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How to get media attention

The media business can be a crazy business, especially these days. For organisations, groups and companies wanting media coverage it can be totally perplexing.

How do you get stories run by mainstream newspapers and websites? Sometimes it seems impossible.

The internet and the growth of so many new websites have changed the media landscape. But I would argue that in many respects the principles of media engagement that applied before the internet age still apply today.

This is a ‘people business’ and you need to get to know the people in the business.

If you want media coverage for your group, company or organisation ask this key question first.

“Who is going to be interested in what we have to say?”

Don’t frame a media strategy until you know the answer to that question.

In general this rule applies: local issues = local media, national issues = national media.

If your issues or subjects are matters of policy that you believe, or hope, the people of Australia are interested in, then you will need to engage the journalists who are members of the federal or state parliamentary press galleries. They are the people who write about policy issues.

They are your key to the thousands or potentially millions of readers, viewers or listeners you hope to reach.

There is no point sending press releases all over Australia if the key media opinion makers you want to engage are all located on the second floor of the Senate side of Parliament House in Canberra. That is where the press gallery is.

These journalists won’t write about your ideas or suggestions unless they know about them. You have to get out and meet them, engage them and let them know why your organisation or group is relevant to them and their audience.

Even these days many companies and non-government organisations send out press releases, often via AAPMedianet, but don’t follow them up with phone calls or visits, press conferences or information sessions.

Journalists can get around 200 emails a day, sometimes more, from a range of organisations. It isn’t possible to read and assess them all. It just isn’t. Sometimes no one reads them.

So my advice is pretty simple. Get out there and interact.

Invite journalists to a forum or information session. Organise a telephone conference on a subject or topic. You can call a press conference. Find out who writes on the subjects that your group is involved with and invite the journalist to coffee. The usual rules about being creepy still apply.

If you meet journalists at public events or policy launches then talk to them and ask them their opinions. In short, get to know them. They are the ones working in the media and they are the ones who understand how it all works.

If you issue a press release then follow it up with a phone call at the very least.

It is important to grow your social media presence. Build your website, consider podcasts, a YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook etc. It is all part of a media jigsaw. Every part is important. If you don’t finish the jigsaw you won’t get the entire picture.

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Social media is a bit like gardening. You only learn by doing. There is no point just reading the book.

I would like to start this post by saying a very heartfelt thanks to my Facebook friends, Twitter followers, oh and LinkedIn people too, because without you I would be traipsing around Sydney and Canberra with a manila folder and probably not much to show for it.

After all I only launched my business in the last 4 weeks and it takes time to build a client base and to promote your services in the marketplace.

But my experience proves that media, marketing and promotion (of politics, policy and products) is being turned on its head right now. The speed of the change is still surprising, even to me and I have worked in the media for nearly 30 years.

Everyone reading this post has found it because it has been pushed out through social media.

While to social media naturals that is a stupid and obvious statement to many of the ‘rest of us’ who perhaps use but don’t live by Facebook , Twitter and Instagram it may come as a surprise to know that without social media I wouldn’t have much of a business because I wouldn’t have had a chance yet to get the message out.

Until recently I worked as a professional journalist in Australia and South East Asia, mostly for the one organisation the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). I knew a bit (yes only a bit) about social media. I wasn’t as savvy as many of my colleagues (some are absolute experts) but I liked it and I did use it every now and then.

But now I am waking up to a potential I hadn’t fully understood.

For me, new discoveries about the internet and social media are transforming my thinking. I believe modern businesses and organisations can learn from this as well if like me they are trying to operate in the ‘federal parliamentary/political’ space in Australia and internationally.

What I am learning you can too and assist your group or organisation to gain further traction and media coverage. To use social media is to ‘learn as you go’ and as you learn you begin to understand how it works.

It is a bit like gardening. You only learn by doing. There is no point just reading the book.

Here are some things to consider.

Firstly I have launched my business through social media alone. I began only a few weeks ago using my own (personal) Facebook account along with Twitter and LinkedIn. All those account were already in existence.

When I left my job at the ABC after 26 years, I told my social media networks about that and my plans for a boutique media agency to help people understand how business is done in Canberra and beyond.

When I set up my website a short time later, I sent the link to my social media friends and contacts. They have been commenting back to me and promoting me to their friends and their networks and my business profile has grown. That is not because I am somehow special or clever but because that is how social media operates.

For my business this has meant new clients, growing recognition and quite a number of serious inquiries.

Last weekend it was time to start the Catherine McGrath Media Facebook page. I hadn’t done it earlier because I wasn’t fully sure how to do it and keep it as a page separate from my personal page.

Anyway now it is done, thanks to some young adults and teenagers I know.

So I have been ‘learning by doing’ and spreading the word about my business through social media.

I have discovered that there are a lot of things going on already on the Internet that I had no idea about.

I found out for example in the last week that while I am learning about operating a small business the Australian Tax office is running “webinars” about this very subject and the tax obligations I now face. If I register for the webinar a Tax Office expert will explain the rules to me and others and I can ask questions directly. If I miss the webinar or am busy then, I can watch a recording online later.

Who knew this was going on? Not many people I suspect but some in the ‘online world’ knew because that is where that information is being passed on.

My Facebook friends now know, because I told them.

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Why start a media agency?

Once I was a journalist, chasing deadlines and politicians in Canberra and abroad. Now I am joining the private sector as a small business owner and operator.

For nearly 30 years I covered politics and international affairs for the ABC and before that for local commercial radio. As the ABC’s South East Asia Correspondent in the 1990’s I cemented a love for our near neighbourhood in the Asia Pacific.

Canberra and federal politics have been my focus since 1997 as Political Editor of Australia Network and Asia Editor for the ABC along with earlier roles as Chief Political Correspondent ABC Radio and Diplomatic Correspondent for ABC TV.

Everyday I adored my job communicating with Australians and people from our region. Over the years I have had the great privilege of meeting amazing individuals in politics, government, diplomacy, defence, academia, business, NGO’s, community groups and the media.

Now I find myself in a new era. Funding cut backs have led to the closure of Australia Network the international broadcasting arm of ABC TV, and like many people in many places, I have been made redundant.

But I am excited about the future.

My boutique media agency aims to help governments, businesses, organisations and institutions meet their policy goals. My contacts and experience can boost value for companies and organisations.

Many groups would like to increase their media footprint but don’t always know how to go about it. From a policy perspective too it can be hard to work out how to bring your ideas and needs to the attention of governments.

Sometimes businesses put great financial resources into conferences and events but fail to get the policy and media impact they want. Often what is needed is greater coordination and focus because there is nothing worse than investing time and money to see a function come and go with little evidence of ‘bang for your buck’.

That is where I can help.

Let me help you boost your profile.

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