The importance of people-to-people PR in the age of media distrust
We live in an era of crowded media sources. Today’s consumers are exposed to masses of media outlets both online and physical, digital platforms, mobile apps, social media, podcasts, and more. But with so many places to consume information, knowing what is trustworthy and what isn’t is difficult to say the least – and that’s before AI is thrown into the mix! Just recently we blogged that trust in the news media is at a record low – less than a third (28%) of people now say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in newspapers, television, and radio to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.
Now, new findings from the Institute for Public Relations and Leger’s Disinformation in Society Report reveals that rather than relying on major news outlets, consumers are leaning heavily on trusted individuals – close personal relationships or peers.
COVID – a case in point
It’s not surprising when you cast your mind back to the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago – a time when many national media opted to use constant clickbait coverage of who broke lockdown rules, rather than reporting about ways to help and cope with lockdown.
It was the trade and tech media that set out to, and continue to, provide useful and trustworthy content to their readers by helping businesses understand ways to deal with the crisis, ways business could develop work from home solutions, diversify their product line to help people cope. As a PR agency, it was a blessing to see and we gave a three cheers for the trade and tech media.
So we eagerly dived into the fifth iteration of the Institute for PR report to see what lessons we can take away:
To gain media trust, you have to earn it!
For PR pros, the challenge starts with establishing journalist relationships – but they probably need to re-define what they mean by building relationships. A charged for media engagement call is not building a relationship! It’s just a billable item.
The report found that 79% of consumers trusted news from people they relate to, with 75% trusting friends for information. OK, we’re not here to establish new friendships, but trust happens through good relationships, and a good relationship with a journalist will be the building block for any PR campaign.
To gain credibility with your target audience, you need to establish trust, and a journalist will only write about companies they know, from sources they trust.
Get to know your journalist
Part of this relationship building comes down to knowing what journalists like, dislike, and want to see – actually, it’s a really big part! It’s just as crucial to understand what journalists don’t want to receive from a B2B brand as much as to what they do want. In media relations, it’s just as important to know what content your target journalists are looking for. To achieve targeted industry coverage, make sure you know what content your journalists are interested in, focus on real issues that your target audience want to read, and home in your pitch.
Why not try social listening? There’s no point pitching to a pharma publication on a topic about AI tools unless you uplift your copy to have a pharma slant. According to Cision, 77% of journalists resort to blocking or filtering out communication professionals when spammed with irrelevant pitches and even worse… when called by the wrong name (19%)! So, remember, think before you pitch!
Mastering the perfect media mix
Now we’ve mastered the pitch, we must master the art of the media mix. At IBA, we’re firm believers that the same message from more than one source is more readily believed. Consider the multiple content formats, thought leadership pieces, comments on timely topics, and the trusty press release to build brand narrative and prove your client is a mover and shaker in the market!
It’s about way more than just one-off placements. Not to toot our own horn, but at IBA, we’ve got pitching and media mix down to a tee and always push for multiple placements for our content in top-tier industry and tech media.
The tip of the trust triangle
People like people, and PR Pros sometimes forget journalists are human beings too – not billable items. They have a natural bias to cover the companies they know and trust, and only when you establish credibility with target journalists will your message start to get through to 1000’s or even 100,000’s of new prospects.
As we saw at the start of this blog, we’re in an age where disinformation is everywhere, trust is scarce and must be earned. For PR pros, establishing trust doesn’t start with flashy vanity metrics or AI-driven content. It starts with good relationships and relevant content, and that comes from respect for the industry media’s role in delivering credible information. Long live industry PR!
Georgia Harris is PR Lead Themes at IBA International
