Over the last few years, I’ve come to a number of conclusions about the role and usefulness of public relations agencies – and PR in general. You may be the manager of a non-listed small to mid-size company that doesn’t have its own PR manager or department. Or you might run a mid-size to large research organization that has a lot to gain by establishing professional PR strategies. Or maybe you run a small lab or research group. The point is the same: getting your message out in front of the right people at the right time can pay dividends down the road. Perhaps you’re just wondering why your excellent innovation isn’t proudly showcased in The Medicine Maker Innovation Awards – did you tell anyone about it?

Thank you – or not

First, let me describe a normal working week in my office. We get about 200–300 press releases, newsletters and news alerts. We select about 100 of these for archiving, and a selection of those for Twitter and/or manual indexing for inclusion in our database and web portals. From time to time, we send a return email to the company who sent the news: “Thanks for your update, we already tweeted your news!” or “Thank you for your press release, it will soon be online at our web portal!”