Here’s how you can make strong connections with media and get yourself featured.
Everyone knows that public relations are all about building relationship with the media, its literally in the name. Traditionally, to know journalists you’d meet them over coffee/or dinners and get to know them. Enter 2022, now you can know a journalist through social media who might be sitting on the other side of the world sipping of their coffee. In this new reality, there are new ways to connect with people all around the world, but still the basics of building relationships shouldn’t be forgotten.
Here are 4 social media platforms to connect with media:
The two most preferred and recognized platforms to connect with traditional media professionals are Twitter and LinkedIn. Even though cold connections and pitching has become obsolete, it still does work if practiced regularly. In LinkedIn, you have a tool called LinkedIn Premium, which helps you send direct messages to even people who aren’t connected with you. So, you can do solid research on the publication you want to be featured, and find the media on LinkedIn and get in touch.
A public relations expert would create a contact with the editor through initiating a conversation, mostly by reading the editors work and appreciating it, it makes them realize you have actually read and know what they write and you’re not somebody just wasting their time.
My advice, keep engaging with press with different pitches and be original. Be genuine, it always works.
Initially when I signed myself up on Twitter, I just tweeted “Welcome to my twitter” and abandoned it entirely. Then again few years later, I realized a great way of connecting with media is through twitter. Despite, having so many social media platforms, twitter has always been the best way to send out information to the world. Most journalists are active on twitter and there have been many instances where news broke out on twitter before official announcement. It has been a favorite for journalists to connect with sources they wouldn’t have reached.
So, a public relations expert can build their relations with press through sharing their information and tagging the journalist they want to share it with. You can also follow journalists and learn their interests and how they work, what story angles they cover.
In my opinion, Instagram isn’t the platform one would use to make press connections. I say so because it’s hard to find actually media editors on Instagram. However, you can look out for contributing writers, as they’re also about building their personal brands alongside working with various media outlets.
We, at our PR agency, firsts research who we want to connect with. We do thorough research on the influencer, podcasters, hosts who we want to connect with and set notifications alerts on these profiles. When they go live on their profiles is when we initiate a conversation with them, making them heard through engaging with them. Once a connection is made, we pitch them ideas that would fit their writing tasks. This way, a yes from the writer is most likely.
Facebook may now not be what it used to be. But, if you’d research properly, you can find many communities and groups for networking. There are plenty of groups for press, entrepreneurs, and those who work in the PR industry, making it the ideal platform to connect with press. You can join these groups to network, introduce yourself and your company and get noticed by media.
I would recommend PR professionals and everyone who wants to be noticed, get connected to media to join these groups. Send out personal requests and make sure your profile matches with your business, summarizing what you do and your specialty.
Content credit: Mr. Ahmad from Hype communications, has contributed in this story, other technical information have been taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
