Relationships Matter – More than Ever

People connections

This first year of the new decade has started out with a bang. And a rumble. And loud murmurings around the globe. Plenty of press-worthy content going around, much of it tragic, gloomy or kvetching. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to cut through the noise.

But for businesses the news has been a mixed bag so far. Some positive economic signs, some still frightening.

Personally, my client work has picked up. Companies seem ready to put more energy – and resources – into business development, looking for growth. Since we provide long-term marketing and public relations services, this has been a boon. Recent media successes (aka ‘placements’) have confirmed for me that consistent and persistent communication pays off. And that the PR art of building relationships with journalists, editors and of course clients has not decreased through the expanded use of online networking or fancy tech tools.

Yes, I have social media plans built into our clients overall strategies. But I still use traditional press releases for certain announcements. And direct correspondence with analysts, reporters, writers. And story pitches. I’ve been developing relationships with some trade publications for over a decade. But there are always new players rotating in/out – so I work hard to keep up with them all.

Then just this week, the long-term relationship efforts paid off. We had two prominent media placements in a key  publication that hadn’t responded before. One interview was stimulated by a press release, and one from a pitch. Further, we have invited the editor and writers to an annual users’ conference which fits in their readers’ demographic – and they’ve accepted.

Lesson reinforced: keep connecting. It’s still about ‘who you know’.

–Donna

Thanks to francistoms, Flickr Creative Commons, for the photo “Staff of Programmes Ltd, UK“, a marketing phenom success story from the 1980′s.