Here's how you can enhance your reach by collaborating with PR professionals.

PR is a lot about relationships, relationships built on the foundation of trust. Sometimes, you want journalists to write about you, and sometimes, you want them to hold back. This is a classic example of trust-building in a give-and-take relationship, which is far more valuable in the industry than most other superficial assets. Building trust also allows you to put across a lot of background information that is not necessarily for public knowledge, but very important for getting the journalist on your side of the story.

If you're a people person, actually get to know people. Randomly on an appointed day of the week, spend it making real connections, calling or contacting people with no agenda, no pitch or sell. You will see relationships created from the most random conversations, just taking the time to get to know people!

Partnering with PR professionals can significantly boost reach by leveraging their media connections, crafting strategic messages, and managing crises effectively. PR experts create high-quality content that resonates with the audience. They also facilitate influencer collaborations, provide insightful analytics, and help build a strong, positive brand image. PR professionals provide a comprehensive approach ensuring the communication efforts are amplified and public presence is enhanced.

Collaborating with PR professionals can significantly enhance your reach by leveraging their expertise in media relations, strategic communication, and audience engagement. They can craft compelling narratives, secure media coverage, and build trust with your target audience, ensuring your message resonates effectively.

Goal attainment comes with consistency, and effective communication. Good communications strategies are more effective goal alignment tools.

Goal setting can be challenging in the PR industry as quality and quantity vary greatly. PR's goals should resonate with business goals - this is the most critical aspect. One must start by asking what the business wants and then build PR plans based on that outcome. Is it promoting a product or creating awareness? Is it announcing a milestone or controlling crisis damage? Once these aspects are apparent, goal setting becomes easier. And once goals are set, getting to them gets even more accessible.

We sometimes forget that real relationship building isn’t transactional. Reach out and share information that might be of interest to the journalist even if it doesn’t have any immediate benefit for you or your organization. Meet for a coffee when you’re not pushing an agenda. Support them with connections when you can.

PR professionals do their best to understand their clients but it's impossible for them to know your business or organisation as intimately as you. Keep them regularly updated with the latest developments at your organisation. Don't rely on your own assessments of how interesting a particular development is. Keep your PR professional in the loop and they'll have more opportunities to create stories and awareness in ways you never expected.

If you want to build trust, you should offer PR professionals educational content with validated data to back up your claims. Sharing insightful content with measurable data will build your credibility and maximize the chance to be published. In exchange, the PR pros will reach out more often to you for feedback and your brand can extend its reach beyond imagination.

PR is all about storytelling, and storytelling gets best when more and more experiences are added to it. Stories are the most engaging when they are personal, and getting to personal stories is only possible through collaboration. The more stakeholders one talks to, the more perspectives are formed and it becomes easier to see which one has the best hook to become a viral story.

In my career and life a s a journalist, it has helped to communicate my expectations clearly, from the start. I have always enjoyed my interactions with the PR professionals, forming bonds and using their lens to make sense of the complex topics. But none of this at the cost of journalism itself, and the lines we don't cross. It helps to be respectful even when you disagree.