Will good media relations really save your life as PR practitioners? Let's see!
Once, in a Work in Progress session, a senior consultant at Praxis said, “One of the most important things to have in this industry is to build good relations with the journalists.” And, this is true...
Working as a public relations (PR) practitioners for almost 5 years made me realizes that most of the job I have done involve media and journalists. It is essential for a PR practitioners to not only make contact, but to establish 'the right' connections with them.
At Praxis, I have been fortunate enough to work with different clients, managing their high profile events and also meet great people and great media. The media play a very important role to deliver our clients' messages to a wider audience and help us build a better image of our brand in the industry.
Where do we start? First thing first, we need to create our media list. We need to know the journalists who write about lifestyle, tech, economy or business. By knowing the right person, we can strategically use our bullet to shot our contents to them. Besides that, one of the most important things that we should never forget is to know about the industry and the news context we provided for them. Gaining huge coverage in prominent media will be as easy as a flip your hand if only you have a really good relationship with the media and also good content for them.
As PR practitioners, we have to consider issues that are of interest to the general public and that may have a bigger chance of getting published. We have to understand what they actually need to write the stories. Most people are fascinated by things that may affect their lives, now or in the future, and we have to fulfill their needs for newsworthy stories. We have to create newsworthy press releases, making sure they are supported by well-researched data, and tap into current issues.
Besides media relations, an effective media list is an important thing to built for gaining media coverage in online, print, and broadcast media. The process of building a media list allows you to consider who will be receiving your news and how you may approach each journalist to ensure that they are interested in our news. We also have to plan our events really well to ensure their success and huge coverage by prominent media.
Before D-Day, we have to make good preparation using the media docs, media list, and detailed event information because we obviously want to turn up prepared as host of the event we organize for our client. We also have to know the audience. When we manage a media centre, we expect hundreds of journalists to attend, but you have to make sure that every single journalist and media outlet suits your client’s needs. It is important to know as much as possible about the people who attend our events. Having good media relations will have a huge influence on whether or not an event will run well.
