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About this lesson
LinkedIn is currently the top social media platform for professionals, and a recent survey indicates it is the preferred one among journalists. This is why it’s important to learn how can you use it to the benefit of your company
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Quick reference
Using LinkedIn to Connect with Journalists
LinkedIn is currently the top social media forum for professionals and a recent survey indicates that this social media platform is the preferred one among journalists. This is why it’s important to learn how can you use it to the benefit of your company.
When to use
To make contact with journalists.
Instructions
- Connect with as many industry-specific journalists as possible: on LinkedIn, you can reach out to specific professionals because members are categorized by industry and job title. You can easily do a search for “journalist” and then define the industry: this will narrow down your options to those individuals who are more relevant to your field.
- Approaching your contacts: If you have thousands of contacts, you can use a feature that allows you to export your list to Excel where you can sort through your contacts and filter out the journalists. You can either choose the individual approach – email each of the journalists via LinkedIn with your pitch – or the automated approach – use the feature “Publish a post” with the headline “PRESS RELEASE” and those connected to you will receive a notification about your press release. Whether you choose an automated or individual approach depends also on the topic of your press release, on your industry, and on how much time you have: the automated approach is much faster than the individual one.
- Using LinkedIn Groups: you can find groups that will be home to many journalists and create a presence (e.g. like, share, comment, etc…).
- Using LinkedIn Pulse: you can monitor trending news to gain an understanding of what is being read and sought after by the media and your clients. Good if you’re just starting out.
- Create a positive presence: this way, people will want to be associated with you. Try to be yourself. Keep it as real as you can.
How to export your LinkedIn contacts to Excel
- Log in to LinkedIn and click on the 'Connections' tab
- Click on the Settings cog on the upper right of the page
- Click 'Export Linkedin connections'
- Select 'Microsoft Outlook (.CSV file)' and 'Export'
- 00:05 In this lesson, I hope that you're going to get an insiders tip that will really
- 00:09 change your game.
- 00:10 Now let's be clear, as an expert on digital marketing,
- 00:13 I'm not inclined to coach my customers to work like
- 00:17 slaves on social media platforms where are the people would profit from the activity.
- 00:22 But if you use LinkedIn in the way that I'm going to recommend,
- 00:26 you'll have one one situation.
- 00:28 Why should you use this professional platform and
- 00:32 how can you use it to the benefit of your company?
- 00:36 LinkedIn is currently the top social media forum and platform for professions.
- 00:43 And with all honesty, I can't see how that
- 00:45 will change any time soon because now they are also a part of the Microsoft network.
- 00:50 And moreover, a recent survey indicates that
- 00:54 this social media platform is the preferred one among journalists.
- 00:59 What I like most about LinkedIn is the possibility to
- 01:03 reach out to specific professionals.
- 01:06 Members can be categorized by their industry and
- 01:09 their job title, which is really great.
- 01:11 So, you can easily do a search for journalists, and then define the industry.
- 01:16 This will really narrow down your options to
- 01:19 the individuals who are more relevant to your field.
- 01:23 Great, isn't it?
- 01:24 You can see how good a tool this is to manage your media relations.
- 01:28 And so, therefore, the very first step you want to take on LinkedIn
- 01:32 is to connect with as many journalist as possible but
- 01:36 only the ones who are relevant to your industry.
- 01:38 Now once you are connected to a reasonable volume of journalists,
- 01:43 you can either take an individual or an automated approach.
- 01:47 Both will be quite safe since LinkedIn does not have
- 01:51 the spam risks that's typically associated with PR rips indication.
- 01:56 Now, if you're like me and you've got a couple of thousand contacts, you can use
- 02:01 this magic feature on LinkedIn that allows you to export your list to Excel.
- 02:07 They can sort through your contacts and filter out the journalists only.
- 02:12 Now if you choose the individual approach,
- 02:15 you will then email each of the journalists via LinkedIn with your page.
- 02:20 Or of course,
- 02:21 you will email in through your email account after extracting their details.
- 02:25 Now, if you choose to follow the automated approach, you're going to post your
- 02:30 press release as an article on LinkedIn, with a headline stating, press release,
- 02:35 because those people who are connected to you, including the journalist will receive
- 02:40 a notification via LinkedIn and this will allot them about to press release.
- 02:44 Remember, in this case you have to choose publish a post rather than share
- 02:49 an update, this is very important because sharing an update will not actually
- 02:54 trigger a notification that's going to be sent to the inbox of your contacts.
- 02:59 Now which approach is best?
- 03:01 Whether you choose an automated or
- 03:03 an individual approach, it's really going to depend on the topic of your release.
- 03:07 For example, I would imagine that if you sell kinky toys you would
- 03:11 rather want to do an individual approach.
- 03:14 But if you run a charitable organization,
- 03:17 then in that case you'd be more inclined to go the automated route.
- 03:22 It also depends on how much time you've got,
- 03:24 because the automated approach is much faster than the individual approach.
- 03:30 Ultimately, the choice will be yours.
- 03:33 The two approaches we've just discussed here,
- 03:36 are the best ways to get the job done.
- 03:38 And it can work really well, if you follow all the other guidelines,
- 03:42 that we provide you within the course.
- 03:45 Next, I'm going to share with you some ideas on what other people do.
- 03:49 Although in my own view, perhaps these could be less appealing ideas.
- 03:53 So people often use LinkedIn groups because you're able to find groups that
- 03:58 will be home to many journalists.
- 04:00 You just need to identify the ones that are also relevant to industry.
- 04:05 Get into the group through and application.
- 04:08 And then start talking, liking and commenting.
- 04:11 Thereby you create a presence.
- 04:14 And again, some people will love this.
- 04:16 I personally, don't really have a lot of time for groups.
- 04:19 But you may wish to differ.
- 04:21 As far as LinkedIn policy is concerned, this really will feature articles and
- 04:26 the latest trending news can also be found here.
- 04:30 This will help you to gain an understanding of what is being read and
- 04:35 what is sought after by the media and by your clients.
- 04:38 And I would say that this is good if you're just starting out as well.
- 04:43 Really important,
- 04:44 as with all social media, it's helpful to make your presence known.
- 04:48 Gotta create a positive presence and
- 04:50 people will want to be associated with you in that case.
- 04:54 This is how you would access the journalists and
- 04:57 the editors on how this access will grow.
- 05:00 Now a word of advice that I would have is, really try to be yourself, okay?
- 05:06 There are people on LinkedIn and on social media who tend to use this for
- 05:10 escapology and to become the person that they've never managed to be in real life.
- 05:15 So I think that this will neither impress your real acquaintances, and
- 05:20 it wouldn't impress the media.
- 05:22 So just keep it as real as you can on social media,
- 05:25 because that will go a long way.
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