When approaching the media, you’d better be darned sure your story is interesting. Got a new product to announce? Just signed a new client? Opening store? If so, that’s great. But it’s useless in the eyes of the media unless you have something that makes it unique. So what makes a good story? How can you turn your announcement into a fascinating topic of interest to the media. Here are a few must-do’s:

• Focus - Your story should be about one specific topic. Being too broad makes the story vague and uninteresting. Don’t add a bunch of mumbo-jumbo just because you want to fill a page of paper, keep your story focused on one topic. Any filler information should only serve to support your main idea.

• Drama- Your story needs to have something that is dramatic, unique, different… If you’re opening a store, what makes the opening different than others? Why is it unique? These are questions you need to answer yourself before you propose the story to someone else.

• Sources-When promoting your story, try to look for other sources that support your idea. Customers that enjoy your service or product and are willing to speak with the press are a great resource for a reporter. Perhaps even a spokesperson from the Chamber of Commerce or local Kiwanis club. Anyone that is independent of you and is willing to offer “kudos” to a member of the press can really help set your story apart from others.

• Biggest? If your story is a “first” (or biggest, largest, fastest, etc…), the press eats this kind of information. In fact, you might even want to try to contact the reporter you think might give you the best exposure to your customer base. Offer an exclusive. An exclusive is an offer to a journalist to run the story first, before anyone else. Now if you do offer an exclusive, it really has to have an incredible “Wow” factor, so think about this carefully first.

• Data: Reporters love data. If you can provide any kind of statistical data that supports your story, you’re more likely to get the attention of the media. If you think about it, you’ll often hear the media quote a source saying; “The top ten reasons….” Numbers and statistics can really make your story more interesting to reporters.

Just remember, when you’re writing an announcement, don’t get caught up with ensuring you write what you want. Its not about you…it’s about the journalist and their audience you’re trying to reach. What will get their attention and how can you write a story idea that will stick? Follow these suggestions and watch how quickly your idea will be gobbled up by the press.

If you need expert PR advice and a professional to help, check out Resource Nation’s business center of public relations professionals.

Pay-For-Performance

A Pay-for-Performance plan is a fairly new phenomenon in the PR community. In short, it means you only pay for a PR firm’s work if it results in some kind of news coverage for you or your company. It’s a great solution for the business first starting out in PR without a huge budget and would prefer to earmark it for results. It’s great if you’re not too concerned about your overall marketing communications strategy but still want to see how public relations can help lift your voice of the company in today’s conversational media.

Retainer

Contracting with a PR firm using a retainer is a way to ensure you have someone to handle all duties associated with your media reach. A retainer is a set dollar amount that’s paid to the PR firm every month. It’s usually based on the number of hours per month you expect the company to work for you. Its perfect for a small to mid-sized company in need of outsourcing all of their public relations needs including strategizing, implementing and designing comprehensive marketing/public relations campaigns. Basically, it’s when you need someone to be there for you to get the job done…no matter what.

Hourly or By Project

If you’re a business that needs help getting important marketing and PR projects done, sometimes just paying for the time it takes to get the project done makes most sense. Those projects can consist of items like press releases, customer newsletters, or press kits. It boils down to this: Whatever needs to be done, tell your chosen firm or consultant and they’ll get it done. For example, let’s say you’re about to announce a new product and you need a press release written. The firm will write the release, post it on the wire and pitch it to reporters…then just bill you for the time needed to get the work done.

Overall, the best public relations firms are those that offer multiple ways of paying for their services. Do your homework and look closely to see if those you’re considering will help you when it comes to paying the bill. You’ll be much better off if you do.

Hurricanes, floods, lawsuits, financial meltdowns, earthquakes…I’ve handled them all as a PR professional. And now, as the nation deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and the Wall Street meltdown, we not only need to pray for those affected, but we should also take the time to ensure we’re prepared if something like this happens to us.

Handling a crisis as a public relations professional takes intelligence, grit, experience, and sometimes a general ability to be at the right place at the right time. You want your employees and customers to know that you’re in control of the situation. That means, wherever the conflict, that’s where you’re at…being a physical presence at the scene, ready to handle the media and customers.

