Building Relationships for a Good Cause

It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Blast Communications office.

Most of our energy and attention is focused on celebrating our ten year anniversary next month, but as all communication firms should, we took time to do a series of events for a good cause; Deaf Awareness Week.

It was a tough event to undertake, not because of the planning, but to rally all the journalists to attend the different events and activities in order to gain coverage. More coverage would mean more awareness within the local community, which was our aim. However it can be hard to persuade them when there isn't much in store for them and is mostly events done for a good cause, and not from newsworthy occurrences.

So last week I spent most of my time calling journalists and persuading them to take the tour of the special school for deaf children, going to see how they are then capable of getting employment at KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), the number one company which hires the deaf in Mauritius, and finally the last event for the community to participate in fun activities at the Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius.

The team of Society for the Welfare of the Deaf sensitising the public at Bagatelle on September 27th.

Teaching sign language to the public.

In our modules we learn the importance of undertaking pro bono work (a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service). In the long run, it helps the image of the PR agency doing the work, and it helps build the local community, which in turn creates a good working environment.

When it comes to persuading journalists to help you cover such events, it is crucial not only to stress the importance of the cause, but also to foster good and lasting relationships with those journalists.
Sending press releases should be an important part of the work, as it is the "pitch" which helps them decide if they will attend or not.

I came across a very useful article on the ways to ensure journalists will love your pitch. Sometimes PR professionals forget that a lot of our work depends on the media taking up coverage of our stories, and this relationship is vital to the advancement of the industry.

As I am coming to the end of my internship, I am realizing that all the work comes down to your relation to people. It is in the bonding of those important relationships that productivity lies.

Sasha-Lee