research

2.3 Setting Goals

2.4 Speaking to Your Audience

2.5 Finding and Using the Right Channels

2.6 Measuring Your Results

Intended Learning Outcomes

 To learn what a PR strategy is

 To understand why having a PR strategy is important
 To learn the different steps to creating a solid PR strategy
 To learn about the research step of creating a PR strategy
 To learn about setting goals for a strategy
 To learn how to set attainable and relevant goals that can be met
 To learn how to speak to the right audience
 To learn how to create key brand messages for the right audience
 To learn how to discover the appropriate channels for your strategy
 To learn how to use the right channels for your strategy
 To understand the importance of measuring the results of a PR campaign
 To learn how to measure the results of a campaign

2.1 What a PR Strategy Is & Why You Need One?

From the outside, PR looks relatively simple.

Write a press release. Send it to writers. Wash, rinse and repeat.

But that is not the kind of action that will get you, or your client, any positive press or any air
time. There are only so many pages in a newspaper, only so many minutes in a television
program and only so many times a day that a writer can Tweet before they are labeled
“annoying.”

There is also plenty of competition out there for the media’s time and attention. You’re not
the only one pitching stories. Writers get an inbox full of stories every day.

So how do you break through all the noise and get your story heard?
By creating a solid PR strategy that helps set you above your competition.

PR strategy is how you organize all of your public relations activities. It will include all of
the different tactics that you actively use to get your client out there. Your strategy includes
not only what you pitch to the media but how you pitch it and who you pitch it to. Having a
strategy helps you make better decisions so that you can find the best way to communicate
your store and build your media presence.

Goals

Your PR strategy has several components that have to be known and stated before you can
begin to use develop it. First, you need to know the ultimate goal of your PR work. What do
you want to achieve by working with the press? The more distinct this goal is, the better.

You cannot simply say, “I want people to know my company’s story.” This kind of goal is
vague, hard to measure and difficult to achieve. You need to choose goals that stand out
and have a specific and measurable outcome so that you know when you achieved it.

Target Audience

You also need to know your target audience. The target audience will be the group that will
be in genuine need of the product or service that your client sells. They are the ones who
have the problems that your client is trying to solve. When you know your target audience,
you can begin to develop your key messages.

Key Messages

The key messages that you use in your PR strategy will be the main takeaways for your
product or your campaign. These will be the messages that you need your target audience
to remember. Some of your key messages will be in written communication. Some of them
will be in spoken communication. Some will be some important that they will permeate all of
your communication.

Methods

Your strategy also needs to include that tactics that you are going to use to get your key
messages to your target audience.

The methods you use will vary depending on the client, the campaign and your audience. It
is important to choose a method that will reach your audience. For example, you might
reach millennials through a social media campaign. You might reach baby boomers through
printed publications.

Schedule

As with any goal, you need to have a completion date and a calendar. Your schedule will
include when the PR strategy begins, when it finishes and the activities that you will complete
in between. The schedule is more commonly known as a PR calendar. You will learn how
to develop a media calendar in Module 3.
Find Your Measurement Tools

Determining what you will measure and how you will measure it is an integral part of your
strategy. If you can’t measure your progress, how do you know if you have succeeded? You
will learn more about the tools that you can use to measure your PR goals in Module 3.

Why do you need a PR strategy?

Your PR strategy is there to help keep you organized and on track. There are a lot of
components that go into public relations. From press releases to press conferences, it is
important to have a solid strategy to make sure that all of your efforts work together to create
an astounding brand presence or product launch for your client. Like anything in life, good
organization can be the key to success.

When you have an expressed strategy, you are able to learn what went right and what went
wrong. Then, you can continue to work on your strategy to improve it every time that you
run it.

When everything is written down and established, it will be a lot easier to pinpoint both
positive and negative milestones when you know when they happened.

2.2 Research

The first step in creating a PR plan is research.

Research is essential in PR because you need to make sure that what you are going out
to say has not already been said by someone else.

The first part of research will be with the media outlets themselves. When you are
researching, you will want to make yourself away for the discussions that are already
happening in the press about both your client and your client’s competitors. This keeps you
on top of what people already know about your client and what they think they know. This
research is essential when it comes to developing your story, which you will learn about later
in the course.

The research that you do will happen on two levels. First, the research needs to include the
macro-level. This monitoring will help you understand where your client already sits within
the wider industry landscape. You will then need to ask if this is in line with where the client
wants to be now and in the future.

The second level will be the micro-level. This means that you will be looking at the
conversation that is happening directly about your client. Is the current conversation good
or bad? Are people talking about the points you want them to focus on or have they picked
up on something that is not a part of your brand message? Getting to know what people
think specifically about your client will help you better tailor your strategy.

There are special media tools that you can use to monitor the current media landscape. You
will learn about these tools in the next module.
2.3 Setting Goals

After you have done your research, you will be better positioned to set goals for your
strategy. What do you want to accomplish? How do you want to change public or media
perception of your company? What kind of attention do you want to gather and where do
you want to gather it?

Goal setting is important not just in media campaigns but in any project that you undertake.
If you do not have a clear defined goal, why are you doing this project?

In terms of press, there is such a thing as too much press. If you struggle to find an end
goal for this campaign, writers are going to have a hard time publishing it. This is because
a lack of goals often suggests that you don’t have anything new or different to say. PR is not
the place to implement this kind of strategy. If your goals are just to continue to relay the
same messages that are already out there, that is a job for paid advertising.

The other reason that you need goals is that they act as a means to measure your
success. You can measure the general, over-all success of your PR campaign by whether
or not your met these goals. If you have met the goals, you can do further research to find
out why. If you didn’t meet these goals, you can go back to the beginning of your strategy
and see where you went wrong.

Setting Better Goals

The key to achieving your goals is not making them more attainable. It is about setting better
goals for yourself.

In order to set better goals, you should make sure that they fit into the SMART framework:

Specific: Goals need to be clear on all of the big questions. Included in your goals, you
need to answer who they pertain to, what they are about. It should also set up a timeframe
for when the goal should be accomplished. Finally, the goal needs to have a clear reason
as to why you have chosen the goal.

Measureable: You need to aim for concrete numbers. Rather than saying that you want to
raise awareness, you need to specify a number. For example, you want to raise awareness
by 40% within your current market.

Attainable: You don’t want to set goals that are out of reach. Setting targets that just will
not happen might inspire you to work harder but you will also have a lot of explaining to do
if you routinely break promises to your clients.

Relevant: Your goals should not just reflect the goals for your PR strategy. They should also
incorporate some of the company wide goals as well. This will help keep things flowing
seamlessly for the whole company.

Timely: You need to have a timeframe within to accomplish your goals. This timeframe
should usually include specific dates. You will want to have a timeframe in which to view
immediate success. You should also have a time frame to measure the results of your
strategy three months, six months and even a year after the launch of the strategy. This will
help you learn more about your PR strategy over time.

Setting the Right Number of Goals

Finally, you should keep the number of your goals limited.

It may seem like a good idea to do as much as you can with your PR strategy. However, the
best strategy will be tailored to a few specific goals. If you have too many objectives for your
campaign there are a few problems that can happen.

