This week’s guest speaker was Alison Miles, a local PR consultant who mainly carries out fundraising activities for local schools and other organisations, including The George pub in Bethersden and the Kent & Easy Sussex Railway. Alison has previously worked for PR consultancies in London, providing services to many large clients.
Alison’s presentation explained that PR is all about story-telling, as a means of managing an organisation’s reputation and attracting very positive publicity for their activities. She revealed that, typically, a well run PR exercise will attract the type of profile-raising activities (such as media coverage) that would cost many, many times more if more usual advertising routes were employed. In addition, PR coverage tends to be far more positively received by the general public than advertising.
Alison gave some examples of her PR in action, including a piece on Meridian TV for Homewood School, coverage of the re-opening of The George by print and broadcast local media, and use of Tenterden Station as a backdrop of an interview.