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In My Opinion

How to get an editor's attention

Time your PR well: Amanda Barry-Hirst

You can't underestimate the power of positive press coverage - just do your homework first, advises Amanda Barry-Hirst

Timing they say, is everything. Just ask Tiger Woods. The February issue of Vanity Fair magazine carries a front cover that he may well now be regretting given his recent troubles. The almost-naked pose is perhaps not the 'family man' image he is now keen to portray.

The photo-shoot would have been planned months in advance of course, well before his recent domestic troubles hit the headlines. No doubt his advisors had seen the session with celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz as simply building more kudos for the golf champ. At any other time, they would have been right. Now however, it's simply a PR disaster.

Good timing is often the secret to achieving a positive PR result. Fortunately, most of us need not worry about possible reputation meltdowns if we don't get it quite right. But it can mean a waste of effort and a missed opportunity if we don't pay attention to some of the basic rules that are often the difference between success and failure. Here are a few to consider:

Rule one - deadlines. If your story is destined for a printed magazine or newspaper, check when the deadline is. Very few stories are big enough to stop the national presses once the final editorial deadline has gone. Fortunately, most publications, as with LAWR, now have online sites where deadlines are mostly irrelevant, although printed publications still, though this is fast changing, tend to attract more readers.

Rule two - because deadlines are irrelevant to online sites, this means that if it's important that your story does not run before a certain date or time, you need to manage carefully when the story is issued. News travels at breakneck speed today, thanks to Twitter and blogging, so it's worth giving some extra thought to how things will be handled.

Rule three - do your homework. Journalists can receive literally thousands of emails a week, so considering when you press 'send' on your news story could make the difference between it being read, or simply drowned in a sea of unread mails. Get to know the publication or broadcaster, how they structure their news gathering, when they hold planning meetings and tailor your approach accordingly.

Rule four - plan ahead. Many trade and specialist publications produce 'forward feature' lists which allow you to see what themes and topics will be covered in the coming months. A quick scan of these will give you the heads up on whether there's a potential opportunity for your business to contribute a comment or even a case study.

Sadly, none of the above would have rescued Tiger Woods from his ill-timed show of muscles, but they could help you make sure your PR goes with a swing.

Amanda Barry-Hirst is an environmental PR specialist and author of PR Power published by Virgin Books

Posted on 27 January 2010

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