Three Reasons Traditional Media Needs To Die

How's that for a provocative headline?

For years, journalists on seminar panels have advised PR pros not to follow up. In fact, some even arrogantly add "if I'm interested, I'll call you." It was good to be king (in their view).

Experienced PR pros know that advice has always been self-serving nonsense.

We've ignored it, finessed it and engendered great relationships that have served both our clients and journalists well.

Today, more than ever, PR pros and the media need to play nice.

Check out this blog post. We think it will resonate with many PR pros out there. It did with us.

How Do You Pitch?

Regardless of your locale or client base, one thing most PR pros have in common is that they pitch a variety of media contacts on a daily basis.

Pitching can take the form of a phone call, email, Facebook message, tweet or text message.

All PR pros have their own styles and know what does work and doesn't work with their primary targets, but sometimes it's good to hear what others have to say. It could be that they have just the advice to help form a relationship with that editor that you've been striving to foster for a few months.


One agency, WiredPR, recently wrote a blog post that gave some good advice on the best ways to follow up with media pitches. A couple of these included choosing one way to pitch for each contact and sticking with that method, and if the topic is obscure, mentioning a more prominent publication that covered the topic and explaining the angle the writer took with the story.

It may seem like common sense, but some of the most important things we can do are to be relevant, show respect of a journalists' time and know when to push and when to back off.

What have you found to be your most effective ways of pitching?

Let's Communicate Please!

The channels of communication keep getting more and more clogged. Increasingly, PR pros are more engaged in the "chase" than the communicating. The chase occurs when a client requests something (a release for example), the agency provides a draft, then hours, days and sometimes weeks go by with no response. And that's in the face of repeated phone calls and emails asking for approval, input, anything.

PR pros channel information. We meet the deadlines of media and the demands of clients. Information is our currency.

With some clients (not all), we're experiencing more and more difficulty communicating — connecting to get the simplest answers. There are more and more ways to communicate but some people are communicating the important things less.

Are you experiencing this too?

Social Media Tips & Techniques

Here's a look at how one company used social media to recharge an established brand. It should help cast some light on a new way of looking at an old name. Check it out.

Google Declares War On Content Farms

On the web, content continues to be king and that's good news for PR pros who are (usually) skilled writers and packagers of content. But during the battle for high search rankings, content farms have sprung up, undermining the search process with low quality content that is peppered with tactics to increase search visibility.

Now Google has declared war.

Morphing With The Social Media Landscape

One of the things that makes our jobs as PR pros enjoyable, interesting and occasionally daunting is that we work in an industry that is morphing with the social media landscape.

While those working in other fields, like law and medicine, may use Facebook or Twitter to share some of their news or experiences, we use these avenues to serve our clients on a day-to-day basis. And these two social media 'cool kids' aren't enough.

We must also know about Foursquare, Pitch Engine, HootSuite, Argyle Social and Muck Rack. And don't forget about TLists.

These are some of the top tools at the moment, but what's to say that they won't be replaced by something else more innovative and efficient in the next couple of months?

We certainly won't use every social media tool for our clients (we don't have enough time in the day for that), but we should know them by name and constantly assess whether they could be of some benefit to our client base.

So what does this mean for us? It means that we must be in learning mode at all times. We can't simply attend one annual professional development workshop a year and think that we're set to succeed.

It's best to sign up for webinars, routinely read a variety of PR blogs and not be afraid to ask co-workers about the new tools at our fingertips.

Just this week, our team sat down and reviewed a HubSpot Ebook about leveraging social media for PR success. We found some strategies that we'd immediately integrate into our work and found others that we've agreed to research and discuss in the future.

As PR pros, we not only have a responsibility to plan and execute publicity strategies for our clients, but also to stay up on the latest trends and tools, both for our clients and ourselves.

If you're holding tight to conventional PR practices and unwilling to play around with a few new ones, this could be an unsettling and unsuccessful time. But if you're willing to step out, take a ride around the new social media landscape and pick out a few “flowers” of your own, it can be fun and quite rewarding.

It's up to you.

Communication Breakdown?

As PR pros, we're responsible for keeping a steady stream of communication going. Traditional media. Online reporters. Bloggers. Clients. Facebook fans. Colleagues.

Information is our currency.

In today's rapid-fire high-technology world, information flows through multiple channels all throughout the day and night. What happens when a channel gets clogged? Or, worse yet, if a client's unresponsiveness torpedoes the opportunity to dispense information through those channels?

There's not a lot you can do if your client is conditioned to operate this way. But you can take some steps (1) to target your information requests better and (2) to condition the client to begin to respond more promptly.

Let's start with the clients. Clients, it would help us out a lot if you simply gave us the answers we need quickly or sent a short “will get to it later.” That way, we at least know that you are aware of our need for your help and have seen our emails.

PR pros, here's a strategy to consider:

If the client acknowledges your email but responds “will get back to it later,” respond with a simple “Thanks. We know you're slammed” and back off for the day. Show empathy and both your stress levels will remain in the manageable zone.

If you don't get the answer you need as the deadline creeps up on you, send an email with the subject line “Reminder about XYZ. Deadline near.”

Be smart about how you send your email request. Make it brief. Tell the client what you need right up front. Get to the point of your request – fast. Put deep background where it belongs – deep down in the email. After the background, restate what you need from the client. Give the client a deadline.

We're all facing a brave new world of seemingly constant phone calls, emails and texts. For our clients, we need to recognize that we are not as high up on their priority lists as their CEO or a sick child.

Clients, we need you to realize that we are under the same constant demands that you are and that we would not be bothering you if we did not need your help so that we can get the best results for you.

Let's communicate.