By Treicy Keller
What does the press officer do? What is the difference between public relations and advertising? If I hire the services of a communications agency, will my company have articles published in the biggest newspapers of the country? There are many questions around this area and our proposal is to clarify them.
In general, the main function of the press officer is to serve as a bridge between the client attended and the media. With this, the assisted (which can be an individual, a company or a public institution) conquers positive visibility and confidence in the society. Or, in the words of a communication professional: he conquers a strengthening of its image.
So, you may ask: “And how does this happen in practice?”.
The job of the press officer, who generally has a degree in journalism or public relations, will be to try to have frequently positive news about his client published in the press.
The advisor must know deeply his client: historical, weaknesses, strengths, who are the competitors and how is the market. From this, the professional will discover the “newsy potential” of the client, that could generate the interest of the media in publishing something. Learn some of the tools that the press officer uses to build this relationship with the media:
• Communication strategies: the development of a plan that, among other things, includes what will be the target media, which will be the chosen editorships (fashion, food, economy, health, etc.) and which pitches may be sent to the journalists.
• Press release: sending information in text or audio (when sent to radio stations). If any journalist is interested in this topic, he will use our text in his article, or he may schedule an interview with the company´s spokesperson.
• Interview follow-up: the press officer follows the conversation between the journalist and the client.
• Follow up: calling reporters and editors in order to offer a pitch; establishing contact with journalists, confirming that they received an e-mail sent.
The work of PR does not guarantee that any institution or individual will appear in the media. This happens because the PR agency does not buy space in the paper, this is work of advertising. The PR agency conquers editorial space in the media, without involving payments to the newspaper. This is much more influential and spends more credibility to the reader, so it can bring better results for the client.
With the advent and strengthening of the online media, the activities of the press officer have expanded. “Working relationship management with journalists is still very important! But today, this professional must also keep in mind the power that online media have on a company’s image or personality. Today, all the communications agencies think in ways to also reach relevant blogs or social networks”, says Rogério Artoni, director of Race Communications, an agency specialized in PR.
* Treicy Keller is a press officer in Race Communications
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