When I was coming up in PR back in the early-to-mid 1990s, it was commonplace for a PR person to send out a press release (snail mail) to a targeted media list and then place at least one round of follow-up phone calls to said media oulets. The goal of these calls was to confirm that the release was received and to see if the journalist or editor needed more information, photos to go with the story, or help in securing an interview with the client for a resulting article. Basically you were trying to keep tabs on whether or not the media outlet was going to do anything with your press release.
But this practice was annoying to most journalists and the calls often interrupted their busy days and deadlines. Some less tactful PR people would keep journalists on the phone despite their lack of interest in the press release, forcing the otherwise nice journalist to hang up on the PR person. It had gotten so bad that some journalists I knew in NYC wouldn't even answer their office phones and only screened voice mail messages.
Keep in mind that this was before the advent of social media, and e-mail was still in its infancy. We also used faxes to communicate and mailed out printed photos for our clients since the digital revolution was yet to come. So it was a much different world from today and phone calls were still the best and most immediate way to communicate.
I stopped doing en masse follow-up phone calls several years ago since I hated doing them and they were rather ineffective. So today when a client expects me to make follow-up phone calls as a matter of practice because that's what they think the last PR person they worked with did, I have to ask myself if they really did make all of those calls. It just seems impractical to me and like a huge waste of time. So to appease the client I may make a few calls to the usual suspects, but I certainly don't reach out to everyone on the original press release distribution list.
So fellow PR practitioners: do you think that doing follow-up phone calls after press release mailings/distributions are outdated? Do you still do them today, or have you too given up on them? What's your approach?
I'd be interested in getting feedback from some current or former editors and journalists about how they feel about receiving those calls, and if they still get them to this day or if the practice has died out.
I have the luxury of being very targeted with my media releases. I know in advance if the reporter will find it newsworthy and what he/she needs for me to make the coverage work. By and large I function through email. I haven't done a follow up call in a year. Often times, a day or two later, the reporter will call me and get some follow up questions and details ironed out. I know they are stretched thin. Calling them doesn't get me better press.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Anonymous. I agree that being able to be targeted with your press releases helps greatly, especially since that allows you to get to know the reporter or editor you are targeting better since you only have a handful to know.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that making the follow-up phone calls only gets you the reputation of being a nag, to the point that journalists may stop taking your calls. I'm not opposed to a follow-up e-mail after the press release goes out because that leaves it in the media person's corner for response which is less pressure and less annoying.