I’ve done it.
I’ve distilled 20 years of marketing, public relations and communication know how into just THREE key pillars, pearls if you will, of communication ‘wisdom’.
Apply them to your PR strategy (you do have a strategy don’t you?!) and watch reputation, customers and positive publicity swell beyond your wildest dreams!
Whether it’s press releases, media competitions, or simply talking to a prospective new customer, making a presentation or a phone call with the journalists – this is what I believe.
The more I’ve mulled it over, the more liberating it becomes.
Here goes.
1. Add Value to the Conversation
Whatever you say, whenever you say it, make it relevant and worthwhile.
Different conversations will require different information and content to add value. But whatever conversation you take part in, be it one-to-one conversation – or a news release hopefully read by thousands – whatever information you provide should add value. The more value the better.
Implicit in adding value is not interrupting the conversation, only adding value when permission is granted. Listen first, then, and only then, can you …
2. Say What You Think
I was trained in the PR game often adhering to exhaustive brand guidelines obsessed with corporate consistency. Whatever we communicated had to sing the company tune. Company quotes had to be approved and reapproved before journalists could see them – to ensure all key messages were included. And ultimately flogged to death.
But the problem is that people don’t buy from businesses because ‘they’re consistent’. But they will buy from businesses if they feel they have a personal connection. People buy from people. And the chances of me forming a relevant business relationship with a corporate automaton, by contrast, are very slim indeed.
Anyone who isn’t stupid can draw on there own innate regulatory brand guidelines – most people call them common sense.
Of course, brand guidelines have an important role to play in communications. But, above all, they shouldn’t restrict and shackle what we say. They should enthuse, empower and liberate.
Just like the internet is liberating us all. We can communicate whenever and however we wish to potentially thousands of people.
But will they listen?
If you’re telling people what ‘you think they want to hear’ (and this USED to be my advice to clients back in the day! Key messages etc.) they will ultimately switch off. Perhaps sooner than you’d think.
So, just say what you think. Be sincere. Engage with people. Listen and respond. And tell them what you think!!!
3. Share Your Passion (Enjoy!)
It’s much easier to enthuse others if you’re enthusiastic yourself.
Me? I just can’t get excited about Yellow Pages directory listings or, say, sending 10,000 emails out on the justification that 100 people reply – so it ‘washes its face’. (What are the 9,900 non-respondents perceiving about your business?!)
There are no excuses anymore to be this creatively bankrupt.
It’s time to show the world what you truly care about. Post a blog, reply on a forum, publish an eBook, film a 2-minute video, whatever it takes. Generate vibrant, free and sharable content content which communicates your business’s most important unique selling point: That’s YOU, YOUR STAFF and YOUR PASSION!
Generate vibrant, free and sharable content which ‘adds value to the conversation’. Generate vibrant, free and sharable content that ‘shows people what you think’.
Be confident in what you care about and have fun!
Further Reading? Anything by David Meerman Scott or Seth Godin.
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