Tips for getting media coverage
Getting Ink has done it again – another great post with more great tips. As students training for the professional PR world, my peers and I can use a little help with getting coverage for a client. Getting Ink’s post features tips from the perspective of a journalist on doing so. I think learning from a journalist is extremely valuable for PR students because it gives us the opportunity to strategically get media to cover our stories.
A couple weeks ago, I had my AHPR team update the media list. I cannot emphasize how important it is to do this. After compiling the list, each team member called the media outlets to obtain updated lead times, reporter/editor preferences for sent materials and publication general preferences. We found that some smaller town publications only covered local news. By local, it meant that only anything within the town’s limits, nothing in the bigger city right next to it.
See, when we were creating the list, we thought it would be great to include the little suburb cities on the outskirts of a large one. For some publications, it was fine because they still found it relevant (see tip 9 of Getting Ink); however, for others, it did not want anything outside of its own city. So, what did we do? We listened and understood. We pulled those publications out of the media list so we don’t waste our time or the publications’ times.
So, here is my 11th tip to add to the 10 on the Getting Ink post:
Research and communicate with the media before sending press kits and other collateral materials. Going through and updating the media list is a great way to organize yourself and your team and increase the success rate of your media coverage.
*Image courtesy of Flickr: dsevilla. It was taken under the Creative Commons license.
PR as a Community
I’m not going to lie. Writing this post is pretty scary for me. I’m actually getting into the PR blogosphere with bloggers that have been in the industry, that is PR, for years. So, I’m going to tell you where I stand here – I’m new and learning.
As I was looking around at all the different blogs suggested by AdAge Power 150, I noticed something. Everyone knows everyone else. Many of the blogrolls contain the same links, and posts talk about other bloggers’ thoughts and comments. Then, I came across Joseph Thornley’s Pro PR blog. His Advice to the class of ’08 post caught my attention.
Thornley said, “The old PR was about communicating messages to an audience. The new PR is about being part of a community.”
Entering the social media world means involving yourself in a community. It’s not just about networking anymore, but more about maintaining a steady stream of conversation with those in the PR industry. It keeps you connected and helps others get to know you more as a PR practitioner and conversationalist, opposed to the business-card-sitting-in-the-Rolodex PR contact.
The community concept can and should be applied to clients. Getting involved into a client’s community is probably a better and more credible way of influencing its target audience’s behaviors.
So, it’s good that I’m starting now. I can build my relationships and immerse myself into the PR community.
Jeremy Pepper also has an in-depth post about community at POP! PR Jots.
*Web 2.0 graphic courtesy of Stabilo Boss at Flickr. It was taken under the Creative Commons license.
Communication Conversations 