Focusing on Your Media Outreach

There are two main ways to reach out to media:

 ✓ You can suggest material to them.

 ✓ You can be the go-to organization whenever the media is interested in

something that has to do with your work.

 Although you should definitely try to gain access to the media in both ways,

the passive route (being the go-to organization) is actually much more valu-

able in the long run. After all, it’s not going to do your cause much good to

simply hand a couple of good stories to the media and then ride off into the

sunset. But if you’re a proven and reliable source of information for them —

and you can also supply them with stories — then you’ll be worth your weight

in platinum. And that will establish valuable recognition for your cause among

the media folks.

 If you do manage to become a media point person for your cause, the biggest

cost to you won’t be financial. It’ll be the cost of your time and commitment.

You’ll need to be on call 24/7/365, or very nearly. That is, if the media tries to

reach you, you need to respond very promptly. Media have deadlines, so if

you’re not available, they don’t wait for you — they call someone else. But if

you’re easy to reach, they’ll learn to go to you first because it saves them time.

 Be quotable and keep in mind that you’re helping them write the story, so

offer suggestions and other people to contact. Make the job of media people

easier, and they’ll come back to you again and again.

Sometimes you need to play things cautiously. If you’re put on the spot, you

either need to answer as best you can, refer the matter to someone more

qualified to respond, or decline with a polite “no comment.” Be warned,

though, the media people are generally really put off by the “no comment”

tactic, so use it incredibly sparingly and only when you absolutely must.Assembling a media kit

Do the media know what they need to know about you or your organization?

It’s up to you to provide the media with accurate, up-to-date contact informa-

tion and details about your enterprise. If you don’t, you’re leaving it to them

to make something up. Make sure, then, that they have easy access to your

media kit you. Media kits, sometimes called press kits, are used by media rep-

resentatives in putting together their stories.

Your media kit should be a package of compact and pertinent material that

includes

 ✓ Your organization’s contact information, including contact person,

phone number, address, e-mail address, and Web site

 ✓ Your mission statement

 ✓ Your organization’s objectives

 ✓ Your organization’s notable activities

 ✓ Short biographies of significant personnel

 ✓ Recent press releases, news articles, brochures, and any other materials

that might help the media understand who you are and what you do

You should also put all that stuff online on your Web site and include the

Web address, in case the media contact mislays some of your printed materi-

als (see Chapter 10 for more on branding and your print and Web content).

 Don’t go overboard. Keep the material in the press kit thorough, but always

relevant to the purpose at hand. Nobody likes to wade through reams of what,

for them, is superfluous garbage, especially with deadlines looming.

Get feedback from others in your organization about ideas on what to include

in your media kit. Anyone associated with you has to be on the same page

with the information contained there. You don’t want anyone else telling a

different story — that can make your efforts look disorganized and confused.

You may want to develop a set of guidelines — maybe even a formal policy.

You may also want to assign key people to be the media relations contacts

for your organization; if you do, everyone else should funnel media inqui-

ries to those people (see the nearby sidebar, “Assigning a point person,” for

more). These assigned folks should know and keep up-to-date on the central

media and reporters covering your efforts.