When the island of Kauai was hit by a horrific hurricane some time ago, my company had a great number of customers and employees affected. Within 48 hours of the eye hitting landfall, I was on an emergency cargo plane packed with food rations and water — enough to last me for four to seven days. My mission was to ensure our customers knew that if they needed help, our company was ready and prepared.

When I arrived at the island airport, I was concerned because of the long lines of people waiting to get OFF the island. Rental cars were just parked and abandoned on the curb. Nothing looked normal and in fact, the scene looked like it was straight out of a war zone.

The first thing I did was nab a rental car that was sitting at the curb with its keys still in the ignition. From there, I ventured off to find a hotel for which I supposedly had a reservation. I found the hotel in the dark. I went to the lobby to check in. Even though there was no running water or electricity, the hotel actually had a room for me. No matter the conditions, I was there.

You see, to handle an extreme disaster, it’s important to be where the media is. The day after my arrival, I struck up a relationship with the local radio station that was running regular island updates to help keep its listeners updated on the island’s situation. They gave me regular access to airtime so that I could inform my customers about what they should do and what our company was doing to help them. In addition, I tracked down CNN, the Los Angeles Times and a San Francisco radio station, all within 48 hours of my arrival, to show them how our organization was responding to the incident. Despite the conditions and perilous situation, we managed to make our presence known.

The lesson here is not so much on how to deal with the elements…but how important it is to be at the disaster site as soon as it happens. That’s because all of your stakeholders – employees, customers, partners, and vendors — need to be assured that no matter the circumstances, your company is a partner with them…in good times and in bad.

There’s an old saying that if you want people to know that you care, tell them…and if necessary, use words. Being at “ground zero” speaks volumes about your company’s commitment. That kind of message is priceless.

Even in an uncertain economy, start up businesses and other emerging companies need public relations support to communicate their news. Finding the right agency for your needs is important, but the challenge in conducting a successful PR program does not end merely because you’ve hired a new agency.

Here is some advice for people in organizations that have never worked with a PR agency before.

1. Check references and chemistry.
A track record of success is important, but every PR agency has something it can point to. Make sure their successes are current. (One site we recently checked highlighted a hugely successful program which turned out to be from 1988!) Client-agency chemistry is an important, but often overlooked, factor contributing to a program’s success. When making a decision, remember these are they people you will be working with: do you like and trust them? If you feel like their main interest is in selling you more services than you need, you won’t feel comfortable and are less likely to succeed.

2. Identify the main daily contact at your agency and within your own organization.
Generally it’s not the most senior person you met during the pitch. Just as important, however, identify the main internal contact at your company. This person is critical for the program’s success by providing insight into the company (serving as a “travel guide” into the far reaches of the company), tracking down customer leads (from a usually reluctant sales force), and getting approval far faster and more easily than someone on the outside.

Make sure that the internal PR contact is accountable and that the job description changes to accommodate this new role. (Ideally some parts of the person’s former responsibilities can be delegated to someone else when PR gets added to the mix.) The internal contact should hold regular meetings with the agency’s daily contact, establish priorities, and provide information and direction that enables the agency to write and execute a successful program. This is important because a successful client-agency relationship depends on time committed on both sides. A good PR program generally keeps the internal contact busy. If it doesn’t, you’re probably not conducting interviews, making significant announcements, etc.

3. Ask the senior agency executive how to work best together, most efficiently.
It’s not that you need to change the way you work to suit the agency. But they might have some best practices about how to work smarter with them and get more value from the relationship. At a basic level, telephone conference calls may be less personal but more cost-effective than having your agency travel to your offices – since agencies typically charge by the hour.

4. Ask your agency to provide you with PR 101
if you are unsure or uncomfortable with your new assignment, ask your agency to present a PR 101 session. Don’t worry about looking “dumb” – they don’t know your business or company well, either. (In fact the PR 101 session could be scheduled the same day as a detailed agency briefing on your company.) Another suggestion: invite senior management to the PR 101 session so that everyone has the same expectations. The PR 101 session can be conducted up front – before the planning - so you can understand what’s appropriate, realistic and strategic. (Getting on “The Tonight Show” may be cool, for example, but may not help your company’s bottom-line.)

