Media call downs - a love-hate relationship

This is how I feel when someone rude picks up my call.

One of the things I've done as an intern is media call downs. What is that? It's basically making follow up calls to the respective media from the client's media list, checking whether they have received a media invite/release and if they are interested in covering it. The media list usually consists of publications, trade publications, broadcast, online publications and bloggers.

Don't get me wrong. I actually do enjoy doing media call downs, because it means talking on the phone, and having the chance to get better each time. But there are the times when you face nasty people who snap and hang up the moment you mention where you are from.

I do most media call down for the same clients, as such, I would always make calls to the same few media. I think there might come a point where they start taking note of the number I used to call, and even my name. To this point, I realise that this comes under part of "forming a relationship" with the media. Yes, despite the nasty media I faced, there are a few media that I love speaking to and approaching. And when they hear my name, you could almost hear and "Oooh, hi it's you again" in their voice.

Having said all these, there are a few learn tips that I've got out from my media call sessions.

1. Be a goldfish

Don't take the nastiness from the media too much at heart. It builds a wall when you have to make a call to them again. So what I've learn is to have a goldfish memory towards their nastiness and pretend nothing happened the next time I have to call them again. However, this does not apply to remembering what some of the media requirements, which brings me to my next point.

2. Having a relevant media list
After many years of doing media lists for multiple school projects, I finally understood the importance of having a relevant media list. As PR officers, we love to have as many media cover our press releases/events. But the best way to get the most coverage is to pitch it to the most relevant media who might have the highest chance of saying yes. And this is to remember and noting down what preference the media has mentioned during the calls. By pitching it to the relevant media, not only does it save the media's time, it also saves our time and effort to reach out to media who would most probably say no.

3. Knowing what you're pitching
I remember when I first started doing my call down duties, I just called to check with the media if they had received the email sent. And that's it. It was only later a senior colleague came over to tell me that I had to sound more excited to excite the media, and also to explain details of the press release/email sent out to help the media because some of them might not have the time to look at it. I think it was then when I realised it was important to understand the content of the releases before starting a media call down. By knowing the content, I could better explain the event and direct more information to the media if they needed any.

This concludes my love-hate relationship with media call downs. Stay tuned for more updates! :)