YOUR MEDIA HIT LIST

In our last blog we looked at some of the basics of a PR campaign and this time we’re looking into deciding on your target media and building a media list.

You want to connect with people who will publish your news but, most importantly, those media that are read, watched or listened to by your target markets – the people you want to influence and sell to. With so many people consuming information online it is important to include the following contacts in your media list:

•Bloggers

•Facebook groups

•Influencers on Twitter

•Local, regional, national newspapers

•Industry magazines and websites

•Consumer magazines and websites

•TV and radio journalists and planning desks.

If you are looking at local publications then the best thing to do is pick up a copy or search online for contact details. Some will be big enough to have contacts for specialist subjects such as business or sport and some may just have a news editor. 

For consumer print titles, look through what is being sold on the shelves at WHSmith – they stock the most popular which means they actually have a strong readership. 

Here’s a thought… why don’t you ask your customers what they read or how they get their news! Follow the same people on Twitter, sign up to the blogs, join the Facebook groups, get a copy of the magazine. Decide which contact is most suited to your news stories or advice articles and put them on your media hit list.

As a PR agency, we invest in the world’s number one media contacts system which allows us to search simply with just a few clicks of the mouse. Our system even scores contacts on their level of influence in certain subjects.

Keep your lists fresh and relevant, 

I recommend re-considering and targeting your media list for every PR campaign. They are likely to have a different focus that will appeal to different target audiences and, therefore, different media contacts. Don’t blanket email every contact every time you have a press release. They’ll start to recognise brands that do this and put you on a list of their own – a blacklist!