"My top tip for earning media," Pace Public Relations founder and CEO Annie Pace Scranton says, "is to start to build relationships with the media. At the end of the day, you need to have those media relationships and have them be really strong and genuine and authentic if you want to get earned media."

In her new book, The Guide to Earned Media, Pace Scranton outlines several tactics for forming those relationships and effectively putting them to use. The first of those: Do your research. "Right now, every single journalist is on Twitter, is on Threads, is on LinkedIn, is on Instagram."

She says another essential is to "make sure you read their articles if they're a print or digital journalist, listen to their podcast if they host a podcast or produce one and watch their TV show. If you're trying to go after a broadcast interview for your client, the worst thing ever is to pitch something that's not relevant to their wheelhouse. "

It's also key to thoroughly understand what your goals are as regards earning media. "Are you trying to hit a certain revenue number? Are you trying to expand in new markets? Are you trying to offer new services? You need to have those bigger company goals really set and crystallized first."

The best way to make the first contact with your media targets, Pace Scranton says, is still email. The rule of thumb for composing those emails is "keeping it really short. Nobody has time to read a long email and I would say if you can come up with a subject line that's going to resonate or catch their attention, even better."

But it's also a good idea to "start genuinely interacting on the journalist's social media as well and it always helps if you, in your email can say, I saw you just posted this tweet. I loved what you said there, I totally agree with it or something and build a way in there to show that you're paying attention to what they're doing and the work that they're doing."

However, Pace Scranton says "there is no perfect science to developing a relationship with a journalist. You have to try a bunch of things and then see what works for your own style."

"I try to just give techniques in this book that are tried and true that will always work when you're putting together a pitch and that will always work as you're crafting your message. So, I hope that it will just be a resource people can use throughout the course of their career."

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D S Simon Media helps clients get their stories on television through satellite media tours and by producing and distributing content to the media. The company also produces live social media events.