DIY PR?

Hi,

One of your fellow "subscribers" to this service submitted an interesting question (below). You may find the response interesting (further below).

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Michael,

In your experience did you have meetings with journalists and editors or
did you leave that up to PR types who work this channel? My thoughts are that if I were to have a regular discussion with them our company will get more editorial opportunities. We had a PR company working for us but we ended the relationship as we could not quantify the return. We now do our own when we have a decent enough story that we think will get press.
Reason I ask is that we have sales people calling us all the time
wanting to sell ad space (bless them!) but I think that we get better
mileage from editorial which does not cost us anything.

Richard

.....

Richard,

First, separate advertising and publicity in your mind. They are separate activities with different functions. Second, publicity is not free. It costs time and resources and money. Third, it is possible to quantify the value of press coverage. You assign a figure to the coverage relative to the same presence in advertising dollars (with a formula you can get from a competent PR type). Fourth, maintaining your own media contacts is a good strategy. 1. It frees you from dependence on PR types. (I used to be one. I know what they're like.) 2. It shortens the chain of communication, speeds things up, and can make journalists and editors more interested. 3. It can ensure that your message gets through undiluted. 4. It can save $$$. But downsides are: 1. It takes time when you should be playing other roles in the marketing function, reducing your effectiveness overall. 2. You may have skills in this area, but your successor may not. You leave and your company loses part of its marketing systems. 3. You may think you're good at it, but your performance might be sub-optimal (and nobody's willing to tell you). 4. Unless you have had training and/or experience in the function, you may not have the essential 'creative' side - the ability to see or invent news angles (or reasons for coverage) that editors need. 5. You might not get the access to journos/editors that a professional publicist can. (Not being as rat cunning.) 6. A lot of PR work is simply "grunt" - calling a list of people to confirm attendance at an event, etc. This can tie up internal resources and disrupt operations. Perhaps you could fashion a hybrid system, building your own contacts and working them, but taking advice from a mentoring senior professional pr operator as you go and using them for special projects.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely