PressDr - Ten Public Relations Mistakes You Should Avoid | public-relations

The objective of any Public Relations is to potray the business in a good light. Whether it’s establishing yourself in the market or doing damage control. Your goal as a Public relations person should be to induce the media to take an interest in your business by writing about your business activities.

Public relations can make or break your business. Therefore executing Public Relations in the correct way is very important for your business.

There are some common pitfalls you should stay away from, when handling Public Relations. These include:

Not being prepared: You always need to plan properly keeping in mind the goal you want to achieve. This plan should consider alternative actions in the event that the plan doesn’t go according to plan. Once you have a proper plan in place, you are able to communicate effectively with the media. By planning you are clear about what you want to convey and how to do it effectively.
A poorly written press release: Your press release should be simple and to the point. At the same time, you need to grab the attention of the reader. You need to avoid lengthy boring descriptions and edit for error; a press release with grammatical errors is a big turn off. We’ve detailed the art of Press Release Writing elsewhere on this blog.
Thinking within the box: You should not just stick to the traditional Public Relations methods but always strive to find innovative ways to connect with your audience. On the Internet, there are so many channels for public relations. You could, for example, interact with your audience through social networking sites.
Not reading the newspaper: Keep yourself abreast with what is happening round you. It is very important that you do not operate in a vacuum and are aware of news and events happening. This benefits you in two ways; you can utilize local and world events as tie-in to your news and also avoid poorly timed press releases.
Bad timing: Careful timing is crucial for most public relations tasks, whether it’s addressing a concern or announcing a new development. You need to have a head start on your tasks and also considering the lead time for newspapers, magazines and other media channels.
Don’t treat the media as an outsider: You should always try to see them as your alley, but respect the power of the media, what they write, can make or break you.
Poor choice of language: Impressive jargons don’t impress the editors who don’t have a lot of time to read through. In both speeches and written statements, keeping the news simple and direct will help you achieving your objective.
Being unprepared for a follow up: Always ensure you are prepared to answer any questions at a later stage if you want to be heard. If you don’t then you stand to lose your news.
Creating a story when there is none: Don’t send a Press Release unless it’s really required. Do not try to create news where there is none. If you do that, when a major development does happen the editors might just ignore it. That could be disastrous.
Not getting the correct expertise: Most business either spend a lot on highly priced PR firms or they try to do it themselves. It is important you find a balance in between.