Posts Tagged ‘journalists’

I believe in facilitating a one-to-one relationship for my clients with their customers. Knowing what customers think and how they use your product is important. The only way to know this is to have an ongoing conversation and dialogue.

The same is true for the media, meaning editors, journalists, bloggers and producers. Many times I’ve have prospective clients tell me that they’d like to create press kits that they can send out broadcast style. To which I say no. I agree with HARO’s Peter Shankman whose number one mantra is “pitch on topic” to which I say, “Amen.”

The same thought is just as valid when it comes to distribution of media or press kits. Research, target and then pitch. Use a PR rifle, not the old shotgun.

These days, everyone is green. So, it only makes sense to have an online media kit to which you can direct interested journalists. It should include copies of all media releases, video releases, high resolution photos of product(s) and key staff personnel, bios/backgrounders on all key personnel, fact sheets, and links to recent clips.

When pitching, give the pitch and direct the editor to the online kit. Most can’t accept attachments. When they do accept attachments, make sure you know what type they prefer. Some don’t want PDFs because they can’t copy and paste from them as easily as from a .txt document or a MS Word document. My practice is to ask what the editor prefers and then to provide them that exactly as they request it.

Our whole job is to make the journalists’ job easier. To give them targeted information about what they want, when they want it, the way that they want it.

Everyone would love to find the next big viral event to promote their business or service. Several that are going on now on the internet are interesting, successful and some just qualify as cute.

The video above goes into the cute category, but I sent it to six friends and one can’t help but wonder how many they will send their own version of this to. Classic viral.

The other that is having major impact today is the global effort to promote Help a Reporter Out, a free service started by Peter Shankman to connect journalists and sources. The service has taken off with marketing staffers, journalists from diverse media, pr pros, and small business owners who want to do a better job of getting PR. Shankman asked everyone to set their status on their social networking sites to,

“Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous: www.helpareporter.com – Putting Journalists and Sources together, one quote at a time.”

and it’s working. As of 10:30 a.m. today, Summize for Twitter had 9 pages of tweets of those who’d tweeted with that message.

Social networking is not new. It’s been going on forever, some in the past called it, “gabbing over the fence,” “the water cooler” or “gossip.” I call it good sense.