Getting Attention in a Media-Dominated World

Getting the media's attention is essential to the function of PR professionals in their relationship with a client. Knowing that experts have a number of creative strategies up their sleeve in order to shine brightly and garner attention, I decided to browse the web to see what sort of examples I could find.

According to publicrelationsideas.com, the following are recommended tactics that will no doubt draw the desired attention from journalists:

1.) List company experts at your site and invite the media to call on them for commentary, background and story ideas.

2.) Include a "Media Room" at your site. For an example of an excellent media room, visit the Society for Human Resource Management at http://www.shrm.org/press/

3.) List story ideas about your company.

4.) Offer an electronic version of your photo.

5.) Ask your media contacts if you can e-mail them when you have new content at your site that might interest them.

6.) Ask for links on industry sites, such as trade associations.

This same site hints that letters to the editor are always an overlooked publicity opportunity. Professionals should think of clever ways to weave into the letter what they do, how they can help people and your areas of expertise. As they read letters in publications they would like to get into, they must notice how the letter-writers publicize their own businesses without making it sound like a heavy-handed sales pitch. I think this is and incredibly useful strategy-I never thought of it before!

We discussed in class how understanding the journalism business is necessary in order to get PR pick-up. I completely agree. I read a great piece of advice on gettingattention.org from William Newcott, features editor at AARP the Magazine, which said, “The best advice I can give to a PR person pitching a story is to get a good idea of the process we go through to get stories through the editorial team in-house. It’s different for everybody, but you need to know what happens after you sell us on a pitch so we can take the idea further behind the scenes.”

I also found an article from the Wall Street Journal that recognizes that the rules of the publicity game are changing, and discusses a couple of ways to claim the spotlight for one's business. Not surprisingly at all, I found the article's buzz to be around blogging. As reliance on the internet increases, so does the impact of using blogs. The key to using blogs is that you have the ability to talk about something other than, "buy my product." This advantage allows journalists and other readers to make a connection with a company and remember them for details that are attached to a unique or interesting story.

Some other more obvious ways might include networking to build relationsips and going to places that journalists meet. For example, there is the Press Club of Dallas. If we think of the channels and places journalists go on any given day, then we have found the spots that PR professionals should frequent. PR experts are hired to be creative and innovative. If they can find ways to strategically break-through to journalists, they are on the right path to success.

http://publicrelationsideas.com/get_media_attention_000145.html
http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2006/03/media_ins
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115885283520170125-dFoeWf5cCZS4YYhThM3YPrxlpW8_20061002.html?mod=blogs