Do . . .

✔ Consider any previous press coverage you've had, and keep contacts and cuttings filed together

It's always easier for your PR expert to contact a friendly journalist who already likes what you do, and it's useful for your PR expert to know if there's anyone with whom to tread carefully.

✔ Think about good photographs

You may have a friend or know someone who's willing to take pix of you for free, but it's really important to spend the cash getting a one-off session properly done, giving you a combination of head and shoulder shots, in situ shots and newspaper-friendly shots. If you engage a photographer recommended by your pr expert, then most likely that photographer will be known to the press already. Therefore when it comes to sending out your pix, they don't end up in junk folders and are from a recognised source or accredited as such. Lyn McNicolPR uses, and recommends, Alan Peebles.

✔ Supply your PR expert with info on your home town, which is always good for local press

Local newspapers are usually more effective, in some ways, than nationals, in that they are read by all of the family, and stay in the home for a week, whereas dailies are more often than not discarded after that day.

✔ Think about the timing of your event, product launch or announcement

It's worth remembering that long-lead magazines work at least two months ahead.

✔ Consider social networking and online marketing

This is one way forward, but surely it will never replace good old-fashioned column inches and tv and radio exposure? When the internet first launched, it was said that people would stop reading newspapers and magazines. Has that happened? No.

✔ Think about your audience

Who do you want to reach? Are there niche and specialised magazines/publications which you subscribe to? Think about the bits you like to read. Where do you see yourself in these magazines/publications? Whilst your PR expert will have their own contacts and lists, it's helpful if you can share any specialised press contacts from your own sector.

✔ Tell your PR expert everything, the good and the bad (if there's any)

Your PR expert is your best friend, your mother, your confidante, and there's an unwritten code of confidentiality. He or she needs to know the situation as it is, in order to protect you best, should that be required, in any reactive situation.

✔ Be realistic

TV researchers, radio producers and journalists at all the newspapers and magazines receive hundreds of press releases every day, so why is your product or event going to grab their attention? So do think of the story. Your product or whatever probably IS amazing, but only if it's read/heard etc. by opinion formers, and that's where the skill of your PR expert comes in. He or she has spent years building relationships etc., and thus is more likely to get to the right person and persuade them to look at your package (no pun intended).

✔ Consider any celebrity connections

It shouldn't be that way, but it is what it is, so if you know of a celebrity that is a fan of what you do, ask them for some sort of endorsement.

✔ Be contactable

Your PR expert may just have had a call about a cancelled guest on a tv show, and you could fill that slot. Would KT Tunstall be where she is today were it not for a last-minute spot on Later with Jools? Remember Tracey Chapman at Live Aid?

Don’t . . .

✘ Contact your PR expert just a week or even a month before your event, product launch or announcement

Very rarely will there be enough time to put together a strategic campaign. Ideally, consider engaging a PR expert when your event, product launch or announcement is at least six months in the future.

✘ Rely on social networking and online marketing alone

Whilst the perception may be that everyone and their granny communicates and lives their lives solely through facebook, twitter, myspace etc, they don’t. They still read newspapers and listen to the radio. It’s like the suggestion that music need only be available as a download: (some) people still like to have a product in their hands, especially reviewers.

✘ Have higher expectations than what your PR expert advises

If you think you can do a better job, go right ahead.

✘ Hide any skeletons from your PR expert

Just as surely it'll come back to bite you in the ass, so forewarned is forearmed.