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.

First of all, there is Moodle, the electronic learning resource. On this site students can find out all sorts of information about their course as tutors post lecture notes and presentations to supplement learning. This site is useful as a database of knowledge and module information but does not provide opportunities for networking.

Students and alumni of the course can also make use of the Yahoo Group set up for them. This gives them an easy way to communicate with the whole group with just one click. It’s great for asking questions about assignments as the issue at hand may be one that several people were concerned about; and asking everyone, rather than just asking the tutor, promotes discussion and a community feel. It is also a good way to let all the students know at once of any upcoming events or opportunities.

So we are provided with easy communication methods and a learning database, but it would seem that there is no online location to congregate, to share personal as well as professional information. Yes, many of us have Facebook or MySpace profiles, and temporary “groups” have been set up on here, but these sites are not for focusing on our professional development or the progression of the course.

Does this mean there is a gap in provision here? Is a student and alumni network something we need? This shall be discussed in the focus groups and I will let you know the outcomes in due course…

This is the method with which I intend to obtain the students’ views on the alumni network idea. Its advantages are that it promotes discussion and gives a combination of opinions and angles on the selected topic. Its disadvantages are that the discussion may stray from the subject easily and that some participants may dominate the discussion more than others.

It is therefore my task as moderator to keep the discussion on track without being too imposing so as to let it flow freely.

So, the venue, refreshments and recording equipment are all in place, all I need now is the participants!

Calling all students and alumni of the MA Media Enterprise course, this is your chance to have your say! Do you want your own network to be like moodle or more like facebook?

If you don’t come along to one of the focus groups you never know how it might turn out…

I am embarking on a research project to investigate and explore ideas around the proposed idea of a web-based network for the students and alumni of the MA Media Enterprise course at BCU. It is of vital importance that I gain the views of past and present students for this, as it is to be a student-led network, so if you are either of those please do not hesitate to comment on this blog! Other views are of course welcome too.

Over the next few weeks I shall be keeping the students up to date on my progress with the project via this blog.

We are all aware of how huge social networking on the internet has become, so I’d initially like to ask, which features of social networking do you find most useful?

Laura Jackman.