The duties and responsibilities of public relations practitioners are as diverse as the publics with whom they are accountable to and serve. From my experience on the public relations fields as an intern, i have come to find out that a good deal of media relations work consists of attempting to gain favourable news coverage or publicity.Without wasting any time, the University recently partnered with the government of Malaysia to launch a brand gallery innovation centre which will help in rebranding and packaging designs. An initiative that is supposed to reach out to rural areas, we pitched the story in the form of a media release to various media outlets as the minister of international trade and industry was also going to be present.
I have to say, one aspect that i have learnt when dealing with the media is that, the cardinal rules of pitching for publicity is that you should write more and seldom call. You see the thing is reporters are usually barraged with deadlines so its preferable to e-mail and fax news releases rather than try to explain them over the telephone. I found this the hard way, one day when i was tasked to confirm with a certain media outlet of whether they will be able able to cover the event we were hosting. Within 5 seconds of the reporter picking up the phone, they hung up on me, who was to blame???I guess i called at the wrong time when the reporter was under pressure and my phone call must have annoyed them more. Again, as a cardinal rule, the release should be directed to a specific person by name because in that way, it has a greater chance of being read than one addressed vaguely.
One other aspect i'l like to highlight is the importance of keeping good relations with external key public, when the most respected public figure graced the school hallways for the brand innovation launch, its clear the state media as well as the private media would like to cover the event.Under this note, keeping positive and developing some sort of symbiotic relations with the external key public such as the government is a sure way of getting publicity and coverage.
4 comments:
Narrowing it down, the media is by far the most important key public because in the end it connects you to your other publics. through its different forms, radio, internet, tv, print etc. one of the ways in which you can fully connect and built a relationship with the media is by keeping intouch with the them, not only if you want a favour but also just for fun. you will find that in time, they will be loyal to you especially during a crisis.!
I definitely agree that the media are very important because they are often the connection to other publics. It can be quite scary having to call them or even contact them because you know how important your consultancy's relationship is with them, and you don't want to do anything to hurt that.
However one thing I have picked up during my placement is once you have sent the media release, it is good to follow up with a phone call to remind the journalist about the story.
I think the key with media relations is just to be patient and build relationships with journalists. I have noticed the consultants at my placement consultancy have contacts at every major media outlet that they can get to write the story they want. Like most things in public relations, it's all about relationships.
Yes I also agree that media relation is a very important part of our job as PR practitioners. Anyway SineadF, although the media personnel might be scary, as you slowly learn how they usually work its actually pretty easy to interact. During my attachment with at a government statutory board in Singapore, I was lucky enough to pick up some skills from my manager on this as she was a ex-journalist from The Straits Times paper (the main English paper in Singapore).
Hi Bethel,
I am Tavinia from the CTI(Mauritius) campus, undertaking my internship at Four Seasons Resort whereby the PR department is really focused on Media Relations.
We are constantly receiving journalists at the resort for press trips. Great attention to details is required and everything is planned for the journalists to enjoy their stay. The tourism industry is so intangible on the whole that experience and quality service count a lot. And as Baxxtiger said, the media connects you to your other key publics, hence their personal opinion is crucial in determining the quality of their coverage,and ultimately the amount of positive publicity received.
Recently I've also understood the need to have contacts in various journalism sections be it sports, arts, leisure etc. We have oganised two events targeted to the local media and given the diverging nature of the two events, we had to come up with separate media contact lists to increase our chances of coverage.
And, I do agree that a great deal of writing is important but sometimes phone conversations can yield better results due to the personal touch you can add to it. I've discovered that a charismatic approach is a must in the PR field.
But phone calls can be daunting as SineadF pointed out. During my internship, I had to media pitch and the first call was really stressing. There is the fear of not being able to pitch well which would definitely impact on your organisation's image. But my boss gave me one piece of advice that really helped. She told me to remember that it's just a living and breathing person like me at the end of the line, not some scary monsters in the closet which enabled me to subsequently pitch. Knowing your facts on the event is also a major attribute.
Usually once the ice is broken with a journalist, it becomes easier. Moreover, to maintain good relationships with the media, I guess the cardinal rules would include to treat them like equals and not play the high and mighty/ condescending attitude card. Journalists hate being taken for fools and spinning is a complete no-go. Trust is hard to build but easy to break and transparency is a basic requirement.
The best part of media pitching is when you get coverage or better when you obtain more coverage than you bargained for. One of the event, The Chocolate Room, had the first page of one of the mainstream newspapers dedicated to it. One of the gratifying results of Media pitching!
And of course with media relations comes the need for media clippings. It really helps in the evaluation of the success of a media tactic. While it may be a tiring and lengthy process, it is necessity as it allows PR persons to keep tabs of the effectiveness of the PR department.
Enjoy your internship!
Cheers
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