There has been much dialog this past week about the tactical aspects of working with the media or media relations. A PR colleague, David Mullen sparked some debate with his calculated title to a post called, “Relationships Don’t Matter MOST in Media Relations.” Although David’s point was very well understood in his post, many seemed to react as if David was suggesting that relationships don’t matter.  As you can see from his post today, “Five Tips for Media Relations Success,” David clearly makes his point.

This also triggered me to share with each of you a tactic that falls into the category I like to talk a lot about, “Commonsense PR” called the “Reverse Pitch.”

Within the worlds of PR and media relations we get so caught up in the traditional pitch process or taking a story idea or resource to our trusted or sometimes unknown media contacts. Please don’t misunderstand me; I have generated hundreds of articles for clients and companies I’ve worked with as a result of this traditional pitch process. 

I would ask that each of you reading this post to humor me for a minute and take off your PR or marketing hat and look at the traditional media relations process:

1. Your client/company has a message they would like to communicate to a group or groups of respective targets…via the media;

2. You identify the media outlets and contacts to target with these messages;

3. You target these media contacts with a pitch and/or press release telling them why they should care about your messages;

4. You can repeat and tweak steps 2 & 3 but at this point your “pitch” is in the hands of these media contacts.

As you can see, the traditional pitching process is dependent on an uncontrolled variable (not to be too technical) – the media being convinced that the story or resources you’ve pitched are worth moving forward on as a story.

Without elaborating this “reverse pitch” approach in great detail. I would strongly suggest that steps 1 & 2 of this process consist of asking the following two questions before you get into your tradition pitch mode:

1. What types of stories or resources are you currently looking for given the beat (or beats) you are currently interested in covering?

2. How can I be of assistance in helping you accomplish those stories?

Granted, this is more of a formality than anything else as they may immediately respond with, “Why? What do you have for me?” But my point here is that we must start this process by first assessing the needs of the individuals (the media) that control the outcome of our efforts. By doing so, I can guarentee each of you will see far greater success generating coverage for your client or company.

This said I’d love to hear from you about this “reverse pitch” method or perhaps the “ask before you pitch” process. Do you agree? Do you feel differently about these initial steps? As always, I look forward to the conversation!

I’m not sure how you are, but whenever I’m traveling to a new market, representing a new industry or even curious about a new technique, I typically read up on the subject at hand as much as possible. After sticking my toe into the social media pool several times over the past 2-3 years, I finally hurled myself into a cannonball and I’m now immersed in this pool!

As I’m sure to do with most things new and based on a number of recommendations, last night I started reading “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott (2007). Although I started reading late in the night, I immediately began to realize this was going to be complimentary to my instincts about social media & PR as David says, “In PR, it’s not about clip books. It’s about reaching our buyers…Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars per month on a media relations program that tries to convince a handful of reporters at select magazines, newspapers, and TV stations to cover us, we should be targeting the plugged-in bloggers, online news sites, micro-publications, public speakers, analysts and consultants that reach the targeted audiences that are looking for what we have to offer. Better yet, we no longer even need to wait for someone with a media voice to write about us at all.”

Just to caveat David’s thoughts on these “New Rules”, he does clearly point out throughout the book that there is still value in traditional media relations.

Although I haven’t yet finished this book, I thought I’d provide you with David’s “New Rules of Marketing & PR” as I would love to hear your thoughts and to learn about what YOU are doing to address this new channel:

• Marketing is more than just advertising;
• PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience;
• You are what you publish;
• People want authenticity, not spin;
• People want participation, not propaganda;
• Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it;
• Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of undeserved audiences via the Web;
• PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the Web;
• Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It’s about your organization winning business;
• The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on the media;
• Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content;
• Blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly buyers in a form they appreciate;
• On the Web, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.

These were all great reminders to me that the way we do media relations, PR or marketing in general have all changed and are currently changing as I write this post. In fact, this book was published in 2007 and I’m sure as I get into the tactical recommendations, they will have already been replaced by something better. Regardless of this evolution, I think these “rules” are still very true today.

Please let me know what you are doing different today and if your answer is “more of the same” I would LOVE to hear why these rules aren’t applicable to your practice of marketing & PR today.  Have a great Monday!

I continue to look at the Public Relations industry (specifically Media Relations) and I am constantly amazed at the number of ways that PR firms continue to “pitch” various media outlets. If it isn’t a press release it is “dial for dialog” mentality requiring you to call your media targets until you’ve finally reached them “live.” Overall, I blame the traditional structure of our PR agencies who traditionally put entry-level staff on the front lines making the outreach to these media outlets. Historically, once you’ve put in your time…you don’t have to pitch anymore and you can focus on being “strategic” and/or managing account teams. This (in my opinion…hence my blog) is the major flaw of our industry and hence the reason we are labled as flacks, spin-doctors, etc.

If our industry (PR) is to sync with the ever-changing media industry, we have to get back to putting relationships back in Media Relations. Here are my no brainer 3 Simple Tips for Practicing Common Sense PR:

1. Read, Read, Read – Again, logic comes into play. Would you go into a new business meeting without learning anything about the prospect? Or how about asking a doctor to give you a haircut?! That is no different than pitching a reporter or producer that doesn’t cover what you or your client is pitching to them. Read the latest if not several months worth of your media target’s stories. Understand their interests, story trends, and style before you even think about engaging about a story idea.
2. Ask Before You Pitch – Educating yourself about the media you are pitching is a logical first step, but we often forget that just because a story idea falls within a media contact’s “beat” or area of focus, doesn’t mean it is timely for them. Start by asking about how you can make their lives easier and find out about the stories they are currently working on and/or seeking resources for. Remember, a journalist’s goals are quite simple: 1) they would like to write a good story and 2) they would like to get home as soon as humanly possible. Be a resource and be time-sensitive.
3. Put The Media’s Needs First – Until I actually started my own Media Relations practice was I finally able to speak these words around my clients and prospects. In the PR agency world we are taught to put the clients needs first and often to say “yes” to even the most ridiculous story ideas. The reality is although we think our stories are wonderful (right or wrong), we forget that the only thing we control is how the story ideas are presented to the media. Once that takes place, the destiny of you or your client’s story is ultimately in the hands of the media. Please just try putting the media’s needs first for a change…your company or clients will thank (and likely reward) you later:-)

How about you…what can you add to this list of Common Sense PR Tips?