Developing a PR Plan: A Must

New Year is the time for assessment, goal setting and strategic planning for most businesses. When it comes to PR, it is the time to set objectives and formulate a clear, defined plan that'll help your business to achieve optimum results in the media.

Today's business makes it essential to get your company portrayed positively in the media. In the business world, the image and reputation of your business is critically important. Hence, it is essential that the businesses and the organizations have an effective and strategic public relation program along with positive and healthy media relations. Too many businesses do not have any organized public relations plan to achieve healthy publicity for their organization.

Many firms also complain that they do not get any positive publicity and feel ignored by the media. At the same time, there are many businesses and organizations that get extremely negative publicity that could have been prevented or cured by an effective PR plan. But the good news is that there is a series of strategic PR tips and prescriptions to help companies and organizations to achieve positive publicity with an enhanced image and reputation.
When planning your PR activities for the year, as a general rule considering the full year ahead, plan for six months, and expect to revise the plan after three months. Like other business activities, PR requires flexibility and a recognition that things will change over time.

At first, review the past year PR activities and if last year your business received media attention, review the resulting coverage with an analytical view. Then determine the angles and pitches that worked well and resulted in very positive coverage. Make a list of journalists who reported in your favor and who didn't. Look at the overall positive, negative or neutral coverage you received last year. If you subscribed to a media measurement service, review the results of your campaigns and compare your progress against your competitors. Always, consider your overall business objectives, and use them as a basis for developing your main media messages. Be careful in what you say and how you say it reflects what you’re trying to achieve as your messages will form the backbone of your communication activity for the year.

Once you’ve decided your plans for the year, it’s time to consider the activities that'll help you to achieve your objectives. Make a news release calendar to plan out the news releases you are intending to issue throughout the year. You may have to revise this calendar while moving through the year, but it'll give you the initial structure to adhere by helping you stay focused on generating news.

Finally, you have to develop a plan of attack. Review your business plan through the eyes of a journalist to know what would be the interest of your customers or investors? Then identify potential media opportunities that could occur during the year, such as product launches, expansion activities and new service offerings, and develop a calendar by listing the events. Try to organize news events to create the buzz. So, if you are starting your business, keep this tip in mind before going further.