First, people tend to pick and choose the goals they want to reach. This usually includes the
easiest goals first. Your team might naturally gravitate towards completing the easier goals
while neglecting the more difficult or less interesting ones.

Also, you run the risk of focusing on quantity rather than quality. As you learned in the first
section, PR is no longer about throwing as many press releases into the air as you can and
making them stick. The same rule applies to goals. It is important to focus on completing a
goal well rather than barely scraping by with a number of goals.

When you choose only a few meaningful and relevant goals, your team and your clients
will thank you.

2.4 Speaking to Your Audience

The first two steps of the PR strategy creation process are pretty straightforward and simple.
Your research skills and goal setting skills can be managed in your own time without any
real risks involved.

But speaking to your audience, that’s where things get difficult. The third step of developing
your PR strategy is to nail down your key messages based upon your goals and your
research. It is the first two steps that prepare you to speak to your audience.

So how do you use the information that you already have to create your key messages?

First, you capture what people are talking about by creating a message that is newsworthy.
Your messages’ newsworthiness is important because without it, writers won’t write about it
because no one will read it.

Then, you begin to build these messages.

Building Key Messages

To get started in building your brand messages, you will start with your key terms. These
key terms are words that specifically represent the client that you are working for. These will
often be the key terms that have already been established by your client.

When you think about it, these key terms are incredibly important. What would German auto
engineering be without the words “efficiency” and “quality”?
To come up with these key terms, you need to use a combination of thoughts.

First, you need to come up with the customer perspective on your brand. What do they
think about when they think about your client or your client’s industry? What part of the
business matters to them? Make sure that you do not assume that you are both on the same
page. Ask them what they think directly. Their insight is valuable and should be heard.

Second, you need to think about the internal perspective. This perspective usually
translates as the brand’s promise. It is a combination of what makes the brand unique and
where the value of the brand is. Ask the client what they think are the key terms that
accurately represent their brand.

Finally, think about how the client’s competitors position themselves on the marketplace.
Look at how they describe themselves and see what works and where the weaknesses are.

Once you have all this data, you might consider making a Venn diagram with all of these
perspectives existing in different rings. Then, look at where these terms overlap. The
common terms are the ones you can use to build your messages.

Translating Terms into Messages

Once you have your terms, you can turn them into key messages.

It may be tempting to create lots of key messages. However, the essential part of creating
a key message is to really focus in on the thing that you must say.

It may be tempting for the company to want to portray themselves as being many things.
This is where you can help as a PR specialist. You are far enough away from the company
to put all of the different perspectives into balance.

Focus is essential because customers will mostly remember one thing about your client.
Thankfully, you get to help dictate what that thing is.

For example, Volvo is safe. Most customers associate Volvo with safety features. But is
Volvo nothing but sturdy seatbelt? No. Volvo also offers mid-range luxury vehicles, sport
vehicles and real engineering performance. Yet, for the customers, Volvo remains safe.

Is this a problem for Volvo? No. It is not a problem because the right brand message does
not put your company in a box. Instead, the right message acts more as a prism. It offers a
solid foundation for customers to remember the brand but simultaneously allows the rest of
the brand’s best attributes to be reflected at will.

Coming up with the Ultimate Message

The perfect key message to send to the media will have four key parts.

First, the messages need to appeal to both the emotional and rational side of the media
and the customers. The best messages connect with both the hearts of your customers and
their minds. If you’re looking for examples who have mastered this, look back to Volvo.
Safety is both a practical issue and an emotional one.

Second, people need to be able to believe your message. It should be convincing and
believable, and not clutching at straws.

Third, you need to maintain the balance of the three perspectives for your messages.
Your message needs to reflect the company’s vision of itself but it also needs to remain
relevant for the media and the customers.

Finally, the message needs to be simple. People need to get it the first time. A key message
repeated is a key message ruined. Like a joke, if you have to explain your key messages
then they are too complicated for your audience.

2.5 Finding and Using the Right Channels

Using the right channels in PR is essential for reaching your audience. But you won’t be
using the same channels every time you create a strategy for a new campaign.

Determining the right channels is up to you and your campaign goals.

A good rule of thumb is a diversification and not to throw all of your efforts into a single
channel. Although it may be tempting, relying solely on a social media approach will not
allow you to reach all of your customers. For the majority of your campaigns, you will want
to create a multi-faceted approach to channels. Within that approach, you can then throw
more weight on one particular channel over the other. However, this ensures that you will
avoid missing out on potential customers or opportunities.

One of the best parts of working within a new media world is that many of your channels will
now be working online, in print and through broadcast. This means that you have to
approach fewer people and it is easier to integrate all three channels into one approach.

Rather than approaching your channels by separating them into the categories of print and
digital, you might consider choosing your channels by separating them into three different
types of media. These three types of media include: earned media, owned media and
bought media.

Earned Media

You learned about earned media in the previous module. But in terms of potential channels,
it is worth to discuss the pros and cons of using this channel.

Earned media is usually mentions from writers and influencers that you did not pay for.
The benefits of this type of media are that it carries more credibility, can reach distinct, mass
audiences and provides a lot of new awareness.

The negatives that surround earned media are that you are at the mercy of the media’s
agenda. If you send them a great press release but missed another conflict in the news,
some writers might choose to use this press to their advantage instead to your advantage.
Also, you have to rely on newsworthiness. While you can impact this with the way that you
present your client, if the subject does not fit into the news or is trumped by something much
larger, there is little that you can do about this.

Owned Media

Owned media includes any media channels that the client owns. This might include social
media accounts, blogs, the client’s website or its publications.

The benefits of using owned media is that you can control the narrative and the content of
the message. This is great for highly technical or controversial media releases. It is also
authoritative. People will believe it because it is not speculation; it came straight from the
source.

But there are difficult parts of using owned media. The reach is often limited to those who
are already following your company. You will also face competing priorities with the client’s
own media. Some departments may have messages that they would rather be spread first
and this can compete with the PR strategy.

Bought Media

Finally, there is bought media, or paid media. This is any media that you have to pay for
including advertising. This paid for category can be confusing, especially online. If you pay
a blogger of influencer to report your news, not all customers will realize that this is a form
of paid media.

The benefits of bought media are a combination of earned media and owned media. You
have the ability to target a specific group of people while still retaining control over the
content. Many consider this to be an influential form of media and great for persuading
customer groups.

The difficulties are that this type of media is expensive. Bought media is traditionally part of
a large marketing plan. Finally, there is a lower effect for customers because of skepticism
or advertising overloads.

Choosing Your Media Channels

When you’re choosing your media channels, compare your goals with the different channels
listed here. When you compare the pros and cons with the goals you established in your PR
strategy, you will find that the channels that best suit your campaign will become apparent
quite quickly.

2.6 Measuring Your Results

There is no better way to determine whether or not you have reached your goals than
by measuring your results.

You have already read that your goals should be designed to be easy to measure.
But how do you best measure your results?

First, you want to make sure that you are measuring not only your outcomes but
your performance. How difficult was it to implement your strategy? Did you often find
yourself running behind? Were you able to complete the goals within your timeframe?

