One of a series of posts from guest contributor Nick Keith – a journalist, writer and publisher

In business as in life, we prefer to buy from people we know and trust. So let your potential customers know something about by including parts of your story in the article.

Make sure that your story is short, and relevant to your business story and expertise. If you can link your personal story to your business you have found quick way into the hearts and minds of both editors and the reader, or potential customer.

Editors (and readers) take as much interest in the person at the sharp end of the business as in any of their products or services. This is especially true in newspapers both local and national – and I have worked in both. While the chance of getting your business story published in national newspapers is remote, it is much easier in your local press or radio.

Your story and your expertise are part of your personal brand.

People are interested in people
Ask yourself what interests you most when you read a business profile in a magazine? Aren’t the characteristics, skill sets and backgrounds of the subjects more engaging than the products and services of their businesses?

For me the value of their story lies in how they meet challenges in business, how they have overcome problems in getting to the top (often lack of academic qualifications at school), and how they use hobbies and pastimes to promote their own brand. The more I know about business leaders and where they have come from, the more likely I am to buy them and their products or services.

Why do you think Sir Richard Branson spends so much time engaging in headline-grabbing non-business activities such as air ballooning? It is because these fancy sideshows grab the headlines and reinforce his image – the Branson personal brand. People are attracted to his story as much to his business acumen.

Become a guru in your field
If your personal story paints you as an expert in your field, so much the better. Your expertise will reflect kindly on your business, and newspapers, journals and magazines in your sector will increasingly turn to you as an expert witness for a quote or, even better, for more articles.

Editorial articles are a great means of soft-selling your products and services. In the eighties I wrote regular sports profiles for the Weekend FT. One profile was about John Syer of SportingBodymind, then one of the leaders in sports psychology. The article was read, and the topic enjoyed, by several businesses which then approached John to apply his psychological expertise in the corporate world.

These are just some of the reasons why you need to personalise a story, when you send an article to your local or trade paper, See also my 6 tips on how to get your story published.

Contact: Nick Keith
nick@keithnews.com
01730 233234

Should my first post of my first blog be startling? I expect so, but I have decided to ease myself in gently, and poke my head around the door before opening it and rushing headlong into cyberspace.

Lots of ideas. Lots of thoughts, and questions and all that. But taking it slowly.

This is going to be about words. And about how to use them properly.

I write articles, and I also communicate with the press, in thought and word and deed. PR, in effect.

Prompted by leaving the country and the media for 12 years, which I spent in Africa (Sierra Leone, before the troubles, Kenya, ditto, and Cameroon, and then on to Brussels for a couple of years) before returning to England, older, wiser and less inclined to commute.

So – an office at the bottom of my garden. Comfortable, some mod cons like broadband and my beloved Apple Mac, and room for painting too. I write articles, I bash away slightly desperately at fiction, knowing that I will allow myself to be distracted by a falling leaf unless I am careful. And I do PR too, with a colleague, who knows her stuff and whom I like.

Between us we have set up a small but – we like to think – perfectly formed agency which does our few clients proud. Few not because nobody wants us, but because we want to keep it that way.

My first subject then is how I have noticed that people have very little idea what PR is. There seems to be a general feeling that it involves smiling young girls with little experience who ring up a lot when they are not wanted, lots of expense account lunches, a slightly disapproving sense of ‘anyone can do it so why spend money?’, and a distrust of the undoubted fact that it is very hard to quantify.

This is indeed how PR is done – badly.

Anyone who has had – or done – good PR has a different take on the matter.

I would say that, wouldn’t I? Well, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it, and believe me I wouldn’t enjoy doing it badly.

So for the next few blogs, I am going to discuss how good PR is done.

Shirley Conran, when she had become well known as Superwoman, years and years ago, was quizzed on a radio show by a disgruntled listener.

Surely anyone could write a book like hers? What on earth was so special about it, and by association, about her?

“Well,” she answered, politely. “I agree. Anyone could write a book like mine, as long as they were prepared to put in a lot of effort doing the research, and work hard on finding a good agent and publisher, and promoting it all over the country when it has just come out, and have the discipline to keep writing till they have finished, and usually at 6 in the morning every morning.”

Anyone could probably do PR, if they were prepared and able to attract clients who trust them to do a good job, to devise an imaginative and effective strategy, and to work hard for people who hope for coverage, quickly and thus lots more clients.