Wednesday morning’s BioBreakfast focused on providing CBSA member companies with the “How to’s of public relations” with perspectives from Maggie Holben, owner of Denver’s Absolutely Public Relations, as well as experienced writer and journalist Rachel Brand. Holben began with a comparison of PR to advertising, noting that “advertising is what you say about yourself” while PR represents the strategy and tactics used to influence “what third parties say about you.”
With this definition in mind, a company’s PR strategy must involve both pushing information out as well as pulling information in (i.e. monitoring what is being said). The most comprehensive way of pushing traditional press releases out is through a newswire (e.g. PR Newswire, Business Wire). While most of these services do cost money, they provide access to both trade segment-specific media and general media. Beyond newswire services, companies may also choose to reach out to reporters or specific media directly via email or phone. Companies can also respond to reporter postings on lead sites such as ProfNet and HARO if they offer a perspective or expertise the reporter is seeking.
On the pull side, a variety of services exist to track company mentions in the media at a number of price points. Free options include setting up a Google Alert. Also, on the less expensive end is Boulder-based Filtrbox, which costs $10/month but enables monitoring of blogs and social media like Twitter in addition to traditional media (see this overview of Filtrbox).
From her perspective as a journalist, Brand focused on the things that a company can do to make itself accessible and interesting to writers seeking a story. Brand discussed the need to focus on “news worthy” items that are tied to events like key hires, funding successes, or product releases. Beyond this obvious news, companies also have the opportunity to connect their work to “a larger news story or trend.” Also, Brand advised firms to keep their websites up to date and provide easy access to FAQs and key images like logos that would be useful to the media. Brand also felt it important in the bioscience space for companies “to translate what they are doing into laypersons terms,” which can be achieved through analogies, as this aids in access to the mainstream media.
The next CBSA program will be an Investor Relations Seminar on Tuesday, February 24 at 8 am. Click here for registration.
