More on Public Relations

Continued from yesterday's discussion on PR, here are the three main principles of PR that are widely accepted, and why they are important to you.

1. Your Story: If you don't come out of the box and clearly define your story, you leave the door wide open for someone else to do the job for you, and you don't have control over that. You should clearly and concisely define who you are and what you do, and most importantly what is your message. A great example of this is my church, Seacoast Church. At every service and at every event we are reminded that our main goal is to Love God and Love People. Simple... but very powerful. Now the great thing about defining your message and telling your story is you don't need to have the marketing budget of McDonald's or Toyota. So now that you have your story, what do you do with it?

2. KISS: Keep it simple stupid! Lay out your story in plain english. A fancy marketing message will certainly impress the stuffed shirts in your boardroom, but on the street to your customers and to the media it's the spin cycle, and will get no traction. Leave the spin cycle to your washing machine and tell your story in good, clear plain english without the fancy industry lingo.

3. KISS 2: Keep it short, stupid! Face it, it's year 2008 and we are what we eat... we are all fast cheap and easy. Your marketing message should be the same. Shakepseare wrote that "brevity is the soul of wit", and nothing is more true than when it comes to PR. Most news releases are sent via email, and if you can't capture the attention of the news desk editor in 5 words or less in the subject line you're doomed from the beginning.

To practice what we rpeach, here's a summary of PR. Before setting sail on the PR ship, define your story, who you are. Once you've established your story, learn how to communicate it in a very simple, quick and straightforward way. No amount of creativity can make up for a lack of clarity (unless of course you are runnig for president!)

If you're still baffled, take the advice of 70's singer Billy Swan, let me know... I can help. bo@mustardnrelish.com