In issue 2 of IAM you can make the most of our Arts PR supplement but until then here’s some advice on how to improve your approach to online PR.
Name: Peter Ingman.
Business: Founder and CEO of Mynewsdesk with offices in London, Stockholm, Oslo, Singapore, Copenhagen and Berlin.
Main clients: 5,000 clients using the MND platform for hosting and sharing all kinds of Company generated content. Makes use of Paid, Earned, Shared and Own (PESO) channels to help companies and organisations tell their story to a relevant target group and influencers in the industry.
What do you frequently see companies and individuals doing wrong? Many fail to spot their own potential when it comes to communicating their story in a varied, creative, fun and yet professional way.
What can arts professionals do better? The untapped potential lies in communication: understanding how to use the connection between arts and business will make for better PR. There is a lack of understanding among both groups about the virtues of modern communication.
How has the landscape changed in recent years and where is it going: for example, is it better to communicate directly with audiences or do column inches in print publications pull rank? What should companies be doing in 2015? These are exciting but also challenging times. Never before have we been able to communicate directly with our audiences in a cost-effective manner, neither have we had access to tools where we really can make good use of our creativity. Everyone could have a personalised studio for HD sound and picture. Fact searching, spellcheck and curation tools make it virtually impossible to make mistakes. But do not forget that these blessings also come with a highly sophisticated audience that is difficult to please and surprise.
A communicator today should make use of all elements in the so called PESO model (read this Mashable article here). The author describes it well with a quote: ‘If you aren’t using the PESO model for your communications work, and measuring the meaningful metrics that help an organisation grow, you will not have a job in 10 years.’
I recommend you at least get a good overview over the possibilities out there and make sure you are guided to some of the practices that makes most sense for your situation.
What are the common misconceptions about the PR service you offer? That quality content is difficult to produce and, therefore, maintaining a nice looking newsroom or your own media channel is also difficult. PR is also about you telling an interesting story and constantly using elements that show your target groups who you really are and why you are relevant.
Ideally, what’s your preferred lead time? 15 minutes! Many organisations fail to understand that we are living in a time where real-time is not just a buzz word. Oreo got all the attention when they managed to deliver a story during 2013’s Super Bowl power outage with their You can still dunk in the dark campaign. Other brands realise that they need to have their hands constantly on the tools and their ears towards the ground at all times. Everything can be communicated in a personal way in seconds. To get an idea of how easy it is, just look at how younger generations are using Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp.
For the independent artist, hoping to make a splash, what sort of budget does he or she need to get going? You can do a lot nowadays for ‘free’, but you need to put a lot of your own work and effort in to any campaign. The more competent and resourceful you can be, the stronger the impact. An independent artist can make a splash by being fun and creative – and reaching the right audience in a similar way to how music artists have dominated because of their entrepreneurialism. Many musicians have skipped record companies and jumped on the YouTube (or SoundCloud) wagon instead.
Any other advice to IAM readers? Be creative, use your network, don’t be afraid to ask for help.