Mail    Print    Share

From the Dark Side

Our PR pro is back, this time to explain how much she wants to know about you.

I have a question for you reporters: Can PR people do anything right? I'm not asking this sarcastically. I think there's a good chance it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: You think we're always in the way, so therefore, it seems, you see everything we do as being in the way.

For example: You've decided we are annoying, so you're annoyed by the pitches you receive today that you're not interested in—but not by the one that you got yesterday and are writing about or the one you'll receive tomorrow and realize has a great hook. And, of course, even though you're annoyed to get that pitch, you're even more annoyed when—God forbid—we pitch your competitor and not you.

Similarly, you want to think we're uninformed, so you believe us to be uninformed when we send you a short pitch with only cursory information. But when we send you a long pitch, loaded with info, well, then we're too uninformed to have any idea of how busy you are.

You want to think we trick and manipulate you with offers of embargoes and pre-interviews, but then claim you won't write about anything if it does not resemble an exclusive.

So, I ask again, can we PR people do anything right? How are we supposed to pitch and not pitch you at the same time?

It's this conundrum we all face that leads me to what is probably the biggest myth about PR people: That we don't care what reporters want or need, we just have to be able to tell our clients that we did pitch you.

And, well, there is some truth to that. We do need to be able to tell our clients we did all we could to get the coverage they're dying for, because, after all, that's exactly what they pay us to try to do. And, you're right, there are some PR professionals who, because their clients told them to, blindly go down a media list pitching inappropriate reporters stories they will never do. But those are a small minority of PR pros, people who don't know how to push back and explain to the client why that's a bad tactic. Mistakes are sometimes made, sure, but the notion that we don't care about your wants and needs is way off base.

Here's why: Information about you and how you work—knowing your wants and needs and preferences—is the most valuable currency in PR.

Ask any PR person if there is any information you can provide about what you do and how you do it, information to give them greater insight into working with you, and see how they jump. Better yet, ask a PR person to lunch to discuss this, or offer to come in and speak to their whole department or agency—you'll never see anybody clear his or her calendar faster.

Here's something you probably didn't know: One of the first things every PR employer asks a job candidate and every prospective client asks an agency is "Who do you know at (fill in appropriate industry-focused outlet)?" Contacts and relationships with those contacts is viewed as every PR person's most valuable asset. Yup, the fact that I can say that I just worked on an item with Hacky Berkowitz, an intern at EBoringWeekly.com and, as a result, know that he only comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, won't cover anything about grapefruits, and likes to receive information via courier pigeon, can absolutely mean the difference between my getting the job and not getting the job.

And it doesn't stop there. For the rest of my tenure at PR Agency X, I will be known for being the one with the great relationship with Hacky, and I'll be approached all the time by other PR people for information about pitching him. My colleagues will hope to leverage my insight and my bond with the elusive intern to get coverage for their clients, and that will be a boon to my career. So I'll definitely want to stay on good terms with Hacky.

Sound silly? Think about it: Whose pitches do you take first and take the most seriously? Whose pitches do you pass along to your colleague if it is not right for you but might be for him? You give the most consideration, of course, to pitches from PR people you know you can trust, ones who give you credible, newsworthy stories—the PR people you've worked with before on good stories. Right?

If I can say that I am that PR person for Hacky Berkowitz, it implies that I have an in to EBoringWeekly.com, the other reporters at the outlet, and quite possibly to getting my client and other agency clients at least considered for coverage.

We are all dying to be that PR person and employers are dying to hire that PR person, and I can be that person because I know that Hacky won't even consider a story about grapefruits. It is valuable information.

And another thing you should know about is the briefing book. The briefing book is a report on each reporter a client will be speaking with. It generally includes a summary of articles previously written by him or her, an analysis of that reporter's "slant" or "take" on a topic, and a discussion of what he or she most wants to hear or definitely should not hear if a positive story is desired. It also includes as much miscellaneous information as a PR person can get his hands on, such as "is an avid golfer."

The briefing book is used by the PR agency for two purposes. First is to provide clients with the most information possible about the reporters who will be interviewing them so they're best prepared to convey the info we think is of greatest interest and relevance to each reporter. But it also has another purpose, to prove to the client that the PR agency knows these reporters and therefore that the client was right to hire them. The more information we can provide, the greater the proof.

See, I told you: Information about you is valuable currency in PR, and our relationship with you is how we can mint that currency. The last thing we want to do is jeopardize it; in fact we do everything we can think of to cultivate it and work with you the way we think best suits you.

So, the next time you think we don't know or care about what you want and need as we fill your inbox with pitches you are not interested in today (but might be tomorrow), ask yourself how you would feel if we didn't pitch you that story you got as an exclusive yesterday. Then consider: Maybe your feeling we can't do anything right really is just a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Loren Pomerantz is the founder and president of Combined Forces Communications, a full-service public relations agency servicing clients in the consumer and business-to-business sectors, as well as providing training seminars for employees of corporate communications departments and public relations agencies. Pomerantz is based in New York City, and she'll expose the truth behind PR myths for mediabistro.com on the first Thursday of every month.