Livingston

Oct
05
2007

Relationships Sustain Us

A while back, I wrote a post about how important our professional relationships are to our success, and that point was just reemphasized to me again this week.

During the Q & A’s at Marketwire’s Breakfast With the Media, featuring everyone from Bloomberg Radio to The Washington Post, all of the reporters talked about their pr relationships.

Some gave examples of working together to get that exclusive story but most of them talked about appreciating the nurturing of the relationship that went on when they didn’t have a story to sell. Steve Geimann, senior producer at Bloomberg Radio, suggested calling with other story tips or ideas.

Taking the time to build a rapport with journalists is essential for any pr professional. The reporters want to trust us, but we need to earn that trust.

John Byrne, executive editor at Business Week, echoes those thoughts in a recent post by Brian Pittman. He says even email is a waste of time, but instead tailor your pitch to the reporter, not to how many people you can send an email pitch to and how many will open it.

His point is to build relationships, not media lists. And I agree. But building those relationships takes time and effort. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in email blasts and lose the value of developing those relationships. Our relationships and how we treat those relationships is what matters most.

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by Michele Capots | Internet Marketing |

2 Responses to “Relationships Sustain Us”

  • CK Says:

    October 6th, 2007 at 6:09 am

    Agree fully. On another kind of relationship: what I find quite surprising is just how many of my colleagues think that a client relationship is more important than a colleague relationship. Sure, clients pay the bills, but many times our colleagues refer those very clients to us (and many full-time employees found their jobs due to a referral). Plus, colleagues keep us up-to-date and generously share knowledge and support us (it’s not really professional to call a client for a pep talk). And many find that clients can come and go. But colleagues? Those relationships stick. So I often remind people how important–and valuable–our relationships with colleagues are (along with those of media, analysts and, of course, clients). Thanks for reminding me of it, I posted on it a while back: http://www.ck-blog.com/cks_blog/2007/02/the_meaning_of_.html

  • RichardatDELL Says:

    October 8th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    isnt this sort of funny in a way…all the consternation and churn about social media and conversational marketing — sounds sort of akin to a good mainstream media relationship, doesnt it :-)

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