By Ashlyn Rochester, ACN Communications Specialist
On May 1st, four speakers and one moderator logged into Zoom to tell ACN members how public relations professionals and journalists can work together successfully and shared their tips and tricks.
Ann Marie Ames, ACN board member and Head of Content at Filament, was the moderator for this webinar and introduced our speakers: Dusty Weis is the President of Podcamp Media, Jackie Roembke is the Editor-in-Chief of WATT Feed Brands at WATT Global Media, Walt Cooley is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Cow Tech Report and works on publishing Progressive Dairy’s magazines,and Kelsi Mayer is the Marketing Executive at Filament Marketing.
What is the key to successful media relations?
Kelsi highlighted the importance of relationships, “Taking the time to know the editor you want to work with and build a relationship at the start,” she shared. “When you’re sending an email, you’re talking to a human. It’s about working together because they’re looking for something too and can call on your help.”
Dusty stressed the importance of knowing deadlines, “Think like a reporter and understand the deadlines they face and how their newsroom works on a daily basis to accommodate their needs. The more you are able to anticipate and accommodate the reporter, the more successful you’ll be.”
Walt added on to Dusty’s point and mentioned his pet peeve question is, what’s your deadline? Instead, he recommends “finding a way to tweak that question cause it [the deadline] is now or half an hour from now. Maybe the question is, what can I get you by the end of the day?”
Jackie’s answer focused on the reliability of the source, “The ones that have made clear their value as a source, but a reliable source, so they’re top of mind. I know who I can call on. Especially if they’re going to be a resource outside of their bias. Then, they become a soundboard for me.”
Being a reliable source means doing your clients justice. As opposed to pushing content, what does it look like?
Dusty emphasized sustainability, “A media relationship needs to be sustainable. Sending pitches out is not one-and-done. I’m on a deadline, and my time is valuable.”
Kelsi advised, “Always remember who our audience is and the message we’re trying to get in front of them.” She mentions not being afraid to push back on our clients because clients come to you for your expertise.
What does it look like to you as a PR Professional to help your client think about what your audience needs, not just about your business?
Kelsi asks herself a few questions when creating content for clients, “Any time we’re creating content, we’re thinking, what are the pain points our audience is feeling? What’s the market situation? How do we need to adapt and adjust?”
Dusty advised instead of saying no to clients, say, “Sure, but…what if? Or what else could this be?” He highlights the need to build trust with clients by being transparent about why you make the decisions you make. “It’s good to pump the break now and work through the strategy. Remind them and identify the appropriate tactic to accomplish the goal.”
Speak to the PR professionals or journalists with advice for them to remember.
Dusty shared that, yes, the trendy thing is AI. He’s seen it in the volume of pitches he gets, “it has skyrocketed 5-10x, and all of them are bad. I conclude that AI has led to pitch generation by bots that lose sight of what relations are, which is relationship building. I know there’s a temptation to use these tools to do media outreach, but it’s going to fail every time. If you take the human element out of it, you’re going to fail. Remember, it’s about relationship building; it’s not extractive and needs to be sustainable.”
Kelsi said be a human. “Get to know your editors and build relationships with them. Being able to be a human and have that peer-to-peer network, along with placement in publications and helping each other out that way.”
Jackie gave advice to the journalists, saying, “It’s our job to find the way to work with the commercial side and find those opportunities and communicate with them without compromising our integrity, but we need to be more open to building those relationships to get access to their experts. There’s a way to do it where everyone benefits and no downside.”
She also gave advice to PR professionals, saying, “Feel comfortable and embrace your skillset and push back on your client to get them the results you want. They hired you for a reason. Find that collaborative angle and push it. Become a resource and make it easy for the journalist, so provide them a name and resources.”
Walt told journalists, “Don’t be afraid to tell media relations what you need. Be upfront and be transparent. What’s important in media relations today is nothing will kill a relationship faster than getting lawyers involved. Understand your legal requirements because it never ends well. Understand when your legal needs to see something, how often, etc.”
Watch the recording in Memberclicks when you log in!