Seth Godin's recent blog post, "The difference between PR and publicity," outlined the difference between simply generating publicity and telling your brand's unique story. Godin stated that "[p]ublicity is getting unpaid media to pay attention, write you up, point to you, run a picture, make a commotion," while true "PR" is actually about telling stories--specifically, your brand's story. I couldn't agree more.

So how do you craft your brand story? If your company has been doing its homework, you've likely collected customer testimonials or found a way for your customers to share their success stories with your product/service. You've also been paying attention to the common themes present in your organization over time. You can create great marketing campaigns with this kind of material because it tells you exactly how your product/service speaks to customers on a human level. It seems like a no-brainer, but it's often hard for people to notice subtle themes like this. Bottom line: it's important to give the creative people that work for you--full-time staff or contractors/freelancers--access to material like this in order to craft your brand story.

What else can you do to further your PR efforts? Collaborate. As Godin points out, you won't get the results you want if your PR team can't work with stakeholders/leaders on the project. This is especially true when it comes to copywriting (what I do). It doesn't mean you've got to duplicate your efforts, but you should view copywriting as more than just finding some words to fill a space. Trust your copywriter to get the message across. If used properly, and in tandem with a full-scale effort geared towards creating a good brand story, copy can be a very powerful tool in your marketing strategy.

Good writing is just one part of the puzzle, though. You also need to move beyond the press release to engage people on multiple levels. Godin doesn't see press releases as the route to good PR, either. He's not alone. Cameron Herold, speaker and former Chief Operating Officer of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, also points out the problem with press releases in his presentations about getting free PR. Herold's take is simple: you shouldn't be sending out press releases all day, hoping a reporter will see your story and run with it. Instead, he implores companies to generate their own leads by suggesting specific angles to reporters--essentially planting the seed of a real story--and then letting the reporter take it to the next level.

Here's Cameron Herold giving a presentation about this: