Newsletter PR: The Good, Bad and Ugly
Start Thinking Like A Reporter
by Jake Potter
Here’s a poorly-kept secret: the crux of good public relations is a fascinating, original story.
We tend to find people and companies compelling when they have an interesting story to tell. It’s an essential element to media relations, but too often we find that folks want to cross the finish line (getting on the front page) without putting gas in the tank (understanding what makes a story interesting).
Want to determine what your story is? You need to start thinking like a reporter. Ask yourself questions like these:
* Would 1,000 people want to read about this? What about 10,000?
* Who does this affect, and how does it affect them?
* Can I capture someone’s attention in two or three sentences? (Familiarize yourself with journalism concepts such as ledes and the inverted pyramid – these help to articulate your story more clearly.)
* Is there a financial element involved? Does this story include a specific dollar amount?
* And finally, does the story involve puppies or kittens? (Just kidding. But if it does, make sure you take lots of photos.)
No matter how unusual or obscure your business might be, there probably is someone who is impacted by it, and someone else who wants to read about it. Asking critical questions like these and wearing a reporter’s cap helps to spell out the story.
I’ll give you an example. Company XYZ makes machines that help its client make doodads for kids. XYZ doesn’t make the doodads itself – just the parts that allow the client’s manufacturing process to create doodads. A kids’ magazine probably won’t be interested in how the doodads are made – kids won’t care. And reporting on the doodads’ success says more about XYZ’s client than anything else.
But maybe the work that XYZ does for that client saves a lot of money by making doodad manufacturing efficient. Plenty of people are interested in saving money. You can bet that C-level executives who subscribe to a manufacturing magazine and read a story like that will be thinking about ways to tame their budgets.
Reading and watching the news consistently will help to develop your taste for identifying the story. If two separate news outlets are covering the same event, analyze how their stories differ and try to determine why people might prefer one over another. My personal favorite is to watch a football game or another sporting event and try to correctly guess which plays the news will highlight. The ideal end result of this is to develop a knack for “predicting the news” and identifying the story.
Once you can do that, you can go make the story happen.
Photo credit: Agência Brasil
Permalink | 07/28/2010 |