Second, you want to measure the quality of your success. Did you just scrape by or did
you have plenty of breathing room for success in the completion of your strategy?

Finally, don’t just look at what happened. Do research to figure out why the outcomes were
the way they were.

To learn more about measuring the results of your PR strategy, continue on to Module 3
where you will learn all about measurement tools for measuring PR success.

Module 3: PR Tools

3.1 Tools to Reach the Media

3.2 Tools to Measure Success

3.3 Building a Media Calendar

Intended Learning Outcomes

 To learn about the different tools available to reach journalists and influencers
 To understand the importance of measuring success
 To learn about the different ways to measure PR success
 To learn about the different tools available to measure PR success
 To understand the importance of a media calendar
 To learn how to build a media calendar

3.1 Tools to Reach the Media

In the last few modules, you have learned what the media is and why you need them. You
also learned how to make basic introductions to writers and influencers online. In this
module, you’ll learn some practical tips and resources that you can use to help you get your
story out to all relevant parties.

As mentioned before, the Internet has completely changed the way that PR specialists work.
Having access to so much information has made public relations both easier and harder at
the same time. New found access to all of this information is great. But sifting through all of
this data to figure out what is relevant is more difficult.

In this module, you will learn about general tools and specialist tools that you can use to
reach the media. Both of these have merit depending on the context that you are using them
in. This is why it is essential to master both.
Social Media

PR specialists were some of the earliest users of social media. The inherent value became
immediately obvious when these sites first came on the scene. Social media offers a slightly
more personal way of talking to the media than cold calls and email pitches.

But social media is not just a new method of pitching journalists. Its value is in something
else entirely. On sites like Twitter, you can get involved in live conversations that are
happening between people in your industry. These conversations are essential for initiating
and building relationships between PR specialists and writers.

For example, there are scheduled conversations that happen weekly on Twitter between
industry people. For a while, there was a chat called JournChat that took place every
Monday evening on Twitter. People could get involved in the discussion by searching for
#journchat on Twitter and reading through the Tweets in real time.

There are two good ways to get involved in these discussion. First, you can do a search on
Google for discussions that are related to PR in general or to your particular niche. Second,
you can check out the social media profiles of influencers in PR to see what discussions
they are taking part in.

PR Specific Resources

Social media is a fun way to communicate, build relationships and learn from other people
in the business. While it is a valuable tool, it is easy to get lost in social media and not find
exactly what you’re looking for.

Thankfully, the Internet is more than just Facebook and Twitter. There are a few keen people
in the industry who have already realized that the power of the Internet goes beyond the
hashtag. They have created databases, resources and private social networking
opportunities just for journalists, writers and PR specialists to communicate with each other.

Finding Reporters

JustReachOut

JustReachOut is an online tool that you can use to help find reporters who are interested in
your field. One of the best things about JustReachOut is that it is free for a list of three
reporters every month. You’ll get their names but unfortunately you need a subscription to
get their contact details.

Hey Press

Hey Press is a similar tool to JustReachOut because it allows you to search for keywords to
find reporters who write about subjects in your field. This is a slightly more useful resource
for those who are just starting out because you can search for an unlimited number of
keywords. You will also get a list recent articles related to your keyword and the reporters
who wrote them. This is useful because allows you to gauge just how interested in the topic
the reporter is.
The best part about Hey Press is that contact information is included with the profiles. This
is great for new or small businesses because you can just use the free version while it is
convenient.

Finding Press Requests

Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Help a Reporter Out is a media tool that almost every good PR specialist uses. This service
has two options: free or premium.

If you use the free service, you will get media opportunities sent to you through an email list.

If you use the subscription, you can search the entire website’s database for keywords to
find press requests. This works well because you can also sign up for alerts and messages
to make sure that you are notified first when a request comes in.

Getting involved with HARO is worth your time because there are huge media outlets that
use the service. Some of the biggest names on the site include:

 The New York Times

 The Wall Street Journal
 ABC
 Mashable
 Refinery 29
 Time
 Reuters
 Fox News

Approaching Reporters

If social media isn’t your thing you can actually sign up to use a database to find a reporter
who will match your story. One of these tools is called Crystal Knows. Crystal Knows is a
service that provides a “Predicted Personality Profile” that is designed to share the best
approach to reaching out to a reporter.

There are few features that are not just helpful but also intuitive. You get access to
personality profiles in the database for free. But you can also use an application known as
Crystal for Chrome. This tool gives you the same personality breakdown as you might get
on the database but you access it through social sites like Facebook, Twitter or Linked In.
So if you find a niche reporter on Twitter, you can use this tool to get their personality profile
without having to navigate away from what you’re working on.

You can also get a similar service for Gmail to help you best tailor your emails to new
contacts.

Crystal Knows has clients like Fortune, The Huffington Post and Fast Company.
3.2 Tools to Measure Success

As discussed in Module 2, a good part of the reason that you develop a PR strategy is so
that you can measure the success of your efforts. But what does it mean to measure your
success and how do you go about doing this?

There is a lot of theory behind how and what you measure but this theory is not always a
good indicator for showing you how to get started in measuring your success.

Measurement does not begin when the campaign is complete. Measurement starts as soon
as you start talking to people about your story.

Getting started with measurement is pretty easy in the beginning.

When you first begin pitching your story, you want to begin tracking the engagement with
your communication. You should keep track of:

 How many emails were sent

 How many contacts received the email
 How many contacts opened the email
 How many contacts sent the email on
 How many contacts clicked on the link
 How many contacts replied to your email
 How many contacts asked for more information

How do you track these measurements? You have two great options to do this. You can
send out your press releases through Mailchimp, which automatically tracks how users
engage with your emails. Or, if you use Gmail, you can use Yesware, which will track
whether emails are opened and if they were clicked on.

Then, if you post the same pitch on your social media sites, make sure to keep track of how
many shares, likes, favorites or retweets that you get. You should also keep track of how
many people clicked on that link if you included them. You can often find these metrics in
the analytics section of your social media profiles.

Going Beyond Impressions

Now that your story is starting to get out there, you need to find a way to measure the impact
that it has had. This is easiest to do online with a tool called PRWeb.

With PRWeb, you can track a number of metrics that will give you the inside story of how
successful your efforts were. PRWeb provides the following services:

 It quantifies the number of times your press release is read each time. This
information is useful to see what information is grabbing readers’ attention.
 It measures the amount of times that your PR release is displayed on websites and
RSS feeds.
 It shows you who is reading the whole article and who just read the headline. It can
also give you a better idea of who interacts with your press.
  It keeps track of which outlets have seen your news. This is useful because it negates
cold calling because you already know that a reporter has received your press
release.
 Finally, it keeps track of what your audience searched for when they found your press
release.

The value of using tools like PRWeb is that it captures a lot of information accurately and all
in one space. If you are a master of communication but aren’t so great at statistics, these
kinds of tools can be invaluable for you because they give a clear picture of where you are
at and how you can do better.

Data Analytics: A Guide

One of the biggest growing trends in PR measurement is data analytics. Don’t worry, you
don’t need to be a mathematician to be able to use this tool. In fact, there are plenty of ways
that you can use it without doing any math at all.

