After yet another phone call from "Jane at company X, just calling to see if you got my email last week," we at PR NEWS are making a few New Year's resolutions:
- Don't take another call from Jane at company X.
- Don't open Jane's emails because they're poorly targeted and she has no idea what we cover.
- Don't waste another moment searching for an email that rolled in about 600 messages ago with a nondescript subject line and 65 other recipients.
In light of our resolutions, we encourage you to make a resolution yourself:
Change your media relations priorities. Solid relationships with the media will be more critical than ever as we head into 2003.
Unfortunately, junior staffers pitching the media are repeating the same old mistakes, like cold-calling journalists just to ask if they've received a press release.
These media relations pros are repeating those infamous mistakes because of a focus from above on quantity vs. quality. Instead of emphasizing number of hits, make sure your
team understands you want the best coverage: ink or airtime in the sources that reach your target audience, reflecting your key messages.
Invest the time to train your key media relations staff on strategies for building relationships with reporters - not strategies for counting hits.