Media and Public Relations Planning
“Public relations is generally the result of form and substance” - Unknown
In business you need lots of plans. You need a Business Plan, a Marketing Plan, a Human Resource Plan and even a Media and Public Relations Plan. And like any other plan, you need to define what you want to accomplish, what you want to say, who you need to tell, and what information would be considered newsworthy.
What do you want to accomplish?
Writing out the goals for your media and public relations plans will help you crystallize your intentions. It will help you focus on results. It will help you determine what costs will be associated with your plans?
What do you want to say? And how should you communicate your message?
As with any kind of planning, you have to be able to maintain your message consistently throughout any program or opportunity that you take on. That includes consistently delivering your organizations mission, vision, and values to your intended audience.
Who do you need to talk to?
Who do you need to tell about new programs, products and services? Make a list of all stakeholders. That includes News media such as print, radio, television, and Internet outlets. Other stakeholders can include:
Professionals who would have an interest in your “news.”
Customers & clients who do business with your company and have an interest in your news.
Influencers who could potentially share your news with their circles of influence.
Build your PR Calendar
A public relations calendar helps you in to coordinate your efforts around what’s going on locally and globally. The key element of any PR Strategy is consistent ongoing communications to your target audience using a variety of methods.
Using a PR calendar effectively will also enable you to track any budget items for training courses, PR tools, distribution of press releases, etc. Keep it simple. Decide on your key activities. Then look at those activities you will need to spend time with to complete each such as writing articles, contacting journalists, preparing for speaking engagements, launching new products, planning events etc. Take a look at the months of the year and plug in the activities you want to achieve and in which months and then make sure you follow the plan.
When planning your PR calendar, look for times when your business would have the best chance of getting coverage. Decide what type of newsworthy angles you could include to get the journalists’ attention. You can do this by creating a file story ideas and plan the timing for distribution.
By creating you media and public relations plan you will be able to capitalize on opportunities to get your story out. It will raise your chances of making the news.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post: Using awards to promote your products or services.
Also Check out Equal Voice for a list of Media (both local and national).
And finally, register for the Women’s Media Summit here: http://womensmediasummit.com/register/
Heidi
Heidi Richards, Founder & CEO - The WECAI Network™
