Welcome to the first in our series of six sources of Natural PR. The first source we plan to look at how B2B companies can uncover the data that may be lurking within their organisations.
Surveys and opinion polls are commonly used PR tactics and our sector spends lots of time and money engineering statistics to support stories but for many journalists these are just not real enough to hang a good story on. What about the ‘real data’ languishing with your organisation?
With sufficient depth of analysis the data created and accrued by your business can be a rich source of Natural PR and turned into bigger stories than most surveys could ever manage. Data also gains a huge tick for your brand’s credibility because it’s a real natural source, not just another case of “our survey said…..”
Data is everywhere. The benefit of finding and using it is that it’s free and real. You don’t need a separate research budget to create it and it’s highly credible in the eyes of the media. It’s not simply ‘opinion’ but fact, based on what people did not what they said, or how a process or system really performs rather than perceptions.
Any data you do decide to issue to the press must be of significant depth and well substantiated for media acceptance. There may be a case for collaborating with an academic to do an independent analysis.
Our next blog in this series will look at is the ‘business back story.’ To download the full Natural PR Guide click here.
