Locked lesson.
About this lesson
If you want to ensure your press release gets approved, published and circulated, having an influence with as many reputable journalists as possible is a must.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Establishing and Maintaining Contact with Journalists.docx60.5 KB Establishing and Maintaining Contact with Journalists - Solution.docx
61.1 KB
Quick reference
Establishing and Maintaining Contact with Journalists
If you want to ensure your press release gets approved, published and circulated, having an influence with as many reputable journalists as possible is a must.
When to use
Establishing and maintaining contact with journalists should be a continuous effort rather than a one-off attempt.
Instructions
- Be selective: with a Google search, you can identify and select the main media figures (journalists, editors, publishers) that cover news in your industry and contact them.
- Get to know them: read their work; become familiar with their tone and style; learn about their content preferences and the context of their writing.
- Show them your support: find the top journalists in your field on social media, like them, befriend them, follow them, comment on their work and share it on your social media. Your aim is to get journalists and editors to notice that you enjoy their work and support it. You can go as far as encouraging your own social media followers to follow your media contacts.
- Contact them: Facebook is not a suitable social media platform to contact media figures, while Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn are. Contact journalists using their work email only.
- Meet them in person: you should attend events with media presence. Here you can introduce yourself to a journalist or two, give them your business card and have a relaxed genuine chat.
- Keep regular contact: send wishes on their birthday, Christmas and New Year. Also, when they write a great article, send a quick email or post a social media comment complimenting them on a job well done. If they have time, take them out for a quick coffee or lunch.
- 00:05 Now we're going to look at how to establish and
- 00:08 maintain contact with journalist and editors but first,
- 00:11 why is this important as a part of your PR strategy?
- 00:15 If you want to ensure that your press release gets approved and
- 00:19 published, having an influence with journalists is a must.
- 00:24 If they know and they trust you, they'll be more likely to pick your news rather
- 00:28 than the news of some other business that they're not in touch with.
- 00:32 Also have a good network of journalists and
- 00:35 editors is useful in helping you to circulate your press release.
- 00:40 The more journalists you know the more media channels you can rely on to spread
- 00:44 your news.
- 00:45 But how do you go about establishing contact with journalists and with editors?
- 00:51 The first step is to choose your journalists and your editors,
- 00:54 the ones who cover the news in your industry.
- 00:57 My contact with sports journalists, but
- 01:00 that would not be very useful if your company sells baby products.
- 01:04 So be selective, identify the main media figures in your field and
- 01:09 then contact them.
- 01:11 They'll naturally be interested in what they have to say.
- 01:14 To find out whom the top journalists are in your field you can do a quick
- 01:19 Google search as I did for technology journalists and it's that easy.
- 01:24 Now getting to know journalists, this is the next step and
- 01:28 it's a little bit like dating because you get to know the journalists and
- 01:32 the editors that you've identified in your selection and you read their work.
- 01:36 You become familiar with their tone, you learn about their content preferences and
- 01:41 the content of their writing and then ask yourself what do they love writing about?
- 01:46 What are their passions, and what is their style?
- 01:49 And now if you can conform your press release to their preferences,
- 01:54 your work has a greater chance of getting published,
- 01:58 because it'll be along the same wavelengths as that of your media figures.
- 02:03 It really helps if you can show journalists your support,
- 02:06 because most journalists will have their own blocks and
- 02:09 social media outlets where they published their latest scoop.
- 02:13 And so you can find your journalist on social media, like them,
- 02:17 befriend them, follow them and then comment on their work.
- 02:21 If you want to do really well for them, share it on the social media.
- 02:25 Okay, I know now what you're thinking,
- 02:27 we're quickly going from dating to stalking.
- 02:31 Okay, but your aim is to get journalists and
- 02:33 editors to notice that you enjoy their work and that you support it.
- 02:39 You can go as far as encouraging your own social media followers to follow
- 02:43 your media contacts.
- 02:44 Promoting a journalists work is going to create
- 02:48 a positive vibe in your relationship with them.
- 02:51 Nowadays people connect globally though social media but
- 02:55 is this a suitable way to establish contact with journalists?
- 02:59 I would say yes, but not all social media is appropriate for contacting journalists.
- 03:04 Personally I would say Facebook is not suitable, any contact to a journalist
- 03:10 through Facebook could be frowned upon and possibly be ignored.
- 03:14 Also when you're emailing a journalist,
- 03:17 use their work email only because this promotes professionalism and
- 03:22 it will increased the chances of getting a response.
- 03:25 So instead what you could do is use channels like LinkedIn, Google+ and
- 03:30 also Twitter because these are more professional platforms which will
- 03:35 increase the chance of your contacts being formed and maintained.
- 03:40 Social media is effective,
- 03:42 but it cannot replace the value of establishing personal contacts.
- 03:47 So to achieve this aim, you should attend events with media presence.
- 03:51 So, here you can introduce yourself to a journalist or two and
- 03:55 give them your business card and have a relaxed and genuine discussion.
- 03:59 You can also interact with them like you would with any other person.
- 04:04 Their job consists of reading dozens of press releases so
- 04:08 you want to be refreshing and light hearted instead.
- 04:11 Cuz this way you'll stand out more than other people who
- 04:15 are trying to just get their press release accepted.
- 04:19 From there on, you just want to keep regular contact.
- 04:22 Some of the ways in which you can maintain a connection with journalists and editors
- 04:26 is to send wishes on their birthday, on Christmas, on New Year's, and so forth.
- 04:30 Although my personal favorite is still commenting on their articles or
- 04:35 perhaps sharing it.
- 04:37 When they write a great article you can even send them quick email or
- 04:41 post to social media comment that will complement them for doing a great job.
- 04:45 If the journalist have got time and you're in the same city, by all means,
- 04:49 you can also take them for a quick coffee or lunch.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.