What To Do First: Email or Phone Call?

I was taught to always pick up the phone and call a reporter because it's more personal. More veteran (older) PR supervisors wanted me to do the same when I mentioned I was going to email a journalist. Picking up and dialing the phone was how so many PR - Reporter/Journalist relationships were built for many years. But now in 2011, is it better to send an email when reaching out to a reporter/journalist?

It will always depend on the reporter or journalist in question. You might be contacting a reporter who is 75 years old and hates email. Obviously a phone call is better in that case. But how many times have you as a PR professional unknowingly called a reporter who was on a tight deadline to pitch a story? Do you remember how annoyed they were when you called?

This topic was discussed in an ABA Journal article that also had responses to the question.

I'm a big proponent of emailing a reporter first because you give them a chance to read your pitch on their time, one that is good for them. If you do not get a response back, then follow up with a phone call. But maybe first contact doesn't have even have to be through traditional email: You can use Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter if you know how to use it correctly.

The main thing is know how the reporter/journalist wants to be contacted. At first you might not know how. There are websites and programs that try to provide this information for the price of their subscription fee. But you can also try contacting their news desk and ask if they know how.

For me, it usually email first. Times have changed and PR professionals have to change their communications habits as well.

“Mainstream” Journalists Use Social Media

An early, but crucial battle that social media platforms won in the communications revolution is when the “mainstream” media began publishing news on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. That move signaled to the world that social media platforms are legitimate enough to deliver their most important type of news -- breaking news.

At the same time, using social media platforms have turned the job of journalists from being ready to report the news at anytime to actually reporting the news at anytime on a consistent basis. So not only do social media platforms bring a new breed of journalists for public relations to interact with, it changes the behavior of “mainstream” journalists.

This is another, but important paradigm shift that public relations professionals must be aware of.

Mainstream Media vs. New “Social” Media

Is there a difference between a blogger who has been granted permission to cover an event, sits next to a reporter from a newspaper and updates his blog every ten minutes compared to a person on Twitter who has a large following with a desire to report on the same event?

Determining if there are any differences is one of the first steps in deciding if someone who only uses a social media platform is a "legitimate reporter". That determination will most likely fall on the shoulders of public relations professionals.

Internet websites and blogs have pushed the news cycle from 24-hours to continuous. Social media platforms pushed the new news cycle even further from continuous to immediate. Personal opinions on what a "legitimate journalist" should be or the method of how they report flew out the window years ago when Internet websites and blogs became accepted sources of news.

If the general public continues to accept social media platforms as a source for breaking news, public relations professionals will have no choice but to accept them as part of the mainstream media.

As the communications revolution continues to unfold, public relations professionals must follow how trends are changing and be flexible with them, even if that includes accepting social media platforms as legitimate sources of media.