5 Ways to Manage Media Relations and Keep Your Name Out There
Media relations are crucial for businesses that want to generate publicity and control their reputation in the press. But the media landscape is changing, which means the way that businesses manage their media relations should be evolving as well. It’s important for businesses to evaluate their current strategy to determine if it is still effective. If it’s not, now is the time to strengthen it. Here are five ways:
1. Utilize Tools
There are a number of different tools that make it easier for businesses to manage their media relations. For example, enter your business’s name into Mention and you will be sent desktop and mobile notifications every time your business is mentioned online. This allows you to keep track of what is being said about your business so you can respond accordingly.
If you’re looking for journalists that write about your industry, the Anewstip tool will help you find them. Enter a topic into this tool and it will show you every journalist, blogger, influencer, and media outlet that has written about it so you know who to contact to get your name in the press.
Do you frequently write and distribute press releases? If so, Agility is another tool that will be put to great use within your organization. Agility gives you access to over 700,000 journalists and influencers from all over the world that are looking for interesting press releases to use in their next story. After a press release has been distributed, the tool gives you the power to monitor its performance. If the press release appears anywhere online, Agility will help you find it so you can keep track of where your brand is getting exposure. Using tools like these makes it easier for businesses to connect with journalists and manage their reputation. It also automates the process of tracking media hits and mentions so your media relations team will not be so overwhelmed with work.
2. Don’t Stay At Your Desk
A media relations team should not be glued to their desks all day—in fact, they should be encouraged to go out and build relationships with people in real life. Journalists that work with the top publications will not engage with just anyone, so your team will need to build relationships with these members of media. Consider allowing them to be mobile workers so they can attend industry events and network with journalists and other influencers.
3. Be Relevant
Monitor industry news and look for ways that you can add to the conversation. If there’s a way to connect your brand to a story that is making headlines, reach out to journalists covering the topic and explain how you can help. Make sure you explain how your input will benefit their readers, not your business. Connect the dots so they clearly see how including your business in the story will benefit them, not you.
4. Be Consistent
The key to media relations is consistency. Your business may not have breaking news to share with the public on a regular basis, but that does not mean you should disappear until something exciting happens. The public will forget about your brand if you’re not mentioned in the press every once in a while. To avoid this problem, consistently write and distribute press releases to journalists that frequently cover your industry. You should also regularly update your business’s social media pages so people remember that your business exists.
For example, since the holidays are right around the corner, now is the perfect time to remind the public that the products you sell would make great gifts. This type of press release may not be picked up by as many journalists as other more exciting releases, but it will help you keep your name in the press.
5. Proactive vs. Reactive
Businesses should try to be proactive when dealing with the media, meaning they should generate their own stories and address controversies before they are even mentioned in the press. Even though it’s best to be proactive, a media relations team should still have a plan in place for reactive situations. Who will respond to media inquiries? Will the company release a statement? How much time should pass before the issue is addressed? These questions need to be answered ahead of time so your media relations team knows exactly how to react.
It’s important to remember that sometimes it is best to stay silent. Be sure to discuss scenarios with your media relations team where silence may be the best response. By talking about this ahead of time, your team will know when it’s appropriate to respond and when it’s ok to remain silent.
Managing media relations is certainly no easy feat, but businesses can simplify it by following these tips. By incorporating these ideas into your media relations strategy, your business can generate more buzz and have more control over your reputation.
Want to learn more ways to get people talking about your business? Check out the rest of our marketing tips and tricks.
Guest Post By: Nick Rojas
Nick Rojas is a self-taught, serial entrepreneur who’s enjoyed success working with and consulting for startups. Using his journalism training, Nick writes for publications such as Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Yahoo. He concentrates on teaching small and medium-sized enterprises how best to manage their social media marketing and define their branding objectives.
Twitter: @NickARojas
