Getting regular coverage in the media (the
right kind of coverage!) plays a powerful role in raising the profile of your business
or brand. So how do you go about it? Here's a piece I recently wrote as a guest blog for Islandbridge Brand Direction’s excellent ezine*
There are two options:
- Hire
a public relations consultant or firm to do it for you;
If you’re in a position to hire a consultant
that’s great, but if not, here are some tips on how you engage with the media.
But
first…..:
Before you start the process of dealing with
the media, this article presumes that you have already worked out the
following:
- What
your objectives are in engaging with the media i.e. what does success look like
for you?
- Who
your customer is i.e. that you have clearly defined who your target customer is;
- What
your target messages are – what you want to say to the media – and through them
to your customers?
Who
are your Target Media?
How do you establish who your target media
are? In a nutshell, it’s the media that
your customers – current and potential - are consuming.
So ask yourself and ask them:
- Where
and how do they get their news? Print, broadcast or online – one, some or all
of these?
- What
newspapers, consumer and/or magazines do your customers read?
- Which
radio shows and radio stations do they listen to?
- Which
TV shows do they enjoy?
- Which
websites do they regularly visit?
- With
which social media do they engage?
- Whose
blogs are they reading?
- Who
do they follow on LinkedIn?
Once you’ve answered these questions, draw up your own media contacts
list – here’s how you do that:
- Buy the newspapers, consumer and trade magazines that your customers
read and look at them in a different way – note who is writing on the topics
that are relevant to your customers and to your business;
- Listen to the relevant radio shows – you don’t have to listen live, you
can listen back via podcasts etc and note how they structure their shows e.g.
the radio business shows cover business news, what it says in the papers, do
interviews with entrepreneurs etc – listening to these shows helps you see
where the opportunities are.
- It’s the same advice for TV magazine shows such as ireland am, Morning
Edition, Late Lunch Live and Today – watch them back on the Player and note the
different segments in each show;
- If your customers are active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – engage
with them there;
·
Once you have your list of key journalists drawn up, follow them on
Twitter and comment on their posts. Some
journalists look for contributors to a story they are doing via Twitter so make
sure you’re in the mix!
What do I say?
The most important thing to remember is that journalists are only
interested in something that is newsworthy – for example, while you may be
investing in building a huge, state-of-the-art warehouse, don’t go on about the
construction details, focus instead on the number of jobs the company’s
expansion will create, the new markets it will open up for you and so on.
Email or Phone?
It’s up to you. Personally, I prefer email first, then a follow-up phone
call. For the phone call, prepare your
‘elevator pitch’ in advance – focus on the news part of your story - and keep
it short!
Watch what time you phone – don’t call the news desk of radio stations
at five minutes to the hour when they’re finalising their hourly news bulletin
– wait til ten or fifteen minutes past!
Useful Sites for Media Information:
If you want to know which newspapers and radio stations cover your
county or the counties where your customers are based, if you need to find out
the circulation and readership of national and regional media and information
on radio, TV, print, outdoor, cinema and online advertising – it’s all available
on www.medialive.ie. It’s a
really helpful website that’s free to use – just
register your name and email address and you’re in!
Another very useful site is www.mediacontact.ie – which has
fantastic, up-to-the-minute databases of national and regional media including
specialist media. Whereas medialive.ie
is geared towards advertisers, this one give you the editorial contacts i.e.
the names and contact details for journalists nationwide. It’s a paid-for service but well worth it if
you are going to be in regular contact with the media. You can distribute your
press releases via the site and/or post them as social media releases.
hello@diypr.ie
