MEDIA MOMENTUM STEMS FROM SEEDLINGS PUBLICISTS PLANT AND HARVEST
In the PR field, to get media momentum you first need to plant seeds. We call it pitching to the media. Then you water those seeds until it’s time to harvest delicious headlines.
Yet sometimes clients ignorant about farming grow impatient too soon. They’ll try it for a month and then want to quit before the harvest. How foolish!
So, sometimes we publicists have to remind them there’s so much in the works that we need to keep shepherding or sheep with stray. Fall off cliffs.
I tell clients who try on one of our trendy new PR suits or gowns we made especially for them to make them look chic and newsworthy:
“Here’s a trial fitting so you can see how sharp you’ll look in the media mirror. And eventually how it will impact your bottom line at harvest.”
As their PR tailor, I remind them they need to keep media momentum building, so they need to contract with our PR firm for more than a short trial if they want to make it into the homestretch.
I warn them that once they lose media momentum, the crop dies. That once fertile field dries up. The race is over. So, better stay with the program for if you bail now, it’s over. It’ll be gone with the wind!
Once momentum is lost, it’s awfully hard to regain. Initiatives all fall apart.
Then it would be like starting all over . . . from scratch.
Tom Madden is an author, speechwriter and public relations expert who is founder and CEO of the international PR firm TransMedia Group (www.transmediagroup.com). Prior to launching the firm in New York City, Madden was Vice President, Assistant to the President, of NBC and was head of PR Planning at American Broadcasting Companies. Among his books are his autobiography “Spin Man” and “King of the Condo,” a murder mystery thriller that satirically depicts life in a Florida condo based on his own harrowing experience as a condo president. His latest book WORDSHINE MAN is due out this summer. He currently writes a blog called “MaddenMischief’ (https://maddenmischief.com/), which chronicles his sometimes whimsical, comical and critical views on politics, media and other subjects.
