What does your publicist actually do?

By Melissa A Vitale 

​Marketing - including social media marketing, public relations and advertising are so varied and interconnected that the title “publicist” doesn’t encompass one specific set of job roles. Some publicists are aces in turning drab social media paces into platforms ripe with revenue turning content while other publicists stay far away from social media management. Other publicists aren’t trained in crisis PR where some publicists live for corporate internal panic.
 
The type of public relations this post is going to break down is media relations and strategy that lead to organic, earned media placements, or getting placed in top tier outlets like Forbes, Glamour and Tech Crunch without having to pay advertising costs.
 
Earned media typically comes in three different forms: round-ups, thought-leadership commentary, and full feature profiles. Round-ups are popular ways to feature companies or products in a grouped article that pairs a common theme. Popular round-ups are Gift Guides, Lists of essentials for travel or holidays and seasonal must-haves. For a sex toy brand, a round-up like “Top ten accessories for the perfect date night” in Allure would be ideal to be included in. Thought leadership and commentary from brand executives are another vehicle for earned media. Journalists who cover specific industry topics are always looking for expert insight to prove a claim their making in an article. For a tech startup, having their CEO quoted in International Business Times’ “Top tech trends of 2020” could put their brand’s message in the forefront of industry conversation. Finally, in the crème-de-la-crème of earned media placements is full feature profiles. This is an entire article dedicate to a single company or co-founder, or executive.
 
So how do publicists go about getting these types of placements for our clients?

Leveraging our relationship combined with innovative strategy. 
 
A publicist’s job is to know what publications, editors and journalists are working on specific stories that may be a fit for their client’s products or perspective. We do this by maintaining strong relationships with journalists everyday through events, pitches, emails, calls, desksides, market appointments, and the ever-favorite: press entertaining,
 
A large portion of a publicist’s job is to take lunch, dinners, and go out and stay connected with journalists so they always have a read on what journalists are doing. For clients, this means that when you hire a publicist, you have someone sitting down with writers at New York Post and MarketWatch and editors of Rolling Stone and SELF on behalf of your brand.
 
To keep conversations relevant (and our clients in editors inboxes) publicists are consistently coming up with fresh pitches with catchy product roundup categories, insightful industry commentary and unique inside perspective to whet a journalist's interest. These regular pitches are just a small portion of the media relations process. 

Before hiring a publicist, a brand’s best hope of having media features is being discovered by journalists buying the product for themselves, researching for a story or perusing on social media. With a publicist, brands are being represented in the conversations that move industries.
 
Many of the industry trend stories that my clients have been in came as a result of discussing the ins-and-outs of the industry over drinks and a joint, and that conversation sticking with the reporter when a certain topic is assigned.

All earned media is contingent on a number of factors including an editorial calendar which is governed by an Editor-in-Chief, or an Online Editorial Director, advertising schedule and reader demographics and habits. When it comes down to why certain brands cannot be covered by all outlets is all a matter of man-hours and time that can be spent: for every story there are photo assistants, editorial assistants, researchers, fact-checkers, editors and writers who need to put together a single piece. Some months, there is simply no more time planned and no budget for additional writers that even if an editor loves what a brand is doing, their hands are tied, and they must revisit the topic another time. You could have the best or most expensive publicist but if there isn’t opening for a story, the only thing you could do is potentially risk the relationship with an editor with aggressiveness.
 
Media relations for earned media are a combination of outbound pitches and inbound requests. Pitches from publicists suggesting story ideas that may be compelling to readers offer journalists access to companies and insight that they might not normally have to tell a certain story. While journalists always have a steady stream of assigned stories that require experts. When they need experts, rather than going to one individual source, they go to their trusted publicists who will always connect them to expert, trusted, reliable insight.
 
This is why publicist focus on relationships. Reminding the editor months down the line when they’re looking for brand stories to fill their editorial calendar can be the difference between a full feature and just lukewarm interest. A strong relationship can also lead to dozens in inbound requests that turn to client features from without having to send a single pitch. The longer you work with a publicist, the more placements you get because the brand slowly aligns with more editorial calendars and openings.
 
A publicist is like a duck, on the surface, you may see them doing just one thing: getting drinks, or out at an event, but under the surface, like a duck’s rapidly moving webbed-feet, there are thousands of conversations, hundreds of story ideas, and dozens of documents ready for press on specific experts,  brands, products etc all underneath the surface.
 
MAVPR has built a reputation as a trusted source for editors and press that commentary from our clients is relevant to the reader, on-message for the client, thought-provoking in the industry and always delivered to the journalist on time, respectful of their deadline and other sources, making us a popular choice for expert commentary requests from outlets like Forbes, Bustle, Refinery29, Benzinga and more.​

To learn more about becoming a MAVPR client and our services, please visit: melissaavitale.com/services.html