15 Tips: Effectively Using PR to Turn Up the Volume on Your Brand

The greatest sin in the public relations realm is the sin of doing absolutely nothing and then wondering why the media isn't paying attention to you (or, in the case of a crisis, are eating you alive). As a business owner or manager, you can arm yourself with a copy of Full Frontal PR or Public Relations For Dummies and engage in "do it yourself" PR or you can contract with a PR consulting firm to assist you in the adventure. Whatever the case, it's up to you to make use of proven PR tactics to help build awareness and credibility for your brand.

Here are 15 tips to get your PR engine started:

1) Focus On Your Newsworthy Attributes

The news hook is an important information trigger that actually interests news editors and reporters, not something contrived or self-serving that you think should interest the media. These news hook triggers are important to the news media, because they are typically what interest and attract additional readers and viewers to the particular outlet. You'll have far greater success getting news coverage for your company or organization if your announcement is based on a proven news hook, rather than being full of puffery and information only of interest to you.

2) Keep Your PR Tools Up-To-Date

The basic tools for being reporter friendly are: well-written news releases, graphic-rich e-mails with tracking capability and attention grabbing subject lines, media/press kits (both online and hardcopy), fact sheets and Q&A documents, backgrounders and history documents, bios of key employees, milestone recaps and timelines, photography (high resolution required for print reproduction), and technical documents such as white papers and case studies. The more information you are able to provide an interested reporter, the more likely your encounter will result in thorough, accurate and engaging coverage.

3) Utilize Newswire Services