This morning, Glenn Zahn, the president of RecruitWise appeared on WATE-TV’s Good Morning Tennessee. He was featured in a segment called “How to Gain the Attention of a Recruiter”. {RecruitWise has been a client of Ackermann PR’s since 2007, when we helped the company celebrate its 10th anniversary.}
Here are the four bullet points that Glenn shared with the viewers:
1. Focus on their needs, not your own.
2. Have a solid resume. {Highlight instances in which you’ve saved your current company money, or ways that you’ve added value to the company.}
3. Do what you say.
4. Make the calls.
While listening to GMT’s morning anchor, Tearsa Smith interview Glenn it occured to me that his advice is applicable to not just gaining the attention of a recruiter, but with a few minor tweaks these pointers are good for gaining the attention of the media.
Oftentimes, one of the mistakes that PR professionals make is focusing too much on what they want to get from the media, i.e. an interview at a particular time/place or cameras at photo op we’ve planned, as opposed to thinking about the media’s needs first. It’s important that we accomodate the media and take into account their deadlines, staff limitations etc…
His second point about having a solid resume isn’t a perfect fit, unless you change the word resume to story. Having a solid story betters your chances that the media will care and recognize the news value of your pitch.
Do what you say – this is probably my favorite piece of advice. Newsrooms all around the country are operating with fewer resources. Their time is more valuable than ever, so if you say you’re going to have a news conference at 10:00 a.m., you need to start on time.
And lastly, make the calls. It sounds simple, but it’s so easy to rely on email when working with the media. The results are usually much better when you’ve made that personal connection over the phone or in person.
Thanks for these reminders Glenn!
