Can You Do PR Without Talking To Journalists?
For me, PR always has been (and probably still is) the hardest part of marketing Exceptional Thinking. Why? Because it involves picking up the phone and talking to journalists.
Now, I’m sure they’re lovely people, but in my head, they’ve got three heads, sharp fangs and would happily eat me for breakfast. And that’s why I personally don’t like calling them.
Thankfully, there have been two things that have saved me from having to pick up the phone. One was employing a lady last year whose background is in PR – she is quite happy picking up the phone and having a chat with the ‘aliens’.
And then of course, there’s also online PR too, which doesn’t involve (I’m very happy to say) talking to anyone and allows you to get your message out there and put whatever you like.
I can write articles (like this one) and put it out onto as many websites as I want to; I can join forums and answer people’s questions; and I can send out all the newsletters that I have time to do.
Now, to be honest with you, I know that journalists and newspapers traditionally haven’t been happy with the fact that small businesses can do online PR and marketing now because not as many people are advertising with them.
Because no-one is advertising, the space they have available for editorial is less and it’s even HARDER to get your press release in the paper.
But, one area that the journalists seem to have embraced is social networking. The media absolutely love it! And I don’t seem to be able to listen to a radio programme now or read something in a magazine without Facebook or Twitter coming up again and again.
So, because of that, I started doing some research and unearthed a massive resource of all the UK journalists that are currently using Twitter – tons of them as it turned out.
And that’s brilliant for me because I use social networking a lot and I pretty much post something on there at least once a day. So, I’ve started following all of these journalists in the hope that they’ll also follow me back, like what I’m saying and decide to contact me as a result.
The list I’ve got has contacts ranging from The Times to Cosmopolitan on there, so if I post something that appeals to them, you never know… After all, what have I got to lose?
So, my answer to the question of “Can you do PR without talking to Journalists?” is a definite yes. If I can do it, so can you.
