Ep. 17 — Top 10 PR Quotes and What You Can Learn From Them
In this episode, Amy shares her top 10 public relations quotes and what museums can learn from them.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00]
Hey! Today on the podcast, I thought it would be fun if we talked about my top 10 quotes about public relations and what you can learn from them. I think this is going to be a lot of fun! Let's get started.
Hello, and welcome to the Love My Museum podcast. I'm your host, Amy Kehs and I love museums. I also happened to be a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. I started working in my first museum in 1993. I was a volunteer, then an intern, and then an employee. Now I have my own business where I help museums communicate better externally and internally, and part of that is to develop processes and systems so that you can work more efficiently and help prevent burnout.
[00:01:00]
Today, I thought it would be fun to talk about my top 10 quotes about public relations and what you can learn from them. You probably won't be surprised that as a PR person who does a lot of writing, I really love words, and I really love quotes. If you've been following me for a while either on social media, or on my blog, or if you are a subscriber to my email list, a lot of these are going to seem familiar. Okay, so let's dive in. I was going to say that these are in no particular order, but actually, maybe I will put them in order for you. I think that will be more fun.
The first one is by Lee Iacocca. Lee Iacocca was an American automobile executive for the Ford motor company in the 1960s. Number 10 on my top 10 quotes is a quote by him that says “you can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across your ideas, won't get you anywhere.
[00:02:00]
I love this quote. The reason that this quote I think resonates with me so much, especially when it comes to museums, is because a lot of times, the communications department or the communications person is handed things kind of at the last minute. If you bring your communications person in at the beginning of your project, if they have a seat at the table, they can help you with this. They can help you with the communications part of your project, whether it's an exhibit or a program.
[00:03:00]
Like Mr. Iacocca says, you can have all of the brilliant ideas in the world but if you can't get them across, if you don't have a way to talk about them, your ideas won't get you anywhere. The best person to help you with that is the communications expert on your team.
Number nine on my top 10 list is by Bill Gates. And while at first, this might just seem like a “funny- haha” quote, something that you might say, well, of course you think that Amy. I think that there's a more serious message here too. The quote is, “If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on PR.” Now, of course I would think that this is a great quote, but also I think the important and more serious side of this is that if Bill Gates, a very successful, wealthy, smart man, is willing to admit that he needs help in the PR department then I think that that's a lesson that museums can learn from as well. Public relations is worth investing in.
[00:04:00]
Number eight on my list is, “If you don't tell your story, someone else will.” I couldn't find who to attribute this to, but it's a quote that in the PR space, I hear all the time. Lots of times in the PR world, this might come out also sounding like “let's get ahead of it” or “Let's get ahead of the story.” Which means that some red flags have gone up and now you're trying to get ahead of what may be some bad publicity.
[00:05:00]
Again, if the communications expert had been at the table from the beginning, they may have been able to fix this for you or make some suggestions so that it didn't become a “thing.”
This next quote, number seven on my top 10 list is by Seth Godin. The quote is one that I use a lot. The quote is “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relationships, stories, and magic.” Now as a museum, you might say, “Well, Amy, we are not providing a good or a service.” But you are, you are trying to buy people's most precious commodity, their time.
[00:06:00]
Even if you are a free museum, you are asking people for their time. They want a relationship with you. Some people call this “age,” the “infodemic.” People are bombarded with words all day long. On the internet in 2023, every minute, there were 18.8 million text messages sent; 694,000 video hours viewed; 10.4 million viewing minutes on Instagram. You are competing for that time. The only buying power that you have is to create a relationship, to tell people your story and to show them the magic of your museum and your collection.
[00:07:00]
That quote is a nice segue into number six on my top 10 list. It's by Bill Bernbach. He said, “Nobody counts the number of ads you run. They just remember the impression you made.” Now while an ad can help you get visibility, no one is going to decide to come to your museum because you ran 50 ads instead of 10 ads. They're going to remember the impression you made, the stories that you tell, the magic that you made.
Number five on the list is by CBS Marketwatch. The quote is “Historically, PR, marketing, and advertising budgets are the first to be cut. However, that could be one of the first mistakes a business makes in an economic crisis.” Even though this quote is about businesses, I think it's something that really hits home for me, because I see it happen all the time when it comes to museum budgets.
[00:08:00]
The position of the PR person is, a lot of times, the first to get cut. Then there is a domino effect after that. If you aren't on social media, if you aren't updating your website, if you aren't maintaining relationships with the media, your visibility is going to tank. Once your visibility tanks, it will be harder not only to get people in your museum’s doors but to get donors and sponsors. It will be harder to get buy-in for the programs and the exhibits that you want to do. I see this so often.
[00:09:00]
When I recommend that my client hire more help, whether it’s with social media, or someone else to help with the website or marketing and they tell me that they just don't have the budget for it is really hard to hear. I am baffled that they don't see the connection between the lack of PR and the money coming into their museum. Whew. All right. So that was number five and that means we're halfway done. So number four on my top 10 list is by S H Simmons. I love to use this quote to explain the difference between advertising, marketing, and public relations. It's a really fun quote.
[00:10:00]
“If a young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is – that’s advertising. If the young man tells his date she’s intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he’s saying the right things to the right person and that’s marketing. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is – that’s PR.” I love this quote. Like I said, it’s always one that I use when I'm talking about the difference between marketing, advertising and public relations.
Look at that! We are in our top three. Number three is another great one that I talk about a lot. It's by Richard Branson. And it is, “A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.” Public relations is essentially a third party endorsement. Media relations is public relations.
[00:11:00]
If your neighbor tells you about a great new restaurant that opened up, that's public relations. You know that you will give more weight to the recommendation from your neighbor than you will an advertisement on TV.
The number two quote on my top 10 quote list is by Warren Buffet. He says, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” There is so much truth in this quote. It's why I recommend that all employees understand brand messaging. It's also the reason why I recommend that a museum only have one to two spokespeople.
[00:12:00]
The number one quote on my top 10 list is by Walt Disney. You probably could have guessed this quote, it's front and center on my website. Walt Disney said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” That's what we want to do for your museum. We want people to fall in love with your museum so much that they will want to come back and bring their friends. That is my favorite public relations quote of all time. Now, there was one other contender so I thought it would be a good bonus quote. It's by Daniel Bornstein. He says, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some higher public relations officers.” Ha ha. Isn't that a great quote.
[00:13:00]
And you know what? You don't have to hire me to hang out with a public relations professional. You can jump into my new Love my Museum Facebook community. It is filled with museum professionals, and we talk a lot about systems and processes in there so that you can work smarter and not harder and you'll love your museum too.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. I really had a lot of fun making it. I'll see you next time.
