Talking Points

In the world of public relations a PR person always needs to know their talking points on the subjects that they deal with. When a PR person knows their talking points they can represent their company in a productive manner. Problems or campaigns usually only require three talking points. Three talking points get the point across in a productive manner. It lets the public and the media know what the company is all about. The key is to make sure that all three talking points are straightforward and represent the situation in the best way possible. The way to come up with the talking points is to think of the three things that your campaign is all about or what three things is important in the company that can easily be represented in the media.

Attention

While working in public relations you are sometimes put in charge of grabbing people’s attention or diverting attention from certain situations. This means that a PR practitioner needs to be creative in dealing with their company’s situation. As I have been in class guest speakers have shared stories ranging from throwing a fish at their CEO to wearing a target on their back when confronting angry people. The common element found in each story is how the PR person was upfront. A person responds to companies that are upfront about things, whether it is a negative thing or a positive thing. The key is to grab person’s attention which takes a lot in today’s society. Some techniques that are used by PR people is using Facebook or grabbing people’s attention by doing something unusual in a public arena.

The key is in the relationships

Public relations can be defined as the relationship between a company and their public. It is the job of the PR department to make sure that the relationship stays healthy and effective benefiting both parties.

When I was in Chicago for NAFCC’s 2008 conference I saw how vital relationships are in organizations. If people do not like your organization then they will not attend your event. However if they do attend your event and get offended then they turn more people away from your organization. The key is to keep the relationships healthy so members will continue to come back to an organization and bring more people with them when they come.

What is a Media Kit?

When I was working for the National Association for Family Child Care I had to fill an order for 200 media kits. At the time I didn’t really understand the purpose behind the media kit. There was a lot of paper work that needed to be copied, books had to be assembled, labels had to be printed, boxes had to be put together and it all had to be done to complete 200 kits.

However I have learned now that a media kit is a vital part of any business. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that I was doing a good thing, that the information in the media kit was very valuable.

Media Kits hold the nuts and bolts of a company. The problem with the media kits that I put together was a lot of the information was old information. A media kit should have the most up to date information about a company. They bring about new stories for businesses, customers, and more. The key to a successful media kit is making sure the information in the kit belongs there. The kit should have press releases, a frequently asked question sheet, information about the company, brochures, samples of products and more.

SWOT Analysis

When working in public relations you need to know every detail about the company or person you are representing. To achieve this PR people usually run a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for the strengths of a company, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to a company. A strength would be considered what the company or person is good at. The weaknesses would be something that the company lacks in. The opportunity area is where the company has an advantage over its competitors. When a PR person looks at threats they are able to know what they are up against. A SWOT is useful in the fact that it shows you the nuts and bolts of a company. You know what you have at your disposal and know what you need to get in order to do better PR for your company.

Important PR lesson

It is time to blog once again on public relations. I went about my usual google search and an article caught my eye, titled, “A-Rod learns important PR lesson.” I was curious to see what important PR lesson the writer was referring to.

The lesson he referred to was being up front with the public. Alex Rodriguez is in the public spotlight as one of the most highly paid baseball players. Baseball is a favorite past time of most Americans. However it has been tinged by players using steroids. Baseball greats have fallen as they have disagreed with steroid allegations that have later been proven true. A-Rod used PR to save him from becoming a disgraced baseball player. Letting people know that he did in fact use steroids but, is now clean will bring him back into some good graces. Some people still may not like him. However as a PR student I will say I am impressed that he was up front. He could have said it wasn’t true but, by admitting the use of steroids shows he doesn’t lie about who he is.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/touchingbase/2009/02/a-rod-learns-important-pr-less.html

Public Relations and Journalists

As classes have continued I have become intrigued by how inter connected public relations and journalism is. Sometimes journalists get news stories from public relations people, either through a press release, an event happening, or a crisis occurs. At first I was curious how journalist and pr people coexist? I mean a journalist is taught to go for the story and to not take no for an answer. Where public relations people are taught to represent something and make the public believe in that something. So at first I thought that this was a tense relationship you had to deal with in the PR field. However my text book and teachers have pointed out that this is not the case. Some of the best friends that PR people have in the workplace is journalists. In the long one they are both trying to get the same thing done, which is representing their company by use of the media.

Some thoughts on PR

Lately I feel like I have seen public relations everywhere I look. There are people commenting on situations, events, and issues. They are in essence doing PR for their company or person they are representing. People in the spotlight as of late are Michael Phelps, the Illinois Governor, and I even read reports on how the Super Bowl lacked celebrity power. This shows how inter related public relations is with the media. If the media sense something “fishy” they go for it. Then the public relations people respond with comments, stories, and facts. What makes good PR is when they stay away from saying, “no comment.” People sense something is up or lose faith in an issue when they hear “no comment.” The best PR is the PR that is up front and direct about an issue.