(PR tips by successful spokespersons - the series II)

This is the third post in the series starting with my previous post on media publicity for bloggers and PR tips by successful spokespersons.

To start off my interviewing sessions; I ask an avid blogger, social media expert, and friend, Rajesh Lalwani of Blogworks, how his writings in the media started and if he can provide some tips that would be helpful to bloggers in getting featured in the traditional media – newspapers, magazines, TV, online portals, etc.

Apart from lecturing in workshop and seminars on the social media, Rajesh has been writing some great stories in the media as a guest writer. The latest one was a half-pager on blogging recently in the Hindustan Times, a leading national daily broadsheet in India with a readership of 3.85 million (NRS 2006 figure).

Below is an excerpt of the Q&A we had:

Me: What was your first media writing assignment and how did it happen? Can you share the story of how you or the media approached each other and how did it materialise?

RL: If I was to not include a ’slogan’ contest that I won in 1990, I started writing for publications a few years ago and this piece first published in NFDC’s Cinema in India on Movie Merchandise was my first published piece.

Writing to get published was, and is, for me a means to an end.

I had just launched my firm Scenario Communication Partners and was keen to explore possibilities of working with the movie industry to introduce merchandise in Indian cinema. I believed that there was an opportunity and a method by which one needed to approach this. However, I didn’t have a foothold in the Industry and moreover, I was based in Delhi. I decided to write for relevant publications to reach my target audience.

The article still gets read by many people and continues to get me calls, queries on merchandise. The concept was perhaps a bit ahead of time in India and I never could do any work on it then.

How did it happen? An acquaintance of mine used to contribute to the magazine and shared my piece with the editor. She liked the piece and decided to carry it in the next issue - it was quite simple really. The piece then got reproduced by Screen (an entertainment magazine) both in print and on their online edition.

I did start the process of approaching a few other editors a few months prior to this. These were to materialise later.

Me: Any advice that you can share to bloggers to get featured in the media from your experience?

I fundamentally do not believe in the concept of visibility just for the sake of being seen. Why do you wish to be visible, to which target audience, with what message, and whether your input can add value to the reader/ viewer, etc. are important things to consider.

I wrote a piece for IMPACT magazine sometime ago that talks about this.

A gentleman known to me, CEO of a mid-sized company, was looking a bit anxious when I met him recently to discuss their communication needs. He felt that his company wasn’t being featured enough in the media. ‘Why should the media talk about your company?’ I probed. ‘Because we are the largest and the best’, was his confident reply. ‘But the media did cover that prominently when you became the largest player in your segment,’ I reminded him, ‘What’s it that the company has done recently, to be in the news?’ I asked.

Being in news is not the privilege. It is (or it should be, I think) the result of being responsible for action or plans that readers/viewers should know about. However, being in the news may not always be needed or even be necessary.

Being in the news out-of-context could mean an easy loss of reputation, built over years. A top television journalist, an icon, a pioneer in the truest sense of the word and much respected at one point in time, is today, referred to the media - in a slightly condescending and frivolous way - as ‘the most persevering partygoer’. Does it affect her reputation as a cutting-edge, prolific debater of serious issues? I think it does - at least among some of her viewers. Should she party less? - NO - we are merely talking about ‘being in the news… for the wrong reasons’.

I advise people to think these issues through and bloggers particularly have to think what they want to achieve by being featured in the media.

I go to the extent that even a blog is a tool and not an end by itself. Think about it.

Me: Consider that a blogger needs to take the step in choosing the first set of media to target, how does one figure out which is the easiest/ best?

I have found that online mediums typically deliver better traffic, if that was the need. Print/ television deliver higher credibility if you were a new name/ face.

Be selective about which media based on your target audience or readers.

Me: One last sentence?

RL: If you are already seen as a credible voice on any subject, the media is far more comfortable in quoting you because you have sustained equity.