Ci siamo chiesti più di una volta se il comunicato stampa non sia per caso morto, nonostante il fatto le aziende continuino a utilizzarlo.

C’è chi invece affronta la questione sotto un altro punto di vista, e suggerisce di non porsi nemmeno la domanda, di non esaminare il comunicato per capire se respira ancora e come, ma di dargli un sacrosanto, volontario e definitivo colpo di grazia .

La provocazione è interessante, e stimola un po’ di riflessione su come e quanto il comunicato viene oggi utilizzato e, soprtattutto, sugli strumenti alternativi ( e forse più ricchi e efficaci..) al comunicato.

Tapio Liller sul suo blog Open Source PR ci pone il seguente quesito: what if we axed press releases altogether ?

Credo che la situazione descritta dal buon Tapio sia un bel “déjà vu” per molti professionisti delle PR europee:

“…. “If you want PR for your firm, write press releases. The more the better, ideally at least one or two every week.” So, or similar, goes the song that at least the majority of US tech companies sing when they hire a European PR agency. They want us to replicate what they do in the States: flood the media with heaps of – let’s face it – useless, meaningless, hollow, fake, gibberish bullshit. Elsewhere on the web there’s a name for that sort of unsolicited messages. It’s called spam.”

E allora ?

Le parole d’ordine sono sempre le stesse: valore e contenuto. Tapio esemplifica così:

“I work in tech and digital media PR. In Germany that’s not the area where you get a lot of spontaneous inquiries from journalists. You have to earn their attention. With good stories, genuinely interesting interview partners, and with a pitch with no strings attached. If they happen to like your story the moment you call, great! If they have a different agenda for today, fine too! If they know you, they’ll be open to listen to you again next time – or even call you when they have a story coming up that your client would add an interesting angle to. It’s all about relationships. Press releases don’t carry relationships. So why rely on them to “get ink”? “

E vale la pena soffermarsi sui tre suggerimenti di Tapio per “uscire” dal comunicato stampa fine a se stesso:

“In a world without press, and without press releases, your audience would still be looking for answers on the web. If there’s no press to carry your story and make it findable, you’ll have to take care of that bit yourself. Publish! Blog! Talk about yourself, what you’re up to, what bothers you, what your plans are. Let the people looking for answers get to know you better. That’s the first bit.

The second, and even more important part is: Talk about your customers, your clients and their problems. And how you solve them. You have a great product? Talk about how it solves its buyer’s problems. You sell services? Let your audience know what they can achieve by giving you their custom. You help THEM find answers to THEIR problems.

Thirdly: Listen. Listen hard. And even harder. Because only by understanding the problems and questions of your peers, customers, prospects, etc., you will be able to give good answers.”

Interessante no ? Meditate marketing manager, meditate…