SKC Insights

So, you've decided to hold a media event: a press conference to launch a new product or service that will change the industry (or the world), celebrate a company milestone, merger, or a bi-centennial. Before you send out invitations to guests, especially your media guests, review your checklist and make sure not to miss these five steps. As a host, it is up to you to intrigue reporters to gain their attendance and potential media coverage.

Here are 5 steps to planning a media event:

1. Have a News Hook

You might have organized a well-planned event: you might be disclosing company news, or launching a new product, or providing breakthrough sessions at your conference. Believe it or not, these might not be enough to tempt busy reporters to come to your event. You'll need solid, relevant and timely news hooks. How will your company news or product shake up the industry? What value can you bring outside of what the media can read from your press release? Can your news resonate beyond the conference room and event hall? Be sure to highlight trends, unique aspects of your product or service and demonstrate how your news will transform and elevate these trends. Where there's a news hook - there's a story.

"Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent," said Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist author who lived in the 1800s. More than 150 years later, this statement still rings true. Organizations must find ways to communicate and convince your target publics of the worth of your missions, services, and products - or compromise success.

Here are five reasons why you need the media:

1. Reach Your Target Audiences

The media has the uncanny ability to reach thousands and millions of the right people in an amazingly short time. The company and/or individual who knows how to interest and intrigue the media has mastered one thing -- the ability to leverage the media for mutual benefit.

In ye old days of print, a newsroom was the physical space where journalists gathered to pound out news on their typewriters. Now, the term refers to where companies post their news and all the information they want journalists to find.

Also known as digital pressrooms or media kits, your newsroom is the PR hub of your website. It not only attracts traditional journalists, but podcasters, bloggers, and influencers who are curious about your business. To ensure that they find what they are looking for, be sure to include newsroom essentials like:

Growing up is never easy. There are always unexpected twists and turns, but as children there was that shining light of adulthood at the end of the tunnel. Building an online presence for your company can feel the same. We dream of skipping those awkward adolescent years of slow news coverage and empty email lists and moving straight to being the go-to website for your market. But we need to learn to walk before we can run.

Sometimes it is nothing short of mystifying when a competitor with lesser products, numbers, and brand recognition generates more ink than you. Just as the art of Chinese calligraphy is built upon layers of subtleties, spanning thousands of years of knowledge and imbued with the spirit of the masters, so are the complexities of telling your company's story.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years. Businesses who escape this fate and succeed, more often than not, have mastered the art of public relations. These companies have figured out how to use PR to multiply their effectiveness with customers, partners, and investors.

Customers, partners and investors make decisions about your product or service based upon what they read, hear and experience. You are the expert on how to optimize your IoT product, fortify your cereal or leverage your portfolio of investments, but do you know the best approaches for optimizing your partnership with your PR firm? Here are five ways:

“I see trees of green, red roses too…” As Louis Armstrong sings, it’s a wonderful world. Every Earth Day we celebrate earth and our efforts to protect it. One of our environmental protection mantras is the 3Rs – Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. The idea of reusing old items to reduce waste can also be useful for your company’s marketing and PR content. Instead of the classic 3Rs, may we present, Renew, Recycle, and Repurpose:

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Then in 2017, you and your crew set sail in search of buried gold to stake a claim on your industry’s uncharted territory. But alas mate, you find yourselves in the dreaded doldrums - where the calm sea of no publicity lies. If only a current of public recognition would carry you away, then you are this much closer to Treasure Island.
 
Well Captain, your crew awaits your instructions, so what should you do before there is mutiny on the bounty? It’s time to bring in the PR oars of salvation and start rowing your ship to the promised land.

Here are five ways to make news when there is no news:

Generating high quality, and quantity, leads is crucial to any marketing campaign. Successful lead generation keeps sales brimming with new prospects and hardly requires any effort once put in motion. But as with any machine, getting the gears started requires some old-fashioned elbow grease.

Setting up your own lead generation systems requires focus on five areas: