On the first day of journalism class at University of Delaware, one of my favorite professors told us a story that has stuck with me these many years since. He told us that when he was a fresh-faced journalist, he was tasked with interviewing Lily Tomlin, who at the time was one of the hippest female comedians in show business. She explained that she would only grant him the interview if he could come up with a question that she’d never been asked before.
He did some digging and discovered Tomlin was a big fan of Ma and Pa Kettle, a comedy duo that made a lot of movies in the 1950s about a hillbilly family. He said Tomlin looked him up and down, and then he said, “What in the world made you love Ma and Pa Kettle?” She smiled and said, “Come with me.”
This single story has informed every aspect of my career in public relations.
I think about it most often when I’m tasked with networking at media panels—where droves of PR people are waiting to grab their two minutes with the reporters in the room. Two of my colleagues were headed up to NYC to meet a few reporters on the sports beat last week. Our account coordinator, Johnny, however, had never been to anything like it, so I gave him some pointers.
- Dig for Gold. Yes, you can read a reporter’s most recent stories and check out his or her Twitter feed. But do more than a superficial check. See if you can find out something special about or important to that reporter. For example, Johnny figured out that one Sports Business reporter was a huge Angelique Kerber fan. So he told the reporter about the time he sat next to Kerber on a plane. We also once discovered that a Wall Street Journal editor went to high school in Philadelphia, which leads me to my second point.
- Carry the Red Rose. The reporters will meet oodles of people throughout the night. How the heck is he or she going to remember you? As we were talking to that WSJ editor about Philly, my colleague Meg started telling him about her side job as a Phillies Ball Girl. So, when we followed up with him via email, she referenced that conversation, and he was able to recall us immediately. Alternately, I’m also a big fan of wearing something a tad snazzy that makes me stand out, a la, “Great meeting you last night. If you recall, I was the one wearing the leopard print blazer.”
- Bite Your Tongue. Yes, you are most certainly there to pitch your clients. However, sometimes trying to sell an interview or story idea falls on deaf ears. A lot of reporters like to mine their own angles, so most of the time I’m not pitching my client but talking about topics I’m reading (or not reading) about—all topics that my client can speak to. That way the reporter doesn’t feel pressured to say yes or no, but can think about the topic and I can follow up with a thoughtful email at a later date.
- Patience, My Pet. The best conversations I’ve ever had with reporters is on the walk out of the building. I usually take my time getting my coat and gathering my things (on occasion, I miss my train in the process), all the while keeping an eye on that one reporter I’d like to meet. By far, I’ve had the most memorable conversations on the walk out of the building. The reporter is far more relaxed because the event—where he or she had been pitched 20 times—is over, and you can just talk like friends. I think those conversations are the most fruitful.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”@BuchananPR” suffix=””]As I always say, reporters are people, so your best bet is to show them that you’re a person too[/inlinetweet].