The Most Important PR Secret

By Anthony R Mora.

So often it comes down not to what you say, but how you say it. Everything from your tone of voice, the speed of your delivery, your body language and your eye contact influences how your message is received by others. There is also how you frame the information you are giving. For example, let's say you were considering a surgical procedure. If your physician explained that the surgery had a 15% fatality rate. How would you respond? Now imagine you have been told that the surgery had an 85% survival rate. Would the reframing of the information alter your response to it? Both sentences are basically giving you the same information, telling you the same story, but how the information is delivered and framed impacts how the listener will react.

The way you deliver your message, is as important as the message itself. When you tell your story to the media, you need to tell it not only so the media will understand it, but will react to it. One of the toughest jobs that a public relations firm or PR consultant has is explaining this to a client. When most people hire a PR agency they do so thinking they know their story. From their perspective all the PR company has to do is take the story to the various newspapers, magazines and radio and TV outlets and the press will be beating down their doors to do a story. What most entrepreneurs and companies don't understand is that often the main job of the PR firm is to find the right story. It's often not the obvious story that works, because that's the same angle that the competition will be pitching. Once the story, or better yet stories, have been identified, the next step is to understand how to pitch and present that story to the press.

So when launching a media relations campaign, keep in mind this is truly a case where haste makes waste. If you try to rush out with the first story idea, if you don't give time to the process and to brainstorming various story ideas and angles, chances are you're going to miss a golden opportunity. Keep in mind, each message needs its own special presentation, approach and delivery. Once all those elements are in place, you're set to launch.