Do good, get publicity!
It’s been said that “Any publicity is good publicity.” I guess to an extent, that’s true. There’s self-serving publicity which is linked to fame.
You know the type: Some famous Hollywood star just happens to be in the right place at the right time to buy a Happy Meal for a homeless person and it goes viral.
And then there are truly great acts of kindness because they way beyond anything we could ask of an individual. A good example of this is an LA Times article on the Meathead Movers moving company and the help they render victims of domestic violence.
Whatever their inspiration, Meathead Movers felt they had to help. No questions asked. End of story. But the great news coverage that followed certainly is a nice bonus. Read the article… that’s the type of publicity you can’t put a price on.
Play it Forward
I recently wrote an article on great customer service and one of the things I discovered in my research is that virtually all successful business people, it doesn’t matter what the industry, are generous with their time and resources. They play it forward to their customers.
What’s impressive, is that quite a few business people who are still trying to get grounded, still pounding the pavement and still far from the point of being able to say “I’ve arrived” are generous with their time and resources as well. It doesn’t necessarily translate into good press but somewhere along the line word gets around. And good word-of-mouth beats a news story any day (and lasts a lot longer in the minds of the public).
Free publicity vs. great publicity
I need to break this down. There are a LOT of free publicity sites on the internet that a business can use regardless of whether or not what they do has any merit. But what I’m talking about is getting great press because you do something great. It’s not for me to say whether the individual that is performing the great deed is seeking out the publicity on his own. Maybe someone put a bug in the ear of the newspaper or TV station.
Is there a strategy for getting that type of coverage? For sure the news editor didn’t get a heads’ up via osmosis. Someone had to speak up. But I’m sure that the decision of the news editor to follow through on a specific story has everything to do with the act in question being not just good but GREAT.
#Publicity
