PRactical Relations

Follow-up calls can either build relationships or build frustration. The majority of journalists surveyed by Encyclomedia on this topic have experienced the latter, far too often than they’d like. So let’s take a quick look at some of the mistakes that PR practitioners make when following up on the media releases they’ve sent.

Don’t expect journalists to have a memory like an elephant
An editor shared her frustration with me yesterday. She had just received a call from a PR person who was following up on a press release sent in August last year. No jokes. “I wish I had the kind of memory that could recall detail from that far back,” the editor said. “I get a lot of phone calls asking me if I used a press release, and often it is months after the release was sent.”

Don’t expect journalists to be clairvoyant
A phone call that starts with “Hi, did you get my email?” can only ever receive a frustrated response. Here’s an example of a conversation I received from another journalist recently:

PRO: Hi, I’m phoning to see if you got my email I sent on Friday?
Journalist: Well, let’s start with who you are and what was the email about…

Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day. De Waal Steyn told me earlier this week that he receives between 500 and 800 emails a day, across eight different mailboxes. He’s not alone in this.

So if you need to follow up on a specific email, start by stating the day and time it was sent, the subject line and the overall topic of the media release. The more specific you can be, the easier it is to enter into a productive conversation with the journalist.

Don’t ask questions when you can find the answer yourself
If you sent a media release to an online journalist, there is absolutely no need for you to call and ask if the journalist ever used the release. Simply search their website using your keywords and you’ll have your answer in seconds.

Don’t hound a journalist
Some PR companies have apparently developed the habit of calling to ask if they can send a media release, calling to ask if the journalist received it, calling to say that they are sending more pics, calling to ask if the journalist will use it, and so on.

A quick, clear and direct call to follow-up on an email is fine, but the “are you going to use it?” type of call every few days is not helping you to build a relationship, instead, you’ve become a nag. If your media release was well researched, targeted and relevant for the target audience, the journalist will contact you for more details.

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