Mass media remains one of the main PR channels for promoting companies. Despite the short life of news and newspaper coverage, every positive media mention lays a solid foundation for the organization's reputation. However, not every leader is ready to approve inflated pr-budgets. But even in conditions of insufficient financial resources, it is possible to organize a massive information campaign in the media.
From advertiser to newsmaker
For an organization, there is nothing easier than getting the role of an advertiser. To do this, it is enough to regularly contact the media for the provision of block or text advertising. Thus, the contacts of the company are put into the client base, from where it is not easy to return to the address book of the editorial office.
If the media sees a client in the organization, interaction with whom is built exclusively on commercial terms, it will take a lot of work from the PR manager to make his organization an informant.
In the eyes of serious media, customers who are willing to pay money are no less important than reliable informers who provide a unique media product. Becoming such a partner for journalists means forever forgetting about publishing on commercial terms.
This will require assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the main speakers of the organization, their willingness to act as a source of information and ability to communicate with the press. Journalists are more willing to respond to interaction when they are given the opportunity to speak directly with the speaker.
Tell me who is your friend
One should not wait for offers in free publications from mass media of broad specialization - information newspapers, socio-political publications, etc. More often, highly specialized publications agree to free conditions of information cooperation. Their sources of information are not mass press releases, but unique information obtained from the depths of corporate slums.
The task of a pr-manager is to find such publications, establish productive contact with them and be in touch with partners around the clock - information should be provided to them as a priority, otherwise such cooperation will not last long.
Well forgotten old
Talking about the classic mechanisms of information dissemination, one should not write off the traditional distribution of press releases. Despite skepticism that such a mechanism is outdated, for many specialized media, getting news from companies is one of the most reliable information channels.
In addition, press releases can not only be sent by e-mail, but also posted on special platforms, which are often used by mass media. There are more than a dozen of such sources on the runet.
New media - social networks, this is another important channel, which, simultaneously with its direct purpose - interaction with the consumer - allows you to increase the number of freelance journalists and bloggers who can see an informant in the company.
Another important mechanism of interaction with the media is the preparation of comments and materials at the request of the editorial board. It is not at all necessary to wait for an initiative from the editorial board to prepare an expert opinion. A PR manager can independently offer to prepare an exclusive position of the company on a particular resonant informational topic. For example: the environmental problem with cutting down rare plant species at the construction site of a suburban complex may require comments from design experts. A PR manager of such an organization can independently go out to the press with a comment from the head, which will be a plus for the company.
Change the face of the text
If in the arsenal of a pr-manager there is, it would seem, everything - a powerful journalistic pool, an army of loyal bloggers, an intensive press release distribution, and the media still offer to place news on commercial terms, it is time to reconsider the quality of the texts.
Most likely, the problem lies in the image tone, which is often abused by PR managers. This leads to the fact that an editor who may be interested in an informational occasion still does not include the text in the news feed because of the large labor costs that need to be spent on emasculating all the image hooks from the material. The media will spend time on this only if there is no other information. However, practice shows that there is always some kind of solid analogue, over which you do not need to pore for several hours.
A PR manager should take this into account and, when preparing a press release, shift the emphasis from the positioning of the organization to the social or political component of the news occasion. Specialized media will definitely appreciate this and take such a press release into development.
