In the various professional positions I’ve held throughout my career, I’ve often been asked to write or publish information about something that management feels should be promoted or published “because it’s good PR.” I’m always happy to share good news that brings value to readers, but to do so, I need more than, “Here’s the information. Promote it.”
One recent example was recognition our firm received from a statewide organization for being an organization that fosters its professionals for three predefined reasons. Having not heard about the accolade or its purpose, I questioned the requestor how we were notified about the award, who and or how we were nominated, what the judging criteria were and who our competition was for the recognition, if any. These, I felt, were valid questions any reader would be interested to learn about how and why we deserved the accolade received.
As a writing and communications professional, if I am going to write or post a potentially newsworthy item, I’d like to be sure that the content IS newsworthy. Any communications, marketing communications, public relations, writer, editor or other related professional knows and will tell you that issuing non-news in today’s content-driven world is not only a waste of time, but also a good way to turn readers off from your posted content.
Having sat on both sides of the writing and promotion fence, I recognize the need to build and raise awareness for a business or organization. But the ratio of value-based content to self-promotional content should be 90 percent to 10 percent, not the other way around.
That said, I always look at a news piece or other bit of potentially interesting information with one question: Why? Why should anyone who reads this care? What value or information does it give them? What value or benefit does it bring to us? Understanding and responding to these questions is key to getting your content read. If you don’t bring value to your readers, you’re going to lose them.
Think about your favorite blog or news site. Why do you read it? What if your favorite site started posting nothing but content completely irrelevant to your interests? You’d stop visiting the site, wouldn’t you? For those of you who still read print newspapers, what if your paper stopped carrying news articles and simply printed advertisements? The revenue might be good for the publisher, but you wouldn’t get any value from the content (unless you’re a spend-aholic, which is a topic for another time).
In the case of the recognition our firm received, I never received answers to my questions and it turns out the information was not newsworthy. A colleague received a link to the “award” and all they had to do was fill out an application. It was open to anyone and there were no rigorous criteria to meet, making this recognition nothing more than paper-pushing praise.
I posted the content to our website and social media not because it’s newsworthy, interesting or of value. But merely because not doing so would be negatively received. Can you guess why?