A friend of mine who owns a small business recently sat down with me to talk about the new PR Toolkit. He understands how PR can help him get more exposure for his business. He’s even seen immediate results through increased traffic in his store with customers saying they read about him in the newspaper.
But his biggest question by far was in regards to how often he should be doing PR. At one point he even turned to me and said, “I’ve gotten a few stories in the local media and now I’m seeing more traffic in my store. I guess that PR stuff works and I’ll now know how to do it next time I want more customers.”
Whoa. Wait a minute. Let’s back up a bit.
I responded by telling him PR is not like a light switch. You can’t just turn your PR on and off because it’s based on a relationship you build with a reporter. Relationship being the key word here. PR is too important when building your brand.
Think of it a different way. Let’s say you move to a new city and you’re looking to make a few new friends. You start participating in local community events and some social outings in your area. After a few weeks of socializing you’ve met a handful of people in your area that you now go to dinner with and invite over to your house. The friendship is growing.
After a few months, though, you start to miss your down time and turn down offers to go out with these friends so you can now spend more time by yourself. Eventually, many of your new friends think you’re not interested in socializing anymore and stop calling you altogether.
Then you get lonely and want to start the process all over again. No surprise here, you find it just as hard to start making new friends (and rekindling the old ones).
PR for a business works the same way. In order for it to truly be successful, you must work at it each week to build your relationships and constantly be developing new stories to feed those reporters. When you watch FOX News Channel each weekend doesn’t it seem like you always see the same guests on the show? That’s because they’ve worked hard at developing their relationship with the hosts and producers of those shows. And trust me, it’s paying off for their business since they’re getting so much media exposure.
I’m not saying you need to stop running your business just so you can focus all of your attention on PR. Just like having a mix of going out with friends and staying home to enjoy some down time, you need to find the right mix.
One more thing. Doing PR consistently helps you become better at PR. Like other professional traits, you want to always improve at it so that you don’t send out a bad PR story or press release.
I often tell small business owners they should spend a minimum of 15 percent of their week on marketing and PR so they’re always understanding marketing. But it’s important to do this every week so you can build solid relationships with the media you’re targeting.
How much time do you spend each week on PR for your small business?
