Jon Favreau, Ted Sorenson, Samuel Rosenman: Do you recognize the names? Put the phone down; I’ll save you the trouble. They were speechwriters for presidents Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although it’s certainly no secret that presidents have speechwriters, their work is done exclusively behind the scenes by its very nature. EPIK strives to follow a similar path in our approach to public and private sector media relations, including content management and dissemination. The spotlight should be on the client, not the speechwriter or the spokesperson.
Although Mike and I are both professionals with a wealth of experience in our respective fields, our company is new, our approach is new, and our clients are new, so it’s no surprise that we have a variety of challenges facing us on any given day. As we sat in a meeting last week, I suddenly realized that we rarely tweet from the @EPIKPR Twitter account. Reminiscent of the moment Kate McCallister realizes they forgot Kevin in Chicago, I blurted out “Twitter”! Mike looked at me like I had three heads, and I said, “We’re supposed to be a media relations firm, and we don’t even tweet!” Damn, I knew we forgot something—our brand.
When we conceptualized EPIK, our goal was to create a client-centric approach with information flowing directly from the client, whether in the form of media releases or social media posts. In recent conversations with bosses at my former department, we discussed the importance of forward-facing information flow, especially from public safety agencies, coming directly from the agency. On matters of public safety, the public and the media want to hear directly from the agency with one voice providing coherent, timely, and accurate information.
Public relations firms like EPIK are an essential tool for businesses and public safety agencies. Still, they should be like speechwriters--silent partners supporting their clients in effectively communicating their message. When the desired perception is that we don’t exist, circumstances dictate unique marketing solutions on our end. Like any new company, we are a work in progress. We face our share of challenges in these uncertain times, and we aren’t afraid to share.
Have an EPIK day!