Media Archives - Sherrilynne Starkie

August 29, 2020 by sherrilynne 2 Comments

Rules for good media relations

Many companies fail to include a media relations strategy as part of their content marketing. This means they are walking away from opportunities to gain exposure to massive audiences, getting the SEO benefits of backlinks from high authority websites and often, winning a Google Page One ranking for their priority keywords. Successful digital marketing and communications depend upon Owned, Paid and Shared media strategies, and Earned media is an essential part of the mix. Here are eight rules on to improve media relations:

1. Deal honestly

Not only is honesty the best policy in most things in life, in PR it’s just common sense. No tricks, evasion or hiding the facts; with the media that’s just like waving a red flag to a bull. Be accurate, helpful and have integrity in all your dealings.

2. Work for the reporter

Remember journalists are your most important clients. As a media relations specialist, you need to serve them well by providing interesting, timely stories that their audiences want to hear. Meet their deadlines. Know their beats. Help them out; even if your assistance doesn’t relate to the company you work for. Your reputation among media professionals is a valuable asset.

3. Don’t nag or plead

News is just that, news. If the story is weak or ill-targeted, no amount of pleading will get you coverage. And, when your story runs, and it isn’t what you had hoped for (not long enough, wrong angle) don’t whine. It’s ok to point out factual inaccuracies, but respect the journalist’s treatment of the news.

4. Don’t ask for a kill

Trying to kill a hard news story is a fool’s errand. If you want the media to cover your good news, you’ll have to accept that they’ll cover your bad news too. Asking for kills will only damage your relationships, and that’s never a good thing.

5. Never spray & pray

Use only well-targeted pitches. Angle your stories to suit the needs of each reporter. If journalists are constantly receiving irrelevant news from you, they’ll hit the Del key without giving your release a glance. Think before you click send.

6. Be clean

Regularly clean your media contact database. People move around all the time, it’s your job to know when and where they go. It’s all part of serving the media well. (See Invest in PR tools below.)

7. Keep current

There’s a ton of content online to help you keep up to date with the latest media relations trends. I follow Spin Sucks, PR Daily, the For Immediate Release Podcast and the Marketing Book Podcast, as examples. There’s also a myriad of great media relations books that are worth the time reading, not least of which is the CP Style Guide (or AP Style Book for my American friends).

8. Invest in PR tools

Investing in media relations tools can make the difference between being just good at your craft and becoming a true media relations expert. There’s plenty of free tools, such as HARO and Google Alerts, but by spending a little money on the paid for software offered by Cision or Muck Rack you’ll gain a lot more insight and services. My PR stack includes (in part) BuzzSumo, Cision, TalkWalker Alerts, Ubersuggest, Moz, Google Analytics and I use several more for social media relations too.

Contact me!

Interested in learning how to power your content marketing by adding earned media strategies and tactics? Need media relations training? Let’s set up a time for a free telephone consultation.

December 12, 2019 by sherrilynne Leave a Comment

Changes to Google News

Some news about Google News. Google is now using machine learning to group top media stories in Google Search and has implemented carousels to improve search relevance and make news easy to access.

Searchers now see a carousel of articles at the top of the search results highlighting relevant news. When there are multiple stories related to a search, Google is organizing the results by story. Within each story, the new structure includes high-quality content–beyond just the most recent coverage–as well as more diverse sources, to bring improved context and perspective to the day’s news.

Have you experienced this enhanced Google Search? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Hey, I was featured in this cool article.

May 30, 2019 by sherrilynne Leave a Comment

On 1310news Powerlunch

Once a month or so Mark Sutcliffe invites me on the PowerLunch. It’s a show where business people discuss the current events and the news stories of the day. Yesterday I joined Mark and Live Work Play Co-Leader Keenan Wellar and we discussed:

Robert Muller’s brief statement to media
Ontario high school class sizes
proposed renovations at the Chateau Laurier hotel
Facebook and the Canadian parliamentary hearings on privacy and
how the Federal government should be, or not be, funding Canada’s mainstream media.

Here’s a link to the audio clip.

February 14, 2019 by sherrilynne Leave a Comment

Canada’s most trusted magazine

Canadian Living is the nation’s most-trusted magazine brand as voted a national survey of 17,000 shoppers.

“Trust is vital in an environment that sees customers’ expectations increasing every day, and competition is fierce, so this recognition from Canadians that Canadian Living is their most trusted magazine brand is a badge of honour,” says Lyne Robitaille vice president, TVA Group. “Canadian Living has built that trust through authenticity, ingenuity, dedication to quality content and backing up what we say with what we do.”

Canadian Living Publisher, Jacqueline Howe says, “Our Tested-Till-Perfect recipes have been key to building trust in our community – when our readers know they can rely on Canadian Living recipes to succeed each and every time. They know the same quality goes into all of our content, whether it’s fashion and beauty, travel, relationships, health and fitness or home and garden.”

Canadian Living is Canada’s most widely read English-language women’s magazine with close to 3.1 million readers. It’s the largest-circulation Canadian women’s magazine selling more than 340,000 print copies per issue. In addition to the magazine, Canadian Living has a digital audience of 2 million, social media channels and email databases.

October 19, 2018 by sherrilynne Leave a Comment

1310News Power Lunch: Discussion can get a bit heated!

At my recent visit to the 1310 NEWS studio for the Power Lunch with Mark Sutcliffe I got to meet author Fred Litwan. We discussed cannabis and how it will (or won’t) change the fabric of our country. We talked about Donald J. Trump’s 60 Minutes interview. And it got a bit heated when we talked about Hillary Clinton’s recent comments about Monicagate.

I’m on Mark’s show about once a month and it’s always a great experience. I get to meet fascinating people and we talk about subjects that I wouldn’t otherwise touch upon normally. I really enjoy the Power Lunch. Check it out weekdays at 12 noon on 1310 News on the radio, on Facebook Live from the station’s page or on TV on Rogers Channel 22.