The reason that data analytics has become so popular in PR is because it demonstrates
how this industry has shifted from measuring results to monitoring progress. This is great
for you and your clients because it helps control failure and helps you correct your mistakes
before you have done too much damage.

In fact, data analysis has become a part of many different businesses and industries, all of
which have plenty of people who hate numbers. However, being open to learning how to
organize data is becoming a more essential skill. So even if you didn’t get an A in statistics,
it is important to make an effort.

Fortunately, Google makes data analytics easy even for beginners. If you aren’t already
familiar with Google Analytics, this is a great time to install it and get to know it.

Google Analytics

All you need to do to get started with Google Analytics is to sign up for an account and add
a site to the account as your property. To do this, just visit the Google Analytics website and
follow the prompts.

Once you’re signed up, you will want to choose your tracking method. For beginners, Classic
Analytics is a good option. You will then select your time zone and the category that best
represents your website.

You will then be given a traffic code that you can add into your website.

If you or your client’s site is already set up with Google Analytics, all you need to do is log
in. Gaining access to your client’s account will be very useful for providing insight into your
PR strategy and success.
Finding Data

Google Analytics will tell you how many visits a site got and how many unique visitors you
got. It will also tell you about where that traffic came from and how they found your site.
Finally, you can learn about how people used the website. Did they navigate the website?
Did they return? How long do they spend on average on the site?

All of this data can be found in easy to read reports on Google analytics. All you need to do
is click on the metric that you are interested in viewing.

Google Analytics for PR

You should spend some time navigating Google Analytics to get used to finding the
information you need. If you struggle to find your away around, there are a variety of blogs
that you can turn to for step-by-step instructions. Once you have it figured out, you should
consider adding the PR dashboard to your homepage so that all of this information is easily
accessible.

The benefits of this tool for you is that you can measure all of this data in real time. Real
time is important when you work in PR because you may be granted positive surprise press
from a friend or you may be going through a crisis. Either way, understanding how to get
this information in real time will help you figure out what to do next.

Now that you have learned more about the valuable tools involved in measurement, a good
way to summarize is to consider following The 10 Golden Rules of Measurement, as
developed by Ketchum Global Research and Analytics. The rules are as follows:

1 Write down your goals.

2 Measure both the quality and the quantity of your media.

3 Know that the same rules apply to both social media and traditional media

4 Use surveys with PR questions to understand outcomes

5 Collect data that you can actually use

6 Accept that analytics is a part of measurement and it is the only way to determine your
return on investment

7 Make sure that your measurement is transparent

8 Use what you’ve learned to understand your progress and then turn it in to better PR
strategy

9 Accept that PR specialists may not be specialists in measurements

10 Don’t assume that a high advertising value determines the success of your strategy
3.3 Building a Media Calendar

A media calendar is one of your most valuable tools. Fortunately, building a media calendar
is completely free and you can do it yourself. It does require any subscriptions, software or
special tools.

A media calendar is a way for you to organize your pitches, social media updates, content
and everything else involved in your strategy. You can use it to figure out where to place
each media opportunity so that it can all be coordinated, tracked and changed if necessary.

There are some pretty big advantages to creating a PR calendar for your strategy. First, it
will help ensure that you don’t miss any big deadlines. It helps make sure that you can get
back to journalists in enough time to make both your deadlines and their deadlines.

A calendar is also perfect for being able to identify potential opportunities to add on to
scheduled press. There are plenty of awareness days, themes and holidays that are
prescheduled in many publishers’ calendars that you can use to get your name out there.

For example, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. This always garners a huge
amount of attention and swallows up a lot of press. You can plan how to work with this theme
in advance in order to keep your head above water during that month. Plus, it works well
because writers will be focusing on this theme so by offering the right angle, you’ll be making
their job easier.

But creating a media calendar isn’t just something you sit down and do over your lunch
break. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes that a PR specialist can make is not spending
enough time on their media calendar or worse, neglecting it completely.

To start, you need to do plenty of research. As mentioned before, you will want to research
editorial calendars for relevant magazines, websites and newspapers. An editorial calendar
is what these sources use to schedule what content they publish and when. These calendars
are ideal for advertisers but you can use them to help create pitch topics.

Your pitch topics will be scheduled into your PR calendar. You can use the research you did
to make sure that your pitches are newsworthy. For example, you don’t want to pitch holiday
season stories in February. But you might want to pitch stories that go along with a theme
that the publication is already planning.

Creating Your PR Calendar

Creating a PR calendar is less about jotting ideas down on dates and more about developing
your strategy as a whole. Here is how to get started:

Hosting

The first thing that you need to do to build your PR calendar is to find a place for it to live.
Some people prefer to work from Excel spreadsheets while others prefer Google Docs. A
basic spreadsheet format works perfectly for creating this calendar. However, other more
complicate options include apps like Evernote.
However you decide to create your calendar, you will want to make sure that it is easy to
share and update. Whether you work on your own or as part of a team, hosting it on the
cloud is always a good way to go.

Decide What the Calendar is for

You don’t want a master calendar because it will be hard to read and will probably not help
keep you on track. Instead, use one calendar for a specific strategy or campaign.

For example, if you have a client who you are doing lots of different PR for, you will want a
calendar for each major goal. If you’re launching a product, you will want a calendar
specifically for that. If you are trying to maintain or increase awareness, you will want a
calendar specifically for this as well.

Knowing exactly what strategy your calendar is for will help you focus in and make sure the
calendar is workable.

Establish How Frequently Your Events Will Happen

When you sit down in front of a calendar, it can be tempting to try to fill in all the blank
spaces. But this isn’t necessary in all situations. Before you start adding to your calendar,
make sure that you have a pre-established frequency for publications.

Your frequency won’t be the same for every different medium. For example, you might create
weekly or monthly videos for YouTube but publish 5 to 10 Tweets per day on Twitter.

When you know how often you will publish, this will help you get started with building the
actual calendar.

What to Include

You need to include enough information in the calendar to stay on top of your PR strategy.
You will want to keep the dates organized for when you are making announcements. You
will also need to make note of what the event is about. In another space on the calendar,
you will want to make a note of how that event will be promoted.

You should add as much information as necessary to keep the ideas clear. The calendar
will be useless if you cannot figure out which event is happening on which day. In order to
keep things transparent, you might decide to break the publication down into categories.

For example, if you’re working on growing a company’s audience, you might talk about
Subject A to Audience A. But simultaneously, you might be talking about Subject B to
Audience B. If you can break down your channels and your messages into categories, it will
be easier to make notes of on the calendar.

Remember to Schedule in Cross-Promotion

For some types of promotion, you will need to cross-promote. This means that you will need
to schedule time to promote your promotions on other platforms.
The easiest way to think about this is to think about your favorite blogger. Bloggers are
excellent at cross-promotion. This is because they will publish a blog post and then post a
link to it with leading photos and content on platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Not only does this drive traffic back to the website but it gets them engagement on other
platforms as well.

Review Your Calendar

Once you have scheduled all of the essentials into the calendar, make sure to review it.
Remember that your PR calendar is not designed to be set in stone. You should be prepared
to make changes to it both immediately after you’ve finished it and at different points
throughout the year.

