PR and Storytelling: Tips for evolving with the times

PRSA Webinar | September 9, 2014
Article written by Power Communications

In this day and age of social media roaming the digital landscape a PR professional’s job of storytelling has not necessarily changed, but it does force us to evolve our approach and strategies. It’s not a bad thing, but a positive catalyst in getting our message(s) to customers through a multitude of channels as part of our overall integrated marketing campaign.

In a recent Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) webinar presented by Gina Milani, President of Milani Marketing & PR, LLC, the concept of storytelling, how it has evolved and how we can adapt to these changes was discussed.

The past shows PR professionals sending press releases to the media to get a clients story printed. We now have the opportunity to put those stories out there ourselves through the various channels available at our fingertips (literally). Not to say we shouldn’t continue to send press releases and pitch the media, but as part of our overall integrated marketing strategy, we should consider all options and adapt to the revolutionary digital world.

It’s a difficult endeavor to identify a good story and tell it. To help with this, Milani gave some insight as to how to get started. She suggested first identifying a theme; layout an editorial calendar with various press releases that might be sent throughout the year, trade shows your client may be attending, white papers being created and new products that may be released. Lay the themes out and start the brainstorming session there.

Once you’ve identified your themes, generate the content and tell the story in different ways through all your channels. Send out a press release; use a fact from the release to create a different angle on the story for a new blog post. Use an idea from the blog post to share the same message on another social media site - share the message through all your channels to further your reach and get the most impact.

Technology is changing the way we, as PR professionals, have previously done things. It doesn’t change the content of a story, but it provides us with opportunities to spread the message out farther than ever. With that comes the challenge of adapting and evolving as well as coming up with unique story angles and ways to present those messages in a variety of formats.