DIY PR
Let me just start with a quick confession: I don’t think I could survive without Google! There you have it, I said it, but I’m sure there are a lot of people in this club! Not only do I rely on Google for phone numbers, restaurants, directions and the weather forecast, I also Google instructions for cooking, getting the best setting on my digital camera and reviving apparently dead USB drives.
Instructions for anything from the perfect drum solo to how to fix computer problems are available on the net, so it’s no surprise, really, that the online sphere offers a plethora of websites, blogs and services around do-it-yourself public relations. PR secrets revealed!
I just came across a new website, www.ipublicist.com.au, which acts as a mediator between journalists and brands, allowing the media to search the website for images and product information provided by brands who wish to publicise themselves. At this stage, iPublicist only offers access to images (as far as I can understand it without paying for the service), but there are other tools online that provide step-by-step instructions for anything from media release writing to pitching to journalists (and becoming famous, according to handleyourownpr.com.au). Along with interactive social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allowing everyone to broadcast themselves to a wide audience, this trend has prompted some people to ask whether the role of the PR agency/expert is to become obsolete.
As surprised as you may be to hear this from a PR professional, the answer is NO - for a lot of reasons. PR professionals do much more than just write and pitch… each campaign and project has a carefully planned, strategic approach that incorporates the clients’ objectives and identifies opportunities the media will be interested in. Any communications strategy also needs to incorporate creativity, proactivity, risk and crisis management, as well as an understanding of target markets and media outlets. As with anything, it takes a professional to pull all this together and plan and implement an effective campaign.
Just because I can download instructions on how to dismantle the engine of my car it doesn’t mean I can actually do it. The same with a recipe for a fancy seven course meal. Even with step-by-step instructions I, for one, couldn’t do it, simply because I don’t have the skills. The same, in part, goes for PR.
The gist of it is that media relations is not something you want to get wrong – if it is not managed well and mistakes are made it can have very serious and costly consequences for the business. If I ruin my roast, I order take away or go to a restaurant and leave the experts to it, no harm done – but there is no easy fix for an organisation’s tarnished reputation due to badly managed PR!
- Silvia Knoppien, Senior Consultant
The material on this web page comprises the personal views of the author and does not represent the view or opinion of communikate et al. communikate et al accepts to liability for the content of this web page.
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