April 2013 - Page 2 of 2 - AHA Creative Strategies

Ruth generated national coverage for Wallace the Llama and the TV show Healing with Animals.

Over coffee each morning, I read newspapers (many of them), I check out my favourite blogs (again many of them) and I check out the blogs that are relevant to clients (also many). I update myself on what is going on in the big picture world, in my world and in the world of each of our clients. Did I mention that I get up early?

I found a somewhat humorous blog on Ragan titled “5 signs you’re not cut out for PR” that was also incredibly accurate, which made it a little frightening. The writer, Scott Signore, nailed it – it’s a good read for anyone thinking they might want to work in this crazy field. And for those of us who love what we do, it reminds us of why we’re here.

So, I took Mr. Signore’s blog post and turned it on its head. Here are “5 signs I was born for PR.”

I am a news hound

It’s 5 a.m. PST, 8 a.m. EST and I am wide-awake, checking out the morning news – looking for opportunities or potential issues for our clients. And this hour, when I get to review the news and send links to my clients, is one of my favourite times of the day.

I see opportunity where others see work

When we identify an opportunity, it’s an “AHA” moment (sorry, I couldn’t help myself). We genuinely get excited about the ability to do more, to add value, to extend or expand the benefit of working with AHA for our clients. We realize it might take more effort on our side, but that’s why our clients rely on us.

Pitching a journalist or blogger and generating coverage makes me do a happy dance

I have to say this extends to writing a speech that resonates with the audience, creating a kickass campaign, developing a communications plan that nails it… seeing coverage that profiles our clients, their products, services or initiatives accurately within the context of an interesting piece of journalism makes me so happy that I dance. And if there’s a photo with it, I add in a twirl.

We’re a team

We work in a collaborative world. We work with journalists to get them what they need. We work with clients to identify their PR objectives and to develop the strategy, tools and tactics – not to mention the content – that engages their stakeholder groups and target markets. We work with other agencies as partners and we work at AHA as a team. I am surrounded by smart, creative, strategic people and I get to collaborate with them on a daily basis. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

We are always looking for ways to do more, to do better, to improve

At AHA, we take the time to look at each campaign, each outreach, each project and ask ourselves – what more can we do? What one additional action could we take that would make it better, that would open that next door, that would increase our client’s return on investment? And we get regular feedback – on proposals, on plans, and on campaigns. We measure, we debrief, we review, we discuss openly and honestly (and respectfully) what we could have done differently, what we learned, and what we need to improve on. Constructive criticism is seen as a positive here at AHA – it might not always be easy to hear, but it’s always worth it.

We get results

At AHA, we work on a range of projects. Some are focused on creating positive change in the world. For some clients, we get to tell their stories in a compelling way; for others, we help improve communication between the organization and key stakeholder groups. Some of the work we do focuses on ensuring that individuals and groups that are experiencing change are given the information they need to manage that process. Other projects involve sharing the benefits of an organization’s products or services with consumers – or as in the case of our travel clients – the reasons to visit a specific destination.

We also get to experience success because a) we generate results, as we’re good at what we do; and b) we measure and report on the effectiveness of the initiative. Results matter and we know that – which is why we’re always measuring, adjusting and reporting back on opportunities or challenges. We like to see success as much as our clients do.

I recently had an opportunity to reconnect with the former editor-in-chief of several magazines that I used to write for. She has gone on to do great things and now heads up a large media outlet in Canada. Every once in a while, we find that we have a reason to reach out to check in with each other. This time, I reached out to her.

I had an invitation to a fabulous wine tasting event that a client is hosting. No strings attached, no story pitches – just an invitation to spend an hour or so tasting some good wine and chatting. I think we are both looking forward to this event and the chance to catch up.

This is, in my opinion, the way to develop and maintain authentic media relationships as a PR professional. It is a two-way street and we connect with journalists on a regular basis – not just when we have a story to pitch. There are times when I will see something online (that has nothing to do with our clients) that I know would be of interest to a journalist, so I e-mail them the link. Or if they have written an article or produced a broadcast segment that resonated with me, I will shoot off a quick e-mail to say that. The key to this kind of proactive approach is that it has to be authentic or it just comes across as smarmy and sometimes creepy. (I’ve received e-mails like that – where you know the person is faking it just to get something from you – and you can clearly tell when that is happening.)

There is more to developing and maintaining a good relationship than just keeping in touch. You also have to deliver good story pitches that are relevant to the media outlet, and you have to be reliable and trustworthy. There have been times when we have had that difficult discussion with a client because they had something they wanted pitched to media and, unfortunately, from an unbiased perspective, it was just not newsworthy outside of their organization. It’s never fun to provide that feedback, but it is my job. I don’t want our clients to get a reputation for wasting the media’s time.

Our focus is always on making sure the information we provide is interesting, accurate (there is no room for errors here), timely and relevant to their readers, viewers or listeners. It’s also important, in a media relations context, to understand that if there is an issue or a crisis, these journalists aren’t going to give you a free pass. They have a job to do – and, if you have built a good relationship, there may be an opportunity to put forward information regarding the issue. No good media relations person is ever going to think their positive relationship would ever sway the journalist not to do their job.

Developing positive relationships is a part of my role – the journalists I connect with know that, just like I know that connecting with reliable communications professionals who respond quickly to their requests is a part of their job. It’s how our world works.