Blog Relations

Edelman has been smart and admitted that it’s paying for two more Wal-Mart Propaganda blogs.

Here at Exbiblio I read a motto on one engineer’s wall, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off”. This is so true of transparent blogging.

Well done Edelman for facing up to this particular writing on the wall. That’s knocked a few years off your sentence in the Bloggers’ Re-education Camp.

Kazakhstan has been grappling with a PR Crisis even even great magnitude than Edelman / Wal-Mart. How should the former Soviet republic respond to being mercilessly mocked by Borat? First they shut down his website, http://www.borat.kz, but he just set up another one, http://www.borat.tv. The more they try to counter his cheeky jibes, the more ridiculous they look, and the story keeps on running. So now they’ve dreamed up a better strategy: invite Borat to their country. There’s a risk that he might use the opportunity to mock them further, but it’s more likely that a friendly gesture, and some “education” will make him feel the odd pang of guilt, and take the sting out of his jibe. The ancient PR Guru, he say, Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

While I’m going on about media coverage, here’s the golden rule: have opinions. It’s amazing how many people in business don’t seem to have an opinion on anything. It’s very hard for a journalist to quote somebody if they don’t want commit themselves at all.

The perfect media role is a pundit. If you can spout opinions and succinct analysis on a given topic, you will be like gold to journalists. Your will always be seen as an “expert”. No advertising budget can buy that kind of kudos.

Lawyers can get great media coverage because love arguing. Specialist lawyers can talk about particular business sectors. An economist who isn’t boring (most are) will also be a media star. Private client stockbrokers are in the media because they are used to talking to normal people rather than other bankers. But whatever area you are in, all you need is a few definite opinions to set yourself up above the rest in the media stakes. I don’t mean you have to shoot your mouth off. Measured opinions sound more credible than rants. But I do mean that you have to come off the fence.

I can tell from experience, if you ask 9 out of 10 fund mangers whether they think a particular sector will be up or down in six months time, 9 out of 10 will fail to have an opinion. One wonders why anybody entrusts them with their money, but there you are, that’s how they seem to get by in their profession. The one fund manager out of ten who does speak his mind might be wrong, but he or she will get media coverage. The chances are that nobody will remember what he or she said in six months time, when there will be a new topic to spout opinions on.

Of course blogs are a perfect place to express opinions all day long. I suggest that you start one now.

A second secret of good media coverage, is to understand that exclusive “scoops” play only a small role in the media. The truth is that journalists and bloggers alike copy each other like mad. It’s unlikely that you are going to start your media coverage with a splash on the front page of the Guardian (unless something has gone badly wrong). Media coverage is viral. You have to start somewhere, usually with quite a small outlet, and hope that your message spreads. It probably won’t at first, so you have to keep trying until it does.

Breaking news almost always begins with the agencies such as Reuters or the Press Association. Most business news isn’t significant enough to cut it there, unless you run a listed company. I’m really discussing here how to get an unknown business known.

Traditional places to start include the diary columns. The Evening Standard’s Londoner’s Diary is a fabulous place for a people story, because all the national editors read it. It’s more likely that a business story will get going in a diary on one of the business / City pages. Local newspapers and radio stations are great places to set a hare running. And now, the whole landscape has changed with blogs.

Blogs are the ultimate viral marketing tool. An interesting story will spread around the blogosphere and eventually be picked up by the big media. But it may take a long time to get known. The best thing you can do is to start now, putting your message out on your own blog, trying to write stuff that is interesting to the outside world (plenty of context), and gently letting other bloggers know about you and hoping to catch their interest.

Occasionally you can boost interest with a PR move such as a survey or a piece of research, or a free trial of a product. In the long term, your company just has to be interesting, which is harder said than done. Most businesses are boring because they get tied up in their self-image, which is always artificial. What they really do is far more interesting than what they like to think they do. It can take a while to uncover that hidden story, but when you find it, tell it.