OoO this week. Batch of links replaced by a successful PR placement
Since the most recent batch of links went out, paying subscribers read about generalists and specialists, then saw an interview with a 20-something who feels her career never properly took off. This coming weekend, they’ll get an essay about throwing out the old playbook and writing a new one.
I am away this week and not following the news as closely as usual so I won’t have the regular batch of links to offer. As a substitute, I’m dipping into my PR assignments to demonstrate how at times I can spot opportunity that others may have glossed over or might have missed completely.
Step 1: See a tweet in your feed from someone you follow but likely haven’t pitched directly. Still, you hope that the reporter knows who you are already based on cheering her on subtly through amplifying her past stories and letting her know when you’ve read some of her stories that they were indeed well-reported. (I’d estimate that of the 700 people I follow on Twitter roughly 200 are reporters.)
Step 2: Read between the lines and DM the reporter to find out if you’re right. Much of the time you won’t be, but that’s not egg on your face. If they reply at all, that’s a positive development. Rarely would a reporter who knows who you are chastise you for the suggestion of making yourself available to assist with her story. If you are indeed correct that there is a story in the works, you have beaten every other PR person to the spot. It’s nearly guaranteed they take the call you recommend. But you have to be able to work on a short deadline, which you can.
Step 3: Wait and see what the story yields.
That CNN story ran the following day with Public, our portfolio company, as part of it: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html. Share the success with your team, on social, where have you.
Step 4: Do a brief followup with the reporter, whether over DM or over email. Let them know that you’re always like this, usually available, capable of being a real resource to them going forward. Hope that the next one is inbound.
Step 5: Revel in what you have designed out of thin air. After it ran, Public heard from a Bloomberg producer to have the same spokesperson from the CNN story on air to speak for a segment, which appeared here: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/what-we-ve-seen-from-this-retail-investor-revolution-is-an-evolution-gm-of-investor-relations~2640116.
Once you see success, especially easy ones to work on, plot how to replicate more of them in the future. It’s not the job of a PR person to guess in the dark which reporters aren’t busy enough to work on the story you’re proposing. Rather, it’s the job of a PR person to anticipate based on common sense what’s keeping reporters busy now and ahead - and how you can support them in what they might need by way of resources.