Be a true resource for the media. Offer them opportunities to connect with people they might not have otherwise known about or been able to reach. Find relevant and timely information you think would be useful to their work.
Be available at any time to help, even if – especially if – it’s not about your product or company.
Take a look at the rest of our health care PR tips from our “25 Years, 25 Lessons” series.
Media relations means asking a reporter to cover the news you’re pitching. When you’re interacting with any journalist, make sure you’ve done your homework. Does your contact still cover the same beat as last year? What angle interests them? If she covers pharma, does she take a scientific approach or does she focus on business? If she prefers quoting a corporate spokesperson, is yours available and ready to talk? What about your medical expert? Your patient?
Have all of the relevant information – people, contacts, websites, data, numbers – ready to go.
Take a look at the rest of our health care PR tips from our “25 Years, 25 Lessons” series.
After a quarter-century of operating in the health care industry, we’ve got the equivalent of libraries of knowledge on the inner workings of this business, and on how to effectively achieve our clients’ communications goals within it. In honor of MCS’ 25th anniversary, we’ve reflected upon and synthesized those years of experience and are pleased to announce the launch of a new series of blog posts, called “25 Years, 25 Lessons.” These weekly posts will run through the end of 2010, our silver anniversary year, revealing valuable tidbits on the best current practices in health care PR, and addressing timely topics, trends and issues relevant to the health care space.
Check out the first lesson below!
25 Years, 25 Lessons: “First come, first served.”
“First” is a word that always gets media attention.
“The first FDA-approved treatment…” “The first once-daily dosing…” “The first prescription medicine extracted from sea anemone…”
If you have a legitimate ‘first,’ use it in your first breath, in your headline, in your lead sentence, in your subject line.
First means new, and that’s three-quarters of the word “news.”