Finding journalists, making friends (or how to build a media contact book).

By Sarah Lee from PingGo.

Reporters and bloggers want to get the story straight from the source. Scattergun emailing your press release to hundreds of journalists doesn’t work.

Journalists want exclusive stories. They want to know they are the only one to get it. So start now building your little black book of media contacts so you can pitch your story to one journalist that will write about it properly.

  1. Every time you read an interesting article about your sector or the issues you are tackling. Record the name of the writer and the magazine or website in your PingGo directory.
  2. Look at your competitors’ press page and note down the name of the writers and publications that have covered them.
  3. Ask your customers what media they read regularly?—?online and offline, trade and consumer. Add them to your list.
  4. Set up Google Alerts for your ‘key words’?—?any news covering your sector will now be delivered straight to your inbox. Again, remember to record names straight away so you don’t forget.
  5. Keep adding to your contacts. Reporters move all the time and you need to keep on top of who is interested in the niche you are working in.
  6. Target the bloggers and reporters writing regularly about your sector.
  7. Bloggers and reporters are always on the look out for good stories. They need news to feed their media outlet. They want to hear the news straight from the entrepreneurs mouth. So don’t be shy. Call them, tweet them or email them.
  8. If you don’t get their attention straight away. Keep trying. There are a lot of folk out there doing exactly the same as you.
  9. And if they still don’t get back to you. Try someone-else. There are many more fish in the sea.

Read more and start building your media list today at PingGo - Finding journalists, making friends.