As both a blogger and digital marketing professional I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to PR. One example of this?<\/p>\n
Companies send me pitches and try to encourage me to talk about their brand. Concurrently, I help brands create strategies to connect with audiences (although we don\u2019t \u201cpitch\u201d the way most reporters are pitched) from media to the web at large.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d highly recommend that any marketing and PR pro put themselves in the same position, as you\u2019ll gain invaluable perspective from both sides of the table.\u00a0Going through the process\u00a0is powerful.<\/p>\n
Sure, one of the simple and\u00a0tactically\u00a0useful things you\u2019ll learn by becoming media is\u00a0how to pitch, because if you\u2019re even a little successful you\u2019ll start to be pitched yourself. And there\u2019s no better way to learn what works than being on the receiving end of a bad pitch.<\/p>\n
This is a deceptively simple skill, in that you\u2019d think\u00a0everyone<\/em>\u00a0would have it down by now. That\u2019s of course not the case: as any media professional will tell you the amount of bad pitches they receive far outweighs the good ones. It\u2019s why strong media relations is an extremely valuable skill to have, it is (shockingly) still not widely\u00a0distributed.<\/p>\n But what is even more important than learning how to pitch is by becoming media you\u2019ll go through the same information discovery process modern media go through to craft stories. You\u2019ll use search engines and learn the advanced operators (as well as how to effectively monitor your category on the web). You\u2019ll use social channels to ping your networks for quotes, opinions and information. You\u2019ll come across story ideas through pure serendipity of \u00a0using stream-based platforms. You\u2019ll\u00a0build a community\u00a0from scratch.<\/p>\n Through this, you\u2019ll start to gain a clearer perspective of how ideas spread online. And only then can you understand the art of inbound PR (or\u00a0pull PR, as we\u2019ve called it before).<\/p>\n Not to completely discount media relations, but I think for the sophisticated brand an inbound approach \u2013 where media, users and other companies react to your brand\u2019s content, ideas and leadership in an unsolicited fashion, or find and then\u00a0pitch you<\/em>\u00a0on a story \u2013 is a\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0more strategic play. I\u2019ve implemented enough programs and seen success replicated enough times I\u2019ve become sold that inbound success is what you should aspire to.<\/p>\n It requires\u00a0analytical\u00a0and research skills, deep domain expertise and a\u00a0commitment to succeed, in essence weeding out those with less passion. You\u00a0have to<\/em>\u00a0consistently show up. You take risks and\u00a0experiment. You basically need to \u00a0to iterate your ideas forever.\u00a0And that\u2019s a huge reason it\u2019s so effective: so few actually commit to the notion of\u00a0becoming media themselves\u00a0(a requisite of inbound).<\/p>\n The longer I\u2019ve concurrently been a publisher and online marketing \/ PR\u00a0practitioner, the more I view an inbound program as the most elegant approach to communications you can take. You gain an executive perspective on content, are in a position to flesh out narratives over the long term, make data-driven decisions and approach\u00a0communications as an\u00a0equity-building activity vs. a reactive approach which always relies on other people\u2019s platforms to gain a fleeting voice.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not kill outbound PR, but let\u2019s use it as a tactic within a larger strategic framework which focuses on building a community through your own unique brand of media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As both a blogger and digital marketing professional I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to … <\/p>\n