Building a Strong Media Relations Strategy for Associations in 2024 (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Welcome back to Association Insights. I'm Colleen Gallagher and this is Onward and Upward's weekly series answering all of your association, marketing, and communications questions. This week's question asked us, how do I develop and maintain a strong media relations strategy going into 2024? There's no doubt that a really strong media relations strategy is vital for associations to ensure positive coverage, manage your reputation, and really communicate effectively with your target audiences. This is one of our favorite things to work on and here are my three best practices for associations to think about when you're planning that strategy for next year. First off, this seems so obvious, but build genuine relationships with journalists. There's not always time for that and it can be hard to make time for that, but it's really important to research and identify those media outlets and the journalists that really cover the topics relevant to your association's industry or field. And you want to engage with them regularly, not just when you need something. So share your insights, offer yourself or your spokespeople as a resource for any industry related topics. You can't always go to them only when you want something or it's not going to work. You also need to respect their deadlines. Understanding their timeline and providing them with timely information makes their job a lot easier and a lot more likely to come back to you in the future. Number two thing to think about is crafting compelling and newsworthy content. This is so key. Sometimes at associations, we put out press releases for the sake of a press release or because someone really wants it about something, but we don't really think, is this newsworthy? So before you put that press release out, make sure it's clear, concise, and newsworthy, and be sure to avoid jargon and really provide all the details that are important to telling the story. And in that story, you want to have an angle. You want to take a unique perspective that will help journalists create compelling content for their audience. Make it easy for them. We all hear the stories that journalists are overworked, overburdened, understaffed. Make it easy and you'll get the story that you want. On that front, you should have a media kit that has any background information, high-res images, any essential materials you can think of that journalists can easily access. That way, when you do get requests for something like that, you're not searching for it. It's right there. It's easy to pull. Sometimes you can just simply share a link, make it easy for them and for you on that front. The last area to think about is be sure you're monitoring and responding proactively and have that built into your strategy. So you can use different tools and services to monitor media mentions, and there's a whole range of praise points here. If you need free, a simple Google alert can help you see what's going on, both about your association and about your industry in general. So you might want to set up a couple of different searches, depending on what you're trying to track in the industry. That might not include a mention of your name. If there is negative press, that might not be about you, but it might be about the industry in general. And if these stories hit, you want to address this. We'll decide if you need to address them. And if so, if it's something that's out there and in a big way, and you need to get the counter story out, address them promptly and professionally. Provide correct information. If necessary, set up interviews to clarify any misunderstandings. And then on the flip side, celebrate that positive media coverage. Share it. Thank the journalists for their work. This not only promotes the positive story, but it also strengthens your relationship with those reporters, which again helps in the long run. So with these best practices as a starting point, your association can really establish a robust media relations strategy for the new year that can foster trust, ensure representation in the media, positioning association as that go-to source for industry insights and information. And that's what we all want. So with that, thanks for tuning in once again, for this week's association insights, I'll be back next Friday with more association marketing and communications tips. Remember, you can always send me your questions at info at outwardupward.com.