This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Treat media like people and think outside the media box!
As we see more publicity campaigns evolving to include (or be primarily) social media, traditional media can often be underestimated. For a couple of event campaigns we’re currently working on, we are sending to media, but not in the usual sense of pitching stories.
Our upcoming clients are targeting women and parents (primarily mothers or other women who have an interest in girls’ self-esteem) and so we’ve been approaching a few female media members to either share the information we are sending them to their own personal network or friends, and also contribute to our client’s blog, which has a specific audience of adults who know or are family members of adolescent girls aged 10-12. This personal ask to share has been very successful in the past and is proving to have interest again.
In one instance, I e-mailed one male TV host because he was a former mentor of one of my clients. He made some suggestions on shows to pitch, and said to contact him if we don’t hear back from the outlet we’ve already sent to.
I still get asked, “How do you get on X show? Do you have an ‘in’?” and the answer is that the ‘in’ is equally available to everyone. You pitch the show producer, and you treat them like a human. When you score an interview and meet the host, treat him/her like a human too. They’re not robots (even though they might read from screens a lot) and you can form relationships with them. And just because they might follow you back on Twitter, that doesn’t mean an invite to call them up or Facebook message them at random (unless you get to that level in the relationship down the road). Be wary of their valuable time, and it will be worth yours.
