Connections, Context & Content, Part 10: Mobile and Media Relations

Mobile & Media Relations

While mobile cannot replace the benefits of building trusting and mutually beneficial relationships with members of the media, there are ways that it can support media relation activities. Valerie Christopherson offers this list of uses for mobile in media relations:

sending invitations to press conferences;
querying prospective media targets during a media tour for their availability;
locating a journalist on a trade show floor amid tens of thousands of people;
distributing news through the mobile channel; hosting “mobilenars” with the use of mobile video/streaming; and;
texting responses to interview questions while on the go.

While many of these are basic solutions (a fact Ms. Christopherson acknowledges) they do underline mobile’s role in connecting people through its ‘always on, always with, always personal’ attributes.

A more sophisticated use of mobile technology for media relations returns to use of QR codes. The National Post, a Canadian national daily newspaper, has just launched a program where QR codes are included at the bottom on stories appearing in the print edition. When readers scan the codes a browser session is initiated and they are taken to videos and other relevant content.

While the newspaper plans to offer this as a service to advertisers, the potential for media relations activity should be immediately apparent. Public relations practitioners could include a QR code in their media packages for inclusion in any published stories. The codes could link to supplemental content such as videos, pictures and mobile websites or relevant downloads.

To illustrate this point, consider a hospital pitching a story on a new piece of equipment that will aid in treating burn victims. An included QR code could take readers to a mobile internet site where video of the equipment in use could be viewed or interviews with burn victims that have benefited from the equipment could be played. The technically inclined could view the equipments specifications. The charitable could find links to donate to the burn ward and the curious could find out more information about types of burns and treatment options. In all cases, the media relations effort has not only resulted in press coverage, it has provided interested parties with the tools to learn more about the subject, the organization and ways they can make a difference.

Mobile allowed the media relations effort to move beyond impressions and created conditions to deepen public understanding, acceptance and support.

Up Next: Mobile as a tool for measuring public attitudes

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