Your New Best Friend

I had a really nice conversation with a PR woman yesterday, one that may turn out to be a lucrative partnership.

I used ProfNet on PRNMedia religiously for article sources. This gal has answered two of my inquiries and has supplied me with some great sources. In our last email exchange, she offered the usual “If I can help with anything in the future, let me know.” I countered with “If you have any story sources or neat ideas that come along, I’d love to hear about them.”

Her next note: “As a matter of fact…” and then she relayed to me information on a client of hers, who happens to have a pretty fantastic story to tell. We talked on the phone and she suggested a publication that may be a great fit. That, my friends, is the proper way to utilize PR people’s expertise. It’s a win-win for us both: I get salable story ideas and subjects and she gets client credibility and client retention.

Mind you, not all PR people are alike. I’ve suffered through my share of reps who send ill-fitting interview subjects and those who have no idea what their clients’ (or in some cases, their own) business is. (News flash – they’ve suffered through just as many writers who haven’t a clue, as well.)

But those who do their jobs well are fountains of information and resources, and they’re only too happy to have you contact them, even if it’s only to get on their press release mailing list. These are people you need to get to know. Court them. Bring them to your side and partner with them in terms of being a semi-regular source of opportunity for them, and they’ll reward you with plenty of ideas and people to help broaden your work avenues.

This PR woman is not the first one I’ve worked with – others have supplied me with experts and cool stories that have made it to publication. A side benefit of teaming up with a PR contact is that sometimes they need a writer to help out with client articles or press releases. Guess who they’re going to think of if you’ve been a successful partner in the past?

They’re going to remember you because you took the time to ask, to talk shop, to swap war stories, to ask about the family, to connect. They remember, like all people do, those who make the effort to get to know them and to know their clients and their business.

How about you? Do you work with PR people?