Post on 24-Jul-2020
By Greg Galant
CEO & Co-founder, Muck Rack & Shorty Awards greg@muckrack.com
How PR pros can drive coverage and conversation in the future of media relations
Hi, I’m Greg!
1 | Search
● CEO & Cofounder of Muck Rack & Shorty Awards
● Member of Twitter and Instagram’s first name club (@Gregory)
@gregory | #RaganPR
WE’LL DISCUSS 5 THINGS1. How journalists are using social media to source and
distribute news
2. The pitfalls of fake news and how PR pros can fight it
3. Tools and techniques for responding to breaking news
4. Bridging the gap between traditional media relations and emerging best practices
5. How to boost your brand’s buzz before securing media coverage
@gregory | #RaganPR
Forward-thinking brands and agencies trust Muck Rack as an essential component of their communications strategies.
Where do you go first for your news?
@gregory | #RaganPR
Do you expect to spend more or less time on the following social networks this year?
FACEBOOK TWITTER LINKEDIN YOUTUBE INSTAGRAM
More than one-third (34%) of journalists go to social media as their “first” source of news, but channel preferences vary:
SOCIAL MEDIA CONSUMPTION BY JOURNALISTS
@gregory | #RaganPR
CLICKS MATTER
41%of journalists consider the potential “shareability” of a story when deciding what to write about
63%
MORE THAN
track how many times their stories are shared on social media
US JOURNALISTS
68%JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE THE US
@gregory | #RaganPR
Fake news isn’t actually all that new...
How can PR
Pros navigate
disinformation
and
misinformatio
n?@gregory | #RaganPR
Approaches to fighting fake news
Automated(algorithms and AI)
Trained experts
Crowdsourcing
@gregory | #RaganPR
What makes a source trustworthy?
@gregory | #RaganPR
1
2
3
4
Research the journalist by searching their biographies, Tweets and articles.
Identify the outlet they’re associated with and determine its credibility (NewsGuard and Muck Rack outlet pages)
Check out their social media accounts. What’s their following? Who’s following them?
Are they a verified journalist?
@gregory | #RaganPR
How to determine journalist credibility
Source: The Atlantic
@gregory | #RaganPR
Think fast!
@gregory | #RaganPR
Quickly find and react to crises
@gregory | #RaganPR
Quickly find and react to crises
Date Equifax Discovered Breach July 29, 2017.
Day They Told Customers & The MediaSeptember 7, 2017
@gregory | #RaganPR
@gregory | #RaganPR
Alerts
ARE TOO SLOWFOR MONITORING
CRISES
CAUTION
Quickly find and react to crises
@gregory | #RaganPR
Newsjacking 101
@gregory | #RaganPR
4
How to bridge the gap
between traditional media
relations and emerging
best practices
JOURNALISTS
PR PROFESSIONALS
In today’s media landscape, PR professionals outnumber journalists 6 to 1.
Source: US Department of Labor
Did you know?
@gregory | #RaganPR
We asked journalists...
On which channel do you prefer to be pitched?
@gregory | #RaganPR
93% of journalists prefer to be pitched via email.
@gregory | #RaganPR
Then we asked PR pros...
@gregory | #RaganPR
Which of the following channels do you find to be the most effective for pitching journalists?
We asked journalists...
How important are press releases sent via newswire services (e.g PR Newswire, BusinessWire) to you for finding new story ideas?
96% of journalists don’t rely on newswires heavily.
@gregory | #RaganPR
Then we asked PR pros...
How important are press releases sent via newswire services (e.g. PR Newswire, Business Wire) to your PR strategy?
@gregory | #RaganPR
54% are still using press releases when only 3% of journalists say they rely on them
Journalists:
What’s most important in a pitch?
Personalization!
@gregory | #RaganPR
What’s most important in a pitch? PR pros say:
Personalization!
@gregory | #RaganPR
How long should your email pitch be? 53% of journalists prefer pitches 2-3 paragraphslong.
@gregory | #RaganPR
Instead, personalize your outreach at scale
@gregory | #RaganPR
Some Alternatives to Traditional Wire Distribution
@gregory | #RaganPR
WhoSharedMyLink.com
@gregory | #RaganPR
WhoSharedMyLink.com
@gregory | #RaganPR
@gregory | #RaganPR
@gregory | #RaganPR
Wrapping Up
Then Now
Finding journalists Static databases Highly targeted outreach based on context including past coverage, social media, etc.
Pitching and distributing stories Mass distribution and newswires Personalized pitching at scale, building relationships on social media
Monitoring Media Manual research and slow alert systems (like Google Alerts)
Social media, journalist shares, faster alerts, WhoSharedMyLink.com
● Use social to find journalists looking for sources (#journorequest)
● Make Twitter a centerpiece of your media relations strategy (it’s where most journalists are!)
● Use whosharedmylink.com to see what journalists have shared a given link on social
● Have real-time alerts set up for mentions of your brand and clients on social to find new opportunities and quickly react to crises
Do:
@gregory | #RaganPR
● Pitch Journalists over Twitter (email them)
● Focus on every social channel (vs the ones where your audience is)
● Send journalists impersonal / mass distributed pitches (or risk public Twitter shame)
Don’t:
@gregory | #RaganPR
Thank you!
https://muckrack.com
Want more info? Stay in touch!
greg@muckrack.com@gregory
linkedin.com/in/galant