Tags:
In the world of corporate self-promotion, we all know the score. Gloves off, ego to the fore, tell them just how ineffably wonderful you and your company really are.
A piece in the press is the perfect opportunity to spread the gospel about your firm’s capabilities, talents and soaring prospects. Not a time for shrinking violets; all is fair in love, war and PR…
Easy. Until it happens…
You know, that moment when you find yourself sat in front of a blank Word document, just waiting for you to fill it with fab story after fab story about your triumphs and peerless brilliance, tales to excite every publication in the land.
Then something deep inside you begins to curl up and quiver.
I believe I have located the curly thing. This small, uncharted organ is called, I think, the Good Egg Gland.
It sits snuggly between the gland that prevents you from littering, and the synapse that absolutely forbids you from parking in a disabled spot, no matter how many are free.
I don’t think it’s exclusively a British affliction, and I’m sure that business folk the world over find it really tough to blow their own trumpet convincingly, but certainly the British Stiff Upper Lip seems to exacerbate the symptoms.
“So, tell me about a recent success”. “Well, we made a sort of not bad type of device thingy for someone once, and they didn’t seem to mind it too much.”
“And your financial performance last year?” “Oooof , you’ve got me there; I think it all went quite well, in general terms.”
“ …and the future?” “I’d go as far as to say, ‘quietly confident’. Sort of. Hopefully.”
And it’s no good how many times you tell yourself that: this is OK, everyone does it, it’s expected of you, you owe it to yourself and your colleagues to let the world know that you actually are terrific at what you do. You still hear yourself telling the eager reader that you think you might, all things being equal, and with a fair following wind, not be too bad at what you do…
So, what’s the solution?
Have you noticed how much easier it is to shout about how great somebody else is at what they do?
Your more objective external analysis allows you to see real excellence and quality for what it is, without any of the self-doubting, self-imposed polite modesty fogging the view. You can share the passion and drive you see in others with none of the awkwardness that often accompanies self-promotion.
PR firms sometimes get a bad name. Sometimes, to be honest, it’s warranted. Good PR isn’t about noise, quantity and frantic uber-enthusiastic excitement. No one is always “beyond excited” or “absolutely thrilled beyond words” about their product or services. Good PR is about passion, engagement and understanding. And great contacts.
So, find someone else to tell the world you’re brilliant. Put simply, find a PR agency.
Pick someone who, when invited to learn about your business, cannot get involved enough. Select someone who truly believes in your brilliance. Choose someone who doesn’t measure the success of the contract just in how many releases they produce, but the quality of their content, the passion they can uncover in what you do, and their ability to put your story in front of exactly the right kind of readership.
In short, when looking to tell your story to a wider world, find someone who wants to tell it as much as you do. For all the right reasons.
Clearing the attic caused our MD to think about our response to change and the recent impact of the new team members at Nielsen McAllister...
Marketing and PR can be as much about opportunism as it is about planning and strategy. Ensuring you are prepared and having a strategy is of course, extremely important, as it is in all aspects of business, but the creativity and speed of thought to respond quickly is vital too.