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6 Common Mistakes in PR (And How to Fix Them)
Public relations (PR) can be one of the most affordable ways to build an organization, business or brand’s reputation. It can also be botched magnificently. Here are a few common mistakes I see happen in PR that go way beyond a type-o in a press release:
A pitch goes forth without a news hook or with a very weak one. When clients have no news, it’s not the time to go out with a bad pitch.
Instead, think about what makes the client’s story interesting, different, unique, timely, helpful, or unusual? If you can’t answer “why should anyone care or want to know about this?” with a good reply, you don’t have a good story. Restructure the pitch around a solid news hook, and be honest with clients if their story ideas don’t have one.
The pitch can’t deliver. Sometimes a pitch is simply not doable. Maybe the story idea is too complex or relies on other actors or data to fall into place. Perhaps the idea is too self-serving or self-centered (not easy news to deliver to a client but a good PR person knows when this is the case).
One way to fix this is to re-scale the pitch. News of a new employee hire might not generate a front page over the fold story in a newspaper for a small company, but it might be very appropriate news for a trade magazine, a business news and notes column, or a professional…
