subject: Lessons in PR: Always Do Your Homework! [print this page] Lessons in PR: Always Do Your Homework! Lessons in PR: Always Do Your Homework!
By Diane D. Stein
99% of PR is the behind the scenes. It's doing your homework and being prepared for whatever might come up. 1% of PR is the glamorous 15 minutes of "fame". It's when your client is speaking at a press conference, or the client is talking about their book on TV.
Early on in my career, I found out this the hard way. I was new to the game, and super excited about doing my job. So when a TV station called me up at the last second and said, "One of our interviewees called at the last second and canceled. They got sick. They got food poisoning. Can you send your client out to talk about his new book?", I was like, "Absolutely!"
Now, the good news is, it went totally great. Nothing bad happened. The people who called in were fantastic. The host was nice. There were no bumps. But what my mistake was, there is no way in hell I should have done that.
There are an enormous amount of things that can go wrong in that scenario. The host could have been a complete jerk, and I would have been caught off guard because there was no preparation.
There should have been research on the show, there should have been research on the host of the show, negotiations over what could and couldn't be asked. All of these things should have been done before the show was held. But it wasn't.
When I reported to my boss, I was excited. "Guess what I just did!" She was like, "That's fantastic, Diane. Now in the future.."
That was a big mistake. Some I know have not been so lucky in the same scenario. Luckily I came out smelling like a rose, but I could have come out smelling like a big cow pie.
