I think government can take a page out of the Gautrain PR book for other projects such as the stadiums being built for 2010. We never hear what the progress is for the stadiums and I am sure journalists are always looking anything they can publish on the stadiums. If the government was communicating constantly with the media about the development of the stadiums then even when there was a delay in construction, the media would be fully informed of the reasons why and therefore have less ammunition for the morning paper.

Look daily news journalists are going to stab you in the back at least once, but the more open you are with them the better. Remember they have to sell newspapers with headings like “GAUTRAIN EXECUTIVE CAUGHT WITH PROSTITUTE” which would certainly sell more papers than “GAUTRAIN ON SCHEDULE”. Be open and

No wonder we don't trust advertising

Well in all honesty, no. I attended the Journal of Marketing conference today entitled “Do we trust advertising?” which was an open forum between advertising heavyweights such as Reg Lescaris (TBWA), Gail Curtis (Saatchi & Saatchi), Renee Silverstone(TJDR), Julian Ribeiro (Ogilvy), Harry Herber (The MediaShop) and Neil Higgs (TNS Research Surveys). While the breakfast was great I did not really know why all these marketing people were trying to answer this question. The speakers spoke about charming the consumer but I think that consumers are smarter than advertising exec’s think.

I don’t think I will ever trust advertising, mainly because there will always be a motive behind it. To put your message in a certain medium advertisers usually have to pay a large amount of money, so why would they put the complete truth, good and bad.

What really got my goat is when the discussion moved into digital marketing. The speaker was referring the the splitting of the advertising budget – R 2 mill to TV,  R1 mill to print and R50 000 to online. The example was used to show how little money goes into online advertising.  How about R2 mill into communications and publicity which will use the media to convey the media.

Consumers trust the media

Marketers in general need a wake up call when it comes to allocating their budgets to various mediums. How about taking some of the  millions spent on advertising and concentrate on a communications campaign to build your brand.

Well we are trying to change the perception of public relations companies by creating an RSS Feed for Ngage Public Relations. Yes I know this is shameless punt but it is a novel idea so just listen dammit. For those of you who are unfamiliar an RSS feed is a way for users to subscribe to the content of your website. When you make an addition, everyone subscribed will see the change through their Feed Reader programme. Some email software will enable you to subscribe to feeds.

Add the Ngage Public Relations Feed: http://www.ngage.co.za/ngagerss.xml or find out how to add it. 

The point is that many journalists are making use of RSS because it is a very easy and uncluttered way to receive alot of information. Journo’s will subcribe to other news agencies such as CNN so if there is any breaking news they will know about it immediately.

We decided that Ngage should create it’s own feed which would enable journo’s to subscribe to our clients media releases. Ideally I see communication agencies moving away from sending bulk emails to journalists and instead providing information based on the opt-in model. This is the way of new media and I feel the future of public relations. Journalists will start seeing communication companies as assets and not irritations.

Readers will judge your company just on the image that is used in the media. Lets say you are looking to spend about R20 000 on a new laptop and you read about this company in JHB which is importing a new brand. You will be interested until you see the picture for the article of the owner and his office which looks like it was taken with his cellphone. That says to the reader that you do not know what you are doing and will probably scam me out of my money.

You should have a collection of photographs on hand which include management head shots, product shots on a white background and shots of your product in use. You should also include a captions document for the photographs you send to publications. Give publications all the material they need to put together a great article.  

Spend the money and get a professional photographer out for a couple hours. Yes it will disrupt your day and cost a little but you should do it if your are starting to use the media to market your product, service or brand. A great photographer is Des Ingham Brown from Blowfish Photography

I suppose I’m being naive as I know hard news sells newspapers but I think journalists should think about the bigger picture. Would it be so terrible for a company to receive some good publicity from their charitable act. Would they not do more charitable acts to get more good PR.

Take for example the story featured last night on Carte Blanche regarding the Flamingos in Kimberely. Ekapa Mining, a contractor working in the area, spent R500 000 building an ‘S’ shape island in the middle of a large dam in the area. The purpose of the island was to create a sanctuary for flamingos. The island is now flourishing with thousands of flamingos inhabiting the area.

I have no doubt that the owners of Ekapa Mining did not do this as a publicity stunt but they have created a large amount of positive coverage for their mining company. I am so glad that Carte Blanche covered the story but lets face it, they only covered the story because the local government is pumping raw sewage into the flamingo’s dam.

A mining client of ours makes various donations through-out the year to charities, schools and organizations in their areas of operation. The chances of a journalist attending one of those functions is nearly an impossibility but we still try.

To all the journalists and publications out there. Do your own charity work and cover CSI stories. The companies will give more and the charities win.

DIY Public Relations is a great marketing tool for companies with little or no budget to promote their business. The best place to start is by creating a media release with the What, Were, When, Who and Why information. Just a simple Word document will do perhaps on your company letterhead. Journalists are not interested in the fluff so keep it to the facts.

If you are not comfortable with that why not call your local trade magazine and ask to speak to a journalist for your industry. Journalists email us all the time looking for stories so they appreciate when stories come to them.

Start smaller: By focusing on your trade and community publications you will not only increase the chances of being featured in the publication, but you will be targeting your customer in a more specific audience. A trade publication aims at meeting the needs of a certain industry or topic such as, Mining Weekly or The Property Professional. The people who subscribe to these publications are the decision makers of that industry. Many trade publications have yearly features lists so ask them to send it to you. You can then prepare ahead of time for your specific feature.

Community publications are your local weekly newspapers and magazines such as the Edenvale Bedfordview News or Get-it magazine. These are important publications if your company aims its products at more general needs such as child care, gardening services etc.

If your company is just getting started and you want the local community to know what you are up too, why not organize a special event which you could invite potential customers and your local community newspaper to. For example if you started a pre-school and would like to get the parents in vicinity to notice you, why not have an open day at the school with clowns and magic shows for the kids. You could invite the local paper and tell the about the special teaching techniques involved at the school.

Of course you should not believe everything you read online so please take all my posts as just general banter about the subject. I and others would love for you to contribute and make comments.