The Olives are all over San Diego this week. I haven’t even been able to focus on actual work today because I have been watching all the TV segments and checking out all the media hits crossing my inbox… it’s a media frenzy and it’s exactly what I live for. It’s what we all live for.
This week alone (ahem… it’s Tuesday morning), Olives were hanging out at Fox 5 to promote the Oceanside Museum of Art’s Street Level event happening this Friday, CBS 8 with Arts District talking about Monart Summer Camps and the San Diego Craft Collective, KUSI and ABC 10 with the Police and Fire Championships, and Alan Ziter at Fox 5 and featured in the The San Diego Union Tribune…. That doesn’t even cover half of it.
We love the start of summer… it seems like all of our clients ramp up. So often, we still get that question: “Does PR even work?”
Our answer: “Yes, PR works. Our PR works.”
At Olive, we have invested time in building relationships, and we know our stuff. It helps that we have the best clients who are up to amazing things too. When you have a combination of strategy, creativity, relationships and quality products and services, magic happens.
The key to public relations is to know your target audience. Once you identify that, you can brainstorm all the creative ways to reach them. Sometimes it’s media relations and sometimes it’s not. The key is in building relationships where everyone wins.
At Olive, we approach media relations by identifying how we can achieve our clients’ goals while also trying to achieve our media contacts’ goals. Step 1 is listening and knowing what both are working toward. The campaigns that sustain and gets results are powered by positive energy… everyone wins every time.
Here are our tips to ensure you are building winning opportunities:
- Be a great listener… At Olive, step one starts with great questions that elicit great answers and our job is to listen. When clients are working their life passion and purpose, they are loaded with critical information and our job is to learn from them. We are hired to illuminate their greatness, so the hardest part is done. The great ideas exist and we get to shine the spotlight. You also want to be a great listener to your media contacts. Remember they have goals and target audiences too. A great start is to make sure you are paying attention to their media outlet… if you want to be on TV, watch the TV segments. Once you get a general idea, the best next step is to ask them what they need. If you can solve their needs with great segments about your clients, they will be much more likely to work with you in the future. At Olive, we don’t get coverage, we partner with media and clients to create great opportunities for everyone.
- Find the story… Everyone has a story. Don’t stop digging until you understand the story. Sometimes there are several stories. Since you are in control of what gets shared, you can manage which stories you want to tell. For example, a business owner doesn’t always want to be front and center, but there is a strong enough story in their product. Maybe the product solves a big problem in the world. All you have to do is share what you want to share. In other situations, you might be promoting an event. Rather than just pitching an event, identify stories within the event. You want to start with great questions: What is most important about this event? Why is this event happening? Who does this event serve? What opportunities allow the community to engage? Are there any interested participants in this event that have an interesting story. Go deeper than the event and your opportunities will grow bigger.
- Be strategic with your lead times… If you want big results, you need to give yourself the right amount of time. There are always last-minute opportunities, and we LOVE those too, but what is even better are the opportunities that are strategically planned in advance. If you want the cover story, you gotta be early. In PR, the early bird gets the worm.
- It’s quality and quantity… When PR really works, you are hitting on all cylinders. You are getting the big and the little hits. Sometimes people harp on how quality is more important… they are right… quality is important, but nowadays there is a lot of noise out there and you really need quantity too. At Olive, we say: “You have to do Olive the things.” We aren’t just talking about media hits, calendar listings, TV, etc. We are also talking about beautiful design, internal and external communications, messaging, social media, partnerships, etc. When people say it doesn’t work, what they are really saying is that what we used to do doesn’t work. That’s true… we have to work a little harder (and smarter) these days and sometimes that means it takes more.
- Passion wins every time… When people are tuned into their passion and they are really inspired by what they are doing, it comes through. It’s that subtlety you can’t just quantify, but it’s the difference that makes the difference. At Olive, we only work on projects we are passionate about. We believe clients deserve to work with people who care about what they are doing. Hands down, no matter what, if you are pitching ideas you care about, you will have more success. It’s that sixth sense… people will respond differently. I know there will be some naysayers on this and we can simply agree to disagree. Passion matters.
We are so grateful to work with so many amazing people from media to clients to partners. It takes all the parts to create lasting results. If you are ever wondering what might be causing your campaign to stumble, you can revisit these points. Cheers to summer and all the amazing things we get to illuminate.
-Written by Jennifer von Stauffenberg, founder of Olive Public Relations