Don’t fool yourself. As a company executive, you can not and should not run PR yourself. You have more important things to do, like say, run a company.

If you turn off the PR switch, your competitors will steal your thunder, and, your customers.

4. Initial and consistent coverage takes time.

In most cases, coverage doesn't just happen. PR is like farming. The more seeds you plant, along with the time you spend watering, caring for, and feeding them, your crops will grow in the form of coverage over time. While some things such as news, etc., force information out quickly, other stories take time. And when they appear, they help raise brand visibility, drive some people to buy, and they also spark others to consider writing about it - which in turn also influences the cycle to replicate. Don't assume all of this coverage happens simply because you are a popular company.

Also, realize that there are different forms of media and they each react to different stories in their own way. Trades (whether traditional media or blogs) will cover certain things that relate to your industry whereas mainstream media will need the story presented in a way that has broader appeal.

5. Get a spokesperson. Just because you created the product doesn't mean you're the best person to sell it. I've worked with some of the most passionate executives that just don't click with the people they're trying to engage - no matter how hard they try. This has negative impact that lasts and is tough to overcome.

Suck it up and get a spokesperson who can help tell the story to the people that will help grow your business.

6. PR is not the only tool in the shed.

Understand that PR is only an umbrella for the specific communications initiatives that will help you achieve complementary, simultaneous goals. For example, corporate branding and product marketing require different campaigns. Don’t put all of your eggs in the PR basket. Run SEO campaigns. Look at online ads and promotions. Run contests. Attend events.

PR can not be the only thing you rely on in order to build and sustain a successful business.

7. PR at the Head, Across Chasms, and in the Long Tail.

No matter what industry you're in, realize that the most popular blogs, newspapers, or magazines are only one part of the process. Your market is divided by adoption and buying behavior and documented through a bell curve rich with chasms , pyramids that further divide and classify them, quadrants that demonstrate competitive advantages, ladders that represent the technology that people can use to reach customers in different ways, a cluetrain that shows how people carry it through the long tail , and hopefully reflected by a hockey stick that forces you to evaluate what to do from Inside the Tornado. Yes, of course this was meant to be funny...but it does show that one program no longer serves the masses when you deconstruct it by the markets and the people that comprise it.

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