We’re working on a campaign for a client right now that got off to a bit of a slow start. We were brought in after the approach had been chosen. In a perfect world, we prefer to be a part of the concept and initial campaign strategy planning because the PR perspective adds value to that component, but sometimes that isn’t what happens and we live with it.
This campaign has some challenges. It’s a crowded market place and there isn’t much news value in what the client wants to announce. Not that it is isn’t interesting to the people involved, but it didn’t meet any of our AHA external news value criteria. We took on the task of developing an interesting angle that we felt more confident about pitching to media and bloggers and sharing on social media networking sites.
We had a good brainstorming session with our AHA crew about what to pitch media, and like every story meeting we have – it was lively. We’re respectful in these meetings, but no one holds back. It can get loud; there is often a lot of laughter, loud voices and a lot of “AHA moments.” We question the ideas, concepts and angles and spend time poking holes in each of them and define what the heart of the story is, so the pitches are solid when we are ready to send them to media and bloggers.
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There is a great article on Ragan.com that focuses on the results of a study that says most companies are not prepared for a social media crisis. It’s worth a read.
How and when an organization responds and reaches out using traditional communications vehicles and through social media is crucial. One of the challenges is that social media has turned the world into a 24/7 news cycle. Many organizations aren’t prepared for that. How do you strategically and authentically respond if you aren’t prepared?
There are many steps an organization can take to put processes in place in case they are faced with an issue or crisis.
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We’ve been talking a great deal about the power of video lately. At AHA, we believe that video can be a valuable tool to help tell an organization’s story – but it is just one component. In Wednesday’s blog post, I am going to talk about other tools that are important when it comes to telling your organization’s story.
For today, I want to focus a little bit on how we, at AHA, approach public relations using video. Prior to opening our PR agency, I worked for both a larger PR agency and in-house as a director of communications and had many opportunities to work with videographers. One of the challenges that I often found was that the videographer showed up on the day of the shoot and asked: “What am I shooting?” It felt disconnected to me.
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Whether it’s a speech, a news release, a white paper, an article for your website or to send to media, a video news release, a video series or any other communications vehicle – it is all about the story. It is one of the opportunities and one of the challenges of public relations. An organization needs to really dig deep and build a credible story to interest stakeholders.
To help determine your story’s news value, ask yourself the questions below.
Is the story timely and relevant? It’s surprising how many things are put forward as great ideas and when we dig a little deeper, we realize that it’s not timely. With few exceptions, there is a time element attached that makes the story “old” before you realize it.
Does the story have significance to a trend, a cultural standard or shift? What does the story mean in the bigger context of your organization, industry or the world? Does it show a shift in how things are done? Is it a part of a growing trend or does it buck a trend that most people are starting to see as a standard?
Who will care about this story? We have had clients with “news” that makes their team jump and down with excitement, but outside of their organization, it means nothing. Understand that what might be of interest within your industry, may have no value to the larger business community. It’s still may be worth telling a story to a specific audience, but it’s important to know who that audience is.
What is the best way to tell this story? This is all relevant to the specific story and the audience you want to connect with. Sometimes video is the right medium, other times, an editorial style article or a white paper provides a more relevant way to share the information. Deciding how to tell your story first starts with finding out what stakeholder group you want to tell it to, then identifying how this specific group likes to receive information, and then determining the best way to tell the story. All of these elements have to come together and create a compelling “package” for the story. If you create a video for a demographic that doesn’t watch video, you likely won’t get many viewers. However, it may be that you have multiple stakeholder groups and need to tell the story through several mediums – a video, an article and a Q&A with experts.
How can you expand and extend the reach of this story? It may be as straightforward as telling the story through different mediums. It can also be telling the story from different angles through those mediums – the technical aspect, the human resources aspect, the collaboration and teamwork, or the business outcomes. Once you have defined the story and the primary audience and mediums(s), take another good look and search for additional opportunities. Is there a complementary approach that would let you create something that can be shared with your board of directors, with government, or used in sales meetings or speaking engagements?
