I have worked in public relations for more than 15 years. However during that time, I still did freelance writing and I was pretty good at it. Although it took some adjustment figuring out when to wear my journalism hat and PR hat. My last few jobs have been as a journalist. It has been interesting working on the other side of the fence again. It has given me a chance to evaluate PR professionals and gauge them against some of the things I did when I was working in that field.
Here are some of pieces of advice.
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Be responsive. When I worked in PR, I was always taught to be responsive to journalists. If a reporter called me at 5 p.m. on Friday, I would still work to get him sources for his stories. I have been shocked at the lack of responsiveness from some PR pros I have encountered. Some of them don’t respond to emails or phone calls. I know we are all flooded with communications, but blowing off a journalist is just unprofessional. I was working on a story with some major civil rights organizations and I was surprised how many of them simply never got back to me. Even if you think a reporter might be doing a negative story on your company, it’s better to respond with a carefully-worded email, than not respond at all. PR pros are paid to deal with the media, not blow them off. Ignore a reporter and you probably won’t get called for future articles or get positive coverage.
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Don’t be flaky. I have discussed PR pros who didn’t respond to email. It’s even worse when people send you pitches on Helping A Reporter Out (HARO), and then withdraw those clients. I had one PR pro pitch me a client, then turn around and say his client was too busy to respond. I can see how this can happen. Sometimes the PR pro and the client are not on the same page when it comes to scheduling. However, withdrawing a client once you have offered them for an interview, makes you look unprofessional and won’t get you in the good books of a reporter.
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Be on point. One of my pet peeves with using services like HARO is getting pitches which are clearly off point. I will clearly state in the query that I need to talk to people in the Southern California area, and I will get pitches from all over the country and even outside the country. Of course they get ignored. I emailed one responder and said it was clear he never read the query clearly. He said he had read it, but wanted to see if his client fit the bill anyway. Needless to say, it didn’t endear him to me.
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Respond quickly. If I reach out to an expert for an interview, it means that I am probably on deadline and racing to get the story in. If you wait four hours or even a day to respond to me, chances are, I’m moving on to a different expert. PR pros have to explain to their clients that responding quickly is important if they don’t want to lose media opportunities.
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Stay on top of email. Even though millennials seem to be abandoning email, I have found it invaluable. I find email more useful than phone calls. Half of the time when you call someone, you get voicemail and have to email them anyway. I set up 80 percent of my interviews via email and sometime use it get additional information for a story. PR pros need to monitor their email because you never know when a media opportunity will show up. I have lost count of how many times, I have had to resend emails, because they got lost in the shuffle. I might send a second email, but chances are, I’m not sending a third.
