Media Relations
When I was in high school I used to lock the door to my parents den in the basement and tell myself that I couldn’t leave until I asked out whatever girl had my eye at that point (Melissa, if you are reading this, I love you – I’m just using this as an example). I would seriously have to muster up all of my courage before taking the plunge and making the call. I'd psych myself right up: "you can do it, you can do it, you can do it!"
Face your fear, and be prepared for rejection
Making a big important phone-call is tough, but the ability to do it is what separates a good PR person from an average one.
Calling reporters and pitching a story is a lot like asking someone out on a date. It’s difficult, it’s awful, but you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t pull the trigger. You have to be ok with rejection, and you also have to leave the door open for the other person to change their mind.
As well, making those calls are extremely exhilarating, especially when they work out.
Media Releases are often ineffective
As you may well guess, I am not a huge fan of the media release. From what I can gather, reporters get far too many of them, and disregard virtually all of them… and can we blame them? If I got 300 media releases in my mailbox every morning I would almost definitely hit ctrl + a and then delele.
I feel like the only way to really be an effective promoter of anything is to have a conversation – either on the phone, or in person – because you’re just one of the horde of other PR people out there trying to get attention otherwise.
This approach has worked well for me. So well, in fact, that I try to avoid writing media releases at all costs. I find that the easiest, and most effective way to conduct PR is by identifying reporters who would be most likely to be interested in your story, and then pitching it to them with their own audience in mind.
