Journalists. We have talked about them in class before. We need them to help us get our message to the media. They are the ones who could make it easy for us...or really hard for us. But how do we go about building relationships with journalists?
I follow Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, on Twitter. He offers fairly short articles about the field of public relations and the healthcare industry. As I begin to start my career in public relations I have found quite a few of his articles helpful.
I came across one article this evening that I thought would be worth it to share, PR pros, 10 ways to woo journalists on Twitter. I thought it was perfect given how much we have been discussing the usefulness of social media. The tips, which are actually written by someone other than Mr. Ragan himself, are pretty straight forward. You follow the journalist on Twitter. You interact with them. You don't freak them out, offend them, or irritate them. You praise them, and eventually, they might take notice.
Of course this could all be a lot easier said than done, but it is definitely worth giving it a shot. You don't have much to lose, and it could be the first step to building a lasting relationship with someone in the media.
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ReplyDeleteMark Regan is a wonderful person.He has posted more tham 52,000 tweets and 47,000 followers.
DeleteI read his link about "How to improve your writing in 15 minutes. It is great! You can find the suggestion as the following;
1. Practice writing creatively
Set a timer for one minute. During your allotted minute, come up with three talking points on your topic. As you get better at this, really challenge yourself to think innovatively and choose topics with which you aren't very familiar. You might surprise yourself.
For example:
a. Learn to use body language that engages your audience.
b. Speak with assuredness—avoid "umms" and "uhhs."
c. Read often so you're able to speak confidently about a number of topics.
2. Learn to write quickly and clearly
After your minute is over, set your timer for 10 minutes and power out a clear, concise essay on the topic and talking points that you chose. This exercise will help you not only to think on the spot, but also to save time as you learn to get your ideas on paper quickly.
3. Practice editing your work
You have four minutes left. Use these four—and only four—minutes to edit your essay.
Do this every day, perhaps twice a day, and watch as your writing improves.
Bonus tip: Read at least one post a day from your favorite writing advisors: Ragan.com (shameless plug), PR Daily (shameless plug No. 2), Grammar Girl, or resources like Purdue's online writing lab. Put what you learn into practice in the above writing challenges.
These are very useful to improve my writing skills. Thank you Elizabeth for your sharing about Mark Regan. I will be his follower.
wow, thank you, both of you. that's absolute gold--i never turn down solid advice on how to improve your writing.
DeleteI think this is great! I'm a journalist for the Metropolitian and i asked each group to send me a couple sentences about what there all about and no one did! That is not a good method for starting a lasting relationship!Ha Ha
ReplyDelete