Here’s a fabulous idea…
If you’re trying to build a relationship with a particular newspaper journalist – invite them to breakfast!
Make sure you are very targeted in your approach and email your journalist about the idea – at worst they can say no!
Here’s some tips for your media meeting…
- Relax and be yourself
- Enjoy the informality of the occasion
- Dress as you normally would for any given business day
- Be on time
- Introduce yourself
- Be a good host and offer your burgeoning friend a coffee/tea to start
- Start the conversation by asking the journalist questions like “How long have you been at (newspaper)?” “What’s the most interesting story you’ve covered” “What do you see being the latest trends in the industry” Etc etc
- Don’t go the ‘hard sell’ – this is about rapport & relationship building
- Bring along some of your company information (business card, brochure etc)
- And prepare for the meeting – be able to tell the journalist what makes your company/service/product a leader – what makes it different or better – what are you doing that others aren’t…
- Ask the journalist if there’s anyway that you can help them
- And last but not least, pay for breakfast!