The Importance of Being Earnest
Part Seven in a Continuing Series on PR Tactics for Healthcare IT Marketers
Over drinks recently with some PR folks, we got to talking about a frequent question from companies. What characteristics make up a good PR program? Among the top factors are PR thought leadership, skill of spokesperson, topical products or service and occasional news.
Public relations thought leadership can be critically important, especially for smaller companies. I've seen many start up and emerging growth companies do a PR dance around larger competitors because they are more nimble, hungry, and have a CEO who exhibits thought leadership. Often times the larger the company, the less impressive the CEO, stricken by conservatitis from lawyers and CYA handlers. Reporters favor executives who offer bold, earnest and contrarian opinions, executives who are available at the reporter's notice and will discuss broader context than just his own product.
Commenting on industry trends and events is a great way to demonstrate this thought leadership. I've had several clients capitalize on such news as the announcement of CHITT, Brailer's resignation, and Stark Law reform by offering fast, quotable value-added opinions. Many of the clients' larger competitors were left with no seat at the table of discussion, to their loss. Building this thought leadership helps your relationship with a reporter, who is more inclined to write about you when you want your own company coverage.
Another outlet to demonstrate your thought leadership is bylines. These are executive-authored, issue-oriented articles; while not overtly promotional, they point to solution types offered by your company and you receive the reflected thought leadership glory as the author.
Beyond thought leadership, there is of course company news, products, customer case studies, trend stories and hard news. These are foundation elements in any PR program. To whatever extant you can, put your company news in the context of larger industry trends. How does your product fit into CDH, or healthcare transparency, or some other big trend? Can your customer reference discuss the benefits of your technology at length for a case study? Is your news big enough that an offer of an exclusive to a media outlet will help your cause? Think about this contextualization for your next news announcement and it will help separate your pitch from the run of the mill.
For more PR strategy and tactic advice, please click on the "PR Strategy and Tactics" category to the right.
Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 27, 2006 at 3:32 PM
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