Dancing Between the Raindrops
While public relations professionals often play key roles in branding, the disciplined focus on marketing messages also represents a media relations challenge. What companies most want to discuss in the media is rarely what the media most want to cover.
Think about it. How much effort do businesses put into their news release boilerplates? Has any journalist ever quoted from these corporate descriptions? The only part of a boilerplate that media people use at all is the link to the company website.
The gap between company talking points and what journalists actually care about is where PR pros tread. Think of it as a delicate dance between raindrops.
Context is king
In this era of online content marketing, it’s possible to spread client messages unfiltered by journalism gatekeepers. Millions of businesses do this every day through their own websites, videos, blogs (like this one), e-books, forums, and other digital avenues.
There’s still no substitute, however, for the validation of earned media. A company or executive profile, quote, interview, bylined article, or guest appearance provides that implicit third-party endorsement that other forms of exposure simply cannot match.
Context is critical for credibility.
There’s been talk lately about the disappearance of reporters altogether, but that’s unlikely, even if their roles continue to evolve. For one thing, the explosion of online media necessitates an equal expansion of content, and creating quality content takes the same kinds of skills that journalists develop in the course of doing their jobs. And the need for credibility means that the public will keep consuming third-party media even as they also take in corporate generated media, too.
So how do PR pros balance the business development needs of clients with the coverage interests of the media? For starters, set realistic client expectations by suggesting they think of the media as customers with unique information needs that client and agency can meet by following certain guidelines.
Transactional analysis
Most reporters think in transactional terms for their jobs. Beat reporters find it useful to develop relationships with certain sources, but the majority of media people don’t have the time or energy to cultivate relationships.
They want what they want when they want it, which is preferably yesterday. Indeed, deadlines that were formerly once or perhaps a couple of times a day unfold now in the second-by-second social media stream. It’s that fast and almost impossible to keep abreast of, but that’s the reporter’s lot.
PR pros can step in and ease their burden by:
1. Offering what the reporter (not the client) thinks is a good idea for a news or feature article.
2. Making available instant access to quotable experts while they are writing or putting that story/feature together.
3. Doing at least some of their homework/legwork for them.
Meeting any two of these three conditions most likely will result in coverage for clients. Consistently meeting at least two of them and reporters will come to value you and your client as helpful resources—the essence of successful, long-term media relations.