Media Teams In The PR 2.0 Age
By Palin Ningthoujam on Jul 8, 2008 in PR2.0, featured, mediarelations
I was chatting up with a colleague, who is a part of our four member media team in our office, on blogging and the new PR.
The media team, as we know, plays a big role in large PR agencies where events and crisis happen on multiple clients almost every day. While the client servicing teams need to concentrate on a whole lot of things in servicing an account, the media team can just focus on building relationships with key journalists across the country. So in times of crisis and big events, they can leverage on their networks to value add to the client servicing team.
Now the part that we were discussing was that the media team should now look at PR 2.0 seriously and gear up to equip themselves with knowledge of the blogosphere and start building relationships with key bloggers across the country across verticals and subjects. And why not. Media teams have been building relationships with journalists in the print media, tv, online media, and now social media should be a natural extension. Talk about digitally enhanced media teams.
So are you a media relations expert? If yes, my next questions could be ‘how many bloggers do you know well?’ Knowing and engagibng with bloggers is no longer the perogative of the client servicing person alone.
My question is can the media teams of today adapt themselves to the new challenge (or opportunity), or will there be a new class of blogger relations teams in agencies? For now, there is just the socal media team that do everything.
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On Jul 9, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
true palin, me 2 dont know any bloggers really well, is it possible like you coming out with a list of pr agencies, is there a list of bloggers which i should track if you have one and can share it i would be grateful.
On Jul 9, 2008, Shashank Jaitely said:
I think blogger outreach is more sensitive than the media outreach. And because it is still evolving and unexplored, it can be a destructive minefield if not treaded carefully. The process of Media outreach/relations is mature now and there are handbooks available for it as it has been happening for years. Personal relations with media is critical but you can still approach them as businesses or corporates. But I think with bloggers, it has to be a personal networking first. At corporate level, the companies have to be very very careful in handling bloggers. Things can really backfire and to control the inferno spreading on the internet is next to impossible and can be very damaging. And I am not referring to the fire which Tushar ignited and which was doused-off quickly…:-)
On Jul 9, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Himanshu, you can have a look at this one:
http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/01/compiling-indian-bloggers-list-for-your.html
Agreed Shashank, we need to tread this carefully.
On Jul 9, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
I agree with the point that media team should equip with the knowledge of blogosphere. But as a media team memeber I would like to share that its not so easy at the current scenario. Blogging industry is not completely developed properly in India yet. Nobody is writing seriously and professionally. There are handfull of people doing this. It is true that this will help in various spheres but it need its own time to develop. Also it is not sure that you will hit your target audience using blogs as lots of people do not read it seriously.
On Jul 9, 2008, Bhawna said:
I agree with Shashank Jaitely; the PR agencies have to be extra cautious while reaching out to this new tribe, bloggers. Tushar’s episode makes a good case study. I even know one big PR agency calling bloggers blindly for one of their big website client’s conferences.
Cheers!
On Jul 9, 2008, Shashank Jaitely said:
Hi Bhawna, I think I know which PR agency you are referring too..;-). That was a very immature way of handling but can’t blame them; we really don’t have a to-do list for handling bloggers.
Hey, we can use this opportunity to build a to-do list. The advantage is that we have top bloggers on IPRB itself. They can give inputs on the checklist…!
On Jul 9, 2008, Bhawna said:
ya nice idea, sounds good Shashank !
On Jul 9, 2008, Shashank Jaitely said:
Hi Palin, would you like to start? Calling all the IPRB authors..!
On Jul 9, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Hi Shashank, Bhawna, thanks for taking the discussion forward. Many bloggers have already come out with to do lists of how to approach bloggers. Yes, but we can think of some, specific to our market and the trends here.
For one, I’d never give an unsolicited call to a blogger on a mobile phone, which I keep receiving. Though I am not the type who will go and write another ‘PR sucks’ post, but it makes sense to use the medium that the bloggers uses/wants. For instance, Twiter, email, etc.
Now on emails, write presuming that the blogger can very well put your email on his post. Responsible bloggers don’t do such things but who knows- the snobs are there
So now, before we approach any blogger we should do our homework on what he/she writes, really well. This is what I do and I admit it takes a lot of time. But it’s worth it. Have we read their blogs well? Have we commented on his/her posts before? For instance, if you send me a pitch note, I’d more readily read it than an unknown person sending me the same pitch, because I know you have been part of the IPRB discussions.
On the email, forget the usual pitch mail that we are so familiar with. Writing informally can work wonders, instead of doing the corporate lingo.
On Jul 10, 2008, Shashank Jaitely said:
Agree to all the points.
I think making a “target list” of the influencing bloggers and then following them on daily basis, interacting with them online through twitter or SN websites and occassionaly networking with them at offline camps and events can surely help leverage a lot. We can then get connected to others through them, like a constellation.
There is no free lunch and even bloggers know it. They also need endorsements and space to promote themselves. But the catch lies in the subtle art of proposing the win-win situation to the bloggers. That is the key. And it should be slow and steady.
On Jul 11, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Guys how will you make the target list. What is the source?
On Jul 11, 2008, Sandy said:
Hi Palin … you raise a fantastic question that media team should start media relations beyond the conventional way and MT should use the news age tech-tool like Blogging to enhance the media relations and more you can say social relations. But is this the responsibility of media team only and to be more tech-savvy. I wonder how many client servicing persons in PR do Blogging. Most of them even do not about the Blog. Even our media (Print-Online-Electronic) is not so teach savvy. So at this point of time using tools like Blogging is just bookish thing.
But these are my personal view. No doubt you have come up with a fantastic idea to develop relations using technology ….
Cheers
Sandy
On Jul 11, 2008, Shashank Jaitely said:
@ Vikas Kumar- In the earlier comment on this post Palin has given a post-link of this blog where you can get a list of active blogs and bloggers, including Indian. You can choose the ones which interest you and then start following them. These blogs also have blogrolls which usually list down similar and active blogs under link exchange. You can take the list from that too.
Besides that, you will have to do some digging yourself on the internet and through your own network of contacts.
On Jul 11, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Thanx Shashank. Its really cool.
Guys I am trying to find some details on it and will share with you soon.