Public Relations (PR) Toolkit

We’ve developed a PR Toolkit to help you with your PR activity. This includes advice on which channels to use, how to write a press release, and how you can work with influencers.

• Press. Includes national and regional newspapers, magazines, and online news websites (sometimes known as traditional media) 
• Broadcast. Includes national, regional, and community radio stations, and television (sometimes known as traditional media) 
• Non-traditional media. Includes podcasts, vlogs, social media, and community group/ local area newsletters  

• Be clear on your message. Key questions to ask at the start of planning a PR strategy are ‘what is being said and why’. 
• Prepare. Once you have a clear message then plan internal and external communications. Think about how the message is going to be communicated. Who is your audience, what media do they use, and how can you target those channels? How can you prepare for potential risks? Read the Museums Association Communicating Decolonisation Guidance, which shows how preparation can help build a robust communication strategy to support your work. 
• Give people time. Journalists, influencers, podcasters etc. all need time to prepare content. Start the conversation with them as early as possible, even if it’s just a quick heads up that more content will be available soon. 
• Get to know the publication schedules for your regional press and broadcast. Contact them to ask if you’re unsure. 
• Diversify your PR channels. People access news in multiple forms, from a newspaper to Instagram, and a PR strategy can target both traditional and non-traditional media to reach a range of people. 
• Research who is writing/vlogging/podcasting about content related to your message and contact those people. They’ll already have an invested audience in content related to your message, which helps to broaden the audience for your story and supports more people to talk about your story. 

• Every press story should have one clear message. When preparing a press release, this is what should be in your headline and should be prominent in your text and your quotes. 
• Ideally only have two named spokespeople giving quotes as journalists will often not use multiple quotes in a story. 
• A press release should rarely be more than a few hundred words with around 3-5 sentences of quotes from a named spokesperson. 
• If you have further details or background information that is important for the journalist to understand, then include it as a footnote in the notes to editors section. 
• A strong image to accompany the press release is key and improves the chances of the story being published. If there is a budget for it then professional photography is a worthwhile investment as images can be used again and again. 

Use our press release template to help promote health/ wellbeing activities happening in your museum.

Influencers are people who have a large audience on social media and/or blogs. As well as producing their own organic content, they may post social media/blog content which they have been paid to create. Working with influencers can be an effective way to spread your message and highlight your museum to a targeted audience. It’s important to find influencers who are read/ watched by your target audience. The cost and process of working with influencers vary with the individual. This information can normally be found on their website, social media bio, or by contacting them. Influencers must comply with relevant advertising rules and regulations.

Watch a Knowledge Exchange on working with influencers with advice from the MGS  Marketing and Communications team,  Dundee Heritage Trust, and Kay Gillespie (the Chaotic Scot), a travel blogger and influencer.

For more information on how to work with influencers, VisitScotland also provide detailed guidance on their website.