Mistakes to Avoid in Public Relations
The communications environment is complex, so you have to know how to navigate this sea without losing your way and running the risk of throwing it all away. Building relationships with the media is one of the main objectives of PR practice, but it's not always easy to reach them and get the right message across. Thinking "inside the box", not being proactive and accepting "maybe" as the final answer are some of the mistakes that PR professionals often make. The good news is that they can be avoided.
Thinking "outside the box" is an expression we're already familiar with. Why is that? Because it cuts across any activity and public relations is no exception. To think "outside the box" in public relations is to be creative enough to offer journalists new angles to think about a subject that, at first glance, may seem trivial. Doing a brainstorming can be interesting for the PR team, as new ideas are put on the table and debated, until one emerges that is truly disruptive and that favors the project in question. Telling stories is recurrent, but telling good stories is a rarity.
What is also not conducive to the practice of public relations is thinking that just sending an email with information is enough. It's not. Relationships with journalists are built all the time and accepting "no" as an answer is part of the process. Although no one likes to be rejected, the job of a public relations professional is to communicate and so it might not be a bad idea to always reply to journalists, even if it's just to thank them for their reply or to try to understand why they're not interested in following up on the topic.
And why should we settle for "maybe"? Many of the answers given by journalists are based on "it's not a topic I usually work on" or "maybe next time I'll pick it up". Although these are not entirely negative responses, it is the duty of public relations professionals to think strategically and understand how they can get journalists interested in approaching them.
Understanding the interests of your target audience is half the battle if you want to know exactly who to send your message to in the future and ensure that it is heard. And, as a bonus, journalists are happy to receive emails on topics they can work on, creating fruitful relationships between both parties.