Golden Rule 1- Always Have a Good Story
Half the battle is won when you have a good angle to your story. A good story is when a road show to promote tyres is tied up with a national road safety campaign. A poor story is the launch of a road show to promote tyres.
Golden Rule 2- Do not sell products or services
Being boring is very very dangerous for pr practitioners. Think differently; always make your story newsworthy. Always think like journalists/editors. Will you cover the e
vent if you were a journalist?Golden Rule 3-Develop a Thick Skin
After pitching or emailing, you must follow up. Check with the news desk whether they will be covering your event or publishing your press release. They are normally more than happy to answer your questions. But please, do not harass, do not call them every other day and ask "When is the story coming out?", "Will you guys be covering the event?" the first question can be asked only once, maximum twice. But if you build rapport with the journalist, of course it’s easier to ask, but again, how would you feel if someone calls you every other day to ask you the same questions over and over again. Unless, you want them to toss your story out of the window, which is highly possible!
Golden Rule 4- Develop a Variety of Channels
This is my favourite! I have mentioned this before in my press release. Do not depend so much on the traditional media. They are overloaded. Be different. Yes, go to the traditional media but also go to news wires ( I will share with you the press release wires that are free), blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter. Editors or journalist might just pick up your story from there such as a recent story on cleaning up a waterfall in Selangor.Guess what, the organiser used Facebook to invite all the volunteers! The story was even aired in TV3!
Golden Rule 5- Jangan Tipu!
Yes desperation can make us do many things that we don’t want to! But we are bound by ethics, which means that we must always write the whole truth and nothing but the truth. When writing press releases, don’t inflate the numbers, don’t add things that never happened etc. This is also important when faced with the crisis. Always tell the truth. When inviting press, do not lie to attract them, if they find out, they will blacklist you forever!
Golden Rule 6- Do not Over Expose!
I had this chance to do PR for a premier higher learning institution. One of my favourite accounts!
They had so many good stories, and always it was a pleasure from my side to invite the media. This organization was always the first in doing something, won many awards, had excellent research facility and many others interesting stories. Every story was newsworthy. But there was one point; there were just tooooo many stories. Every other day, there was something happening. Unfortunately, this back fired. The media presence dwindled. The stories undoubtedly good, but the media can’t be reporting the same organization every day. Planning is the key. Space out the events. Have deliverables set. How many stories should be out every month? Then plan accordingly.
So here you are six golden rules to win media's attention. If you noticed, there is no mention of nice goodie bags, money or free lunch. Again there is no harm is giving out goodie bags and treating them to a nice lunch, (money is a big no no), but the key is - create a newsworthy story!
Join our Media Relations Workshop on 29 & 30 June 2009 to learn more about media relations strategies, tools and tips!
