9.30pm Tuesday evening. I am on the train, slightly the worse for wear, having eaten the contents of my goodie bag. (Not the drinks bottle obviously, because that would be ridiculous, but the Pump Street Bakery chocolate and the particularly delicious sweet treat from The Pig).
I have just been to The Roxhill Lifestyle Launch event. And it was great.
The Champagne was lovely and dangerously plentiful. The canapés were very good (superb choices Olivia). And the venue was brilliant. But what really made it? The people.
Aren’t we lucky that our industry is so supportive, so welcoming. And aren’t we all good at the chat?
Ours is a great industry. An industry that (generally) has interesting, socially skilled people.
The panel discussion cover many topics, but the stand out takeaway for me was that great PR is all about developing lasting personal relationships. Yes professionalism is essential, and a knowledge of both your client’s offering and the hacks needs are non negotiable, but it’s essentially about forming a bond.
Sarah Tomczak, editor of Red, made a great point here. If you are looking to create that bond from scratch (hard we know), Google the journalist and look at their social media. You’ll soon find out if they are a party animal, wellness warrior or combination of the two. See what they’ve done, what their lifestyle is like, what their relationship circumstances are.
Then reach out and create a friendship. And that’ll get your clients air time.
So how do you make sure it doesn’t descend into flattery and fakeness?
Because you’ll make sure it doesn’t. You’re in PR because you’ve got high EI right?
Now has anyone got two paracetamol…