Module 4: Building Your Press Kit

4.1 What You Need in Your Press Kit

4.2 How to Create a Media Release

4.3 How to Choose Press Photos

4.4 Compiling an FAQ Sheet

4.5 A Guide to Including Videos

Intended Learning Outcomes:

 To learn what a press kit is

 To learn what you need to include in a press kit
 To understand the importance of physical and online press kits
 To learn the importance of the media release
 To understand the basic format of a media release
 To learn how to choose press photos
 To learn the basic format for compiling an FAQ sheet
 To learn the importance of adding videos to a press kit
 To learn how to choose the best videos for a press kit

4.1 What You Need In Your Press Kit

When most people think about a press kit, they think or large, established corporations who
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on aggressive forms of media and
marketing campaigns.

But the truth is, anyone who is in business needs a press kit. It doesn’t matter if you’re a
sole-proprietor, a small business, a tech start-up or the next Microsoft, you need to have a
media kit.

So what is a media kit or a press kit?

It works a lot like a company’s resume. It answers any of the questions that the press,
customers and investors might have about the company.

However, that is what a press kit does. It is hard to answer what a press kit is because
almost every kit will be different depending on who is using it.

This was not always true. Even 10 years ago, PR specialists would send out a folder full of
information to every company. It would be all inclusive and often include the same
information and materials regardless of who it was being sent to. Members of the media
were constantly sent huge folders that were stuffed full of things that they would simply throw
away because they couldn’t use it.

A few years ago, the press kit began to evolve. People started to get smarter about what
they sent to the media. Half of this was because they realized that what they were doing
wasn’t working but it was also because there became an increasing amount of competition
for the attention of the press.

Thankfully, this has changed. Now, PR specialists put different items into the folder
depending on what it is being used for, who it is using it and who the audience it. The press
kit is now tailored for the specific members of the press that you are trying to reach.

Key Parts of a Press Kit

Your press kit needs to have a minimum amount of information for it to be useful to the
media. It needs to cover a certain number of bases or else a writer might not even
understand what you are trying to say, much less what you want them to say.

Company Overview

At the very least, you need to include a company overview or company biography in your
press kit. It needs to cover who your client is, what they do and when they started doing it.
It should also include the value or unique selling points that the company offers.

The company overview should work as a brief summary to your client. It should not be overtly
technical nor should it be a dry paper including nothing but figures. Instead, this is the place
to give an introduction to the company’s story and leave the reader wanting more.

Biographies of Key People

Too many people feel that companies today are faceless. A faceless company doesn’t play
well in the media. Writers and their audiences want something to hold on to. They want a
Bill Gates, a Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerberg.

Your press kit should include basic background information on the executives or founders
of the company. This is an important opportunity to show the media that your client is a real
company run by real people.

Remember to keep these short and sweet. They want to know who the key people are, not
their entire life story.
Contact Information

Contact information may not be the most technical part of creating a press kit but it is one of
the most important. You need to make a point of leaving detailed contact information
including emails and phone numbers.

It can be easy to overlook this part when you’re working to put everything else together. But
if you send out a press kit without contact information, you might as well not have sent one
at all.

Photographs

The photographs or artwork that you choose to include in your press kit will depend on what
the kit is for and who you are sending it to. Some of the photos you might choose to include
might be of the key employees, the logo or the company’s latest products.

Photographs are one of those things that should be looked at carefully before you send them
out. For example, you wouldn’t send a folder full of photos to a radio host because they
would have virtually no use for them.

You should also make sure to inform the writer or producer that they have permission to use
the images as long as they give credit to the source.

You may also want to include videos in the press kit. You will learn more about this at the
end of the module.

Recent Releases

You will also one to include a few recent press releases in the kit. Ideally, these releases
would have preceded the current press kit and be relevant to the kit itself. For example, if
you sent out press releases announcing an upcoming product, you would want to include
these releases in the press kit that you create when the product reaches the market.

Frequently Asked Questions

Finally, you should always include an FAQ sheet. This sheet should be made in conjunction
with the client. The sales team is an especially good resource because they have a good
idea of what kinds of questions that people have about the company.

Online Press Kits vs The Hard Copies

Now that you have learned more about what goes into the media kit, you may be wondering
how to deliver it.

If the press now lives online, surely you would want our press kit to have a home online, too,
right?

Yes, you do want to have a digital copy of your press kit. This is useful for uploading to the
client’s website and for sending out via email to all of your favorite writers. It is neat, tidy and
saves the environment because you’re not printing paper that will just end up being tossed
away again.

But you do not want to leave the hard copy of the press kit behind just yet. Having a few of
these lying around is essential because it will help you pick up on opportunities that might
have otherwise been missed.

If you are working at a press event, a tradeshow or you have just encountered a writer who
likes to work in a more old-school fashion. A hard copy of your press kit will ensure that you
can give out this essential information to anyone who asks for it.

In summary, you know you have created a successful press kit when you can answer the
following questions:

1) Who is the client?

2) Who or what are you trying to promote?

3) When is the promotion taking place?

4) Where is the client being promoted?

5) Why does the client deserve promotion?

4.2 How to Create a Media Release

Learning how to write a good media release is incredibly important. In fact, it is so important
that many media outlets are willing to share their ideas about what makes a good release.

Why? Because writers are tired of sifting through boring and irrelevant pieces of paper that
don’t help them do their job.

Fortunately, you can grab the attention of the media quite easily if you are good at writing a
media release.

Crafting a Sticky Headline

The title or headline of the media release is incredibly important. The headline needs to draw
in the reader in order to get them to read the text. Your headline needs to be strong and
engaging if you want the rest of the article to be read.

However, the headline also needs to be accurate. You need to avoid making false claims or
creating a ‘click-bait’ type headline for your article. If you draw the reader in, your content
needs to live up to their expectations.
Write from the Top Down

You will probably have a few words, at most, to draw the reader into the media release. If
you can catch them here, you can get them to the end of the paper. If not, you have lost
them forever.

In most cases, the reader will read maybe the first few lines of your press release as they
skim through piles of papers. You should be including the most important and most
interesting information in the first few sentences so that you have the best chance of
resonating with the reader.

Keep It Short

Since you have got the most important information out of the way in the first few lines, you
can then work on either backing up or expanding on that information. However, do not go
into too much detail. Your press release should be one page or less in length. You can write
two pages but only when it is crucial for the story.

Include Facts and Numbers

If you’re a gifted writer, you might find it easy to fill up the page with prose. But it is important
to include hard take away facts in the release. These facts should include numbers when
possible. These numbers will stand out on the page. They may also form a basis or angle
for the writer to begin considering working with your release.

Include Quotes

Quotes are perfect for using in press releases because they provide insider insight into the
story. The reason that quotes should be used in media releases is because they are crucial
for media stories. Writers and journalists often prefer to include quotes in their stories to give
it credibility.

If you include a great quote in the release, this makes their job even easier.

However, you should avoid using quotes to include facts or numbers or other information.
The quote should offer an opinion from someone within the company.

For example, a good quote is “We’re excited about the new direction that our company is
taking.”

