Tips for Telling Your Story Through Public Relations

There has been a lot of buzz in recent years about Storytelling and PR.  There is a lot of value in the techniques PR Storytelling offers; however, for many startups and entrepreneurs (as well as small to medium businesses), PR Storytelling is far more involved and complicated than they need to achieve their goals and objectives.

PR is really about telling your story, in a newsworthy way that appeals to the media. If you have a good story that resonates with the media, it will resonate with the public as well.

​When the founder of BYPR first started in PR, one of her early jobs was with a non-profit for the blind and visually impaired.  The department was headed by a former journalist, who stressed the importance of a good story and who didn’t believe in follow up calls to the media (yes, many media will be glad to know of at least one PR department that didn't inundate them with “follow up” calls, the bane of many media).   Her  success with media coverage rested with the story she  could tell them through a press release.

So she  learned to paint a visual picture of the non-profit’s news with her words.  Blind teens learning to waterski.  Blind and visually impaired youth rock climbing.  Firefighters volunteering to teach the blind and visually impaired to ski (it is a fascinating and intense process too, involving a sighted person skiing ahead and calling out to the blind skier which way to turn).   The blind and visually impaired competing in the Olympics for the blind.

Don’t get us wrong - PR Storytelling has some wonderful techniques to help clients achieve their goals.  Follow up calls and emails - in a more limited fashion than many agencies are used to - are important as well.  And you need to do the basics - who are your target audiences that you are trying to reach and what are the things that resonate with them. 

But in the end, PR is really about telling your story.  

After all, a good story can and does resonate with the media.  Stick with telling your story, in a newsworthy way to appeal to the media.  If you do it right, you will get results.  And, although they may not thank you for it,  the media generally will be grateful not bombarding them with follow up calls and emails.  Which will help build your credibility with them in the long run.