Which is better Crisis Approach: Flood of Bad News or Drip, Drip, Drip?
Do I need PR or SEO? This assessment will help you.
The best salesman is always the person who is most passionate about his product. He’s the person who loves his product so much that his eyes come alive as he explains why there is no superior product. It’s no different with the media and selling your business to a reporter.
You need to be absolutely convinced that your story is newsworthy. If you have doubts, hold off on pitching the story until you are absolutely sold with the story angle.
In Journalism 101, students are taught the five W’s that help them identify the value of a story.
These bullet points help you identify why your story is newsworthy and what is important to communicate to reporters. Here’s a quick overview to help you identify your narrative.
WHO: Who is this story about? Who is the character in the center of the story?
WHAT: What is this story about? You will have more success with your media outreach if you identify the “what” because your idea will be more focused.
WHERE: This should be one of the easier W’s to identify. Where is this story taking place? Does the location have any value or importance in the community?
WHEN: Does your story have any timely components? Will your story take place on a single night or day? Is your story relevant at a certain time of the month? The timeliness increases your chances for coverage.
WHY: Why should anyone care about your story? The “why” could be the deciding factor that determines whether your story is pursued or killed. You need to communicate why consumers, readers or viewers care about your business.
By learning the answers to these questions, your story narrative will be more focused from the start, increasing your chances for coverage.
Macias PR was named the 2016 “Financial PR Firm of the Year – USA” and the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. We have launched and led media campaigns for clients in healthcare, finance, tech and the nonprofit sectors. The founder of Macias PR – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He is also a PR contributor with CNBC, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.
I recently got a Linkedin email that had a catchy headline on the surface, but lacked truth when you looked deeper.
I think the Linkedin spammer might have had a better “PR” argument if he said the media is looking for great ideas. “Starving for stories” implies there is a shortage of story pitches hitting reporters and producers and that is not the case.
As an Executive Producer with WNBC, I approved story ideas from publicists, reporters and producers. When I would log into my email at NBC and CBS every morning, I would easily have 300 new emails that were sent overnight from publicists trying to get their clients on the news.
More than 90 percent of those emails didn’t identify a solid news angle and were treated as spam. Those publicists couldn’t find the story narrative even if they had a journalist sitting next to them. And that wasn’t just based on my media experience in New York. During my time as a news producer in Phoenix and Miami, the publicists were actually even more inexperienced.
The media wants to cover stories that have a compelling narrative, stories that impact the public, stories that uncover wrongs or inspire people to do right. Yes – not all news is bad. There is a home for inspiring stories and in TV, we usually call it the kicker.
The news industry is competitive, and it’s not easy to get a solid news story placed unless you have those compelling elements. Here’s more proof of that with numbers. A 30-minute newscast is actually 22 minutes after commercials. Add in sports and weather, and you have a heck of a lot of people trying to get their product inside of 12 minutes of air time.
So the next time you start thinking of hiring a PR firm, make sure you research the publicist or PR firm. If they start throwing out statements like the media is starving for stories – be leery.
