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REALTORŪ ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE
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 Media Planning By Edward Segal 6 Easy Ways to Ensure PR Success The more you generate news stories about your association’s activities, accomplishment, and opinions, the more likely your association wil be featured in the press. An effective public relations plan includes regularly scheduled news or article submissions to your local press and follow-up calls to your local journalists. How your association is mentioned in the press is critical to its public image, so don’t leave it up to the journalists. Become a consistent and reliable source for real estate information in your community by planning. An effective, planned public relations program lets you craft your own public image. Attract members and earn respect from your community leaders and legislators by establishing a reputation as an advocate for homeowners’ rights, a reliable source for housing statistics, and a clearinghouse for all types of homebuying and homeselling information. At the Marin Association of RealtorsŪ, we generate an average of ten stories or mentions a month in local news outlets. This approach to public relations—which is based on my previous experience as a journalist, public relations consultant, corporate spokesperson, and press secretary for members of Congress—is easy for anyone. You just need to do a little bit of planning. Here are six steps you can take today to place stories about your association tomorrow. 1.Think like a journalist. Look for potential news hooks and story angles in your activities and events that can be used to attract the interest of reporters. For example, Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist for the California Association of RealtorsŪ, was scheduled to deliver her annual economic forecast at one of our monthly membership meetings last year. Knowing that her comments would be interesting to a broader audience, we invited a local newspaper reporter to cover the briefing. The story about Appleton-Young’s presentation and predictions was featured on the front page of the paper’s business section. 2.Identify or create visuals. Provide reporters with visuals that help tell your story. Not only is it an effective way to get newspaper and TV journalists interested in the news hook, it also helps ensure a larger article in the newspaper. For example, in pitching a story about our association’s switchover to a new lockbox system, we invited a newspaper journalist and photographer to attend a how-to workshop for RealtorsŪ. The photographer snapped away as our members learned to use the new devices; the published article ran with one of the photos. If you can’t get the press to show up at your events, have a staff person take photos and send them to the publications, with captions identifying the event and people. 3.Use a hot political issue as a hook. Use publicity to help achieve your government relations or other objectives. Last year, we sent a letter to the city of San Rafael to protest a business license tax that was to be imposed on RealtorsŪ. We turned what could have been a simple action of protest into a news story by alerting the media about our opposition to the regulations. A story about our lobbying efforts appeared the next day. The glare of publicity provided added weight to our arguments against the tax. Not only did we generate a positive story about our association, but also, within a matter of days, the bureaucrats rescinded the regulation. 4.Be a resource to the media. Provide journalists with a list of real estate issues and the members they can contact for quotes (updated annually or more often). If you don’t have members who are experts on smart growth or interest rates, cultivate them. Provide prewritten talking points and speeches to build member confidence and facilitate media relationships. 5.Turn lemons into lemonade. Look for creative ways to be mentioned in news stories, even if your association has no expertise or information on the topic. Earlier this year, a reporter called seeking information for an article about increased school enrollment in Marin County. She wanted to know if we kept statistics about parents of kindergarteners who also bought homes in the area. Although we don’t track that data, we arranged for her to interview our president, who provided insights and observations about homebuying in general. Here’s his quote as it appeared in print: "People have been buying more real estate in Marin in the last couple years," said Barry Crotty, a real estate broker with Pacific Union Real Estate in Greenbrae, and president of the Marin Association of RealtorsŪ, a San Rafael-based organization that represents more than 1,500 members. "That has to do with the stock market" more and more families are investing in real estate--and more and more families are leaving San Francisco for less crime and better weather in Marin, and interest rates have been at historic lows." 6.Train your spokespeople. Since talking to reporters is different from communicating with clients, provide media training to those who are authorized to talk to news organizations on behalf of your association. Proper media training will ensure your spokespeople can convey key messages effectively to journalists, be quoted accurately in stories, and respond to difficult or negative questions. rae Edward Segal is executive vice president and communications director of the Marin Association of RealtorsŪ in San Rafael, Calif. He is the author of Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame, and More (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). He can be reached at edwards@marincountyrealtors.com. How to Create Media Savvy Members When you or your members have an opportunity for a media interview, will you be ready? Check out the Success With the Press toolkit at www.realtor.org/eomag.nsf/pages/SuccesswithPresswi02. |
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