Ok I know you all are going to kill me but I think I’ll be the first to say that I quite enjoy doing media calls. Recently I posted an entry on how I had procrastinated for a while before finally doing the calling. Well Thursday didn’t give me a chance to beat around the bush about the deed as we were to host a press conference on Friday.
One of our clients, USANA had brought down an author from
The morning started off well while I was calling the magazines. Though most of them were saying they will not be sending anyone, they were being polite about it, and gave me the opportunity to explain why I was calling. The first thing I would say is tell them who I am, where I am calling from and ask whether they had received the invite or not.
Upon them saying they received it, I would ask if they were sending someone for the event and if they would like to have a one on one interview with the author.
Things were pretty demanding if they said they did not receive it. Then I would have to:
- explain what the invite was for
- ask if they will be sending someone
- try and find out their reason for not coming and try to persuade them to come.
Of all the magazines I called, only 3 confirmed that they will be sending someone to the event. And by the time I knocked off I had only called 3 newspapers who all said they were not sure they were sending anyone for the event.
I guess what made the task an enjoyable one this time around is the required oomph I added to it. My supervisor has this thing of coming in and trying to put pressure on me as he was once interning with the company before becoming a full time employee. He does it in a fun way though and im always out to impress and show that I know what im doing. In that way I find pleasure in every little thing I do. Hope u have fun in calling the media
3 comments:
Hello Basuti,
I think I am save to say that I relate to your post on media calls, it can be fun excluding the part where patience is a virtue. When I came across dealing with media calls, I was not too keen, My task usually involves writing and honestly, I'm not outspoken for media calls.
In my experience, you first have to learn and research on the event, know all about the issues involved, VIP attending it, person in charge of the company and etc. Which will take time preparing. All of these which I know because I was the one who wrote the media invites and other press materials.
I am glad that you are fond of this task in the PR workforce. And I hope you will continue to strive in your career.
Regards,
Amanda Christi
Hey Amanda
Thanx for the comment. like you say, its very important that you do a thorough research on the event to be hosted if it happens that you were not the one writing the media invite or anything you are doing follow-up on.
This is important because if it happens that the person you are calling has not received the invite you will be able to pitch the story to them all over again instead of just hanging up if they say they don't know what you are talking about.
Not having enough facts on the event you are doing follow up on only makes the person looks dumb if for instance the person you called ask who the VIP to the event is or where the event will take place.
Well I personally didn't write the invites sent to the media houses but my supervisor always gave me the details about the event. i would ensure that i go through them over and over again so that im confident about what im talking about when im doing follow up.
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