5. Keep an open channel to the CEO.
Make sure you understand the CEO’s business goals and current positioning driving the company to hire its first agency. You need to understand where the company is headed, and the best people to give you that information is your CEO, senior management team, or business divisions chiefs. Make sure your goals are in synch; we’ve had clients who generated strong results, but the messages picked up in the media were not the ones the CEO wanted - even though the company appeared in Fortune, The New York Times, Newsweek and other top-tier media. Is product PR more important than internal (a.k.a. employee) communications? Does your company have an established crisis communications plan? Based on management’s input, your agency can help assess your needs.

6. Update or formalize your company’s positioning before developing your PR plan.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to establish communication priorities that map to management’s business goals. You also don’t want to communicate corporate messages that are no longer relevant or are half-baked. It can be tempting to try to swing at everything, but chances are you might have limiting funding and resources, so it’s critical to prioritize to be effective.

7. Assess all your communications and marketing materials.
Assess all your communications and marketing materials. This includes Website design, press kit, sales collateral, advertising, trade show and other signage, stationery, and direct marketing. Evaluate whether they consistently communicate the same message (allowing for appropriate differences across different in how information is communicated; a website clearly communicates differently from a business card.) If you don’t have one, develop a style guide to be distributed to all marketing personnel. Websites are often the first place reporters turn to when checking out a company, but many corporate websites are inconsistent, not updated on a timely basis (press releases get posted late), hard to navigate and don’t provide easy mechanisms for contacting the company.

8. Make sure the CEO kicks off the new program
so you get buy-in from others who have information that can help develop good story angles. This will help minimize the likelihood that others within your organization, who don’t see PR as part of their job, stall on getting information to you. Having the weight of the CEO behind you helps grease the wheels.) It’s also important to determine who the CEO wants to serve as the main corporate spokesperson. In some cases, it’s clear: the CEO. Most media prefer to speak to CEOs; however, not all CEOs are comfortable talking to the media or have enough time to devote to conducting interviews.

9. Set communications goals and objectives.
Make sure to set aside budget to measure the program. Many clients choose not to, but by establishing benchmarks, and ideally by exceeding them, you can demonstrate the program’s ROI to senior management. With major clips – like a Wall Street Journal article – present it with an executive summary that explains the significance of the placement, highlights the messages communicated, etc. This is important because you will likely need to continue to educate senior management on public relations. When establishing benchmarks, look at direct competitors and emotional competitors. (Emotional competitors are those you are compared to yet, but want to be.) Again, measurement can help you demonstrate your effectiveness. Hold quarterly update sessions for management.

10. Coordinate with other departments and functions.
Public Relations should coordinate messages and information with other advertising, investor relations, human resources as well as other divisions. IBM places such a high value on consistent communication across the company that a few years ago, it developed and distributed a booklet called “One Voice.” If an organization as complex as IBM sees the value of consistency across all its business units and subsidiaries, it probably makes sense for your company, too. That consistency will make your company’s messages more effective because they will be repeated. And it ensures that other parts of the organization are aware of what you’re doing and vice versa; they may even forward information that you can use to develop compelling news.

11. Be a communications counselor for your company.
Don’t just focus on tactics, think big picture, across divisions. How does the development in one area of the company impact another area? Is there a bigger story here?

12. Make sure your agency acts as your communications partner.
A good agency can help by bringing in perspectives outside your company because they don’t drink the Kool-aide. Their objectivity is useful in determining whether something is newsworthy or just something good for the company. (For example, one former client told us their new software kernal was significant news; when we talked with the product manager, he confirmed the development was significant – because it enabled to company to catch up with its competitors.) Your agency should be able to monitor trends that directly affect your company as well as larger trends being played out in the business media. As a communications partner, the agency can counsel you on strategies – not just tactics – that will help you meet your goals.

