I set up a meeting with a journalist last week who I had not met before. I had read his articles but I wanted to put forward some ideas to him,…
I set up a meeting with a journalist last week who I had not met before. I had read his articles but I wanted to put forward some ideas to him, which I hope will turn into editorial coverage.
I was able first to check out his profile via LinkedIn and on Twitter. In fact we could have started a dialogue that way too, but I wanted to go back to basics.
The magazine he writes for is a prestigious one in the industry and well respected as an authority and it was worth taking the time out to meet.
There is still nothing like meeting up with a journalist to get a feel and test what they would find engaging for an editorial piece.
I was reminded of this again yesterday when a client rang and wanted to discuss an important positioning statement around a new PR campaign we are initiating. We talked through how we could work with the current news agenda on this theme and I tested some ideas as to how far his organisation was willing to create some debate through their positioning on the topic.
It was time well spent as writing the statement this morning proved a quick task – we had already scoped much of it out; the time spent had been productive the day before and a meeting to do this had been a more efficient approach to getting this agreed.
Actually at the end of the meeting the client commented that “it was so much easier meeting than trying to do this by email” – he’s a busy person and represents his organisation at countless meetings .
The benefit of speaking direct – on the phone or in a short catch up meeting – is that it is much easier to read how someone is feeling or reacting to what you are proposing, and you really move a discussion on through talking it through. Sending an email is not always the most time efficient route.
A tip we working in PR must never forget.
