Seat at the Table

While everyone loves a good PR-people-spam-journalists story,  it’s not difficult to find a journalist who can talk to how public relations professionals actually help them.   The problem is that there is too much focus on how to target the right journalist and not enough on what to do when you find them (the popular “build a relationship” advice is only nice if you want coffee).   If you first pick the right reporter, it just means they won’t delete your email.   If you provide them with a good story and facts to back it up, they are far more likely to actually give it consideration.  This is the second stage, targeting being the first, where so media relations often continues to fail. 

What makes a good story?  It depends on the publication but here are some general guidelines I used for my corporate communications work.  Following this list, I have a brief dissection on a Nokia story that shows how all the elements were brought together.

1. Why would a consumer care?  Many top publications have a large and broad readership.  Even a business publication often strives to attract the consumer in all of us.  They even increasingly have lifestyle articles in addition to business articles.

2. Why would an investor care?  Top general and business publications want to be seen as forces in the investment world - both professional and consumer investors - as that raises the value of their publication.

3. What is the economic impact? For both investors and general business readers, showing a substantial economic impact can be critical to getting the story published.  This is especially true where a company is claiming they will change or create a market.   Really?  Then show me how the numbers add up to an economic impact in the market. 

4. Who are you fighting against?  Who is the competition you will destroy?   Google fights Microsoft, ethanol scares oil companies, bidets flush the toilet paper market.   Like any great story, a good article has a strong and aggressive fight with a protagonist (your company) and at least one antagonist (a competitor or market forces) duking it out.  You can say there’s no competition or no fight until your blue in the face, but by that time the reader (or reporter) may have fallen asleep from boredom.   

5. Who is your main character and what makes them colorful?  If it’s the CEO, what are their hobbies? Do they feed into a business philosophy (running a business is like planting a garden…).  People want to read about interesting people.  Even negative facts like messy divorces are fair game and (and more likely to make it into an article).

An article on Nokia in Forbes this week provides a good example of this story outline in action.

Investor interest  - This isn’t just about the many numbers in the article but insights into Nokia’s strategy.  Nokia’s moves affect many different types of companies.  For example, if you want to invest in stand alone mobile portal companies, you need to know if and how they are threatened by Nokia’s new mobile portal (something covered in the story.

Economic impact - The article throws out numerous figures on the market, Nokia’s place in it and how the market may grow.  This can be of interest not only to an investor but anyone with a general interest in the cell phone and/or global markets.  Did the media relations rep help compile all these figures?  This should be a regular habit of any good public relations teams.  It’s not just about your own company’s numbers, it’s about all the relevant competitor, economic and consumer numbers that represent the market and it’s many elements.

Consumer interest - It’s Nokia.  Gadgets, new mobile services, cool designs.  Easily done.

The fight - Nokia vs. other manufacturers, old service provider habits, missteps in the US and more.  There were plenty of fights and the article takes them on one at a time to keep a good lively pace for the story. 

The main character - The CEO, Olli-Oeka Kallasvuo, is the main spokesperson and character.   The article closes with a tennis story that highlight this aggressive, never-say-die, learning attitude.  It’s an obvious metaphor for how Nokia is supposed to be portrayed in the story and one that makes a more colorful ending to a good business story.

Outlining the above element isn’t just for the media relations professionals, it’s for anyone involved in messaging and reputation management.  Many publics want to understand not only a company’s position, but the broader picture.  By pulling all the elements together, you provide not only the core message, but the context in which it should be seen.