Successful communication needs mutual trust

When the findings of the Innovation Scorecard were announced at a recent function at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), I could not have agreed more with Media Tenor CEO Wadim Schreiner who said the results showed that not only were South African companies becoming more aware of the need for innovation in modern business, but were also becoming more adept at communicating their innovation stories to the media.

But, one has to take a step backwards in order to find precisely what successful companies are doing to get their names in lights because there are still a lot of companies and a lot of PR people who inundate the media with press releases that never get used and serves only to intensely annoy news editors and journalists.

The difference?

And strangely enough many of the rejected stories are potentially just as newsworthy as those that get used. So, what's the difference?

Quite simply what companies are becoming more adept at is first of all understanding that trusting relationships are the foundation upon which success is based in terms of media coverage.

Their internal or external PR people make a point of getting to know the journalists with whom they will most likely be doing – not just a casual once-a-year lunch or invitation to a corporate cocktail party – but real relationship building efforts.

Newsworthy

Secondly, after having built some mutual trust, companies then concentrate on relevance. Not so much about what they want to say but what the media believe is newsworthy.

And this is not about firing off press releases but negotiating news stories in a way that ensures that everyone benefits.

But, the PR community still has a long way to go in terms of reaching the ideal. Because far too many of their clients or CEOs still firmly believe that what media publicity is all about is getting the names of their products or companies mentioned as many times as possible. Or worse, that what it is all about is getting their own names mentioned as often as possible.

With the cost of marketing rocketing, more and more companies are looking for the “free “ publicity they can get in the editorial sections of newspapers and magazines and in broadcast programmes. But, while this is a slot cheaper than say, advertising, it is by no means free. It is needs a lot of hard work by a lot of professional people who know what they are about and who understand the need to build relationships and to share ideas and relevant information with the media rather than just impose trivia upon them.