How to choose a publicist      

By Wal Baker 

The best way to gain good publicity for your business is to hire a good publicist. 

To help you choose a publicist, you need a checklist to assess the qualifications and experience of the publicist.

It is best for you, the owner or manager of the small business, to work directly with the publicist, not with a secretary, an account manager, director, or agent. So you need to ask the publicist himself about his qualifications and experience, not another representative of his public relations company, publicity firm or press agency.

You need to assess the expertise of the publicist, that is a publiciser or media relations consultant. A good publicist is a media relations expert who has had broad experience as a journalist, ideally in print, internet, radio and television.

You do not want to hire a large public relations company that may delegate your publicity account to a new university graduate without much experience in journalism and public relations.

As university lecturer Jane Johnston says in her text book tiled Media Relations: issues and strategies, "Media releases are often written by junior practitioners. Chances are, university graduates will have to hit the ground running in readiness to write media releases."

Here is a short checklist of questions to ask prospective publicists. If a publicist answers "yes" to every question and you can verify his or her claims then you have probably found a good publicist.

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Checklist questions

Are you a fully qualified and accredited public relations consultant?

Have you had at least five years experience as a public relations consultant?

Are you a fully qualified and graded journalist?

Have you had at least five years experience as a journalist employed full-time?

Can you tell me which public relations firms and media outlets you have worked for? 

Have you had at least five years of experience gaining publicity in the press and on radio, television and the internet for clients in small business?

Can you show me a list of your past and present clients?

Can you show me sample clippings of media coverage you have gained for your clients?

Can you show me testimonials from your clients?

Have you served clients in my industry?

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It is wise not to let sales staff, account managers, business-development managers or anybody else distract you from asking these basic questions. Ignore their emotive sales pitches and consider the facts.

Other questions you need to ask your prospective publicist should be about: retainer fees, hourly rates, mark-ups, coverage reporting, accountability and conflicts of interest with similar clients.

Also realise that the publicist who works for the biggest public relations firm or charges the biggest fees may not be the one who can achieve the most publicity for your business.

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Wal Baker is a public relations consultant and publicist of Wallace Baker Public Relations - www.wbpublicity.com.au . 

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