Here’s a round-up of the PR mistakes I’ve seen called out by journalists on social media over the last month. As mentioned in my previous blog post, paying attention to journalist complaints like the ones listed below can provide valuable insights about the dos and don’ts of effective media relations.
1. Don’t insist on journos giving you links (and don’t use legal threats)
Journalist Jane Hamilton recently shared on LinkedIn (below) how she asked to be removed from a PR agency’s contact list after they insisted she includes a backlink to their client in her column for The Sun newspaper. Even worse, they claimed she was legally obliged to include a link under the Creative Commons license terms (pasted at the bottom of their press release).
Yes, backlinks are important in digital PR, but trying to strong-arm a reporter by going all legal? Big mistake!
I’ll admit I’ve occasionally followed up with a journalist to politely ask for a link, but you can never insist on one. The best tactic is to earn links by creating content so valuable and relevant that publications want to link to it on their own.
2. Don’t make it unnecessarily difficult for journalists to access your PR materials
This next post from Ed Target, editor of technology title, The Stack, highlights the needless hassle that Microsoft’s PR team is creating for journalists who want to access embargoed PR material. They are forced to create a password-protected Microsoft account and fill out a form in order to receive an email that allows them to see the “news preview” of the embargoed story.
Obviously, creating unnecessary friction like this is just going to wind journalists up.
Best practice for embargoes (and pretty much all interactions with the media) is to make things as easy as possible. Only set an embargo if the announcement is genuinely big/interesting enough to warrant it – and you think it’s important to give specific reporters additional time to ask questions/do their own research before the story is pushed out widely.
In most cases, a simple email works best: briefly outline the embargoed story and ask the reporter if they’ll honour it. If they agree, follow up with the full materials. Keep it simple.
3. Don’t ask journalists to tell you if (and when) an article will be published
This one’s from Mike Butcher, editor at tech startup title, TechCrunch. He’s complaining about PRs flooding him with emails asking him when their piece will go live.
First, reporters don’t want to share in advance when they’re going to write up a story – partly because then it wouldn’t be news anymore! Which is why Mike talks about maintaining a “Chinese wall” between PRs and editorial decisions.
Plus, reporters work under tight deadlines with editorial processes such as publication timing often out of their control. So, they may not have a firm answer for when your story will be published anyway.
In Mike’s own words, “there are a multitude of things that can happen in between the pitch, the interview, the writing, the editing, you name it. Including the story being pulled entirely”
To be clear, most PRs already know that they should not be chasing editors about when a story is going to go live. Mike’s main gripe is that PRs are using the excuse that they need to plan social media around the story’s timing. But this is a transparent attempt to fish for information and most reporters will see right through it.
Best practice is to ensure the journalist has all the information they need to write your story and use a media monitoring service or Google alert to let you know when it’s published. Trust the process.
Image credit: https://wiredsmart.io/