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The Five Commandments of Good Public Relations

This post was First Published on Paul Writer.com

The last two years have not been great for the Public Relations industry Worldwide. Considered a ‘frill’ addition for business, public relations agencies, had to face a lot of hardships in the name of recession, from fee cuts to contract pre-closures to working for a non-fee just to retain the account.

As 2010 comes to an end, it seems the industry can finally look at some good times ahead. But like in life it is the toughest of times that leave you with the strongest of learnings….

For those who managed to survive the recession, here are my

5 commandments of Public Relations

For success in the coming years and for surviving another bad phase, if it ever strikes again

Commandment 1

Thou shalt love thy Clients as thyself

This should be the most important and most basic rule for any PR person. If you love your client and work for them like you would work for your own company or your own self, you will definitely be loved back. Clients will then stop treating you as ‘frill’ material and more like an insider. And when crisis strikes – the rule book says, ‘families should stick together as one, through thick and thin’.

Commandment 2

Thou shalt be honest in thy approach

Being honest here means, you will be honest in how you interact with your client. As an expert the onus lies on you to protect your client from PR pitfalls. If you believe that, however passionate a client might be about a product, service or feature update, there is no story value in there from a media or reader perspective – put it down.

Suggest other marketing alternatives, but do not go out pitching and sending out mindless press notes, if you see no value in doing so. It might miff the client, but it is your job to show him you are the expert here and know what is best for him – You are on the same side, right! He will understand, eventually and respect you more for being upfront, rather than wasting his resources on another mindless exercise.

Commandment 3

Thou shalt not send senseless pitches to journalists

I firmly believe that one of the reasons PR people are often considered insignificant by the journalists is because the focus is always on building contacts to get out a story at some point of time. Imagine yourself in their shoes – would you be comfortable in establishing a relationship of trust and mutual understanding, knowing well the selfish intentions of the other person?

It is not too difficult to understand what kind of stories might excite a journalist. You just have to read up the work done by him/her in the past, make note of areas they cover and then evaluate your own pitch – is it newsworthy?

I used to be a journalist and probably that is why I value this process the most, I do not approach a journalist ever, unless I feel confident, that I would like to read something like this in a newspaper or blog – as a reader and not as a PR person looking for Client related news clippings.

Commandment 4

Thou shalt not make false claims

PR agencies know from day one, what they can promise and deliver a client. But many still go the extra length of promising the sun, moon and stars (more like make hay while they can) and end up maligning the reputation of the PR fraternity as a whole. Such an attitude is not good for anyone in the industry.

Promising what you can deliver and working towards the deliverables is going to ensure, happier clients and more referrals for the agency. False claims can win you some quick buck in the short run, but you will be the first to go off the vendor list in case your client decides to optimize his spending.

Commandment 5

Thou shalt not shy away from doing thy bit in the hour of crisis

In bad times people look for advice and support from people they trust. If you feel your client is reeling under recession and financial problems – try being considerate. If you can, offer help in the form of a fee cut (voluntarily) or additional efforts for the same fee so that they make the right sounds while trying to overcome the crisis. With one such move, you will ensure your entry into your client’s trusted circle.

Most companies want their employees and service providers to be patient and support them when going through a crisis, instead of adding to their problems by reminding about contract clauses and payment deadlines etc.

Of course it also depends on the equation you have shared with the client this far. If they are someone who have never delayed your payments in the past, then maybe it is safe to give them some leeway. Companies value service providers who stand by them in difficult times.

Look at it other way, they can just end your contract and save on the money, by voluntarily cutting back on the fee and increasing your efforts is a great way of ensuring you retain the client.

The fundamentals of PR are very simple. PR thrives on relationships and an understanding of needs, be it that of a client or a journalist.

Wish you a successful 2011!

Competitor Analysis – How to do it?

In my last post I had discussed – why it helps to do an online competitor analysis of your competitors. In this post – I share with you some techniques you can use to get a competitor analysis done –

1. Competitor Website

Your competitor’s website is the best place to start your analysis, especially if you are a B2B company, there is a lot of information you can get about how to showcase your product and how to differentiate it from other players in the market.

Things you should take note of on the competitor website –

– The kind of content and the different formats used ( Videos, podcasts, whitepapers, case studies etc.)

– Any social media networks they are part of

– Their Newsroom – Check out the kind of media coverages they have received and the different topics for which they issued a press release.

All this will give you a fair idea on how your competitor is trying to position themselves in the market. The media people who cover your space and the kind of story and news angles that interest them.

2. Social Media profiles

Check out the social media company profiles of your competitors – on twitter, facebook, linkedin etc. What you should look out for –

– The  kind of content they post on their profiles – This will tell you how they engage their followers.

– Who do they follow and who follows them – These might be the same set of people who might be relevant to your business too – so you have a ready list of people to follow and engage with – from the start.

3. Corporate blogs

If you plan to have a corporate blog of your own, studying the blogs by your competitors can help you with the following information –

– What kind of topics and categories do they cover – this is important because it will help you ensure that your blog follows a different set of categories of similar categories with a different approach

– How have they positioned their blog? – This is important as you need to ensure your positioning is different, only then can you expect your own set of regular readers.

– Which are the blogs they have link backs to and which blogs link to them – You can try approaching the same set of bloggers to start with for blog roll exchange.

– Any sites they have syndicated their blog content with – you can also explore these syndication sites as they might be looking for similar content.

4. Backlink analysis

Banklink analysis of your competitors site will give you a basic idea of where they are getting their links from. For this you can use sites like – Yahoo Site Explorer or Open Site Explorer. They show-up upto 1000 backlinks for free and even more if you use their paid version. Once you have your competitors backlink data – this is what you should look for –

– Directories they are listed in – these are places you should also list your company website

– Backlink  analysis often throws up sites where your competitor might be running his ads – the links give you information on some of these popular sites(remember they did some research – gain from their knowledge) and then you can research further if these sites are useful to your ad campaigns as well

– Any other media or blogger coverages which was not mentioned on the website (no one puts up all their coverages on the website) – You can see your media and blogger list falling in place 🙂

– If your competitors issued a press release – check the different news wire services they used and the kind of impressions they got. While this is not conclusive evidence – still it can give you a fair idea on which news wire service gives better results, this is important and can save you a lot of money.

5. Google search and Alerts

Yes, in the end don’t forget to run a google search on your competitors. Things you can look out for

– Links other than their website which pop-up on the first few pages of google. This is important because these are the pages which google sees as more important – probably in your space – getting on them should be part of your marketing action plan.

– Any other information and important insightful link which might have been missed in the above processes

– Also, you can set google alerts to know, when someone is talking about your competitor and if there is an opportunity to pitch in 😉

Internet is hardly a secret keeper and it takes little effort to dig out all the dirt on anyone. Nobody expects it, but everyone does it! Also, before you start – don’t put anything there you don’t want others to read, once out the best you can do is watch your back….what you do unto others is what others will do to you!!

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