In today’s segmented media world, it is sometimes difficult to know where the role of public relations fits in for your community, especially as it becomes more difficult to secure interest from traditional news outlets. As competition for publicity increases, there are still ways to cut through the noise with a meaningful and newsworthy story to promote your property!
Earlier this month, Apartments.com was joined by Nancy Davies, Vice President of trusted PR agency the Salmon Borre Group, to discuss the meaning of public relations, how to determine if something is “PR-able” and tips and ideas to leverage PR and publicity to increase exposure for your property.
The recorded webinar is available for you to view, but I also wanted to share a few of the ideas Nancy provided for ways to increase publicity for your community:
- Ask yourself, “Is my story funny, charitable or unique?” Think about what YOU would want to read about and let that act as a guide.
- Be objective & realistic when coming up with ideas. You can even borrow ideas from other popular stories or events that worked in other industries, markets, etc.
- When writing a press release, put all pertinent and attention-grabbing information in the first paragraph, and expand from there.
- Develop a media contact list by looking up reporter names in your local newspaper, local TV station email addresses and influential online bloggers. Don’t forget you can even search “email for reporters in my city” on Google, too!
- Stay organized by creating a press release calendar to better schedule your events and mark key dates when you need to begin talking to the press.
- When pitching your news to the press, first email the story before calling. Be brief in your request…and patient for a response!
- Take initiative by uploading your own news online through Patch.com, Examiner.com and other area blogs and local websites.
- Be social! Tweet your news and ask others to re-tweet it, too. Talk about your news on Facebook, Google+ and other popular social media sites. Also, leverage your property website as a starting point – be sure visitors can easily access your social media sites directly from your homepage.
- Have you been hit with negative press in the past? Take steps to be involved in the local community and counteract negative news about your property. Host speaker events with the local police or hold an open house with snacks. Most importantly, be involved and engaged in social media and focus on the positive things your community does!
- If the press were to call you about a story or a review was made that is potentially hazardous to your reputation, the best thing to do is be nice and respectful, never sound defensive and do your best to work with them. This is a great time to publicly apologize and go over the steps you are taking to improve.
In a nutshell, publicity is about creating awareness. Stay positive and keep promoting your community! The more you keep up with it, the more people will know about your community, your events and who you are.
If you ever miss a webinar session, don’t worry! Each presentation is recorded and available for you to access at your convenience. If you have any questions or comments, tweet them to @Apartmentscom, using the hashtag #AptsTraining, or leave them in the comments section below.
