5 Reasons your competitors kicking your ass in the PR stakes

The biggest issue that companies face is staying relevant and re-inventing the future. Being prepared to talk about things that are forbidden or haven't quite happened yet. The tech industry is game-changing in their ability to talk about the future because they cannot afford to build technology for today or the past. Without the future they are irrelevant and obsolete.

There is a quantum shift in the way we do PR and it has been mostly due to the influence of social media and our acceptance of celebrity. It also has a lot to do with the fact that everyone is a journalist and the old-school journalist with qualifications are being replaced, quite often for free, with the hack who can put a few words together. The belief in 'more' is better, has superceded quality over quantity. A simple post on Instagram with 50 words can be as powerful as a 800 word story in the New York Times or the Sydney Morning Herald.

Public relations has changed and so has journalism. That person sitting next to you at an event who owns that manufacturing company up the road, may also double as a free writer for Forbes or Inc Magazine. Things have changed and so should you.

5 Reasons why your competitors may be getting more PR include:

1. They keep their content relevant and forward thinking and know the value of a good sound bite.
2. They use social media to reach out to journalists and tell their story on Twitter rather than in a press release.
3. A journalist or writer knows who they are just because they are connected to them on some social media platform and they feel like they already know them and trust what they have to say.
4. They use controversy to create newsworthy content even though trolls may attack them (which often means that their social media ranking will go through the roof).
5. They know the different public relations platforms at their disposal to push out content.

There have been a lot of advances in technology platforms and big players like Cision are buying up companies - big time! Media is not what it use to be; you have social media platforms that are as powerful (if not more powerful) than traditional media, YouTube in particular creating channels that tell stories, commentators who end up on news channels because they have something to say and may have a social media following, everyday writers and bloggers and more.

Some PR platforms that will help you get your message across:

Muck Rack

Find the journalists you need to speak to and start connecting with them on social media and via email. I would always go the social media route first, then an email or call.

Blogdash

With 200k bloggers listed, they have a huge network to get your message out to. It's incredible the pull that bloggers have in not only creating media but also pushing your profile to the top of Google.

Anewstip

If you tweet, want a journalists profile, have a news article that's interesting or need access to media profiles, Anewstip has a load of important information taht will help you. They include the influence score, alerts, media lists etc.

PRWeb

This is a favourite of mine as it helps SEO for websites and connects you to a platform that guarantees editorial, even if it's just on a blog. It allows you to create, distribute, and track your press releases and use this information to republish noting the source on your website. This site has been around for a long time so it has invested heavily in the effectiveness of distribution.

BusinessWire

BusinessWire is similar to PRWeb, however it focuses on business and allows you to segment per country, industry and demographic.

MarketWire

This platform extends itself to custom publishing and influencers giving publicists or companies the opportunity to reach 'new media'.

Other platforms to consider for a full-service include Cision and Gorkana. They are the two most well known platforms and have been very effective in gaining market share. Most publicists use these platforms. Other options is to use twitter to respond to #journorequests or subscribe to Help a Reporter Out, Sourcebottle or Radio Guest List.