The document discusses how media relations and pitching stories to journalists has changed in the digital age. It notes that most journalists now use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and email to find story ideas. The presentation recommends that PR professionals build relationships with journalists on these channels and provide concise, personalized pitches that clearly explain the news value and local impact of a story. It emphasizes focusing on real people and local relevance over cleverness.
2. Media Relations in a Social Media World
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3. EOS
The Greek Goddess of Dawn
Our name is a mandate to make each
day‟s work new and fresh, that each day
offers new opportunities.
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5. Today, You’ll Learn
• What drives better media placement results?
• How to stay ahead in 24x7 media relations world.
• Which channels work best for reaching journalists now?
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6. It used to be so easy…
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7. Now it’s a Digital World
• Blogs
• E-mail
• Facebook
• Google Chat/+
• RSS Feeds
• Text Messaging
• Twitter
• YouTube
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9. Which Social Media Channels Do You Use to
Search for Stories?
Tumblr
RSS Feeds 12%
Blogs 25%
Google Chat
YouTube 6%
Twitter 44%
Facebook
62%
I don't use social media 12%
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10. Which Social Media Channel Do You Use
Most?
RSS Feeds 7%
Blogs 20%
Google Chat
YouTube 7%
Twitter 27%
Facebook 20%
I don't use social media 20%
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11. What is the BEST Channel for PR to Pitch a
Story?
Via your editor
Twitter
Skype
Facebook
Text message 6%
Email 94%
Your cellphone
Direct newsroom…
Assignment Desk
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12. What role does the Assignment Desk play for
pitching stories?
Both 36%
Rather be contacted directly 64%
The best place to pitch
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13. What is the BEST Time for PR to Pitch a Story?
Early morning 19%
The night before 6%
Several days to a week out 38%
One or more months out 38%
After researching editorial
calendars
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14. Do you want calls/texts/emails after
hours/weekends?
Depends on strength/time 62%
constraints of a story
No 31%
Yes 6%
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15. Describe how you prefer a PR practitioner to
pitch a story.
• #1 Email– concise, to-the-point, local, not clever
• Know the reporter, explain why it‟s a good story/fit
for THEM/station/paper.
• How will it benefit their viewers/readers/listeners?
• Who‟s your client? They know you represent some
one or some product, so be upfront.
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16. What gets your attention about a story?
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17. Describe the perfect PR pitch.
• Quick, to-the-point, clear, concise, short
• Calls out the news value and local impact
• Don‟t try to be clever.
• Exclusive pitch to the reporter.
• Be upfront about money trail.
• Provide “Real People.”
Gigi‟s Playhouse Spotlight on People 2 People
http://www.wsbtv.com/s/people-2-people/
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18. What is your pet peeve about PR people?
** Pitches that do not have real value to the reporter
or the station pitching.
• Mass pitches, blind pitches
• Don‟t do their homework
• Not identifying whom you represent
• No taking “No” for an answer
• Not being discerning
• Little Boy who cried wolf reputations
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19. It’s All About Relationships
• # 1 Fact: Local media trust relationships with PR pros
“The PR People I work with most know my style, are fast-reacting
and pitch a story once, not over and over.”
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20. Social Media for Building Media Relationships
• Facebook is an
intimate platform
for building
relationships
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21. Use Social Media as a Research Tool
• Keep up with what reporters post
and share so you can see what
interests them as well as their
most recent work.
• “If 80% of your communications
are consistently focused on
educating and entertaining your
audience, they‟ll tolerate 20%
promotional content---as long as
you maintain the context you‟ve
already built.” PR Newswire
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23. The Papa John’s Slice
• Micro-blog continues to
gain traction thru hyper-
short 140-character
updates
• Twitter is adding nearly
500,000 users a day
• 84% of journalists are on
Twitter
• 47% journalists use Twitter
to source new leads
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24. To Have Better Local Media Relations Results in
2012…
• Become your go-to journalists “friend” on Facebook.
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Remove them from mass email pitches and send custom
designs.
• Have REAL people who benefit from your expert
product/service ready to interview.
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25. “Nothing replaces old-fashioned
connections based on
relationships and years of
performance.”
