It’s common as an undergrad and early in your PR career to associate pitching with news releases and phone calls. But how do reporters feel about this (sometimes) old school way of doing things?
PR pros have to juggle multiple projects at once, and I often think that we can easily forget who’s on the receiving end of many of our initiatives: reporters. That’s partly why we’ve gotten such a bad rap over the years (and why PR pros think reporters are grumpy people).
Here are three things we need to stop doing – or, at a minimum, carefully consider – when pitching journalists.
1. Hang up the phone. Before you peg me as one of those Millennials who hates talking on the phone, hear me out. How do you feel when yo
Do you want to be that annoying sales person to a reporter? Of course you don’t. Unless you have breaking news, personally know or have previously worked with the reporter, then stick to email. You’d be surprised how effective an email follow-up can be.u receive a sales call? If you don’t push that person straight to voice mail (guilty), you’re stuck talking to a stranger who interrupted whatever project you were doing.
It goes without saying that if you insist on making calls, make sure you’re giving the reporter something new to complement your original email pitch. Never say “I’m calling to see that you received my email.” If I were on the receiving end of that question, my answer would be “Why, yes. Yes, I did. Because it’s 2014.”
Reporters will get back to you if your pitch is written well. In the meantime, don’t bother them with unnecessary calls. If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe Vocus; in its 2014 State of the Media Report, Vocus found that a staggering 91 percent of journalists surveyed prefer being pitched via email rather than over the phone, social media or instant messenger. Which brings me to my next point …
2. Avoid pitching across multiple mediums. Do not pitch reporters through social media unless you know it’s okay with them. In Vocus’ survey, only three percent of respondents said they prefer receiving pitches via social media, and nearly half said they never want to receive pitches there.
Most journalists are like us (surprise, surprise); their social media profiles are somewhat business but mostly pleasure, depending on the platform – Facebook is completely personal (unless it’s a page); LinkedIn is professional (yet you still want to know your connections in “real life”); Twitter is a mix of personal and professional. Going back to my earlier example, would you like it if a sales rep contacted you through your personal Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account? How would you feel if you received an email from a client and then also were messaged on your social media accounts? It’s overkill.
We’re way too connected, and it’s burning us out. Work/life balance is more challenging than ever, and many of us (including journalists) make an effort to separate our professional and personal lives, at least to some degree. Bottom line: Send reporters story ideas where you know they prefer to be pitched.
3. Don’t send a release when a pitch will do. Sometimes, a news release is an absolute must. Making a major company announcement, unveiling the findings of a study or launching a new product all require releases, but do you really need one for thought-leadership topics or events that could more easily be communicated in a pitch? After all, you’d have to write a pitch anyway to explain why you’re sending a release.
Reporters appreciate brevity, and a pitch tying your client’s expertise to breaking news or trends is all they need to get hooked. Don’t make them scroll through a release that more or less says the same thing as a pithier pitch. Shorter emails are the way to go. How do you react when you open a long email? If you’re like me, you want to fall asleep.
Pitches can also be helpful to your client’s budget, because they take far less time to write and approve than drafting and finalizing an entire release. Use your client’s hours wisely.
Of course, all of this is contextual. A phone call sometimes is better than an email, a reporter may like receiving story ideas or sources through a tweet, or a release is necessary to fully communicate your client’s message. But most of the time, reporters prefer to keep it simple. Don’t complicate their lives.
Great post, Kathleen. When showing interns the pitching ropes, I’ll often play the role of the reporter to see how the intern will act on the phone during. After the intern gets through their elevator speech, I’ll respond “Great. Can you just email me this though?” Without fail, every time I ever connect with a reporter he or she encourages me to email the information, as that’s the best way to get a response.
Once, after calling a reporter when she didn’t respond to my pitch, I reached her personal line by mistake. It was then that I found out she was fired from the publication six months ago. OOPS.
I think I’ll stick to emails…
Kathleen – and I’d add: never, ever, ever call and say, “Did you get my press release?” Best way to undermine a reporter relationship. Cheers, David
I totally agree. Bad habits are the same everywhere!
The best way to get a reporter to not cover your story is to force them to commit yes or no. Also, if you do get a yes on coverage but then the reporter doesn’t get there, don’t call or email to berate them. Instead, follow-up and ask if they need anything additional — they will often ask for pictures and statements and write a brief recap anyway.
As for social media, most reporters view Twitter as mostly professional. (Facebook is framily and LinkedIn for current and future bosses). A great thing to do is send your reporter- friends a pitch but then write a general press release and post it to Twitter. Odds are decent they will see it and, like the example in the last graf, will write a brief on it.
As an aside, writing press releases and posting them to your website or blog is great for SEO. I use PRWeb (Vocus) a bit and it’s surprising how much traffic comes to website from the releases.