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Using Your Public Relations Firm to Mount a Publicity Campaign
By David M. Grant
President, LVM Group Inc.
Yes, yes, yes. Of course, most corporate public relations people understand the importance of working well with the media. But they often overlook another vital aspect of the job: dealing effectively with their outside public relations firm.
Several things are worth keeping in mind:
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For starters, don't even consider hiring a public relations firm if you and your colleagues cannot -- or will not -- devote enough time to the program.
Some professional service firms believe that a public relations firm will deliver favorable publicity in roughly the same way that a soda vendor keeps the Coke machine filled. Such flattering faith is guaranteed to produce unsatisfactory results.
A competent public relations firm brings into play many aptitudes, including a strong working knowledge of the press, good writing skills, and a judiciously aggressive talent for placing clients into the right story opportunities. But much of the expertise and useful information must come from the specialists who work at the professional service firm. Journalists want the experts -- not the experts' public relations people -- as news sources.
If you're not prepared to make yourself available and to respect publication deadlines while doing so, don't waste money on publicity.
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Think of us as a form of information broker. We interview you to get the information, position (a hateful word, but one that occasionally serves a purpose) that information so it has maximum appeal to the press, and match it to the right journalist.
With this in mind, it's essential that you treat your public relations firm as you would your lawyer: tell us more than you think we need to know, don't make it any prettier than it is, and assume we'll -- but encourage us nonetheless to -- be discreet.
It's hard to stress too much that our efforts for you are often only as good as the information we get from you. Suppose your firm recently completed an assignment that you think newsworthy. Don't wait for us to ask you about it. We're often good at what we do, but our talents rarely extend to mind-reading.
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Unless you have a coterie of in-house Menckens, it may be advisable to leave the writing to the public relations firm. Effective press releases employ lively but simple language. Journalists are turned off by jargon, and by self-serving praise of one's own work. And in this regard, it's often easier for the outside firm to take the resultant abuse from your colleagues at your firm, than it is for you.
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If a third party is involved in a publicity effort, such as one of your clients, make sure you have his/her approval before telling your public relations firm to promote a project. And if appropriate, provide your account executive with the client's phone number -- but only after you've told your client to expect a call from the public relations firm, of course.
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Like your account executive, you do not have a monopoly on the truth. It's even possible that he/she may know more than you do about a particular subject. Accordingly, don't quickly dismiss his/her advice as that of a mere vendor. (It pains me to add, however, that even a public relations firm may be wrong on occasion; don't hesitate to disagree with it when you feel strongly about something.)
In short, if you decide to work with a public relations firm, do it right. Or write it off.
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