GETTING STARTED: Create your publicity plan
- 21 Comment
If you read this blog regularly you know I talk about social media and public relations on a pretty basic and tactical level. After a recent tweet, I received several questions about how to put together a publicity plan (or at least wondering how our team does it). I’m going to share a few tips, tools and resources in the hopes it helps with your next publicity plan.
Why is a publicity plan important? For both myself and clients it helps to keep us on the same page, organize ideas and offer a centralized document my entire team can work from. It doesn’t have to be extremely elaborate, in fact the majority of work happens before you ever put your first plan together. Your goal is identify viable and executable earned social and traditional tactics that will help to spread, share and encourage awareness about whatever it is you want to promote. (Your publicity plan for online promotions should be integrated with your publicity plan for traditional tactics.)
First, make a list of all the tactics and tools in your online arsenal. If you don’t currently have a comprehensive list of “traditional tactics” create that as well. (Traditional tactics includes those things that worked or still work before the integration of social or online tactics.)
A resource like this means we don’t have to recreate the wheel every time a plan is developed.
Here’s one to help you get started:
Next, determine what “level” of publicity might be needed. We have “publicity levels” to help decide on the number of tactics a plan requires (we simply use levels: 1, 2, 3, 4). An example of what denotes #1:
#1 publicity is reserved for those stories and events which have a major impact on the brand’s reputation and directly impact the brand on a national or international level. These stories and events may include (will differ for your business or brand):
- Major awards
- Your business or brand is the first in something (among competitors, state, country, etc.)
- Your business or brand is the best in something (among competitors, state, country, etc.)
- Major initiative announcements
- Results align with national trend
- High profile leadership
- New CEO or other high profile executive leadership
There might be 20+ tactics included in the #1 level versus four to five tactics for #4 level. Point being that you don’t need to utilize every tool every time.
Once you have your list of tools and you’ve determined the level of publicity, then select the tools most appropriate for what you are publicizing. For the sake of this example I’m pulling online tactics.
1. Social Media News Release (SMNR)
a. Recommended: Pitchengine (Sevans Strategy client) www.pitchengine.com
b. Online Newsroom
c. Research pitch list
2. Citizen journalism
a. CNN iReport (http://www.ireport.com)
b. CBS Eye Mobile (http://www.cbseyemobile.com/)
c. Yahoo You Witness News (http://news.yahoo.com/you-witness-news)
3. POSSIBLE: Landing Page
4. Social networks
a. Facebook
b. @YourTwitterID
c. YouTube (to be created) or another media sharing site
d. Flickr (or other photo sharing site)
5. Email distribution list
6. Your Web site
Now that I have my list, I drop it into a publicity plan template that includes: tactic, deadlines, approval and review process, status, notes, etc. Here’s a copy of the basic template for you.
I hope this post helps you to get started. I’d love to hear how you create your publicity plans, too. Consider this an open environment for sharing best practices to help all of us grow in our profession.
21 Comments on this post
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foleymo said:
I think PR strategy is for companies that don’t invest properly in making a top-tier product. Exception = nonprofits.
If you made an awesome product, your product itself would be your ad (consistent, branded experience that always makes you look good) and your army of satisfied customers (passing the word to their friends, family and colleagues) would be your ad agency.
Unfortunately, most companies don’t make awesome products. They make a “marketable” product for at little cost as possible. Because they make lack-luster products, they require fancy communications and publicity plans to add some glitter and/or deceptively create a need where none existed before.
These kinds of actions continue to dumb down our society and perpetuate our unsustainable consumerist culture. Make better products. Sell fewer to each person. Make more happy customers.
—END OF RANT—
September 29th, 2010 at 12:19 pm -
Davina K. Brewer said:
Sarah, Thanks for sharing these tools and documents, nice to see. My starter kit includes a lot of this, with targeted research for opportunities; everything from Google alerts and hashtag searches to the traditional (like ed cal reviews). It’s also good to itemize and list assets, everything from videos and pictures to customer testimonials and surveys; helps you see what tools you have and what you still need.
To foleymo’s point: not everyone can be Apple. And even then, not everyone wants or needs a Mac or iPhone. Some may do just fine paying less for a “lesser” product, provided it meets their individual needs. As many times as I’ve discovered a new app or website I’d never seen, I don’t think it necessarily means they’re unknown because they’re all “lack-luster” products.
