We have all had our variety of internships with their various duties. Therefore I was thinking I would tap into the resource that is the blogosphere and see what your ideas are concerning pitching a press release.
While the social media press release is great when it comes to laying out your information and respecting the journalist’s intelligence, what is the best way to pitch it? Would you e-mail the journalist with just a few details asking if they would like more information and then send the SMPR, would you just send the SMPR cold with a salutation and their name, or would you lead in with a small pitch letter and have the SMPR appear under it? Do you adhere to the “never send a journalist an e-mail with an attachment” rule? Would you ever follow up with a call?
These are questions I have been working with the past week. We recently have had a story at my internship that we want in the store’s local newspapers. These newspapers are mostly small town publications so I am really hoping it won’t be too hard to get some coverage.
So far I have done research on the newspapers’ websites trying to identify the reporters who are covering the beat I am interested in. Then I get their e-mail addresses and send them our version of the SMPR and a small note at the beginning explaining the angle I think has the most interest. I followed up a few days later asking if they received the information I’ve sent. I am not sure if I should follow up with a call next or not.
Pitching press releases are honestly my least favorite part of public relations. I hate feeling like a sales person. Does anyone have any tips of the trade on how to develop relationships with the media or how to pitch a story? My favorite blog that answers some of these questions is the Bad Pitch Blog. Check it out and please help me with some insight from your experiences.
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2 comments:
To answer your question simply: there is no substitute for good ole’ fashioned outreach. Social media press release or not, a big part of a PR person’s job is to foster relationships. In my experience, the best way to do that is engage in discussions without the pretense of clients. Take a reporter or blogger out to coffee or grab a drink. Getting to know these folks as people is a far better way of developing a relationship than consistently badgering them about client coverage.
This is great advice. Take the people you're pitching to out to lunch or coffee ( or ask them to grab coffee with you since most reporters wont let you buy theirs). However, this is easier said than done right? I have yet to do this, but I would like to in the future.
I'd love to give advice, but I'm learning this process myself and may blog about it soon! Best of luck to you in future pitching!
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