Startups, Public Relations and Challenges...

As you might remember, months ago we argued that “interaction with the Editorial section of media outlets must never be conditionalized upon collaborations with the Commercial Department”. The question here however would be whether local entities’ culture is the same in this regard or not? Unfortunately, based on my experience, I have to say no, a big definitive “NO”. This scenario grows even more tenderobserving the Startup ecosystem, which is mainly based upon E-commerce.

Overall, when studying the journey businesses worldwide embark upon toward maturity, we realize that none of them mastered and gained dominance over all fields of business at the beginning. Naturally, all companies need to initially target all their focus toward the quality of their end products. For the next step, ensuring an acceptable output, they shift their focus toward marketing, in order to present their quality product to the public; hence, embeding a sense of need among the target audience leading potential consumers to demand. Such a scenario dominates the first years of a successful business’ growth. However, is there any trace of “Communications” in such a narrative?

Businesses usually grow as big as the thoughts of their founders; the more open-minded they are, the more progressive the company’s approach would be. In other words, the more open and accepting they are toward new methods, the better the development path would be paved with less obstacles. The power of such a fact is even doubled when it comes to the Startup ecosystem. Looking at the country’s well-known and knowledge-based companies, it is so easy to find out that prior to facing sharp Communication turns- namely crisis, the value Public Relations adds to the management of the business is not yet recognized, and no infrastructure, nor long-term execution plan is fabricated. For instance, there are lots of companies with a high brand awareness, in which only one person is positioned to deal with the minimums of PR executions or no stable Communications department is in place.

In such an atmosphere, PR specialists will face a world of misconceptions upon entering corporations, causing troubles in prioritizing the challenges to deal with. One simple example of this profound narrative would be the extreme significance of website SEO empowerment and its paradoxes with long-term PR objectives in Media Relations. Competing for the best results in users’ searches in the perspective of digital marketers and senior management has led to a content war ignited against the rivals that cannot be disregarded . They will use all possibilities to enhance their website’s SEO through using tools such as back link, reportages, google analytics and etc. This is while, no importance is directed toward the formation of Communications and networking with the target media (media relations strategy), as media is merely defined as a promotion target for the company to be hit .?

If you have the experience of riding on such an express train, you better acknowledge that the lives of Public Relations managers are made more difficult managing all channels of the company’s external communications. Persuading Digital Managers to refrain from an aggressive engagement with media will be a headache when marketing managers are dedicated to the sweet taste of being among the first ranks with a safe margin. What would be the solution then?

The most accessible and perhaps the most widely used solution here is to create a Media Relations Committee for an integrated management of such interactions; a group consisting of members from both the Digital and PR departments. The mission of this committee is to help both sides to get familiar with their respective concerns and red lines, as well as ensuring that all available solutions are well reviewed prior to taking multilateral actions under Communications; in other words, to ensure that all aspects of Corporate Communications are well considered in Digital campagins. It is needless to say that this committee is best be managed by the PR Manager.

Undoubtedly, when a company aims toward recruiting?personnale for the Public Relations Department, it signals the fact that at least the corporation is ready to undertake such challenges. Therefore, us as the organization’s representatives firstly need to instill this belief in our company and then our targeted media outlets that the volume of engagement fully depends upon the quality the corporation carries (this approach clearly conveys that all the various?aspects of the cooperation with media have been vividly considered). In a simpler language, those media outlets better aligned with the company’s narrative journey are of priority in our will toward commercially interacting with media. The alignment between the PR and Digital teams in reality leads the company toward pushing the mentioned media up to a higher level of engagement– even under a 60% to to 40% situation with SEO risks, so that both scales are equally given weight.

What is being said does not mean that we are permitted to leverage media outlets toward publishing our news. We are obliged to respect their professional decisions and understand their news-oriented needs. Any relevant or irrelevant news is not intended to be published solely given the financial transactions between the entities; as they are regulated organizations that have been trying hard over the years to deliver relevant and high-quality content to their audience and gain the trust of their readers.

The next challenge would be how PR activities are put under the supervision of the Marketing Department. It needs to be said that such a structure is not bad per se, since it can even work in some organizational charts and be considered fit under their culture. However, the friction peaks when Marketing Managers look at PR activities through a short-termimperative perspective. Expecting PR manouvers in advertising campaigns,?which are empty of a narrative or newsworthiness stems from a lack of a mutual understanding of the realm and missions of Public Relations.

In most cases, because of the unprecedented or even unbridled growth rate, startups are not patient enough toward PR for long-term goals. This could be the reason as to why they usually request and expect each department to gain maximum attention and direct effect upon short-term sales statistics. We must elaborate upon the fact that the efficiency of PR services and activities is to narrate RTBs in line with the campaign’s ultimate goals, not talking about their nature. Moreover, we need to say that we are here to create long-term value, not immediate impression, click or retention. Sometimes creating discourse within the organization is the key to overcoming such misconceptions. It could be that some companies fundamentally do not need comprehensive PR activities, or perhaps it is not necessary to implement all basics of Public Relations there, and maybe there is a shortcut to overcoming the managers’ rush to achieve stability in PR.

Unfortunately, Startups and most of the companies in Iran tend to sacrifice newsworthiness and Media Relations for SEO empowerment and digital interactions. They do not know that upon crisis, when no story has been narrated, nor any value has been created, media only plays the role of a business partner not a close friend. A moment in which even spending huge amounts of money might not stop media from doing what they are built to do. Unbiased analysis is the reason to and nature of their existence; hence, leaving no safe path to resort to under such circumstances!

Subsequent to a period of cooperation, all stakeholders of a company must be aligned toward their expectations from Public Relations. Also, they need to understand where they stand and where do they really want to go. Keeping balance through all channels of Communications at a high penetrated company always needs constant study, consultancy, accuracy, patience, an open-mind, team work, analysis, long-term planning and most importantly, multilateralism.

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