Your Best Story Probably Isn’t on Your Marketing Calendar

Ask an organization what it wants publicity for, and you’ll often hear about an upcoming event, an anniversary, a new program, or an award.

Those are useful starting points. But ask what happened inside that organization this week, and you might hear something far more interesting:

• An employee found a way to help someone who had almost given up.

• A student became the first person in their family to graduate.

• A team solved a problem that other organizations are still struggling with.

These stories rarely arrive ready for sharing. Someone has to recognize their value. That’s where good public relations begins.

Give people a reason to care

An anniversary matters to your organization. You’ve overcome challenges, grown your team, and spent years building something meaningful. But it’s not news to a reporter.

Imagine a nonprofit celebrating its 25th anniversary. It could announce the occasion, list its accomplishments, and include a quote about its commitment to the community.

Or it could profile someone who first walked through its doors 25 years ago and whose life changed because of the support they received.

That person’s experience gives the anniversary meaning. It shows an audience what the organization does and why its work matters.

The milestone creates an opportunity. The person gives people a reason to care.

Look closer at the everyday work

People inside an organization see its work every day. Over time, something remarkable can start to feel routine.

A nurse may barely mention helping a patient regain enough independence to return home. A teacher may consider the creative approach that helped a struggling student simply part of the job.

The most productive question a PR professional can ask is: “Wait. Tell me more about that. What made it difficult? What did you do differently? What changed as a result?”

Those answers can reveal a story that never would have appeared on a communications calendar.

Ask three questions

You don’t need everyone on staff to think like a reporter. You do need information to reach the people responsible for communications. Ask these three questions of your staff:

Who is doing something remarkable that we consider routine?
Look beyond executives and official spokespeople. Frontline employees often have the clearest view of the work. Ask what challenged them, what surprised them and what made them proud.

What has changed for the people we serve?
“We offer this program” describes an activity. Explaining what someone can now do because of that program shows its value. Look for specific outcomes you can substantiate, then explore the effort and people behind them.

What could we show a reporter?
Consider what a journalist could observe, who they could interview and what evidence would help them understand the story. A training program becomes more tangible when a reporter can watch someone learn a skill and hear what that opportunity means to them.

Make sharing stories a habit

Your PR team can identify an angle, develop a pitch, and prepare people for interviews. But it needs information from the people closest to the work.

Add a few minutes to a staff meeting to ask what happened that others should know about. Encourage employees to flag accomplishments, unusual challenges, and meaningful progress.

Some ideas will become media pitches. Others will work better in a blog, newsletter, or social post. Each can help people understand the value of your organization.

Keep your marketing calendar. Celebrate your milestones. And leave room for the story nobody thought to put on the schedule.

Before you ask, “What should we announce?” ask, “What’s happening here that more people should know about?”