It is conversational. It also demonstrates intent. Finally, it provides a very basic insight into
the way the company works.

A bad quote might be: “We predict that we will see a 4% raise in shares during the third
quarter.”

This is a fact and, to be honest, it is impersonal and boring.

Mind Your Tone

The tone of your press release is as important as the words in it. Your tone should not read
like an encyclopedia entry. It should include a healthy combination of personality and factual
information.

A great way to keep your tone conversational is to write in the active voice. This makes it
sound like everything that you are writing about is happening right now and this automatically
makes it more engaging.

Add the Right Contact Information

Your contact information should be included at the bottom of your press release. It needs to
be clear who to contact for more information about the release. Think of it as a sales strategy:
the easier it is for the customer to buy, the more frequently they will purchase it.

Consider SEO

Writing an SEO friendly media release will benefit both the writer and the client. When the
release is SEO friendly, you will be able to optimize the visibility of your story online when it
is published.

Using SEO strategies in your press releases is not a necessity. You should avoid stuffing
them full of keywords that are irrelevant or do not sound organic. This will defeat the purpose
of the release because it will look bad and no one will write or publish the story.

To make the press release SEO friendly, choose a few standout keywords that are relevant
to the subject and reuse them. If the company already has a blog or SEO strategy, you might
be able to incorporate that here.

Keep It Clean

Whatever you do, make sure your press release has excellent grammar and correct spelling.
These mistakes may be easy to make but they will look unprofessional to those whose job
it is to make sure everything is written perfectly.

Make sure you proofread every press release carefully. Not taking the time to carefully
proofread your work will prevent writers from reading it. You can even ask other people to
read it for you to make sure that you didn’t miss a single punctuation mark.

Finally, you should keep it free of any industry or professional jargon. This will make it easier
for your wider audience to read. It will also make it easier for writers to put the press release
into context!

K.I.S.S.

There are a lot of points to remember when you’re writing a media release. But all of these
points boil down to one central theme: keep it simple! The easier it is for people to read and
understand, the easier it will be to get it printed! Simple!
4.3 How to Choose Press Photos

In most cases, you will include some type of press photo or art with your press kit.

As discussed before, these photos might include photos of the product, photos of key people
or illustrations of the company logo.

But you cannot just pull a bunch of photos and put them in a folder and call it good. These
photos need to contribute to the pull factor that draws the media into your press kit.

When you choose press photos, you want to choose photos that offer five key factors:

 Relevance
 Authenticity
 Curiosity
 Emotional
 Colorful

Relevance

Your photos should be relevant to the goals of your media kit. If the goal is to launch a
product, it should include photos of the product itself. You should not include photos of
products that are not relevant to the launch because they will often be confusing.

When a photo is relevant, it tell the story for you. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand
words.

Authenticity

The photos should capture the authenticity of the article. In a world of new media, people
are looking for something that they connect with more than ever. Writers want to give this to
them. Choose photos that wouldn’t be mistaken for stock photos.

Curiosity

Your photos should act similarly to the headline on your press release. Don’t give everything
away in your photographs Use your photos to give out enough information to draw the
audience in for more.

Emotional

Try to find photos that are emotional. When photos offer emotional content, they are more
likely to be authentic. You don’t need to use photos of puppies to make them emotional.

Instead, use photos that include people engaging with the product or the company. These
photos will allow the media to be put in the shoes of the customer and connect emotionally
with the press kit. When you add photos that make them feel like they are there, they will be
able to relate to them more. If they can relate to them, they will be more likely to write your
story because they will see the value in it for their customers.
Colorful

It seems natural that you would want to choose photos that are colorful. But choosing the
right colors can help make your messages more persuasive.

Why is color important in pictures? Because in the retail market, 85% of buyers make their
shopping decisions based on color almost alone.

42% of shoppers will determine their opinion of a website based on the color alone.

When you are creating a press kit and adding photos, you are selling your story to the media.

Using every tool at your disposal, especially color, is important for helping your audience
connect to your media kit.

4.4 Compiling an FAQ Sheet

An FAQ sheet is an information sheet that helps you communicate the general need-to-
knows about your client. People will look at it after they have read your press release and
try to use it to answer more questions. Thus, making sure that your fact sheets answer as
many questions as possible is crucial to the success of your media kit.

The FAQ sheet should not serve as an encyclopedia for the company. It should be an at-a-
glance sheet that the media can skim to find the relevant answers to their questions.

An FAQ sheet should not be used on its own. Instead, it should be used as a complementary
tool to a press release or something else from the media. On its own, it does not offer context
and without this context, the information it contains is substantially less interesting.

The FAQ sheet should include one or two pages of answers to the most common questions:
who, what, when, where, why and how.

Compiling a fact sheet is relatively easy. You want to make sure that you follow a specific
format so that it is easy to browse.

Any fact sheet should include the name and contact details of the client at the top so that it
is prominent. The upper-left hand corner is the best place to do this. However, if you are
printing the sheet on the client’s letterhead, you do not have to include this information twice.

On the right hand side of the sheet, you should include the press contact’s name, title and
contact details. This will usually be your name; however, if the company has a PR specialist
running point on the project, it will be the supervisor’s name.

Then, you should add a triple space to the document. This will make sure that you have
enough space to make the rest of the document easier to read. After the space, you can
add the subject of the paper and then the words “Fact Sheet” or “FAQ Sheet”. It is best to
put both of these titles in the center of the paper.

From here, you can choose to operate one of two ways.

The first way is to divide the sheet into two columns and give a general introduction to the
company here. You might include information under headings like vision, purpose, mission
or history.

Alternatively, you can type out a few frequently asked questions and then provide the
appropriate answers to them.

If your fact sheet is only a single page long, you should type “###” at the bottom of the sheet
to let the reader know that they are looking at the only page.

If the fact sheet goes on, you should type “-more-“ at the bottom of the page to let them
know that the answers to their questions may be found on the second page of the document.

4.5 A Guide to Including Videos

Including videos is not yet a vital part of the success of your press kit, but slowly becoming
so. Using images and videos will not only expand your audience, but it will also increase
your visibility. Another reason that it works so well is because it has not yet taken over the
industry.

Think about it. You work in the media and you’re incredibly busy. What would you rather do?
Read piles of paper or get a basic introduction to the story from a well-crafted video that you
can then use when writing up the story?

Most people are choosing to watch the videos.

The reason that no one is demanding that you send out videos is because it takes time,
energy and money to do them right. A press release requires deep thought and a word
processor. But a video has many more elements to it and thus you cannot make two or three
videos an hour.

Videos may not have taken over the press world yet and are not generally expected of PR
specialists, but they are becoming an essential part of reaching the public and helping
people to engage with your content. This is partly because your audience will have a growing
demand for video information. It is also because Google, Facebook and other sites now
prioritize video over other types of content. This means that when you get the word out there,
it will be more visible online.

Producing video pleases Google and if you love Google, Google will love you right back.

Video Do’s and Don’ts

But not any old video will do. You want to make a video that will keep people’s attention,
engage them and lead them to ask more questions.