Here’s an example: it’s the mass produced, highly “marketable” big name wines I find lacking, usually not to my taste. I get a little disappointed when I see nothing but big brand, “grocery” store wines on a restaurant list, as I like to try new and different things. So I am glad to see that the small label wine makers can use public relations and other communications tactics, find their way onto the shelves of my local wine shops and grab my attention. FWIW.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:34 pm -
Taylor V said:
@foleymo – My question to you is, how did they find your widget in the first place? Without actually telling anyone about what the widget does or why they should buy it, your widget wouldn’t get anywhere. Brick and mortar buys widgets based one how much press/marketing you are going to do to help get the word out about the widget. And online? Unless you’re buying ads or have a buddy who does SEO, your page will rank in the last page or so on Google until someone stumbles on it. Marketing and PR does not equal increasing the bottom line for companies. In fact, the companies that do it well (Zappos, Patagonia, etc.) don’t seem like they’re marketing or using PR when they have full staffs of people sharing stories.
@PRSarahEvans – Fantastic article! I love seeing what other companies are doing. The templates are extremely helpful and really give a huge overview of what PR online means today. There’s really no line between what constitutes PR and marketing online, so thank you for showing it all in one comprehensive package.
September 30th, 2010 at 2:29 pm -
Tiffany Braxton said:
Greetings Sarah, I really enjoyed reading this article and found it extremely helpful. It’s refreshing to connect with other PR professionals who know the importannce of sharing and connecting. Your publicity plan doc. was clear and concise, and is a great overview of practical tools in the world of PR and marketing. I utilize many of those tools in my starter kit, and learned of other tools that may be useful moving forward. Glad I found you on Twitter:)
I look forward to sharing, interacting and reading your blog. As an Independent PR Rep its nice to see what others are using or tools that they find helpful.
Some great responses to Foleymo’s comment, and I agree with both.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:26 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
Taylor – Thank you so much for your thoughts.
Tiffany – So nice to “meet” you here. I’d love your advice as well. It’s great we can all help one another grow.
@Foleymo – I can always count on you to keep things interesting.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:06 am -
Computer Tips Tricks said:
That’s an amazing tip. Will definitely consider creating my publicity plans too.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:50 pm -
Lynn Lipinski said:
Thanks for sharing this information. I love the idea of prioritizing the type of publicity desired — it is easy to think of everything you are asked to put in a press release as urgent and in need of a full court press, but the reality is that some items — say a project launch — need more energy than others.
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:06 pm -
bikram said:
I never thought about having a plan for publicity or promotion, right now I’m doing everything development,SEO, promotion,etc I has been working but I think I need to more planing :S
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:41 am -
wordgeist said:
this is a great presentation. Thanks for sharing it us.
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:42 am -
Essay said:
It is free promotion. SEO only useful when website is at least 6 months old. Because Google gives extra marks for the age of the domain. So, all the new websites must promote them through social networking.
October 5th, 2010 at 12:04 pm -
msd said:
Fantastic, and very valuable! its all stuff and resources i think about, but to have it spelled out and organized like you do makes sure nothing is untouched. Great stuff!
October 7th, 2010 at 12:45 am -
sell textbooks said:
Thank you for this post. It is a great way to get started. It is a great way to get started.
October 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am -
Web Development said:
Nice presentation of social media tools and tactics. I got many new idea from it. Thanks Sarah.
October 8th, 2010 at 2:21 am -
Android tablet said:
@foleymo: I don’t agree. An excellent product does help, but without good promotion its just one more good product and there are hundreds of them.
October 8th, 2010 at 5:31 am -
Digitürk said:
Woow..Very nice…
October 8th, 2010 at 1:31 pm -
Cannes property said:
I read this blog regularly and i learned a lot from here. and i suggest this blog to my friends.
October 11th, 2010 at 6:15 am -
Computer Tips Tricks said:
That’s should be an useful move. Will definitely consider creating my publicity plans too.
October 12th, 2010 at 10:19 am -
textbook rental said:
I have to say I’m really impressed with your level of organization.. That memo is an impressive document! I’ve only started reading this blog recently but I’m definitely coming back.
October 12th, 2010 at 11:59 am
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