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It's an easy task to genuinely believe that public relations is simply about making the all of the news you've or 'creating' news stories that will appeal to the press and media. If you can respond quickly and provide helpful comment then breaking news is a great opportunity to enhance your profile. Here are a few handy tips to obtain you thinking about making the most of breaking news.
Monitor the news - it's necessary to keep track of the press and media for the stories which can be being covered. It's unlikely a week will go by without some type of story appearing that you could contribute to. Meaning being on the top of news and stories as they appear and develop through the day. It's not so difficult to start to see the stories that will likely get coverage over a couple of days.
Act quickly - the important thing is to spot a story and then act on it. The quicker you're in contacting the relevant journalist with useful comment or material then your much more likely it will undoubtedly be that your efforts will pay off. The world of press and media moves quickly so you need to do the same. You'll also need to consider the deadlines that journalists work to. The 24 hour news channels mean that there is now much more scope for providing expert comment on the back of a news story. They've air time and energy to fill and will undoubtedly be grateful if you can help them do that. Also, don't forget that many of the stories that can be found in the Sunday newspapers will be the week's stories in more detail with additional comment - that offers you a good opportunity.
Help to push on the story - ensure that everything you contribute provides useful information, can go through the story from a different perspective, help to maneuver the story on etc. The audience really wants to be informed and your job is to greatly help achieve that. It's no good approaching a journalist about a small business story saying that you will be a small business coach - you have to be very specific, in relation to the story, about everything you can contribute.
Make yourself available - if you wish to raise your profile on the back of someone else's news then you definitely need to put time aside to complete that. It may be disruptive because it's not planned. Before approaching any journalist be clear that you can contribute time to follow along with through. If you're successful in your efforts then that will include travelling to a studio, doing interviews etc and that most takes time and effort. Before an interview it's also possible to wish to seek the services of a media trainer to help you prepare. This really is recommended particularly if you haven't done much press and media work.
Build relationships - approaching journalists on the back of breaking news also gives you a good opportunity to construct relationships with journalists covering your interest area. Find out the type of stories they're thinking about and whether you are able to help them on other stories Naira. Also, should you an excellent job then it offers you scope for getting them to put you within their 'little black book' of contacts for future stories - that's everything you really should achieve.
Become an expert - there are two approaches to generate opportunities for comment and interview on the back of news stories. One way is to contact journalists. The other is for them to contact you. In a perfect world you need to probably do both. There are databases such as for instance Expert Sources where you are able to list your details for a paid-for subscription. Journalists put it to use to locate experts to supply comment for the stories they're working on.
Commenting on the back of other people's news is a great way to construct your profile and get exposure to key audiences. It is also an important way to construct you profile while maintaining your costs down. If you can build a reputation for providing useful and insightful comment then you definitely will begin to see that journalists will come back to you time and again.
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