The Public Relations Blog

Know the seven steps for better media pitching from Muck Rack’s State of Journalism.

Pitching isn’t just a skill needed in baseball; it’s an important part of public relations. It’s the skill that helps your company or client get positive news coverage. 

As PR professionals, it’s important to know how to successfully pitch to journalists. Here are seven actions to help excel in that skill.

Is it possible to guarantee your story will get covered in earned media?

One key aspect of public relations is getting your story told in the media. This is called earned media, and it’s the one thing everyone wants from public relations plans. However, getting an earned media story is a long process that requires successful pitching, finding the right journalist(s) to pitch to, and allowing them to transform your story into theirs. The reward is well worth it, but the process is difficult.

An addiction to appearing in the media can throw your public relations efforts into disarray.

Everyone loves media appearances. Heck, one of the goals of public relations is to get your company in the media via positive appearances to increase awareness of your company or brand. Getting positive media appearances is never a bad thing, right? Not always.

Four key reasons why media monitoring is essential for your company

If you had the chance to read everything that was ever said about you or your company, negative or positive, would you do it? It’s probably in the best interest of your company to stay in touch with what the media is saying about your company.

With media monitoring, you can keep an eye on the public’s perception of you and your company.

A guide to the five types of media your company needs

Before diving head-first into the different types of media, it’s important to first dip your toes in the water and learn what media is. Media is a communication tool used to deliver information. The three types of media are commonly known as news media, social media, and web media, but you might also see them referred to as earned media, shared media, and owned media. 

Some other forms of modern media are print media, television, movies, and video games. 

Learn what makes a story newsworthy with our host, Jason Mudd. Jason is the managing partner of Axia Public Relations.

Guest:

Jason Mudd, On Top of PR host, helps companies get on Undercover Boss. He is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002.

Topic: 

The one with Jason Mudd on how to make sure your story is newsworthy.

Earned media coverage should be important to your company

Pitching the media can be daunting, especially if it isn’t something your employees do regularly as part of their job. As a PR firm, this is something our team does daily for companies. The dirty little secret that no one in corporate america – no one in your company – wants to talk about is how much corporate marketers hate pitching to the media. It’s a combination of fear, of rejection, of insecurity, of making a cold call, and of not having newsworthy content to share. 

Earned media coverage should be important to your company because it builds a brand while advertising supports it. As a company executive, it’s not your job to micromanage, but it is your job to ensure your company sees success by building credibility and awareness. Give your marketing team the resources it needs to be as successful as possible. 

Understanding image quality is essential

Sending images to a news outlet or vendor may seem like a simple task, but it’s importance can often be overlooked. The image quality you provide can affect whether or not a reporter chooses to cover your story. 

Images are measured by DPI or dots per inch. A high DPI references a high-quality photo. 

A key component of the PESO model

News media is a major component of the Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned model. In fact for me, it’s my favorite part of public relations – assisting clients and companies in gaining news media. News media is often referred to as earned media, and it’s the content that third-party entities (namely media outlets) create about your company and your brand, its products, and its services. 

How earned media has changed, and what we have learned from it

Earned media is any material that has been written about you or your business that you haven’t paid for. It can be written off as “free publicity” for your company. Over the years, it has changed and is now presented through different media channels. Before, it used to be a 90-minute segment on a news channel, but now it can be seen as a 60-word tweet. 

Nonetheless, earned media can get confusing when it involves publicity. When you pay a news source to write a piece on your business, that is known as paid media. When you write an article for your website, that is known as owned media. 

Today, customers are heavily influenced by things they see on social media. Earned media plays a huge role in what is shared online, and we can learn a lot from it.