Below you’ll find my answer to the LinkedIn question, “How do businesses effectively and ethically build good long-term relationships with business journalists?”
As a business journalist for more than 20 years, my experience is that any PR professional who follows standard PR industry practices will have no trouble establishing a working relationship with an ethical business journalist.
From my perspective, the more interesting questions is what to avoid that might derail a relationship. One of the biggest pitfalls to avoid is over-promising and under-delivering. For example, if you pitch a story and say you can provide interviews with end users, then it is essential to have those interviews ready to go when the journalist responds.
It’s easy to establish a good working relationship with a journalist if you do the basics, but it is even easier to damage that relationship if you don’t deliver on your promises.
I'm generally too busy writing mission-critical marketing materials such as white papers and case studies to craft press releases; however, when SRI Sarnoff requested my help to introduce their new video stabilizers, I eagerly provided my services for the launch, which included this press release.
To check out examples of higher-level marketing materials, click the links provided in the sidebar.
Since the middle of the last decade, I’ve written extensively about the interplay between education and technology for such leading publications as Scholastic Administrator, Technology & Learning, and T.H.E. Journal. I’ve also served as a consultant to numerous leaders in the education and training field, including The American Education Corporation, SchoolDude, SRI International, and Bersin Associates.
To leverage the knowledge and insight I’ve gained about eLearning, I’ve recently launched a new blog project called Pansophic.net, which covers the universe of online classes, training, and eLearning courses. In conjunction with Pansophic.net, I’ve also created an associated Facebook fan page for the site, which can be found at facebook.com/pansophic.net.
In addition to my bi-monthly column, Data Center Management also published my feature on cloud computing in the latest issue.