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    The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom: Your Essential Guide to Understanding the Media ... and How to Use It
    The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom: Your Essential Guide to Understanding the Media ... and How to Use It
    The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom: Your Essential Guide to Understanding the Media ... and How to Use It
    Ebook272 pages5 hours

    The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom: Your Essential Guide to Understanding the Media ... and How to Use It

    By Brian Johnson

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    About this ebook

    What you have in your hands is a key. Your key to the world of the most cost-effective public profile possible.

    A user-friendly blend of the how to and wherefore of PR. Of practical instruction and philosophy, forged in the real world. And a fun read at that!

    Understanding the media, and how to engage with it, is a distinct competitive advantage. Done right, it can change your future for the better.

    This book is your toolkit to making it happen.

    At a time when the media is morphing by the day, 'The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom' is a touchstone for PR professionals, students and novices alike.

    It is a reminder that universal truths still apply, regardless of the form of information delivery.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJan 1, 2012
    ISBN9781925952131
    The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom: Your Essential Guide to Understanding the Media ... and How to Use It
    Author

    Brian Johnson

    Brian Johnson is the lead singer of AC/DC. When he’s not performing, he hosts a couple of cable TV shows:  Life on the Road (interviewing other performers) and Cars That Rock. He lives in Florida, with his wife.

    Read more from Brian Johnson

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      Book preview

      The Little Red Book of PR Wisdom - Brian Johnson

      Shaw

      The biggest bang for your buck

      SUCCESSFUL PR is the biggest exposure you can get for the minimum outlay.

      Media coverage can be extremely rewarding to your organisation – or extremely damaging – depending on how you handle it. Understanding the media, and being able to use it to your advantage, is a valuable tool. Your reputation may well rely on it.

      This book will not only provide new insights. It will give you the skills you need to interact with the media effectively. From writing media releases that get results to being able to handle yourself in an interview, you will have a new appreciation of harnessing the power of the media.

      Whether you are an established professional wanting to maximise your results, a student, or you’re looking to doit-yourself PR for the first time, this is the concise, practical touchstone you need at your fingertips.

      It’s for those who need to know (DIY) and those professionals (nearly all of us) who need to stay in sync with the basic laws of the PR universe.

      No cocktail parties … no elephants in malls

      YES, PR can generate media coverage and profile you just couldn’t afford any other way. But to be successful at it we need to start with some home truths – and we need to understand what we’re talking about.

      For the purposes of this book, it’s editorial-powered publicity. Having something worth saying that the world should know about. And getting spotlight attention without paying a bomb in advertising and promotional expenses.

      But PR is a broad term that can mean different things to different folks. What we’re not talking about in this book is putting elephants into malls (publicity stunts) or running cocktail parties (running cocktail parties).

      We’re focusing on what is probably best described as practical PR in the pure sense of the term. And this is your guide to making it happen.

      Your snapshot to what happens next

      THERE are many highly paid people in some of the world’s biggest companies who are clueless about PR. For the small investment you have made in purchasing this book, you have a significant advantage over all of them.

      But doing PR well means being brutally honest about the story you have to sell, and the way you go about it.

      The golden rule of all golden rules

      Let’s start with the fundamental golden rule of PR:

      It’s the story that takes the name with it.

      Nothing is more important.

      PR is not marketing

      Practical PR has never been marketing per se and never will be. Sure, good PR is an effective marketing tool, but these are two very different beasts and need to be seen as such.

      Marketing is about the brand. PR is about the story.

      As much as you desperately want your brand to BE the story, it’s not. It’s the story that takes your brand with it. And, as this is a book about PR, minus all the marketing gobbledegook, let’s dispense with the term brand. Let’s refer to it as your name.

      That’s what you’re really hoping to get into the spotlight – your name. Be it your organisation or event, your concept or message. And to become news, your name needs a story.

      We are all the centre of our own universe

      You can’t do PR properly without a story – and it has to be one that appeals to the media. The fact that it might appeal to you, your boss or your customers is totally irrelevant.

      If it doesn’t appeal to the media you don’t have a story at all. You’re just after free advertising, full of false hope, and the media will bin your non-story in a nanosecond because it’s a non-starter.

      So let’s not waste your time and energy, especially so early in the book. Let’s work out a practical process of how to generate stories that will genuinely appeal to the media and make your efforts far more rewarding.

      PR is not an exact science, but you’ll know if it’s working

      There are plenty of clever types running around with pie charts, telling you how well you’re doing with left-handed people in exclusive suburbs and expensive cars. (At least that’s what the pie charts say.)

      But this isn’t about marketing metrics. It’s about PR, and ultimately, if it’s working, your phone is ringing. It’s that simple.

      At the same time, if you have your hopes set on getting coverage on a particular radio show or television program, or in a particular newspaper, at a particular time, in a particular way, you could be very disappointed. In fact, you might need to spend a lot more money buying an advertisement that will do all those things for you.

      It needs to be understood, upfront, that PR is not an exact science. Otherwise you’d simply go out and buy the DVD 15 Minutes of Fame, or pay more for the 30 Minutes of Fame sequel, and so on.

      Publicity can never be guaranteed, because your story will always compete with the day’s news agenda, which you cannot control. This is a basic premise that many players fail to grasp.

      So why bother with PR at all?

      Because when you get it, and get it right, PR is the biggest splash you can make for the minimum spend. It’s vastly more cost-effective and powerful than advertising.

      There is an industry formula for measuring the value of editorial PR. Some people say it’s worth three times as much as the comparable advertising space or air time you could buy – because your message is lifted out of the commercial clutter and into the news spotlight. Others, perhaps rightly, suggest it is far more valuable than that.

      Ultimately you can make up your own mind about the value. Think about how long an advertisement holds your attention, compared to a program or news article. There’s your answer.

      Why this book will help you

      It gives you the right steps to maximise your opportunities and generate real profile. You won’t be confronted with vague concepts and silly words. You will learn practical PR, tested and proven techniques you can use to your advantage.

      THE FIRST GOLDEN RULE

      It’s the story that takes the name with it.

      THE news flash revealed that a prominent businessman had been rushed to hospital after a heart attack. The company’s shares crashed.

      Thirty minutes later a statement announced that the businessman had "only suffered a minor heart attack". Shares rebounded.

      AND THE MORAL OF THIS REAL LIFE FABLE? With the media, as with the markets, the perception is often the reality.

      It don’t mean a thing if it’s all about Spin

      THERE’S a horrible, nasty word that’s used to broadly describe people working in publicity (specifically) and PR (generally). That word is Spin. And it is the opposite of what this book, and hopefully your career, is all about.

      Think through what Spin suggests. It infers that the message has been spun or cynically distorted. That someone is getting done over. That some sucker swallowed the bait and delivered free coverage for something that didn’t really deserve it.

      Practical PR, the type outlined in this book, is about Anti-Spin. It’s about identifying a genuine angle of interest over here (your organisation, event, etc) and taking it to someone who will be interested in it over there (in the media).

      Given the shrinking of the conventional media in recent years, like many other downsized, leaner organisations, you can’t afford to be duping anyone. That will bite you fast.

      As with any successful, sustainable business, effective PR is all about how you deal with people.

        TOP TIP

      Successful PR is about honest, working relationships between the people who have the story and those in the media looking for good stories.

      Your computer is a shovel

      WE live in a world where mini-computers masquerading as phones are at hand 24/7. They are the Swiss Army Knife of technology.

      Many of us have become obsessed with this technology, believing it can offer some sort of magical advantage by itself. And there are certainly mobility and convenience benefits when it comes to using email and social media (which we’ll decon struct later

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