public-relations

---
name: public-relations
description: Use when wants help with public relations, earned media, press coverage, journalist outreach, or media strategy (not pull requests). Also use when the user mentions 'PR,' 'public relations,' 'press…
category: Marketing
version: 1.0.0
tools: []
---

# Public Relations & Earned Media
## Before Starting
**Check for product marketing context first:**

---
## Core Philosophy
PR is not a substitute for distribution. It's a multiplier for it.
- **Earned media doesn't drive direct conversions.** A TechCrunch hit will not give you 1,000 paying customers. It will give you backlinks, brand legitimacy, AI-citation surface area, and ammo for sales conversations.
- **Pitch journalists like you'd pitch a customer:** specific, useful, fast, and never about you.
- **The story is not your product. The story is the trend, the data, the conflict, or the human.** Your product is the evidence.
- **Speed beats polish on reactive PR.** A B+ pitch in the first hour of a story beats an A+ pitch on day three.
### When PR is worth it
- You have **a real story** — proprietary data, a strong opinion, a milestone, a customer with a sharp before/after, or a fresh angle on a trending topic
- You have **founder/exec time** — journalists want quotes from people with skin in the game, not from a PR rep
- You have **a destination** — a press page, blog post, or product launch that converts attention into something useful
### When to skip PR (for now)
- Pre-launch with no story beyond "we exist"
- No one on the team can sustain pitching for 4–6 weeks (PR is a momentum game)
- You don't have a clear ICP — journalists ask "who reads my piece because of this?" and if you can't answer, neither can they
---
## The PR Mix
Four modes. Most teams over-index on one. Run at least three.
| Mode | What it is | Effort | Speed to coverage |
|------|------------|--------|-------------------|
| **Reactive (newsjacking)** | Inject your POV into trending news | Low–medium | Hours to days |
| **Proactive (pitching)** | Build a media list, pitch original stories | High | 2–8 weeks |
| **Inbound (press requests)** | Respond to journalist queries on HARO/Qwoted/Featured | Low | Days to weeks |
| **Owned (press page + media kit)** | Make it easy for journalists to find you | One-time setup | N/A |
**For the reactive newsjacking workflow** — (references/newsjacking.md)
**For proactive journalist pitching** — (references/journalist-pitching.md)
**For inbound press-request platforms (HARO, Qwoted, etc.)** — (references/press-platforms.md)
**For where to pitch (media outlets, podcasts, newsletters)** — (references/media-outlets.md). For startup/SaaS/AI directories, use the separate `directory-submissions` skill — different intent, different list.
---
## Owned: Press Page + Media Kit
Set this up once. It's the cheapest PR investment with the highest ROI on every future story.
**Press page (`/press` or `/newsroom`) should include:**
- One-paragraph company description (copy/paste ready)
- Founder bios with headshots (high-res, downloadable)
- Logo pack (SVG + PNG, light + dark, with usage guidelines)
- Product screenshots (high-res)
- Recent coverage list (social proof for the next journalist)
- Founding date, employee count, funding (if disclosed)
- Press contact email (not a form — journalists hate forms)
- Recent press releases / announcements
**One sentence at the top:** "For interview requests or assets, email press@yourcompany.com — we respond within 24 hours."
Then *actually* respond within 24 hours.
---
## Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar
Before sending any pitch, the answer to all of these should be yes:
- [ ] Does this journalist cover this beat? (Check their last 5 articles.)
- [ ] Is there a clear news hook — something that just happened or is about to?
- [ ] Could this journalist write a complete story from this email alone? (Data, quotes, customer name, contact.)
- [ ] Is the subject line specific enough to predict the article's headline?
- [ ] Is the pitch under 150 words?
- [ ] Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
- [ ] Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote)
If any answer is no, don't send.
---
## Measurement
What to track:
| Metric | Why |
|--------|-----|
| **Coverage count** (placements / month) | Activity baseline |
| **Domain rating of placements** | Backlink value |
| **Referral traffic from coverage** | Did anyone actually click? |
| **Brand search lift** | Did people search you after reading? |
| **AI citation rate** (ChatGPT, Perplexity quote your brand) | The new measurement that matters |
| **Sales conversations citing the article** | The only one that matters for revenue |
What not to obsess over: AVE (advertising value equivalency) — it's a vanity metric PR firms invented.
---
## Common Workflows
### "Help me newsjack [trending story]"
Go to [newsjacking.md](references/newsjacking.md), run the scoring rubric, draft 2–3 angles, pick the best, draft the pitch.
### "Find journalists who cover [beat]"
Go to [journalist-pitching.md](references/journalist-pitching.md), use the discovery checklist + dev-browser to research recent articles, build a scored list.
### "What's worth pitching this week?"
Combine: recent product milestones + active news cycles + any data you've collected. Score each potential story by the quality bar above.
### "Respond to this HARO query"
Go to [press-platforms.md](references/press-platforms.md), use the response template, keep it under 200 words.
### "Build my press page"
Use the checklist above. Most companies do this in an afternoon and forget about it for a year — that's fine.