Part of effective PR is having strong relationships with key journalists.

This means giving the right journalist the right story at the right time and feeding them a regular supply of useful articles, insight and comment.

If you are an entrepreneur or small business doing your own PR, how do you get started?

Either call or e-mail key journalists in your sector and invite them for a coffee or lunch.

Award-winning Property Editor Anne Ashworth, of The Times, will be meeting PR Superstar’s luxury property client Huntly Hooper later this month after we suggested a 121. We have also arranged media meetings for Huntly Hooper with The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal and The London Evening Standard.

Such meetings get you crucial face time with journalists where you can talk about your business – importantly, always ask how you might be able to help journalists with stories they are working on too.

PRs will celebrate their love-hate relationship with journalists two weeks today – at ‘The CRAPPs.’

The Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals gives PR pros the chance to vote for the friendliest – and least friendly – names in journalism.

As a former journalist and now a PR professional, PR Superstar Founder Jill Kent thinks the awards are a hoot, and on a more serious note, will help to strengthen that special – if somewhat strained – bond that has always existed between hacks and flacks!

PR Superstar is teaming up with easyJet to organise an Alpine ski press trip next month.

The newspaper and magazine journalists will enjoy a 4-day press trip at our client TG Ski’s chalets in the French Alps, including winter sports activities - TG Ski will get full page and double page editorial spreads in return.

For businesses on a budget and having to do their own PR, product reviews are one of the the best ways to get media coverage.

Simply invite your target press to test out and review your products and services, especially if they’re new or different from those offered by your competitors.

Either give the journalists a call to gauge interest or put together a short press release and e-mail it over to them, and follow up with a phone call.

For a free consultation about your public relations needs, contact Jill Kent, Founder of PR Superstar, on 020 8274 0807 or e-mail hello@prsuperstar.co.uk

Press Gazette carries the full story.

Savvy newspapers and magazines, even the smaller, more local titles, understand that in order to keep their readers – and win new ones - they must move with the times and bring their media offerings bang up-to-date.

The days of being ‘just’ a print journalist are long gone – now, reporters and writers must think of stories and features in terms of video, podcast, visuals, blog, and online, as well as print, all of which makes for a rich and unrivalled story-telling experience.

The likes of Madonna, P Diddy and other A-Listers wouldn’t be without them…with it being New Year and many of us having resolutions to shape up and work out, PR Superstar invited London journalists to put a celebrity personal fitness training company to the test and see exactly why they’re a must-have for the rich and famous.

So far, our client One Element is busy putting journalists from The London Evening Standard and Radio Jackie through their paces with regular sessions; The London Metro have contacted us and are keen to try it out too, following our fitness PR campaign. We’ll feature their reviews here!

Offering journalists a trial of your products and services is a great way to get publicity for your business and if they’re impressed, they could become good contacts for future stories too. Journalists are also influential and well-connected and can help spread positive word of mouth about you among a wide circle of people!

PR Superstar is a London-based b2b and b2c public relations company, with clients in Surrey, London, UK-wide and internationally – contact us on 020 8274 0807 or e-mail hello@prsuperstar.co.uk

Here are PR Superstar’s Top 5 pointers about how to write your own press release:

1. Give the release a newsworthy ‘hook’ or ‘angle’ – such as a new or unusual product or service is being launched, your sales have increased 250% in one of the worst recessions ever, the business is expanding and you’re taking on 50 more staff at a time when your rivals are closing, you’re staging an interesting event, you’re launching a charity campaign, etc.
2. Make sure the release is full of facts not ‘fluff’ and arrange them in order of interest.
3. Keep the release concise – no longer than 1- 2 sides of A4, journalists are busy people and don’t have the time or the inclination to read a release of encyclopaedic proportions!
4. Look professional and put the release on to your branded company paper. Check spelling and grammar!
5. Make sure you include your full contact details at the bottom of the release so journalists and Editors can contact you easily. These can be included in any coverage too if potential clients or customers want to get in touch or find out more.

E-mail the release to the most appropriate journalist or Editor on your target media and follow it up with a phone call a few days later to encourage interest. Simples :-)

HR doctor Richard Reid writes in today’s City AM about what to do if you’re stuck in a rut in your job, but can’t or don’t want to leave the company at the moment.

Richard, of leading human resources consultancy Pinnacle Proactive, is the paper’s resident HR expert after PR Superstar arranged for the paper to attend and review one of his training courses.

Having a regular press profile and ’expert status’ in the media can help establish business owners as leading authorities in their field of expertise and shower them with credibility.

Journalists on both the mainstream and trade media are always keen to hear from ‘experts’ who they can quote in articles and features. Decide where you’d like to be featured and give the relevant journalists and Editors a call or send an e-mail. Check they’re not on deadline though!

Leading HR expert and Harley Street therapist Richard Reid features in December’s Director.

The magazine’s Deputy Editor Amy Duff approached PR Superstar asking if our client would like to be featured editorially in their ‘business clinic’ page.

After contacting Amy several times this year, it was great for her to come direct to PR Superstar, instead of us chasing her! Relationships with journalists should be nurtured, not just for the one story but for the long-haul, and over time, good quality media relations should pay off.

Richard, Founder of Pinnacle Proactive, who has been widely featured in the specialist HR media and throughtout the national press, TV and radio, gives advice to Director readers about how best they can motivate their workforce in these tough economic times.

Director magazine is well-respected and is the official magazine of The Institute of Directors.

For a compelling public relations campaign, B2B or B2C, that really resonates with your target audiences, contact Jill Kent, Founder of journalist-run London public relations consultancy, PR Superstar on 020 8274 0807.

Business journalists from bbc.co.uk and The Sunday Times are the latest national B2B media who will attend the Director’s Cut event, a UK first, created by The Leadership Theatre.

To find out more about the leadership training event that is getting journalists so excited, including a London-based Business Correspondent from The New York Times who is interested to attend, check out www.theleadershiptheatre.com

Getting media coverage isn’t easy and it’s getting harder!

In the last year or so, many papers and magazines have folded, including big-names such as Maxim, Arena, Eve and Rupert Murdoch’s Thelondonpaper, so there’s less media around; and many existing papers and magazines who are managing to hang on in there have shrunk in size due to a fall in advertising and declining sales.

Nevertheless, here are Top 5 ways which should help you to achieve media coverage:

1. Have a think about what media may be interested in you and your business, and bear in mind your target market and what media they read/listen to/watch. Is it local, regional or national media, b2b or b2c, online or offline?
2. Write a press release about something newsworthy going on within your own business, such as expansion into new markets, product launches, a new CSR scheme, a big order, new project, etc. Issue the release to specific journalists and Editors, whoever’s the most relevant to your business, on your target media and follow-up with a brief phone call to gauge and encourage interest.
3. Form effective, two-way relationships with key journalists, remaining in regular contact with them and providing a steady flow of newsworthy stories.
4. There may be existing stories out there in the press that you can ‘PR piggy-back’ on to with your own expert comments, research or useful information.
5. Of course, not all businesses are automatically newsworthy, so you may have to ‘create news.’ This could include staging PR stunts to grab the media’s attention, getting a suitable celebrity to endorse your product or service, or carrying out research related to your business or market to provide facts and figures that are newsworthy.

PR Superstar is a London-based PR consultancy with public relations clients in London, Surrey, UK-wide and internationally – contact PR Superstar on 020 8274 0807 to find out more about how we can help grow your profile and win you new clients using PR Superstar’s high-powered PR.