How Trump’s election changed PR forever

When I saw that electoral map on the night of Nov. 8th, I knew one thing:

There is no longer any such thing as the “national media.”

Every outlet serves (and is trusted by) only a segment of the population. It’s imperative that we make sure we’re targeting outlets that match up with our audiences’ worldviews, not merely those that we or our bosses’ consume.

“Trust” is the new “reach.”

No judgment here, just real talk.

This doesn’t relate merely to political ideology. A Gen Xer could glance at a lifestyle site targeted at Millennials and see nothing but celebrity gossip and idle chatter. But a regular consumer of the site looks at it and feels like, “they get me” and trusts the information. And she’ll trust the story the Gen Xer later pitches about his product or issue, after he studies the site enough to “get” it, too.

A couple weeks ago I assembled the latest list of the Top 40 Digital-Only News Sites – all have more than 10 million unique visitors a month – across various topics. I was only familiar with 25 of them. I polled my Inner Circle members and their average response was 22. I bet your boss has heard of even fewer than that.

You really have a choice. You can ignore the evolution of our profession and run the risk of getting “locked out,” or you can join the FIRST MOVERS who are already building relationships with these new channels.

Someone is going to do it, it may as well be you. And I see a tremendous “first mover advantage.”

I’ll be teaching how to take advantage of these dramatic shifts in my next live workshop on Building Media Relationships in Atlanta. I’ll cover:

• Free online tools to determine the channels that matter most to your key audiences
• A step-by-step, repeatable process to get noticed by journalists/influencers at those outlets
• How social media can be used – and abused – in relationship building
• How all this still works with the venerable outlets that your boss still insists you be in 🙂

When I last taught this workshop, two separate people heard back from cold contacts at The New York Times before the workshop was over.

The day after this workshop, I’ll also teach my Pitching Boot Camp – almost everybody comes to both.

Registration is limited – sign up here.

“We’re committed to being one of the best corporate communications teams in the world, and Michael Smart’s workshop was a great resource for that pursuit. He was a wonderful addition to our meeting and his session hit just the right spot for us. I’ve received great feedback across the board.”

— Tony Cervone, SVP Global Communications, General Motors

“On a scale of one to ten, this workshop was a 9.5. Great nuggets of information that I’ll find ways to implement in my career. Best advice: when to call, when not to call.”

— Will Zasadny, California Healthcare Institute

“Probably one of the best professional development experiences I’ve been to because Michael gives us time to implement what we are learning on the spot. He’s there to answer questions and walk us through areas that may have been difficult in past outreach experiences.”

— Kristina Rozenbergs, C. Blohm and Associates