Sunday, February 7, 2010

Why the Web Is the New Media Kit | Marketing & Advertising

Why the Web Is the New Media Kit

Interview with Michael Greece of Padilla Speer Beardsley, a New York public relations firm.

MICHAEL GREECE: A media kit generally is designed to define the messaging and positioning and identity of a brand or company. Quite frankly a media kit is, probably is becoming, to some extent, an anachronism, because the web has taken over as a search vehicle for people figuring out what the brand or the company stands for. And the details, once you go to someone’s home page, of messaging, of positioning, of mission statements, of all those things, of objectives, and products, and values, is very well-defined by most people’s homepage. So, I think the web has sort of taken, to a large extent, has taken the place of the media kit. I happen to think to some extent that it’s still valuable to have something hard to hand somebody when they come to meet you, because what basically you are doing is you are separating yourself from the noise. That is, everybody has a homepage that defines them, but not everybody has something to hand somebody that they can take back and slip in their briefcase, so I’m probably taking a maverick point of view, that to some extent, an element, or pieces of what historically people call a media kit might still be valuable in defining a small or middle-sized company’s brand.

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"What is Public Relations?"

What is Public Relations?

courtesy of :
HowStuffWorks "What is Public Relations?"

A basic definition of public relations is to shape and maintain the image of a company, organization or individual in the eyes of the client's various "publics." What is a "public" exactly? A public, in PR terms, is anyone who ever has or ever will form an opinion about the client.

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Public relations professionals manage image for companies or individuals, such as scheduling publicity tours.

Depending on the nature of the client's work, these publics could include clients, potential clients, voters, members of the local community, members of the media, students, parents of students, online fans groups, foreign citizens -- the list is endless.
Public relations success requires a deep understanding of the interests and concerns of each the client's many publics. The public relations professional must know how to effectively address those concerns using the most powerful tool of the PR trade: publicity [source: Bureau of Labor Statistics].

Entrepreneur.com defines public relations purely in terms of publicity work, describing PR as "Using the news or business press to carry positive stories about your company or your products; cultivating a good relationship with local press representatives" [source: Entrepreneur.com].
In many cases, the chief duty of the public relations professional is to draft press releases, which are sent to targeted members of the media. But to limit the scope of the public relations definition to publicity alone would be to underestimate the growing influence and reach of PR.
For example, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes is scheduled to speak at the Public Relations Society of America's annual conference about "public diplomacy," a branch of government public relations. Public diplomacy is shaping the image of a nation (in this case, the United States) in the eyes of both traditional allies and enemy states.
Today's public relations professional does much more than sit behind a desk faxing out press releases. More than ever, he's the public face of the client. It's the PR professional who organizes community outreach and volunteer programs. It's the PR representative who cultivates relationships with potential investors. And it's the PR executive who goes on the cable TV news program to answer the tough questions.
Read on to learn more about what PR professionals do.