10 dating techniques to improve your media relations
Court a journalist in the same way you’d court a potential love interest—not with flowers and ballads, but with attention focused on their interests.
I always joke that they must teach that notion in startup school because every tech founder wants to approach PR that way.
The news release, though still valuable for certain things, is no longer a great tool. Sending a mass email to a big list of journalists violates the CAN-SPAM Act, not to mention that, if you have Canadians on your list, you can face serious fines.
It takes a lot of time and energy to conduct media relations well. You have to think about it as you would business development or supplier relationships. A relationship has to be built before a journalist will pay attention to you. Sending a news release to their inbox is decidedly not the way to do that.
Just as if you were dating or chasing a new client, you’d never send out a bunch of emails to see who responded.
If you think about media relations like dating, you’ll have better luck.
Consider employing some of the following tactics:
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