Press and PR

On 24 March, more than 100 press and PR professionals attended the Arts Marketing Association’s ‘Summit on the changing role of press and PR in the arts’. The day was crammed with ideas and conversation (they were PR people after all!). These are some of the recurring themes, but it’s hard to summarise such a lively day in ten points: a full report will be on the AMA website soon.

1. Some things don’t change. As fast as the world changes around us, many old things hold true – like that a good photo is invaluable.

2. One of the reasons for this is that though people talk about the online ’world’, it is not a different world. It’s just new ways of communicating, new tools to do what we’ve always done. If you’re daunted by them, get in there and get your hands dirty – play with new apps, social media etc.

3. We do have to consider, what is a journalist these days? With the rise of ‘citizen journalists’, blogging, tweeting and other ‘amateur’ outlets, the line between the ‘audience’ and the ‘press’ is blurred.

4. The old media are not dead. More people than ever watch television, arguably a big article in a major paper is still the most effective thing, and consider the articles disseminated through social media – it’s just links to the traditional media online.

5. These days it’s all about the multiplicity of distribution methods and the scarcity of attention. Now more than ever, we have to find ways of catching and holding that attention.

6. Stay authentic, true to your message and your company’s voice. Don’t feel pressured by new media into using a tone that doesn’t feel appropriate; don’t be rushed by the immediacy of comms into reacting in an unconsidered way; and don’t feel pushed by the two-way nature of new media into becoming more sensationalist and indiscreet because an announcement’s had no reaction.

7. Email is the bane of journalists’ lives. Or you should email them more. Both things seem to be true! The best that can be said is try to personalise emails to make them stand out.

8. Feed the little fish – the regional media and student journalists. Not only is regional coverage good per se, but also the nationals look to the regionals for stories. And be nice to student journalists because they might be the next Richard Morrison.

9. Try some quality stalking. Okay, this is just another way of saying what we all know – get to know the journalists and their interests. But new media gives us new ways of doing this, such as following journalists on Twitter.

10. Find the people who were variously called the amplifiers, the tent poles, the attention attractors, the nodes. These could be cast members – use their following to reach new people – or could be people who just talk about you a lot. There are ways of finding them – Tweet Reach, Google Alerts etc. Befriend them!