How do you get press coverage? And why should you pay people to get it for you instead of doing it yourself?
Well, it takes time and effort and imagination. That’s the main reason. And it helps to have done it before.
Good press coverage comes from making sure journalists know to come to you for the information and help they need, and know too that you are not going to be nagging them or getting in the way on press day. Noel Coward said that actors need to know their lines and not bump into the furniture.
That’s rather what PRs need to do too. They have to know that journalists are just people with a job to do. And that there is a symbiotic relationship to be developed here. Everybody needs everyone.
Journalists need to write articles to fill the pages or the airwaves of their medium.
Freelancers need to sell ideas to editors, editors need to commission pieces they have been presented with or have thought up themselves.
If you have a product, an event, a charity, whatever that you want written about, you have to make it appealing to attract attention.
And everything needs a hook to hang it on. It is worth remembering:
worthy is worthy but it aint news
and
just because it is close to your heart,
why on earth should it be close to anyone else’s?
Well, why should it?
That’s where you come in.
PRs need to send information, to the right people, in plenty of time, and follow it up with a phone call. Better still, they should spot an opportunity to link their client’s product with something that the newspaper/magazine/TV/radio will want to feature.
They should know who they are sending it to, having made it their business to introduce themselves, even before they have something to tell them.
If it’s an invitation, it’s a good idea to phone or e-mail and tell the recipient that they are about to be invited to something, and then, nearer the time, and after they have had the invitation for a while, ring and check if they can come.
More later – to give you time to read and absorb!
