There’s a line that separates journalists and public relations experts, though we understand why this line can be blurred at times as there are journalists who have decided to work for private PR firms and companies. But in the real world, in the world where Lakeland public relations events need journalists to be called a success, PR people have to deal with journalists all the time.
When a Lakeland public relations firm decides to host an event for a company or product launch or even to introduce a new service or a new face of the company, what they want is to be noticed by the people. But in order to be noticed by their target market, they must first be noticed by journalists.
These reporters have to first attend the PR event, be impressed, ask questions, interview a couple of people, write their stories, send them to their editors, who will then have the final say to whether or not your story, your product has a space on the nightly news or the newspaper.
It’s a long and tedious process and one that PR people often bypass by going straight to the editors and making sure he/she sends their best reporter to cover the event.
Sometimes, they go straight offering their press releases for these to be published on the news site, the television broadcast, or the newspaper.
But when we talk about Lakeland public relations, we don’t merely want a media outlet to “cover” the event. We want them to want to cover the event. If we’re doing PR the right way, there’s no need for us to bribe editors and reporters to go to our event and cover it.
Our event must be so important and interesting that journalists are willing to spend time listening to speeches and interviewing resource people.
Attracting the interests of journalists and media outlets is tricky, of course. With so many things happening around us, how can your event stand out from the rest? How can you pique the interest of reporters for them to drop whatever it is they’re doing and attend your event?
You need to look at your guest list and your resource people. Who is going to be there? No matter how great your topic is, if no expert or trusted source will be there, we doubt that journalists would want to spend a minute in your event.
Finally, you need to find a topic that will interest them. See to it that you connect a product launch, for example, to the current issues in society. Link your event to something that is current and important for the journalists.
