The Public Relations Blog

Your company’s unique, entertaining stories can communicate your mission through earned media coverage.

When you think of news, you might imagine serious, consequential topics. While these make up a large part of news coverage, it’s important to remember that not all news has to be dire or grave. News is “what’s new,” and extraordinarily unique, odd, and novel events can be newsworthy.

Newsrooms look for stories that demonstrate news value, so if you want to generate earned media coverage for your company, you must incorporate the elements of news journalists look for in your media pitches. News consumers are more likely to care about and interact with news stories that contain these elements.

In this solo episode, Jason Mudd explains the process of submitting stories to news outlets. Jason explains how to start writing stories, what you should focus on in them, what they should include, how long you should write them, how to select news outlets to pitch to, and how to pitch to those news outlets.

Tune in to learn how you can pitch a byline article to a news outlet!

How to persuade your consumers to take action on your website

Once you’ve established a plan for your consumer to do business with you, you need a call to action, also called a CTA. 

“People respond to direct calls to action,” and characters rarely take action by themselves. There’s always motivation or a reason why they do something. So, don’t beat around the bush – instead, tell your consumer what you want from them. 

Showcase your company’s personality by pitching feature stories for earned media coverage.

With much of the news consisting of timely, serious stories known as “hard news,” people can find relief in “soft news,” which covers topics like lifestyle, arts and culture, and human interest stories. While emotion-based human interest stories (also called features) may seem weak compared to fact-heavy hard news stories, they serve an important purpose in journalism and have great news value.

If you’re looking to earn media coverage for your company, it’s important that your story ideas are newsworthy. Newsworthiness is a factor newsrooms use to determine which stories to pursue and publish. A newsworthy story depends on important news values — elements of news that make audiences care about your story.

A guide to determining whether your company should use the newly popular photo-sharing social media app.

While the classic social media platforms are still prominent in today’s world, there are many up-and-coming social media platforms taking the world by storm. Recently, BeReal has skyrocketed in popularity, primarily among teenagers and young adults.  

BeReal is a social media platform that uses a photo-sharing application to allow users to post a singular photo per day. The catch is you only have a two-minute time slot in which you can post the photo. 

The internet allows for real-time fact-checking and questioning and can take pains to verify every statement you make.

The internet has become an integral part of our lives: helping us connect faster and with ease, keeping a plethora of information at our fingertips, and allowing us to work in real time from anywhere. These are just a few of the internet’s many benefits. It has also brought social media and various platforms to do business and hear individual voices from across the globe. This year, Statista reported over 4.5 billion people using social media. While this opens many avenues for PR, it can also create some problems. 

In this episode, Mark Mohammadpour, CEO of Chasing the Sun, joins host Jason Mudd to discuss four lessons of empathy taken from the hit TV series “Ted Lasso.” Mark refers to four lessons we can learn from the series and tips for implementing these lessons into your work and work environment. 

Tune in to learn more!

How to persuade your consumer to consider buying your products or services

You’ve gotten to the point where you’ve now developed a relationship with the consumer, and they aren’t ready to place an order yet. This is why you’ll have to give them a plan.

Even though the consumer has you guiding them and telling them your product or service’s mission, the consumer most likely feels “at risk” once you initiate an invitation to place an order. They may fear losing money, feeling tricked, or being disappointed. In response, they’ll start making excuses to not do business with you. This is when you develop a plan.

October 2022 – Corporate Comms Strategies to Use in Unprecedented Situations

A slew of recent headlines has showcased a unique challenge for PR teams — how to approach bad publicity and what to say when there is no precedent to take. We’ll look at two examples, one bad and one good, of how to shape your communications strategy in unprecedented times.

When seeking earned media coverage, show PR agencies why journalists will take interest in your story.

Your company might rely on hiring a PR agency to be your fast-track ticket to a spot in a top news story. However, it’s not always as simple as buying guaranteed news media coverage. While a PR agency can certainly connect your brand with newsrooms, your company must be newsworthy if you want to earn a spot in the news. We have established relationships with many different newsrooms and can pitch to relevant ones, but we cannot guarantee you media coverage in a specific publication.

When you reach out to a PR agency for earned media coverage, come prepared with the reason why your company deserves it. Being a successful company isn’t reason enough for newsrooms to run a story about you. Think of how many other successful companies exist —  they likely all desire earned media coverage too.