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26. Social Media is Gaining Global Ground
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27. Shocking Statistics
800 Million
20+ Million Active Facebook
490 Million Blogs are hosted users
Unique users who on Tumblr
visit the site each
month
200+ Million
3,000 Average Monthly
Images uploaded to Connected Skype
Flickr every minute Users
90 Million
The average
number of tweets
per day on Twitter
5+ Billion
Mobile subscribers
worldwide
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28. Social Media Use - Update
• Fortune 500‟s use of blogs, video, and podcasts has
increased, but Twitter was the „09 social media channel
of choice
Source: University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
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29. Facebook
Why it’s important:
• 800M active users
• Fastest growing segment is
55 years old+ women
• 350 users access Facebook
through mobile devices
• 30 Billion pieces of content
shared monthly
• 85% of B2B journalists comb
Facebook for stories
• 35% of all journalists use
Facebook for story angles
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30. Schramm with a Twist
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31. Bibliography
The presentation could not be possible without these research
sources:
pewresearch.org
PRWeek.com
PRNewswire.com
Socialmediaexaminer.com
umassd.edu/
Forbes.com
Prsa.com
Jeffbullas.com
Socialmediatoday.com
Digitalbuzzblog.com
Reciprocatellc.com
Orielladigitaljournalism.com
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32. Bibliography
And the following journalists:
Michelle Shaw Fred Kalil Rob Stadler John Bednarowski
Lori Johnston Helen "H.M." Cauley Ross Cavitt Matt Nascone
Wendy Bowman-Littler Jaye Watson Shaunya Chavis Greg Rossino
Julie Bryant Fisher Jeff Dore Val Hoff Kelly Quinlan
Maria Saporta Jennifer Leslie Vikki Locke Cynthia Good
Byron Small Jerry Carnes Wendy Binns
David Greer Jessica Saunders Christopher Oquendo
Betsy Riley Jim Strickland Ken Rodriguez
Katrice Mines Jon Shirek Christine Troyke
Kevin McCauley John Bachman Brandon Brigman
Dana Urrutia Karyn Greer Chip Zeller
Jeff Hullinger Kevin Rowson Buck Lanford
Tom Regan Linda Stouffer Anthony Amey
Diana Davis Mark Winne Bert Weiss
Lori Johnston Melissa Jackson Steve Schwaid
Beth Galvin Nelson Hicks Amy Selby
Caroline Cox Paul Crawley Bill Liss
Caroline Sbarge Randy Waters Dorthy Daniels
CB Hackworth Reg Griffin Doug Richards
Dale Cardwell Rich Eldredge Scott Slade
Donna Lowry Richard Belcher Adam Carrington
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33. Contact Us
EOS Marketing & Communications
3405 Piedmont Road, NE Suite 525
Atlanta, Ga 30305
Elyse Hammett
elyse@eosmarketing.com
404-949-3777
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Notes de l'éditeur
Pitches, press releases, press conferences, special events, follow up calls.
With this crazy change in the channels we use to communicate has come additional stress, for example Forbes recently reported:Forbes has come out with the 10 most stressful jobs of 2012..#6 Public relations executive#9 Photojournalist
62 Emails sent48 respond to part or allAnnounce total qualitative emails sent to KK
Later you’ll hear how this compares to a 2011 global journalist quantitative survey
According to CNN.com, while facebook has more than half a billion users, it still lags behind Twitter and Tumblr in adoption by reporters. A freelance journalist who writes for the Huffington Post says he finds facebook an “ineffective reporting tool.” He prefers LindedIn and Twitter to track down sources, follow organizations, and field pitches because ‘they have search functions that he can create feeds for and track easily through alerts. Facebook has a lot of content that’s behind privacy walls. He says Twitter and LinkedIn “function as crystal balls that teach me all that I don’t know.”
Speaks to the personal relationship reporters in Atlanta tell us they want with PR people, which we will talk about later.
This was the old way to pitch stories –to send a press release to the desk. Now all about “Relationship” with Reporters
Remember: TV people wont need or want as much lead time on a topical story as print will -unless they are working on a future series or story usually for a ratings period.
Don’t abuse relationship—better be good.
It’s all about ratingsHow would you write a tease for John Bachman’s 4:00 News Show?
PR and marketing contacts are helpful occasionally but almost always if they work for a major institution where we would call looking for an expert on a story—e.g. Georgia Tech or Emory University. But stories that are related to a commercial product or service have a slim chance of getting to first base here. That may not be the case for the other stations, especially as it relates to their morning shows. I recommend (if you have done it already) that you watch the other shows pretty carefully for a few days to get a good feel for their content. Then you might target them more effectively.
Use facebook not so much to pitch stories but to build relationships, even with reporters and editors.That’s because facebook is, for most people, an intimate platform to share personal information. It’s important to be respectful of that. Abusing the opportunity could torpedo the relationship. It’s all about relationship…Andrea Samacicia, founder and president of Victory Public Relations in NYC, says it was only when she began using social media that she developed real relationships with editors, producers, and journalists. Being linked to them on facebook and Twitter “makes keeping in touch much simpler. You can ‘like’ something they’ve done on facebook and they get a little reminder about you.”
Use social media as a research tool Research Tool-Social networking is a great tool in your research of reporters and media outlets. By keeping up with what they post and share you can see what interests them as well as their most recent work. And it’s very likely that knowledge will spark ideas for you in pitching stories. Caution-Remember, your #1 goal is to build relationships. It’s okay to promote your business or your product or brand on facebook or Twitter but not at the expense of the relationship.According to a recent article on Pr Newswire: “If 80% of your communications are consistently focused on educating and entertaining your audience, they’ll tolerate 20% promotional content---as long as you maintain the context you’ve already built.” (I have a good example of this with my own facebook account as it relates to The Chat Room)h tool--- 80% Education and entertainment and 20 % promotional
Use social media as a research tool Research Tool-Social networking is a great tool in your research of reporters and media outlets. By keeping up with what they post and share you can see what interests them as well as their most recent work. And it’s very likely that knowledge will spark ideas for you in pitching stories. Caution-Remember, your #1 goal is to build relationships. It’s okay to promote your business or your product or brand on facebook or Twitter but not at the expense of the relationship.According to a recent article on Pr Newswire: “If 80% of your communications are consistently focused on educating and entertaining your audience, they’ll tolerate 20% promotional content---as long as you maintain the context you’ve already built.” (I have a good example of this with my own facebook account as it relates to The Chat Room)h tool--- 80% Education and entertainment and 20 % promotional
