PR & Spin

Every time I see 'spin' used for PR, it makes me mad.
It may be a reflection of how public sector PR (and in particular, government PR) operates, but it is far removed from most routine business PR.
The reason there's such a divergence between private and public sector PR is because the public sector, by its nature, is involved in decisions that are taken on behalf of us all, even if they don't directly impact on everyone. Consequently, new public initiatives will almost always affect more readers/ viewers/ listeners than any private sector initiatives. So public sector PROs are fending off huge waves of media interest and some have become quite times cynical in their disregard for the media.
The private sector PROs have to be extremely inventive in order to get a media look-in. But inventive doesn't mean making it up. The big trick - and it's one that any business can copy - is to find ways to hitch your news stories to bigger issues, names or celebrities. Whether it's climate change, health, education, the environment, defence, travel, jobs, work-life balance, etc the more you think in terms of wider context, the more your press releases will appear to echo genuine news reports and will stand a much better chance of being carried. Plus your reputation as a social commentator starts to build up. Play that card regularly and well, and you will start to find the media comes to you for a comment and your organisation gets a name check every time you are quoted. Being seen as an expert in the media will go a lot further in enhancing your organisation's reputation and prestige than a few obviously commercially-motivated plugs. That's where skillful follow-up with sales approaches and distribution of marketing materials (on or off-line) pays off. When PR, sales and marketing are worked together like this, the results are dramatically greater than veering from one to the other. Good luck with your integrated PR, sales and marketing campaigns.