HRmarketer's public relations team recently emerged from its bunker to host a webinar titled PR 101: Get Your PR Program off the Ground. It's now available at HRmarketer.com for both attendees and the public, via the following link: http://www.hrmarketer.com/home/webinars09252008.htm
Yours truly, along with fellow PR professional Gail DeLano, talked over the basic components of planning and executing a solid PR program. Highlights included determining your key audiences, targeting the proper media outlets, the importance of reading trade publications, and the benefits of a concise and newsworthy press release (no, they're not dead). Other topics featured analyst relations, editorial calendars, pitching stories, and search-optimized press releases.
In five years of working with HRmarketer clients, I've assisted those who either: A) wore many hats and didn't have the time to do PR properly; B) had no training, yet drew "the short straw;" or C) simply didn't know where to begin. Our advance audience poll validated that most HR / benefits suppliers find themselves in one of these scenarios, with lack of time the biggest cause.
It's a bit scary to read that Gail and I have 40-plus years of combined PR experience—we must have been 15 when we started our careers! Attendees seemed eager for the insight, because after a 50-minute presentation the webinar shifted into Q&A mode and continued another 30 minutes. Questions ranged from whether press releases really matter to getting more mileage out of bylined articles, and from pitching broadcast media to starting a blog.
With such a crowded marketplace, there's only so much coverage that the HR media can offer. Being creative and building relationships are the keys to getting noticed. If attendees walked away with only three messages from the webinar, I'd hope they were:
For the full webinar, visit http://www.hrmarketer.com/home/webinars09252008.htm
A final note: logistics caused me to present from my home office in Salinas, California, one day before the city's annual air show. So when you play the webinar, be sure to listen for the earth-shaking arrival of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Given our program title, we couldn't have asked for a better soundtrack!
Post by Elrond Lawrence
Labels: HR suppliers, jargon, public relations, search-optimized release