THE PRACTITIONER

For many PR professionals, picking up the phone and calling a reporter can be a daunting task. Why? Because you have to be intimately familiar with a client’s product, how it works, what benefits it provides, what the ROI is and an idea of why each and every reporter might be inclined to write a story for their readers. It’s the power of persuasion at its best, and you have to be prepared for anything since you can potentially secure new media opportunities by thinking quick on your feet and offering something different than your planned pitch, if that isn’t resonating. Although it sounds elementary, it seems social media has allowed us to move away from smart, carefully planned media relations. For example, can a conversation like the one I just described go on in 140 characters or less? No.

The impetus for this blog post occurred during the Twitter fiasco, Twitocalypse, which occurred this week. According to Twitter, a bug got into the system “that permitted a user to ‘force’ other users to follow them.” To save the Twitterverse, engineers had to reset users’ followers/following numbers to zero around midday, according to Twitter’s Status update. This meant direct messages could not be sent, and it was hard to locate people’s handles to contact them. Quite a nightmare for Twitter, but should the issue have been as catastrophic for reporters, public relations professionals and marketing folks?

This twitter-tastrophy brought me back to my PR roots, where the media were just a phone call away, and a Turkish heavy metal fan could not bring down the profession as we know it. A little dramatic? Absolutely. But, you understand my point. Being a real media relations maven requires a give-and-take relationship with editors and reporters. It means having ongoing conversations with them, conversations that don’t just include pitches positioned above press releases.

My team sets aside blocks of time to proactively reach out to media and find out what’s on their agenda, where the client can fit in upcoming stories, how our experts can contribute, or just to touch base… without an agenda (gasp!). Why? Because it puts the “relations” in Media Relations.  It builds relationships, which can be tapped into when your client thinks their breakthrough product will revolutionize the world, but it’s really just a good and needed feature. It’s also an opportune time to let reporters know what’s on the horizon for your client, and keeps your client top of mind for that story that your reporter friend just got assigned. This kind of communication shows the editor that you not only understand your business, you understand their business. A little respect and traditional PR elbow grease can go a long way.

I’m not advocating that people remove social media interaction from media relations. It can play a valuable role. However, there needs to be an appropriate balance of traditional and new-age tactics. Should you follow your favorite editor on Twitter? Absolutely. It’s always fun to hear my team talk about having conversations with favorite editors and reporters in various media channels. In fact, this blog is one of my favorite ways to initiate organic conversations with media in the B2B realm. But, that doesn’t mean they won’t be getting a call from me in the near future.

Have some of your greatest media relations successes resulted from a social media environment? If so, I would love to hear them. After all, part of being a leader is being open to change and wisdom from others.

Steve is President of Wunderkind Public Relations. He regularly comments on public relations strategy, social media and trends impacting the communications industry. You can follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.