Avoid using videos that are purely self-serving, such as talking heads. These videos look
more like advertisements than interesting news releases and won’t draw the viewer in. They
can be boring and people would more likely prefer to read a fact sheet than have talking
heads spout facts at them.
Finally, you should always embed the video when you are placing it into your press kit online.
You want the video to be as accessible as possible and if it shows up the right away, you
will get more views.

If you include a link and force the viewer to navigate away from the site, you will find that
you have less engagement.

Module 5: Creating Your Brand’s Story

5.1 Storytelling

5.2 Product, Purpose and Passion

5.3 How to Think Like a Journalist

5.4 How to Create Stories the Media Will Love

Intended Learning Outcomes

 To learn about what storytelling is

 To learn why storytelling is some important in the media and in PR
 To understand the importance of knowing your product purpose and passion
 To learn what mean means to think like a journalist
 To have a better understanding of how to think like a journalist
 To learn how to create stories that the media will write and print

5.1 Storytelling

Storytelling is a word that many of us associated with children. When we think of storytelling,
we think of reading fairytales and other books aloud to children. We think of J.R.R. Tolkien
and J.K. Rowling as master storytellers.

But what is a PR specialist if not a storyteller? You go out and you look for stories about
your clients to pass on to the media. Then the media bring your story to your wider audience.

Without storytelling, PR would be boring. PR would be about giving out information that no
one knows what to do with. Let’s be honest. No one wants to read information that does not
seem relevant to them.

Storytelling is imperative in PR because of what it does to our brains. When we are engaged
in a good story, our brains become more active. We feel emotional and we connect with
what we’re reading. According to some researchers, it is not just the language part of the
brain that is working when we hear a story. Every part of the brain that we use process
events is working, too.

What is really amazing about storytelling is that you can plant ideas and thoughts into the
brains of your audience. This is because the stories we tell shape our thinking but they also
shape the thinking of the audience as well. When you tell a story well, you actually
synchronize your brain with your audience.
This works because our brains love working in the narrative form. This is why we use
storytelling to teach math problems to students. It is also why real-world examples are
always better teachers than just plain theory. No matter what we think about, whether it’s at
work or with our friends, we relate the stories we hear to our experiences.

So why do you need to use storytelling in PR? Because the emotional connection that stories
build between the company and the audience is what the new PR is all about.

A good story answers the following questions:

 Who?
 What?
 When?
 Why?
 How?

The who gives a glimpse into who your client is as a company. People cannot connect with
a faceless corporation. This is where you let them know who the man behind the curtain is.

The what tells the reader about what is unique about your client. This does not mean that
you include a list of features or benefits. The what tells people how these features will solve
their problem. It helps to create an imaginative experience that results the reader creating a
narrative.

The when gives a timeline for their narrative. Your audience cannot do much with an
ambiguous date someday in the future. They want to know when they can experience what
you are telling them about.

The why helps to give your business a personality. People want to know about the thought
processes behind your actions. They want to know about the vision behind the product or
the client.

The how tells customers how they can get involved or how they can learn more information.

Take a moment to think about the following example:

If you read a headline that said “Vineyard Opens in Rural Minnesota” would you be curious
and want to learn more?

But if you read the headline “Local woman opens vineyard in rural Minnesota to teach trade
skills to area teens” wouldn’t you want to know who this courageous woman was and what
would possess her to open a vineyard in Minnesota?

The first headline is not a bad one. It tells you the what and where of the story. But you
cannot connect with an anonymous company opening in a rural area.

But when you read about a local woman who is devoting her time and skills to opening a
vineyard to help improve the local youths’ job prospects? You think about how you might
have liked to participate in that program as a child.
You also think about how brave she must be to open a vineyard in Minnesota! But ultimately,
you want to know why and how it is going to happen.

These are just headlines but they are a good example of how you can begin to tell a story
in only a few words.

5.2 Product, Purpose and Passion

Now that you know more about why storytelling is such a fundamental part of PR, you can
begin to learn what is at the heart of every story.

In PR and media, every story should be based on three essential elements: product, purpose
and passion.

Product

To start, you need to clearly define your product. Your product can be a physical product or
a service. But you need to do more than name it. You need to be able to give customers a
succinct yet clear working definition of what makes it unique. When you describe your
product, you should be able to say what sets it apart from other products in the same market.
If your product occupies a certain niche, you should be able to describe that as well.

Purpose

The purpose of the product is bound up in its vision. Every company should know what its
reason for being is. Without this, it will not be able to reach even its intial

It is essential for a business to know what is at the heart of its mission. But it is also important
to recognize whether or not that mission is realistic and right for the market. A successful
company or startup will have created their purpose when they started to develop their
customer base. It is a part of the entire customer development process. This process is what
gives the company its value and its vision.

It is your job to relay that purpose on through the narrative form.

Passion

Chances are, the people in the company are passionate about what they do. There is a
reason that they started their company. It is your job to listen to what that passion is and
identify it. When you can identify it, you can include it in your narrative. This will give the
story legitimacy when you sell it to the media.

Example

One of the best companies to ever tell their story is Spanx. Spanx is so dedicated to its
company story that it has a dedicated space for it on its website.

According to Spanx, founder Sara Blakely was getting ready to go to a party when she
realized she didn’t have the right undergarment to wear with her outfit. To rectify this problem
and make it to the party on time, she took a pair of control top pantyhose and cut the feet
off. She had an instant solution to her problem.

Things were not easy for Sara when she first started her business. Although her business
filled a huge gap in the market, she struggled to sell products to any customers. But Sara
knew that her story was similar to the stories of millions of women across the country. She
did not have investors, advertising or industry experience. She had a clearly defined product
that worked, a vision to offer women shapewear and so much passion that she reportedly
showed the Neiman Marcus buyer a pair of Spanx while she was still wearing them.

Blakely had a great product and a great story and she knew it. People were able to connect
with her through owned and earned media and soon, her product took off. Even Oprah, the
greatest of all media storytellers, connected with her story and named Spanx one of her
“favorite things” in 2000.

Her story enchanted the media and her customers so much that they made her the youngest
self-made female billionaire in the world.

There has been a huge number of press written about Sara Blakely. To learn about how to
master earned PR, it is worth reading more about her story.

5.3 How to Think Like a Journalist

At some point during your PR career, someone is going to tell you to think more like a
journalist. Almost everyone in the media gets this piece of advice, even journalists
themselves. This is a piece of advice that everyone is willing to give out. But not everyone
understands what it means.

Thinking like a journalist is more about thinking like a storyteller. Journalists may spend their
time doing research, conducting interviews and pitching stories. But what they really do is
take all of those activities and channel them into one thing: storytelling. This is what makes
the media so successful. This is why you remember the names of people that you have read
about but never met. This is how you will connect with your audience and make your PR
strategy a success.

Think About the Details

Journalists live by a certain maxim. When in doubt, they say, “Get the name of the dog.”

What does this mean?

It means that you need to be alert and switched on enough to think about all the details.
Every detail is important when you are trying to create a compelling story for your audience.
Even the name of the dog in the background should not be ignored.

But getting the name of the dog goes much further than capturing all the relevant details. It
is the name of the dog that is at the heart of your story.

