GlobalBX

I recently received a call from a prospective client who had recently appeared on Oprah and was looking for ways to continue and grow his media placements and build his public relations campaign.  That was one smart, savvy business owner.  Most people view Oprah as the summit, as the end of the line media-wise.  Granted, at least through the end of this year, Oprah will remain one of the prime jewels, when it comes to media coverage.  For the last decade it seems as though every client and prospect has lead with one question – “when can you get me on Oprah?”

She created a media juggernaut, the likes of which we’ve rarely seen.  Still, even for those clients we did book on Oprah, the show was only one step in their overall media campaign.  The purpose of PR is not to gain one media hit, but to create a sustained ongoing media presence.  It could be a TV segment, or a magazine or newspaper article; still other times it could be coverage in a blog or a social media site.

It is the combination of media coverage that creates an effective public relations campaign.  It is not about one placement, even if that placement is on Oprah or the Today Show.  Those types of media hits only truly fulfill their purpose if they end up generating more media coverage.  Often a media hit in a huge outlet such as Oprah will result in an avalanche of call and enquiries for a couple of weeks, but the response will then start to rapidly fade.  We once placed a client on a national TV segment that generated in the neighborhood of half a million calls in a couple of weeks.  The response was astounding.  But as with anything else, if the campaign had stopped there, eventually so would the calls.

So, keep in mind that one media placement does not equate to an effective public relations campaign.  PR is a cumulative process.  It is about the long haul, about creating a sustained ongoing media presence.  Now, add an Oprah appearance to that approach and you have one amazing PR success story on your hands.