Ultimately … It’s All About Relationships

The popular misconception in the PR world today is that all you need to do to get the media’s attention is to write a press release and click on a computer screen to blast it out the world, using some service like Vocus or Cision. It’s quick, easy and lazy. Here’s a flash!  It doesn’t work.

Another press release is the antithesis of what today’s beleaguered reporters want. They are under orders to find fresh stories or else … so why should they care about another press release that’s been sent to everyone? They don’t.

Today’s news media – whether mainstream or online – is struggling financially. They don’t want your self-aggrandizing press release or any other 1970s era press materials. Furthermore, they are building walls against the barrage of unsolicited PR stuff, using, for instance, special spam filters that screen and trash any document with the typical PR jargon, such as “For immediate release.” Why would a reporter – who is under pressure to find legitimate news – risk their job looking at something that’s been carpet bombed to every other reporter on the planet?

Brian Lamb, founder and chief executive officer of C-SPAN, shared this wisdom with me:

“Media relations today is about relationships. A reporter needs to know who you are. It’s as important as what you have to say. If you have a great announcement but have not established a contact or relationship in the media, no one will pay attention.”

Lamb’s powerful words get incisively to the core of effective strategic communications today. It’s all about establishing relationships with journalists.

Sure, I know … I know … when a press release is mass distributed, it will show up briefly on an automatic news aggregation site, from obscure pages of MSNBC to The Singapore Times. But, that’s not real media coverage and certainly does not equate to meaningful awareness-building. It’s at best a brief poof of smoke that disappears, and you’d be kidding yourself to think otherwise.

Real stories in the real media are the result of knowing the right person to contact at the right time. It’s called relationships, and it’s never been more important than now … in the digital era.