The importance of face-to-face meetings with media
We have talked a lot here about how important it is in public relations to build strong relationships with the media. While email and phone calls are important parts of building any media relationship, nothing can replace a good old face-to-face meeting.
The public relations team at Bailey Gardiner makes an annual trip to New York for a whirlwind tour of desk-sides with various editors, producers and freelancers. It never ceases to amaze me how successful these trips are in building stronger relationships, getting inside information on what stories and trends the publication is looking for and securing some really great press for our clients.
Carrie and I just got back from our 2010 New York press trip, and have already secured a number of stories for our clients from the trip (W Magazine and the Today Show are both featuring one of our clients!), and have generated interest in many more. And more importantly, we were successful in strengthening our relationships with dozens of national publications, which only helps us for future client pitching.
Congrats on your upcoming placements! I’m always amazed at how much more successful pitching goes when I know who’s on the other side of the Internet, phone, etc. Though we’re all busy, face-to-face networking is definitely time well spent and falls in the “something I’m trying to do more” category.
[...] have spoken before about the importance of face-to-face meetings with the media. Also important, but getting lost in the hustle and bustle of our job, is the art of the [...]
[...] talk a lot about media relationships here at Bailey Gardiner. But we do more than just talk about it internally. We continuously hone [...]