Photo credit: Flickr @squidish

After owning my own media relations firm and also having spent a number of years as a communications director for two members of the U.S. House of Representatives before helping D3CS, I think it’s time to share a few basic rules of media relations. Hopefully these rules will help you like they did me when I was just starting out:

1. Anyone looking to start interacting with the media should know that the person they’re e-mailing or calling is also… another person! If you learn nothing else about media relations, please learn this. That reporter, anchor, editor, producer, assignment desk editor, etc., is another human being. They go home to another life after work. They pay bills. They worry about the same things you worry about. And guess what? They have the same stresses about their job as you do. If you look at them as a tool they’ll immediately know you don’t respect them, and respect goes both ways. The Golden Rule still wins, even in media relations.

2. Before you call, think about who you’re calling and what time it is. Anchors and producers simply can’t talk with you right before, and especially during, their shows. Print reporters often have 3:00 pm deadlines, meaning don’t initiate calls after lunch for those reporters. Even if I know someone, I still almost always ask, right at the beginning of a call, “Is now a good time to talk?” If it’s not they’ll almost always tell you when it will be. Get to know the schedules of the people you call on and it’ll help you in the long run.

3. Respond quickly to their voicemails/e-mails/texts! Even if you don’t have anything to say yet, call that reporter back to simply say: “Hey! I got your voicemail/e-mail/text/etc… and I’m working on getting you something.” It lets them know you got it and that they can depend on you for their story. The alternative? They don’t know you’re working on it and then go find someone else to put in the story. That’s a failure on your part. Don’t let it happen.

4. Honest mistakes are honest mistakes. You make them (admit it) and so do they. Be understanding of this when it happens (and it will happen). Flying off the handle because your bosses name was misspelled (I’ve seen it happen) is a quick way to destroy your relationship with the person on the other end of the connection.

5. Seriously: have a solid idea of what you’re going to say before you pick up a phone and make a call. I hear this complaint all the time from the media about other people who call them. And… know it too, don’t write out a script and read from a piece of paper. The media wants to hear that call just as much as you do.

And don’t forget, there are professionals out there who do this for a living. You can always get in touch with D3CS to have one of their folks give you some assistance.