As a public relations professional, it's easy to get caught-up in the importance of a news release. You spend hours writing it and tweaking it; the client obsesses over every word of it; it becomes the focal point of your announcement.


This tends to apply to any document that gets put into formal writing in PR. News releases, social media releases, letters to editors, you name it. If it's going across the wire, or into a journalist's hands, it gets attention.
The reality, however, is that the formal materials are only one piece of the media relations process. They're important, but they sit alongside many other aspects of the media relations function. Your pitch, your story angle, your careful timing and more all play a role.
Perhaps the most important of these other aspects is the relationship you have with journalists (or bloggers). A good relationship will get your email read when it might have been deleted or your call answered instead of sent to voicemail.
In this respect, the ideal pitch isn't really a pitch; it's a timeline. It's a long-term process of building a relationship; identifying the journalist's needs and preferences, and building familiarity so you can make their life easier while achieving results for your clients. The pitch is just one stop along that road.
Who has time to do this?
Developing a relationship takes time. Developing relationships with many people takes even more time. And time is not something that agency folks have much of. So how does a person in PR manage the task of gaining the support of influential entities without dedicating unrealistic resources?
Be Informed:
Whether it's travel, consumer goods, auto, etc, you NEED to be up-to-date in the latest trends in the industry you're helping promote. Use tools like Snackr, Google Reader, or FriendFeed to know what conversations are taking place within your category. By passively using the tools above you're not going to become an expert, but you are going to be aware of the major news that affects the people you're going to be pitching. First of all, it will help you avoid making ignorant statements when approaching a blogger (if they see you're not informed, they aren't going to spend time to hear you out) and secondly, by being informed you have something in common to speak to. Without a common item of news to discuss, you're just another PR person pitching.
Optimize:
Being informed is a precursor to streamlining your search. When forming a consideration set for an outreach program, a significant amount of time goes to taking a large group of subject authorities and shaving them down to a more refined set. If you're staying active in the niche you're promoting, instead of starting with a list of 200 bloggers, you'll be able to start with 100. Anyone who has gone through this process will know that focusing on a well targeted group of blogs can get better results and avoid negative feedback from a broader outreach.
Contribute:
In the past, many PR Professionals traditionally went to Journalism school and thus were better equipped to talk to Journalists. Unfortunately there's no such thing as "Blog School" and because of that it's important that the industry takes time to expand its own curriculum. It isn't necessary to be a full scale blogger in order to know how to communicate with one, but some involvement is needed. Commenting on other's work or spending time with microblogs or lifestreams will help familiarize you with the attitudes and culture of the blogging community. The more familiar you are, the less time you'll need to spend getting caught up when you have timely campaigns to launch.
Automate:
There are times when an all-encompassing press release or social media release makes sense but don't let them take up all your time. Tools like PRWeb or CNW Group help in expanding your reach and are built to reduce the effort needed to create what once was a very time-consuming task. This isn't going to eliminate the legal review of course, but it will help streamline your structuring, seeding, and measurement. However, this shouldn't detract from the next point...
Customize:
The bulk of your time doesn't need to go to building a press release (as we discussed above) but building a connection in the playing field that makes the most sense for the person you're trying to engage with. The idea of "Blogger Outreach" has picked up steam over the past few years in PR and has caused us to sometimes forget that although a person might be a blogger, they might be heavily invested elsewhere. Instead of spending time to make sure your release gets seen everywhere, it may serve you better to make sure it gets heard where a blogger spends most of their time. If they're a heavy Mahalo user, try initiating a conversation there, if they spend much of their time within a specific Ning network, try that. You may discover that the place that your key blogger spends a fair chunk of time, may be a place where the masses don't. Forutnately for you, that means a better chance at grabbing their attention.
The Perfect Pitch is a Timeline
What ratio of time do you spend on your final release vs. establishing relationships with the audience of those communications? Because the PR business is built on a framework of Journalism majors, we often forget that our job isn't to write the news, it's to encourage that others do it on the behalf of our clients. This means focusing your energy and time where it matters. Use the amazing tools you have to your disposal in 2009 to deal with the aesthetics. Devote the majority of your resources to the aspect of the business you're an expert in: people.
This post was co-written by Len Kendall and Dave Fleet. Dave heads the Social Media Practice at Thornley Fallis Communications in Toronto, Canada. You can find him at davefleet.com or @davefleet on Twitter.