13. Understand that managing an agency takes skill.
Ironically, some clients are afraid of being upstaged when the agency generates lots of results, and that their bosses will credit the agency, not the internal person. In some cases, internal PR contacts micromanage just to say “we had to work closely with the agency to get it right.” (A client once placed every “that” in a press release to “which,” only to change them back again in the next draft.) A good PR agency wants to make you look good, not upstage you. And it takes management ability to get results from an agency, just as it does from an internal team – and that’s true no matter how good the agency. For example, with one former daily contact, we uncovered terrific news from within the company, generating placements in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ABC “Evening News,” NBC “Dateline,” Fortune, Forbes, and others. After she left, an outside PR veteran took over; yet the number and quality of our results plummeted dramatically because he never spent the time to uncover anything we could translate into coverage. The lesson: use the agency to succeed and don’t be afraid if they are the ones in daily contact with the media.

14. Understand your agency’s invoices and billing policies.
Most agencies hate surprising their clients as much as clients hate getting surprised by an unexpectedly large and complicated invoice. Make sure your agency explains its policies so that you can plan accordingly as well as who can resolve billing problems – it’s often not your daily contact. At the same time, you should explain your company’s accounting policies: do you need a P.O.? What do they need to do to ensure your accounts payable will quickly approve payment?

It’s happened many times before …and it can easily happen to you too. You get the call that KWHOever is in the lobby with a camera crew wanting to know your company’s response to [insert crisis name]. You’ve got 60 seconds to figure out what to do before the camera goes live…don’t you just wish you’d DVR’d the situation so you can press rewind to grab more time to get ready before you go live?

One of the best responses to a crisis is doing something before it happens. You think it won’t or can’t happen? Think again. If you can imagine it, then it probably will. So what do you do? Get ready before you have to GET READY!!! Here’s how:

Prep the Scouts: Your employees know what’s going on in the trenches. Train them to tell you if they’ve sniffed out a potential crisis or issue of concern before it happens.

Don’t stop talking: Keep regular contact with your company leaders to let them know if there’s a possibility that something bad might happen. That way, you can start to put a plan into action to prepare.

Train the Infantry: Keep your employees informed about what’s going on with the company…good and bad. Not only will you inspire loyalty and trust, but your employees become a great, first line of defense should the media come calling.

Understand, reporters are a creative bunch and will do anything to get the story. I’ve had them stand in a parking lot to catch employees walking to their cars. Not a big deal…IF they know what to say. That’s why keeping them informed is so important.

Cozy up to them before its cold: Keep up relationships with reporters who follow your industry. Strong relationships with the media during a non-crisis time pay off when the heat is on.

Okay…so back to our story. What the heck do you do once the story’s on a roll? What actions can you take after the tape starts rolling? Here’s some things to think about:

It’s a wrap…or is it? Keep in touch with the reporter even if it seems like it’s over. Just because the story is a “wrap,” doesn’t mean it’s a wrap. Monitor how its going and don’t be afraid to call the reporter on the carpet if its not accurate.

Don’t speculate

It is just as important to provide accurate information as it is to act quickly. When researching questions for public release, it is imperative to stick with known facts and don’t feel pressured. The pressure to answer is a dangerous practice and gives rise to speculation. It is true that reporters will be pressing for answers; however, what’s more important is providing factual information.

Play Nice

During a crisis, messaging and communications to any audience should be compassionate to those that may have been affected.

A crisis is a very chaotic time and will create a period of confusion and second-guessing. Remember, everyone is dealing with a difficult time and intangible elements begin to pop up. Just remember, this is a time to show empathy as well as leadership.

Take control

Depending on the situation, the media may try to make a bigger story out of something that really isn’t. Make sure they have the facts right before making the issue to be something bigger than it really is.

If you have to answer

What’s the best thing to do? Take a deep breath and slow things down. Remember the story will be told whether you want it to or not…if you don’t talk, then the reporter will find someone who will. Find out exactly what they’re asking for and let them know you’ll track down answers. This will slow them down and give you time to react appropriately.

