MY PR TRUTH: LIKE IT OR NOT

Stop telling me you don’t care about local TV. 

If you don’t care about local TV and are interested only in national TV, you’re an idiot. If I hook a national TV producer on the idea of having you as a guest, the first question he or she will ask me is, Does this person have any other television experience? Local TV helps lead to national TV, plus it’s still major credibility in its own right.

This isn’t a short-term strategy. Sometimes, people call my office and say, Can I hire you for a month? The answer is no, because you can’t do this for one month and expect to get big-time results. If you want to hire someone for a month, hire someone else who is happy to take your money and doesn’t care about disappointing you and undermining their own reputation. Publicity is a long-term strategy that takes time and the ability to develop new story angles and play off current events. Those events will happen, but they might not coincidentally happen during the first few weeks. Just as you might advertise for the life of your business, publicity should be approached the same way to continue to build your credibility.

Stop wasting your time with expensive press releases. 

You don’t need a publicist to write a press release and distribute it through a service such as PR Newswire or BusinessWire. You can do that yourself. Most press releases are self-serving and contain no news value. If you still want to pay these companies a lot of money to have your release lost in a sea of press releases so nothing much comes of it, I’m happy to help. I just think there are better ways for you to spend your money.

Lack of results isn’t always the publicist’s fault. 

With anyone I work with, have previously worked with or will one day work with, I give it my all – 100 percent dedication and commitment to doing the best I can. But after all, I’m selling you and your message. I’ve worked with really strong messages and others that aren’t as solid. If you`re not getting the media coverage you believe you’re entitled to, don’t always blame your publicist. Instead…take a look at the goods you’re bringing to the table. Not all clients are created equal. Having said that, though, I won’t take a client whose message I don’t think I can sell.

Until next time…