Beware of Smoke & Mirrors – 3 Tips for the Savvy

Who doesn’t wish for their business to be highlighted in USA Today’s Weekend section? Or, to have the trademark black and white dot drawing in the Wall Street Journal, proving to others that ‘you’ve made it?’

Here is the hard truth: It doesn’t mean you’ve made it.

A business has ‘made it’ when it, well let’s be honest…when it stays in business. Believe it or not, there are plenty of well-intentioned companies that have failed even when they can boast binders full of national stories and glossy articles.

Don’t get caught up in the glamorous lure of media coverage. That will come if you stay focused on the following priorities:

1. Work from a place of passion. What you’re creating will be most authentic when it comes from here, where your business was first conceived.
2. Create the good product you’ve always envisioned. Don’t falter for budget or time. If you don’t have either, it’s better to wait and do it right.
3. Tell people about it. Who is going to buy this amazing product? When you’ve figured that out, determine how to reach them. If you brainstorm this simple thought for even ten minutes, I guarantee you’ll come up with 10-20 different ways to connect with your buyer…and the answer won’t always be media.

Make these elements the baseline for your public relations campaign. Without them, people will be repelled because everyone has an innate sense of things that are inauthentic and compromised.

With this, your business’s reputation will spread, your story will remain strong and it’s likely you will make it into the weekend section…just for being you.

“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.”  

-Althea Gibson