August PR Takeaways

Ah, August—the month where people try to grasp onto that fleeting summer feeling with their last chance at vacation time. But with everyone from Obama to your coworker grabbing their beach towels and high-tailing it out of the office, it can put the brakes on any business momentum. And with a ghost town of an office and newsroom, there are a few adjustments you should make to your marketing and communications strategy.

Here are a few August PR takeaways to make the most out of a typically sluggish time of year:

• Avoid product news: If reporters are busy working on their tans, they certainly won’t be busy reviewing your product demo or service upgrade. Forgo the inbox full of out-of-office replies and push for a later launch.

• Rely on contributed content: Just because August can be a slow news month, does not mean you can’t place any content of your own in the media. Comment on industry trends, forecast thoughts on the upcoming holiday season or repurpose an old blog post or case study.

• Set up introductory interviews: For the reporters that are in the office, take advantage of their availability and offer introductory or background meetings. Begin the process of relationship building so that when the craziness of the holiday season starts, they have you on their contact list for commentary. As my colleague Kristen Raymaakers notes, building a relationship with a reporter helps you gain traction in media coverage with them in the future.

• Monitor Twitter for vacationing media: But in order to arrange these relationship building sessions, how do you know which reporters are even around or not? Check in on their social channels to see if they are tweeting out pics of palm trees or asking for input on upcoming Google news.

After reflecting on the leisurely month of August, now is the time to start revving your engines for the fall months—or use the dwindling time to head to the beach yourself!