Promoting Sincerity

There are numerous tools that help one promote themselves or promote a person or entity that they may be representing. These range from press releases, interviews and advertisements to media advisories, podcasts and tweets. Another notable and effective promotional tool is the media event. For the public relations professional, such a tool represents one's way of drawing attention to their client or to a particular cause in the form of a staged event. While I have written on this before, there is one aspect of them that needs further emphasing. One essential ingredient for this tool to be successful is that it must be genuine. What, you may ask, does that mean? For any public relations tool to be most effective, it must be sincere and honest. Ideally, no P.R. tool should ever be designed to deceive or fool. The media event, as the name suggests, is designed to attract the press in the hope the press will give it coverage, thus generating attention and interest on behalf of a person or cause. The event can be simple or extravagent, inexpensive or costly. Above all, though, it must reflect the true values of the organizers. No phoniness. If one looks at the most effective speeches,for instance, they are the ones deemed most heartfelt. The same holds true for media events. All of us, no doubt, have attended weddings. Which ones did we find to be the most moving? Simple: the ones where the couple was most deeply taking such action on the wings of love. Such a joining reflected their true values. Media events, at their best, should be no different. Public relations, at its best, is not about pretend. It is not about faking something. Rather, it is about giving emphasis to a specific message. A couple invites others to their wedding to showcase their true feelings. Media events, at their most effective, should be geared to highlight that which one feels strongly. Ideally, nothing less will suffice.