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Stop The Press: Good Media Skills Make Good PR
In the current economic climate, marketing budgets are being slashed and most organisations are looking at ways to cut all costs that are not deemed absolutely essential. This being said, many marketing professionals either underestimate or do not recognise the value of applying media skills in order to get free publicity.
Wherever there is a news story that involves a certain industry the media is seeking for industry commentators to represent that industry. When you see a corporate representative being interviewed on the television, it is not accident or coincidence that has lead to that company being selected by that programme to represent the industry.
The chances are that the representative of the organisation has a marketing or PR department behind them that has been applying media skills to maximise the company profile within the media. Even if this representative has only spent two minutes on air, it is still thousands, if not tens of thousands of pounds worth of airtime in advertising terms. The same principle applies with printed media.
The audience is likely to view the representative as an industry voice, almost an industry spokesperson and to pay more attention to this publicity than advertising. Generally, press coverage of companies is seen as a more trustworthy and reliable source of information than advertising,
These success stories do not happen overnight. However, everybody has access to the media and if basic media skills are applied over a period of time, you can share in this vast publicity resource.
Many people only associate media skills with crisis handling , but this is only one part of the media skills set.
Media crisis handling is one of the most recognised and essential media skills, but focusing purely on this is a reactive attitude to media handling. By taking a proactive approach to media skills you can entice media interest and get positive media coverage
The basic media skills referred to include: understanding what will interest the media, networking and building relationships with journalists, taking the right approach when contacting the media, pitching your idea to journalists with confidence and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with journalists. Plus, of course, writing press releases that editors want to publish.
Media skills training and coaching are an excellent resource and safe environment for developing these basic skills. These can be particularly successful when the trainer or coach is themselves an experienced journalist who understands what the media is looking for.
By developing fundamental media skills you will have a network of media contacts who you can not only send information regarding your company, but who are more likely to come to you when something in your field of expertise comes up that requires comment.
The key to getting media coverage is in creating an angle that is of interest to journalists, editors and their audience, rather than purely a sales spiel. This involves coming up with statistics, events, stories, etc that are relevant, exciting or perhaps surprising. One piece of publicity can often lead to further interest from the same publication or others who see it.
Understanding the media is one of the essential media skills necessary to making the media work for you and media skills training is a valuable resource to achieve the necessary level of understanding.
About the Author Dominic Donaldson worked for years as a news correspondent and is a leading consultant in media skills contributing regularly to international publications on the subject.
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