How to Maintain Good Press Relations

When you think of media relations, you might think of that movie with a young Kate Hudson, Almost Famous. It’s the story of a 15-year-old journalist working for Rolling Stone who tours with a fictional band, trying to interview the members while they, in turn, try to pitch the story that they want to tell. It got a whopping 89% on Rotten Tomatoes; it’s a great film! 

What Are Media Relations? 

The movie we just described is a pretty good, old-school, depiction of media relations. It is, quite simply, the mutually beneficial (hopefully) relationship between a brand and a media outlet. 

Brands give journalists stories and pitches to write about (leads, if you will), and journalists give brands media coverage, which hopefully generates interest in the brand. Developing a good relationship with media outlets is great for getting the story you want to be told into the world and reaching a larger audience than just your social media following. 

How Is This Different from Public Relations? 

Some people classify media relations as a subsection of public relations. They are related because they are both, ultimately, about reaching the public. However, public relations are specifically about the relationship between a brand and the public. The journalist or media outlet is not necessarily a conduit or middleman in public relations, although they often are. 

You can communicate with the public directly via social media nowadays, which lessens the importance of the media, but not entirely. Your social media presence is quite frequently a source of information for journalists. How often have we heard the phrase “[insert name of rich and influential person] just tweeted [insert controversial statement]” in the news? 

Too often, that’s how often. 

So, What Are the Benefits of Media Relations? 

Developing a good relationship with media outlets can be very useful for getting your brand mentioned in those media outlets. What does that mean? 

Validation and credibility of your brand

Getting mentioned in a magazine that specialises in your brand’s area of expertise help to establish your brand as an expert in your field. It looks good if your restaurant or shop is featured in a lifestyle magazine, for example, or if your tech company is mentioned in a podcast with a large audience interested in tech.

A boost to your marketing

Image source: accelerate, Data source

As well as being established as a reliable, go-to brand, getting mentioned in the media is a great advertisement. It’s a great way to reach a wider audience who may not have found you otherwise and improve your performance on your social media report. And with the backing of a trusted media source, your chance of boosting sales likely goes up. 

Support for your ideas

What kind of backlash would the first-ever vegan restaurant have? Or the first electric car? Whenever a new idea enters the world, people are often quick to reject it. They might ask, “what is visual voicemail? Sounds silly!” 

But the more support an idea garners, the more people jump on board. If you’re trying to put something new out into the world, or an old idea with a new spin, having a journalist essentially say, “Hey, I think there’s something to this idea, you know,” is a shining endorsement. 

People tend to look up to people who have some authority, and journalists who speak to the public about what’s hip and what’s not (oh dear, is “hip” still hip?) can influence others to feel the same way about an idea. 

Telling your narrative

Having a good relationship with media outlets also gives you a better chance of telling your story the way you want it to be told, with the details you want to include. If your brand suffers some crisis—maybe a string of bad reviews that sent you back to do some app store beta testing—you can end up needing a good friend in journalism to help pull you through and wipe the slate clean. 

Many of us will have seen examples of dogpiling on the internet (when a group of people collectively decide to harass or bring down a person or company online). Unfortunately, that’s one of the dark sides of the digital realm. And media outlets can be a helping hand in those situations (as well as better social media moderators). 

How Should I Prepare to Make Contact? 

Establishing and maintaining a good relationship with the press requires you to know what you want to get out of the relationship. To that end, you need to do the following first: 

Decide what your goals are

What exactly do you want to get out of this relationship? Are you hoping for more brand exposure? To improve your eCommerce marketing strategies? Do you want to improve your reputation? Introduce a rebrand to the world? 

Then, you also need to ask yourself what the press would get out of this relationship. What’s the attraction for them? What’s special about your brand that would make them want to talk about it? 

Once you’ve answered this question, the next step is to: 

Establish the message 

When you’ve figured out the overall aim, your next job is to decide what your specific message is. What is the vibe of your brand, and what do you want to say about it to the world, through the press? A carefully curated message is essential for having clarity. You shouldn’t expect a journalist to do the heavy lifting of establishing your brand for you. You should already know who you are and how you want to be seen before you approach a member of the press. 

You wouldn’t go to a tattoo artist and expect them to tell you what you should get and where. They might offer suggestions and tweaks, but the idea has to come from you – it’s your body and your brand. While some tattoo artists and journalists are so exceptionally brilliant as to be able to tease out what you want from your soul and hand it to you on a silver platter, those are few and far between. This is a self-service buffet, baby. 

Finding journalists 

The next step is to track down your journalists. The most obvious way to do this is to look at media outlets that you are familiar with and head to their About Us section to see who their people are, what their areas of interest are, and take note of the ones that stand out to you. 

Another way to look for journalists is through tools like Anewstip, where you can search for keywords to find journalists who have written about particular subjects in the past. This tool will show you a list of journalists who have used that keyword in some capacity, along with their basic information like what they do and where they work.  

You can then click on any link in their information, such as their place of work, and see other people working at the same place.

Making your pitch

Now that you know why you want to form a relationship with a journalist or group of journalists and have narrowed down a list of people you want to contact, it’s time to prepare your pitch. Think of this as being a little like a sales pitch. You want to curate an attractive story for a journalist to take on and make their own. Think about what they will want. Something interesting, relevant, or exciting; something that will get them some clicks. A traffic-generating story. 

Once you’ve come up with your idea and written it all down, you will want to use software like Grammarly to check for basics like grammar and spelling. You want to look as professional as possible. It also makes you look like a reliable person to form a relationship with on behalf of the journalist.  

You can also check your text with the Hemingway App to check that your text flows nicely and sounds good. Both Grammarly and Hemingway are free so you don’t have to break the bank or a sweat. 

Finally, even though it is a cliche, pictures speak volumes, so make sure to include some photos to give more life to your story. Most phones take decent pictures these days, but if you have someone in your midsts with a good camera, they would be good to help you out. 

You can then use Canva to make any graphics you want or to make your photos pop more. 

Create a personal message

However you choose to contact your journalists, whether it’s through social media, email, by phoning their toll-free number, or even snail mail, you should make sure you read up thoroughly about them first, make notes about them, and prepare your message to them carefully. It should be thoughtful and show that you’ve taken the time to research them online. 

A copy-paste message probably won’t cut the mustard. You want to create a genuine relationship with these people, not just have a transactional interaction. Writing a personalised message will increase your chances of a successful connection.

Relationship Aftercare

Once you’ve established a connection with a journalist (or influencer), you want to keep that connection alive by following them on social media, engaging with their posts, resharing some of their content, and being responsive when they engage with you. 

Much like any professional relationship, you want to keep in contact with your journalists after they’ve helped you out, so make sure they have your business phone number at hand. 

The Press Is Not Your Enemy 

“The enemy!” – that’s how the 15-year-old in Almost Famous is frequently referred to by the band. But the press is not your enemy. They are a valuable connection to have in business to make your brand known to the world, tell your story, and improve your marketing efforts.