Bizstartup.ie - NewsPublic relations for start-ups

The key to making the most of PR is simply to understand its general practices. This means setting out your primary objectives, listing your target audiences, researching the key media to reach those audiences and developing communications milestones.

With these simple practices in place you will then have a clear idea about:

• what you want to achieve
• who you want to take note of your PR activity
• what media will provide the opportunity for PR coverage
• what material you have to provide to media.

Press release tips

The final part of the jigsaw is the execution or approach. This is the element where most inexperienced businesses fall short. When targeting traditional media the number one tool is the press release. There is no magic formula to these. Just remember:

• always provide a title and date and mark as ‘News Release’
• develop a news hook – an ‘angle’ that will spark the interest of a journalist and avoid using overly technical jargon. A press release is not a advertisement – don’t treat it as such
• provide the key information you wish to communicate in the first paragraph(s) – the five W’s of Who, What, Where, When and Why
• check and double check your spelling
• provide a paragraph of background information on the company at the bottom of the press release
• always provide contact details at the end of the press release for a company representative in the event media wish to contact you
• when sending to a multiple of media use the ‘bcc’ box in the email settings.

The next logical step is to develop relationships with journalists and publications who are interested in your company. If you provide news value, the benefit will be reciprocated.

Social Media

Finally the continued development of social media has provided both individuals and businesses with a new array of portals to reach their audiences. Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs are for the most part free to setup and use and as such represent a good investment as all it costs you is your own time.

These tools are all about developing and engaging with an online community who may be interested in your service or product offering, or simply interact within your industry or geographic location.

There are many courses available on how to engage in this space – but my advice is why not test these tools out in a personal capacity and when you are comfortable then you can reap the benefits of a course focused on social media tools for business.