Creative Republic – Media Skills Masterclass, Chaired By Ruth Ward, Rewired PR
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How to make journalists love you.
NESTA is committed to supporting small and medium enterprises and recognises innovation as the key to success in the current economic climate:
“Innovation is the single most important condition for transforming the current economic crisis into an opportunity. Never before has innovation been so critical to the UK’s economy and society.”
Media Skills Masterclass was the event held by Creative Republic in Fazeley Studios, Digbeth on Tuesday 21st April.
This short piece constitutes the 2nd part of “Attacking the recession” series which presents useful skills needed in your media organisation.
The appointed guests from the West Midlands region shared their ideas with their colleague journalists, pr and digital media personalities and other entrepreneurs.
Anna Blackaby, small business journalist for Birmingham Post answered the following questions: How to get yourself in a newspaper? and How can you better your own PR? Having taken a look at creative industries sector she emphasised the importance of the role of press releases and how the businesses can communicate better through them with the target audience. These short pieces of writing should be as concise as possible, catching eye and containing new current ‘stuff’ (the recession subject would always be on top and definitely catching reader’s eye!). Journalists will love you for that especially if you save them long-hour-coffee-after-coffee researching of what you want to say! Secondly, try to avoid adjectives (facts only!) and get the habit of including quotations. Thirdly, use your own creativity (“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself”, Alan Alda); send the picture over etc. Fourthly, establish yourself as a commentator – if you have an opinion share it with others. Finally, if you have any stories, opinions etc, send them over through e-mail to the press office and therefore you will maintain a great relationship with them.
Now you will not only be loved but absolutely adored by a journalists’ team for your perfection at press release writing!
Another key point is Birmingham itself, the city of numerous opportunities, the creativity hub and economy city. If we pick up key segments and try to develop the mentality of the key sectors that drive the Birmingham economy we will be able to beat the recession. Targeting and attracting journalists should become catchphrases for each entrepreneur in the WM region. Why not target travel journalists (nota bene, probably most influential journalists among all); get them to the city and let them experience it? Why not using the hooks (case studies, extraordinary people in the heart of the real story etc.) they are absolutely mad about?
Finally, don’t be afraid to put your ‘stuff’ on the website, be noticed by your target audience and keep this relationship closely. Inform them through RSS feeds, tweets, direct mail etc. Social media is the answer.
Alumni Network, Enterprise, materials, research | Dominika Jankowska | Wednesday, April 29, 2009
What do you make of this advice in relation to your own projects / business ideas? Have you put any of this into practice immediately?
Unoubtedly, communication between the organisation and their target audiences became extremely important nowadays. Communicating clearly and whatsmore successfully is company’s main element of the strategy. In the relation to my own projects I realized that it is higly important to have this element of the strategy polished to perfection and especially in the project which I am preparing towards setting up my pr agency I found it highly helpful. Probably one of the main successful tools that could be implemented into practice immediately would be writing a blog which is the great way to communicate with the world out there.