If you handle it with honesty and poise, the reporter, and the public, will remember that when times got tough, you handled it like a champ. Then and only then it might be time to set your DVR.

Choosing among service firms can be confusing – whether accountants, law firms, public relations agencies or other consultants. Typically organizations in each category describe their services in ways unintentionally similar to their competition, relying on jargon or industry catch phrases (that only their competitors understand) to differentiate themselves. When evaluating among PR agencies, creativity can be an important criteria, but it is not the only key to a successful relationship. Consider these questions in your agency selection process as the right answers can increase the likehihood of your communications strategy improving your brand and affecting your organization’s performance.

The following questions were designed to help determine which agency is more likely to succeed on your business.

1. Who really will be working on your project? Senior folks at the pitch – or junior staffers learning on your dime? And what percentage of their time will be devoted to you…or to another, perhaps larger account?
2. Is their experience current, relevant – or is it outdated?
3. What is the chemistry like on the team? Between you and the agency? Can you envision comfortably working with the team you’ve been assigned?
4. Does the agency look at you as a partner or as a prospect? In other words, are its people interested in what services are most important to achieving your goals – or in the agency’s bottom-line by trying to sell you on services you don’t need?
5. Do they listen well to your objectives and directions? Can they document how they’ve gained measurable success for other businesses like yours?
6. Are they responsive and accessible – or don’t get back to you (or the media) because they’re always in agency meetings (or worse, busy working for other clients)? Are you a priority for them?
7. Are they passionate about your business? (Or only for those with big budgets?) What is their client philosophy?
8. Are they passionate about PR? How well do they know the media? When did the senior members last talk to the media?
9. Are their plans dusted-off from another client – or developed specifically for your business, objectives, etc?
10. Do they suggest ways to be more effective – without increasing the budget? Do you see them adding value to what you already have on your team?

“Truth or Dare?

Remember the kid’s game “Truth or Dare?” You’re asked to either answer a question (with the truth of course) or be summoned to a yet-to-be-named perilous activity known as the dare. Of course, there’s risk of complete and total humiliation either way…the truth could reveal something utterly embarrassing and a dare could grant you the opportunity to completely mortify yourself. But choose you must…or you simply don’t play.

Dared to Spin

In the world of business, you’d be surprised how often I’m asked to choose dare. Since I’m the “PR guy,” when briefing the press on whatever the matter of the day might be, rather than choose to tell the exact truth, I’m dared to “spin” it. The rub with “spinning” a story is that you have utterly no inkling about what might happen. It’s tremendously risky and the upside isn’t so great. On one hand, it might be relatively harmless and you escape with a grand victory. On the other hand, more times than not, it can cause great humiliation to yourself or your company and it won’t take long for you to wish you could go back and take the “Truth” option instead.

The Wisdom of Truth

Working with the media is an exhilarating experience providing great opportunities. It’s a great tool that is helpful for spreading the word about your company or product. But to keep the trust of a reporter and therefore ensure future collaboration, choosing the “truth” is always the wisest decision. Choosing to “spin” only erodes your credibility and cheapens your company’s reputation.

Far and away, the best kind of story you can provide the media is always rooted in the truth. Even when it’s bad news…here are some tips when you dare to tell the truth:

• Ensure accuracy. No matter if the facts are good or bad, you want to ensure the information you share with the media is accurate. In bad situations, take your lumps up front and let your bad story be a one-day story.
• If you make a mistake, don’t worry…just correct it. Even if you forgot to share something critical or you misspoke and needed to provide a correction, that’s okay. Making a mistake is human and the media will forgive you. Purposely not telling the truth? Now that’s another matter.
• You don’t need to be overly forthright. I said tell the truth, not tell your entire life story. Share the facts related to the current situation, but don’t sway too far away and give up other juicy information that isn’t relevant.
• It’s okay to say “I can’t tell you…” If you do run into a situation that you can’t share something…just tell them why. Here’s some examples: “I can’t share that information with you because its confidential,” “Due to competitive reasons, that information is not disclosed,” or “I can’t speak on behalf of that other party, you’ll have to ask them.”