Keeping up-to-date with news updates and jumping on media opportunities

When it comes to staying up to date with the way the UK produces the news, we more often than not check online through our social media platforms to find out what’s happening. From browsing Twitter to see what’s the latest hashtag trending or using Facebook to tune into the latest political broadcasts from Downing Street or The house of Commons, we continually absorb content right from our smartphones.

But what if changes in the media impact our Digital PR campaigns how do we resolve barriers we may have with pitching due to journalists covering new content?

Learning to adapt and using follow up emails as an opportunity to put a new story angle to your press release will help secure media coverage without having to scrap the campaign altogether. We’ve done this recently, for some of our clients to share how the recent tier changes have impacted businesses across the UK, Europe and U.S. 

By reacting quickly, we have been able to secure great coverage, links and in-print stories in B2C and B2B publications as it helped give a clear picture of what’s happening to businesses based in the UK. It allowed journalists and their readers to understand that during these uncertain times, people are growing and showing how they’ve combated this pandemic. Along with sharing insightful tips and advice, we also used this time to outreach heartfelt and consumer-based campaigns as we understand that people want to read uplifting stories.

So if you’re stuck on what to do with your campaign here are our tips to turn things around quickly: 

• Look at the content you’ve produced and check if it’s still newsworthy– Does it still have
  the right news hook? If not, can you use any comments or ask you a client for research or stats to help you with your new pitch?
• Check social media for the latest media requests and journalists – While reading the
  news may give you an understanding of the what’s going on around the world. It doesn’t
  always indicate what journalists need for resources right now. So is there anything you
  could do to help a writer out?
• Focus on building relationships rather than pitching outdated content – Use your
  knowledge and understand of your client to sell the story to the journalists by using your pitch email as an opportunity to share stats and understand of news.