Having come of age in print journalism (I know, so prehistoric) I always assume PRs value the power of my praise in a magazine or a paper over any post or Tweet.
I tend to place value in the brands I work for, rather than my own brand. I always think that a glowing review in The Sunday Telegraph (circ 350K) or Red (circ 175K) is preferable to me and my (almost, very nearly) 6K Instagram followers. Obviously I know that if someone has 20/30/50+K followers that’s different. But me?
But then I noticed that when I posted PRs thanked me. Quite profusely.
And my followers seem really engaged and trusting. It made me realise it really is worth my time and effort trying to arrange products in a nice still life or post pictures of my recent spa visit and think up the appropriate witticisms to go alongside them. (All time consuming. The former because of the dreaded rolling situ. The latter because words don’t come fast enough).
I’m assuming PRs like the power of the direct and the personal and the fact that quite a few of my industry friends are influential. (I even cringe writing that).
So I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t assume a journalist knows you would ultimately like a post from your send out/press trip/dinner. You might need to tell them, their social matters to you.
Onto another self esteem issue. Sometimes I think we’re all guilty of assuming a person won’t want to hear from us ‘so I won’t e-mail/call/camp outside their office’ (okay don’t do the latter).
The reality is if they’re too busy/not bothered they can bat you off or not reply. I try to answer e-mails but if they are not relevant or a send all, I sometimes don’t. But I certainly don’t begrudge the person sending it. And every so often I bite and a beautiful feature is conceived.
I truly believe that what you send out into the universe you get back. This is equally true for PRs and hacks. If ten e-mails elicit one response, then that’s success in my book.
