The birds are chirping, the plants are blooming (the first two may not apply if you live in certain parts of the country right now!), the days are getting longer and your public relations program is in need of some spring cleaning. Most people equate spring cleaning to getting rid of the clothing you don’t wear any more, tidying up that garage, sweeping off the deck or going through your desk drawers — basically getting rid of the clutter or doing a deep cleaning. In the PR world, the same premise applies…and if you ignore this spring cleaning, the consequences could be dire. Not doing a PR spring cleaning could massively impact not only how efficient, but how successful your public relations program can be.
What does PR spring cleaning involve?
Media Relations Database
Gotten email bouncebacks when pitching various news to reporters but haven’t yet had the inclination to investigate? Time to see if that reporter has left the publication, who’s replaced him or her and/or what media outlet that reporter has landed at.
Speaking Opportunities
While it’s always a best practice to update that list of speaking opportunities on a monthly, if not weekly, basis with current deadlines, the date when speaker proposals open up, etc., have you made a concerted effort to research new conferences that have emerged within your comaany’s/client’s area of expertise?
Competitive Analysis
Where are your competitors getting ink? What type of news are they pushing out? Having this intelligence easily at hand should help update your media relations strategy. This is something you should be doing year round, but actually summarizing it as a one-off is still valuable.
Awards
Much like the speaking program, awards deadlines are constantly updated and submissions open up on an ongoing basis. Make sure you do a concerted effort to update these/delete all old opportunities. Cutting through what isn’t applicable will help your awards program run more smoothly in the coming months. And take the time to research new awards that might not necessarily have been on your radar throughout the year.
Social Media
What are people in your industry talking about on social media? What has helped engage your audience over the previous months and what has fallen on deaf ears? While presumably you are constantly analyzing your social program, sometimes you get stuck in a “tactical rut” and it’s good to take a step back.
Spring Cleaning Not Just for Springtime
Ideally, you’d keep up on this PR maintenance on a daily basis. But with so much time dedicated to generating immediate results, you may need a kick in the pants to take a step back to strategically clean up all of the cornerstones of your daily PR cadence. While the above is some of what you can do to clean up your PR program, there are many more. What are your favorite spring cleaning practices for your PR program?