The details are some of the most compelling parts of your story. It is what will make your
story real to readers. People don’t want to hear about faceless companies doing vague
things. People don’t want to read about your nameless CEO and the decisions they make.
They want to hear about one named person’s triumph. There’s always a story behind a
name. Whether it is a dog, a person, a building or a product. People aren’t interested in the
name of the dog as much as they are interested in how that dog came to be.

Your audiences wants to hear your narrative and then relate it to their own life. This is how
the brain works and this is how you will get more stories in front of the media and in front of
your audience.

Find Your Face

The media is all about finding the face of the story. This is why reporters like to interview the
people on the ground as well as the people on the top.

When you watch a live report from a crime or accident scene, you will likely see reporters
interviewing the people in the general area about what their experience of the event was.
These passersby add value to the story because they are a face in the community.

They can tell the audience that this neighborhood sees this crime all the time and that it has
even happened to them. They can also tell the journalists and their audience more about
the event itself, what they saw and how they think it will impact the community.

Audiences want to see real people. Yes, this means that you should name your CEO and
make them more personable. But more than that, you need a relatable face for your story. .

Think about the best advertising that you have seen lately. How many of those ads were
simply a list of features and potential outcomes for the product? Probably very few.

There are two excellent examples of recent advertising that drive this point home. Both the
Dove Real Beauty Sketches and the Always #LikeAGirl advertisements on YouTube are the
perfect example of storytelling with a real face.

In the Always video, the director asks both girls and boys what the first thing they think of
when they hear the words “like a girl.” The people in the video are invited to give real and
unscripted responses to the question. Some of these answers are amusing and some are
heartbreaking. But all of these answers come from real children, adolescents and adults.

These advertisements went viral on several platforms and had a huge impact on the brands.
But what is more, neither of these advertisements mentioned the product more than once
and when they did, they did not list any of the features of the product.

Storytelling can take you out of the media’s junk mail folder and give you 66.5 million views
on YouTube.
Find Your Angle

Thinking like a journalist means finding an angle for your news release. The angle of a story
is the theme or the point of the story.

Without an angle, your releases look less like news and more like self-promotion. Finding
an angle may sound like you are searching for a single event but there are actually a dozen
ways to find the angle that makes your story newsworthy. Here are just a few:

1. You can find a current event or series of current events that relates positively to your
client. This will make your story topical and it will be more likely that a journalist will write it
and a publication will print it.

2. If you can take an innovative approach to the way that you are sharing your information,
that in itself can be newsworthy. This is especially true for well established companies who
are trying to change up their prescribed methods of operating.

3. If your story relates to the current season, this can give you a new angle that will make it
easier for journalists to write. This does not just mean holidays or seasons. You can relate
your story to annual events in the community as well.

4. If your press release is time sensitive this is an excellent angle to use. If you are
announcing a pre-order or limited time event, it will be more likely for the media to get your
story to the audience sooner.

Finding the right angle does not mean that you should shove your story in a box that it does
not really belong in. This can happen if you are struggling to contextualize your story in the
wider media world. This is normal and can happen to anyone, especially if they are so close
to the story itself.

If you are having a hard time putting your own story into perspective, there are a series of
questions that you can ask yourself to help determine the right angle for your story.

 What makes your client innovative compared to their competitors?

 Has the client won any recent awards?
 Have any big hires been made recently?
 Is a new product about to be added to the client’s market?
 Is the client recently taking a stand on some social issues?
 Has the client recently uncovered interesting information?

Who Cares?

“Who cares?” is the most important question that you will ask yourself when you are creating
a story to pitch to the media. This is because this is what the media will ask when they decide
whether or not to write it or ditch it.

Asking “who cares?” is similar to the media asking you why they should cover your story.
You need to have a real reason that your story would not only appeal to the writer’s
demographic but why they would engage with it.
Before you put any story in front of a journalist, you need to ask yourself how your story
affects their audience. If you can answer this question, you are ready to being pitching your
story. If not, you need to take a step back and figure out

Be Honest

Unless you are in the business of spin, you want to keep your story honest. You do not want
to be caught lying or manipulating to tell your story because that can cause irreparable
damage for your brand. You want to avoid pitching blatant cover-ups to reporters. Not only
will a good writer see straight through it, they will be less likely to work with you again.

Lying to the press is something that should be avoided at all costs. In the world of the Internet
and citizen journalists, the likelihood that you will be caught is incredibly high. If a member
of the audience catches you out, you will find that the client is more humiliated than they
would be should you have told the truth in the first place.

Honest journalism is the hallmark of good journalism. If a writer finds that their story is
undermined by hidden facts, you will soon find yourself ostracized by the media community.

5.4 How to Create Stories the Media Will Love

Now that you have read more about why storytelling is important to PR, you can begin to
learn how to learn how to successfully build a story that the media will love.

Your story is not just a bunch of key messages thrown together. It should have a solid
structure. Most importantly, it should have a plot.

A story arc will usually work like this:

 The Beginning
 The Problem
 The Journey to Solving the Problem
 The Results
 What We Learned

You probably recognize this story arc from novels, movies and TV shows that you have
seen. There is a reason that people use it. That reason is because audience can follow it
and connect with it. The fact that it works so well in entertainment means that it is perfect for
using in PR and marketing.

However, there are also two other things that you need in your story. First, you need a hero
or heroine. This will be the face of the story that you read about earlier. Whether that person
is a customer or someone within the client’s organization, you need someone for the
audience to cheer for. This person needs to be likeable and have human characteristics.
These are the two things that will help the audience relate to them.

Your story also needs a good ending. You might have noticed that the finale episodes of
popular TV shows leave fans up in arms for years after they are finished. This does not
mean that every story you tell needs to have a happy ending. When it is appropriate, some
stories have to end badly. It is up to your narrative and your audience to determine how you
end yours.

Writing Your Story

If you’re lucky, ever story that you tell will be different. But there are ways to make sure that
you make every story you come across the best that it can be. These methods will not only
help you tell the best story but they will help you get that story out in front of the world, as
well.

Keep It Simple

People think that businesses are complex and strange. Don’t overcomplicate your story by
adding paths that are not relevant to the key message that you want to get out.

Create Evangelists

The story should not just be told by the PR department or by the most often interviewed
members of the company. Ask for input from all different voices to make sure that your story
is multi-dimensional.

Make Your Take-Away Clear

At the end of the day, you’re still working with clear brand messages that need to be
communicated. Do your best to help your story share these messages by making a point.

Pick and Choose

You want to include meaningful details that add color and depth to the story. But you do not
want to include all of the details that you have. You only have a short time to tell your story
so you want to choose the most impactful details that you have. If you’re not sure which
ones these are, you can write all of the details into the story. Then, come back to it a few
days later and you will be able to see which details are a part of the structure and which
details feel clunky.

Include Quotes

Quotes prevent you from having to tell your whole story in the third person. They also bring
your story to life by adding a real voice to it. However, use your quotes to voice opinions and
add color to the story. Don’t use them to tell facts.

Keep It Personal

It is easy to get hung up on all of the extra details that a client may give you. But you need
to make sure that the details you use in your story remain personal. The best stories are the
ones that sound like the client could stand up and say them out loud.