Today's Magnetic Storm and PR

1. Get ready, it's coming, this afternoon!

Yes, there's a sunspot bigger than the size of Jupiter, that's hurtling electromagnetic rays at the earth, which are probably hitting you as you read this.

There was talk this morning of everything from power grids shutting down, to cell phone calls being dropped, to the need to wear tin-foil hats on your head. Probably won't happen, but you can bet there are some fanatics having a great time today!

The best part? They're saying that there should be some pretty cool northern lights out tonight. Unfortunately, we're cloud locked here in Wisconsin, so I'll be missing them. If you've never seen them before, or even if you have, go outside and check them out - they're really cool!

2. Wisconsin's legislature is debating a concealed carry law this afternoon, trying to decide whether they should allow individuals to carry guns in public.

3. Oprah's running an interview with Elizabeth Smart on Monday (the Salt Lake City girl who was kidnapped from her bedroom, then found months later) including taking the cameras into her very bedroom. (I bet she cleaned her room willingly on the day of the shooting!) Plus I've heard that one of the network's will run their Elizabeth Smart story in the upcoming sweeps period.

4. The Democratic party has put together a TV ad campaign talking about the health insurance crisis while Bush is spending $87 billion in Iraq.

5. Actor Robert De Niro just was diagnosed with prostate cancer discovered during a routine exam.

What in the world do these things have in common, and what do they have to do with PR?

Very simply, every one of these things is a huge PR opportunity, but only for those who aggressively make them happen.

Some bright Doctors are going to be on the phone pitching the importance of regular complete medical checkups with more than just blood work, and tying into the De Niro story.

Those who have products and services to protect children have a great opportunity to have stories run on the news right after the Elizabeth Smart story, and in the newspapers and magazines and talk shows throughout the month.

Etiquette consultants have an opportunity to turn sunspots into a "what to do to be polite with new technologies" discussion.

I won't belabor the point with more examples.

What are you doing to tie your product, service or cause into the media at least once each quarter?

I say that, because I have yet to find a company that couldn't do some tie-in at least once every three months.

But to do that, you need to think opportunistically!

You need to read the paper and watch the news with your main thought being "how could I tie-in to that" instead of "look what our society's come to."

You need to watch movie previews thinking the same thought, rather than "that looks like a good flick."

You need to constantly track upcoming events like sports, elections, TV shows, trade conferences, new product announcements from major publicity-generating organizations, etc. with the same thoughts.

This reminds me of a story.

There was once a young man who was on an African photo safari. At night, the jeeps all drove into a fenced-in compound. The young man, being restless, went for a walk, but finding the compound cramped, started to climb the fence to go outside the compound.

One of the hands grabbed him and pulled him down off the fence.

"What could hurt me?" the young man asked. "It's just a flat bunch of weeds out there."

So the hand took some time to teach...

"See those weeds, there's a pride of lions that lives out there in those weeds and you'll hear them roar outside the fence later tonight."

"See that puddle 50' away from the fence? There's a crocodile that lives in it."

"No way," the young man replied, "that puddle couldn't be more than a few feet in size and it only 6" deep!"

"But there is, and he killed a tribesman just last week."

Just then they saw a bird land next to the puddle to get a drink. Suddenly the puddle became a boiling cauldron of muddy water. A few seconds later the bird was dinner, the croc was happy, and the young man was a surprised believer.

I normally use this story to remind my teenagers of the importance of staying away from situations that on the surface look safe, but in reality are dangerous.

But the other day I reversed the story, and realized that if you look at the world from the viewpoint of the croc instead of the bird, there's another lesson to be learned:

"When you're constantly looking for opportunities to come your way, you tend to eat better."

So, when it comes to PR, are you a crocodile, or a bird?

One great resource to help you learn not only how to search for those opportunities, but will teach you exactly what to when they come up is one of our best sellers:
Media Relations Power: 199 Ways To Get Free Publicity For Your Company, Cause or Product.
Click to find out more.

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Tags: News and PR