by Meg Biallas, @megbiallas
Media relations: It’s a balancing act. The goal is to entice journalists enough to cover your story -- without annoying them. While traditional methods are still crucial, it’s not a bad idea to incorporate social media as a way to pitch.
As an example, let’s use Twitter as the platform, and St. Louis TV as as the media market. The fictional event is a classroom donating books to low-income families, and it’s part of an event for your (fictional) organization.
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First, a reminder: social media should not be the only method of media pitching. Integrate this into your larger media strategy.
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Search for relevant media accounts (check newsblues.com for media markets). The St. Louis market has the four key affiliate stations I want to contact: ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. It’s also the 21st largest media market, which means I’ll be competing for attention.
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Connect your brand with the media outlets in advance (Again, I reiterate the importance of karma-banking). “Like” the local affiliates on Facebook, and start following some of the key reporters. Retweet a station’s story, comment on an article. Cold-tweeting isn’t ideal (didn’t think you’d hear that pseudo-word, didja?).
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Test the waters: try talking 1-to-1 with a reporter or producer. Even if the journalist doesn’t respond, your tweet will show up in public mentions; they’re bound to read it. Social media has broken down barriers between the message and the messenger. This is why social media can be such an effective tool for engaging journalists in the story you want them to tell.
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There are different styles of tweeters. Some tweet only news headlines, while others talk back and forth to viewers, to story sources, and community members. Find the latter. Seek out reporters who avidly tweet with their community. Look for journalists who ask for story ideas on their Facebook pages. In the St. Louis media market, @ksdknews tweets strictly headlines, while its anchors/reporters @kayquinn and @leisazigman are more conversational. Your best bet may be with @jenniferfeldman, who describes herself as the assignment editor for KSDK. The assignment editor is the gateway to getting that press release discussed at the morning meeting.
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Link to your media release or campaign page via Twitter. Offer multiple ways for the journalist to contact you. For example, you may write a tweet like this: “@jenniferfeldman Local students donating books for low-income families, to raise awareness of STL literacy rates [link to press release].”
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Live-tweet during your event as the story takes shape. Make the other stations wished they showed up. Use hashtags that indicate story topic, city and other relevant keywords (i.e. #literacy #poverty #stl). Reporters who are looking for story ideas may search keywords on their beat.
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Make note of the media in attendance, and follow up with a thank you to their accounts. “Thanks, @kayquinn for visiting with students today to learn about literacy rates. Visit our site for more info.” For the stations that didn’t show, offer them links to any other relevant information that would still allow them to do a “reader” if they can’t do a full news package.
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If your event gets coverage, be sure to share the link on your brand’s pages. “Check out coverage from @kdsknews, story by @kayquinn at 5 pm tonight.”
- Keep up the conversation. You may be able to work with reporters on future events. You can’t build relationships with journalists on social media alone, but it’s definitely another avenue to reach the storyteller.
Amber Naslund writes: “Good PR professionals spend YEARS building their media lists and networks of people that are likely to want to write or share an interesting story, long before they ever have the story itself. Why? Because the relationship is what opens the door to the pitch. In reverse, it doesn’t work well, if at all.”
Next? Rinse and repeat these steps for your next big story idea!
