This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Today I wanted to talk about how some companies may think that hiring a PR professional will help them get fast results by getting a story out in the news. This may very well happen, and in the three months I work with clients I can guarantee them some level of results because it would be very odd to work for 8 weeks and not get any mention of a story in at least one news outlet.
However there are those who gamble on getting media, and think that as soon as you send a news release or message to media, that things will “start happening.” This is not always the case, even though many media work in real time now with most outlets having websites and social media accounts with which to share the news.
Media aftermath
One of my spring clients, VIP Bin Cleaning, hoped to get their coverage prior to or just in the start of the summer. We were getting coverage well into July and only recently did they get the big avalanche of the major outlets (Vancouver Sun, Global BC, and CTV) covering their service because of the one gross factor to do with green bins: Maggots! I may not be alright with maggots, but I can at least say that they are not totally useless.
Another former recent client, MCRCI (Medicinal Cannabis Resource Centre) was mentioned in yesterday’s National Post Newspaper in relation to a story that it was doing on an Ontario clinic specializing in medical marijuana. I had sent various reporters at the Post several pitches, and it is funny how it takes a new business in the East for it to make news (hence the national factor), but at least they were not announcing the fact that it was the first clinic specializing in medical marijuana in Canada; that would have been an inaccurate statement.
The point is that even if you were to work with me or someone like me, and we aim to get results in 8-12 weeks, you cannot control the media. Even if your business is in the forefront of news topics and trends, results in a particular outlet are never guaranteed. However with patience and persistence (in addition to some good SEO so that your website appears above most Google rankings for your keywords) you can stretch the time and effort that you put into a short term campaign so that the results last longer.
