Once upon a time, PR was largely about media relations. It was about engaging with journalists and convincing them to run your client’s story, or do an interview, or attend an event.
Here at HC HQ we used to devote a large part of our weekly team meeting to scouring features lists and planning, which clients we could put forward for which feature. In those days, we wrote a lot of media releases and made a lot of pitches. But then the media landscape changed – a lot.
The Rise Of Content As King
And then the next change swept through. Social media became mainstream, and with it, suddenly everyone was a publisher, author, journalist.
This initially seemed like great news for brands. If you can produce your own content, you don’t even need media! Except it didn’t quite work out like that. In fact, our job got rather harder. It’s more difficult to stand out in that crowd, and it’s more difficult to make an impact when there are so many channels to feed.
These days, much of what we do here at HC is not traditional PR but content development.
That’s not to say we’re not still picking up the phone to journos or putting out media releases, but where in the past a major part of our job was getting the story out there, much of it now is…telling the story.
We’re creating blogs and websites and social posts and all sorts of other content that tell our clients’ stories to audiences who are bombarded with news and entertainment everywhere they look.
Going It Alone Is Harder Than Ever
Our clients are finding that quality content from a partner who gets their business and gets their industry is more important than ever, because competition for attention is so strong.
What all of that means at the end of the day, is that brands must tell good stories that matter to their audiences. We can help you create the assets, but it’s important for you to know how to recognise what a good story is, so why not drop us a line or give us a call if you’d like some tips: hc.net.au