How Important are MEDIA RELATIONS for a PR professional

 

Friends, Thank you very much for taking out time from your very busy schedule to read my blog(s). I really feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comments column. Friends, presenting 66th blog titled How Important are MEDIA RELATIONS for a PR professional.

Friends, the general public will form an opinion about an organization based on what it says or even what it does not say. An organization must therefore think about what it wants to communicate to the public and take necessary steps to transmit that message effectively. Creating the right image for the organization is crucial to being successful in influencing the target audience including policy makers of the country.

All organizations must learn how to effectively communicate who they are, their objectives, functions, and activities. Many organisations by their very nature may not have the resources to hire a communications professional or fund an ambitious communications and media strategy to help them do this. However, all such organizations, regardless of available resources, can benefit from forming a relationship with the local, regional, national, and perhaps even international media.

Some organizations have a communications plan: a document that maps out how the organization will share information related to its work with its target publics and other stakeholders. An effective communications plan addresses the following points:

What is organization’s philosophy/mission?

What kind of message they wish to transmit?

What limitations they have?

What actions they can take to achieve their communications goals while taking their limitations into account?

Using the media to communicate with the public is often part of the communications strategy. Even organizations that do not have a formal communications plan can benefit from building a relationship with the media and from understanding the ways in which the media can help them meet their communications goals.

Understanding the Media…….

“Media” is a generic term that includes print media for i.e. newspapers, magazines, trade journals etc. and electronic media i.e. TV, radio, and the Internet. Certain types of media will be more relevant for a particular story than others. For example, if the story has a particularly visible element, consider contacting a TV channel. Another story will be more appropriate for print media or Internet. By watching, reading, and listening to your local media, you will be able to identify the types of stories used by different print and electronic media outlets. Please do not underestimate the value of the regional press. Although its audience is usually smaller than that of national media outlets, its readers/viewers/ listeners are particularly interested in what the press has to say about the area/region.

Building Relations with the Media……

Whenever possible, inform and update your target media with interesting and positive stories. The media can enable the organisations to communicate with a wide audience including general public, potential customers, and the policy makers. The image the public has of an organization is often shaped, at least in part, by the free publicity provided by the media. Regular media coverage enhances the organization’s image. Therefore organizations can use the media proactively to help build their public image and reputation. Creating positive dialogue about the organization through the media is a lot cheaper than advertising. The best strategy is to make the media your friend. 

Create a contact list of your target media……

It is very important to have a database or other way to gather information on the journalists with whom you are creating professional relationships. These databases should include basic information such as the type of media they work in, the audience they reach, their contact information, etc. You can also add notes on the conversations or communications you have with them on an ongoing basis. Pay attention to local, regional and national media outlets (newspapers, magazines, television, radio channels, bloggers etc.). Take note of the correspondents, editors, and hosts who write or talk news, and consumer issues. You can also call local media outlets to ask for these names. Identify the features editor of newspapers and/or magazines and the program producers, researchers, and hosts of TV and radio networks.

Establish and maintain relationships……

There is nothing magic about the media. They are a business like any other, with tight deadlines to respect, financial constraints, hierarchy, fierce competition, and a sophisticated audience. It is essential to maintain cordial, productive, and ongoing relationships with journalists working in all types of media without discriminating against anyone based on their political ideology or bias. Make sure that your media contacts can depend on you to provide them with clear, timely, and accurate information about your organization and its activities. Doing so on a regular basis will help you establish a relationship of trust, which is in everyone’s best interest. The more relevant information there is on an organization and the clearer, faster, and more accurately that information is communicated, the better the results will be.

How to communicating with the Media…….? 

Media requests 

Occasionally, a journalist may come knocking on your door asking for specific information for an article or special report. P R Manager or Corp. Comm. Manager or Media Relations Manager should always have some basic information ready i.e. statistics on the main goals and challenges of the organization, its activities and services etc. Having this information on hand can help provide the quick responses that journalists need. What journalists like most is to be provided with fast and accurate information, and the assurance that they can count on you in the future.

Pitching or selling your story 

The best way to interest the media in your story is to make it newsworthy. News is any information that is interesting or unusual. The media is interested in stories that have an interesting local angle.  In order to get the media interested, you will need to sell your information to journalists so they can turn it into news. Some stories that the media are usually relatively willing to publish include………

• Launch of a new product or service

• Signing of agreements

• National or International awards

• Appointments of Top executives etc.

• Assemblies, conventions, symposiums, events.

• Anniversaries, Annual Day celebration.

• Presentation of new projects or corporate reports

• Training activities

• The organization’s point of view on new laws or regulations

• Technical reports, bids

• Customer education campaigns

• Presentation of studies, surveys

Once you have identified a good story, you need to share it with the target media in a way that will grab their attention. You must show journalists the importance, scope, and positive impact of the organization and the specific message you are sharing.  Express the information clearly, with excellent grammar, and correct spelling.

Key Media Relations Tools

There are many ways to present your information to the media. The choice depends on a combination of factors, including the nature of the information you want to transmit, your target audience, and the media you intend to use. The media relation tools that are most often used are explained below;

a. Press releases: Press releases are the most common and among the easiest ways for the organizations to disseminate the information they feel is important to the media. 

b. Press conferences: When information is especially innovative and important or it involves other institutions, you can call a press conference.

c. Press kits: Press kits are informational packages that contain more information than a press release, which you can give to the media at a press conference or any other event. A press kit should include a press release, precise data such as statistics, comparative graphs, photographs, etc. Information should be well-structured to capture the reader’s attention and it should be as visual as possible. Avoid long sentences and highly technical language as much as possible.

d. Interviews / panel discussions: Occasionally, a journalist or correspondent may contact the organization to comment on a story he/she is working on, or may request an interview with CEO of the organization in response to a press release you sent out or a conference you organized.

e. Articles and reports: Given the large number of corporate or organizational publications that exist, you may have an opportunity to include an article or report in a magazine, in the newsletter of another organization similar to yours, or in the newsletter of a company that has already collaborated on your projects.

f. Newsletters: Newsletters are useful to keep the organizations’ internal and external audiences informed at the same time. They are very useful public relations tools for communicating corporate culture and involving your stakeholders in the organization’s mission. A newsletter is not the ideal tool to communicate with the media. However, you may use articles from your newsletter as a source for potential news stories that can be rewritten and circulated as press releases. 

g. Website: Organizations’ website can have many uses. Its’ principle use is as a corporate site where anyone can learn about the organization, its objectives, mission and services and products. Organizations, to take advantage of their websites to interact with its publics and other stakeholders, can incorporate elements to their websites; such as:

• Discussion forums/chat rooms

• Surveys

• Suggestion boxes

• Blogs

• Electronic publications

To sum up;

Building and maintaining a relationship with the media, is a good way for every organization to increase awareness of its services and products and to publicize their programs. Regular media coverage can position the organization as one of the key organizations and will allow your organization to communicate positive and interesting stories to a wider audience. The media can be a powerful ally. Cultivating and maintaining a cordial personal relationship with key media contacts of the region or country can go a long way in helping the organization achieve its corporate goals.

Thank you for reading……

#####