Covid 19 Guide for Public Relations

For all us, everything was smooth and straight before the unwanted situations of CoronaVirus pandemic. We were able to publish a couple of press releases for our clients and it was easy to convince a journalist to take up an industry-related story. But now, everything has become complex and difficult to achieve. Almost every industry is badly affected by the COVID-19 lockdown and the media industry isn’t an exception. Stories related to CoronaVirus are dominating the news space in digital news platforms. Media is only concerned with taking up COVID-19 stories to remain in the trend.

How will you manage to get coverage in the media?

We need to change our mindset and strategies while dealing with publications. Here is a quick Public Relations guide for you to learn some simple and effective steps which you can involve in your communication strategy.

 

1. Find News Value

The easiest way of getting news coverage in publications is having a strong news value in the story. The stronger value you provide more are the chances of getting attention from journalists. Everyone is busy digging out stories which are valuable even in the present scenario.

 

How can you put news value into your releases?

● Work on your headline once again. Make it powerful to grab the attention of anybody. Journalists can easily detect the essence of a news by its headline, look from their perspective. Analyze your headlines using the Headline Analyzer Tool.

● Show emotions and feelings of concern towards society. Come up with stories which have a larger human interest. Your clients may be doing some charity and noble works, try digging something out of these things.

Major business news portals are already publishing such great stories, find them for references.

● Include important points in the first paragraph of your release. The journalist who received your press release should be able to understand the importance of your news by reading the first paragraph only.

Talk about the benefits of the event first, then talk about the company.

● Communicate with your clients. Tell them to do activities which are one step ahead from all other normal COVID 19 donations or charities. Look around, there are many other issues which can be looked upon. Go local, these days local issues bring much traction than national issues.

 

2. Identify Right Journalists/ Publications

You must have built your media list which includes names of the media industry’s good reporters. But in the present situations, you need to relook into your lists, whether you are approaching the right person or you are barking up the wrong tree.

Since a lot of journalists are writing about the COVID-19 these days, it becomes important to speak with the journalists and see if they would be interested in pursuing your story.

You can ask them to refer to someone in their publication who would be interested in such news. Once you get the name of the right person, half of your problem is solved.

 

What can you do to reach the right journalists?

● Most of the newspapers have stopped their printing operations so newspapers would not be the primary source of getting email IDs of journalists. However, publications are releasing digital editions. Go and scan them for finding a journalist related to your beat.

● Keep observing web articles of publications, look for the bylines and find out which journalist is giving more weightage to stories which are beyond COVID-19.

Map such journalists and make a list of them. Use advanced tools to search for contact information.

● Look how major publications are treating the stories. Be it the COVID-19 story or a piece of general news, you need to focus on the treatment of the story. By doing so, you will get an idea of what to write and how to target them.

Start building stories according to their interest, not yours.

● Many journalists and publications are proactive on their social media handle these days. Follow them and see what they are writing and sharing. If you have something better and valuable to offer them, tell them directly through social media channels.

Attend live sessions and webinars by media houses, they are more useful.

 

3. Pitch stories in a personalized way

You need to understand that publications and journalists are not in the position to acknowledge every mail or phone call in present situations. Most of them are working remotely with limited resources. If you get a chance to talk directly with a journalist then you should use a personalized approach.

You need to build a quick relationship and effectively pitch your story so that a journalist can give his/her time to listen to you.

 

How can you personalize your pitch?

● Never send irrelevant releases to a journalist. There is no point in sending a story related to a tech company to a journalist who is looking into health beat. This way you will lose the chance to build your trust and authenticity.

Always cross-check before sending a release, don’t look like spam.

● Start recalling the names of journalists in every publication according to their beats. It gives a feeling of personalization when you call someone by their names. Tell them directly that you have a good story which can help them in ‘this’ way.

Note down the most important points first and tell them impactfully.

● Personalize your emails according to the name and beat of the journalist. Don’t just copy-paste the press release but use customized heading as per the nature of the story. If a story is related to CoronaVirus then put COVID-19 in the subject line and if it is general news then put the broad category of news in the mail subject line.

Try to give options for headlines, as most of the COVID-19 related news headlines are similar these days.

● Understand the priority of publications, if they are not interested in your story then don’t disconnect immediately but ask how you can help them. Maybe they are doing a general story in which you can put great value.

It is difficult to get ideas and sources for unique stories these days, you may become a useful resource for them.

 

4. Follow up smartly

As we have already mentioned, many journalists are already working with fewer resources and they are unable to receive your follow up calls every time. Be smart, while following up for your releases. Think, do you really need to call for a particular release, or not.

 

What are the right practices to follow up with publications in COVID-19 times?

● Avoid calling unnecessarily, first try following up on email. If you keep calling continuously, you might end up with listing your number in spam calls. Be patient and try to find other ways if someone is not ready to talk on the phone.

Understand that your story cannot be equally important for them as it’s for you.

● Try reaching out to journalists through Whatsapp or SMS. Just drop a single liner message and inform them about your story’s importance.

Sometimes, you can get a better response with these methods.

● If you have sent a story with a strong message then a journalist will automatically notice that, but if you think your email is ignored, you can send it again with a different note.

Remember, your subject line is your face. If it’s attractive, everybody will notice.

 

5. Maintain Proper Communications

Maybe your clients are only focusing on getting coverage for COVID-19 related activities, but it depends upon you how you can convince them to go beyond this mindset. They might not have a deeper knowledge of media functioning, but you have.

To overcome this, you need to start communicating internally and externally with your stakeholders. Proper communications can help you to build better campaigns and better media stories.

 

How can you improve communications during COVID-19?

● Keep in touch with your clients and ask them to begin a social media campaign where they can help their community. Sometimes campaigns on social media become more popular than campaigns on the ground. Look for the ways to put value in a digital campaign.

A lot of brands are already running online campaigns and creating a buzz in the media.

● Track the CSR activities your clients are doing, extract a unique news value out of them and build a news story with a difference. You need to communicate how a company can do charity other than donating money or distributing food to the poor.

Every community is affected by COVID-19, try helping a community which is yet ignored.

● Not only in media but you need to reach your brand’s audience and customers. It’s equally important to tell your customers that a company on which they’ve shown their trust, is doing something good towards society. This communication is equally important as getting space in the media.

Don’t ignore the internal social media handles, they can work as powerful media tools in this situation.

Never forget, hard situations need harder efforts. If you are ready to work harder, the results will always be fruitful.