How to Build on Your Foundation and Keep Growing Media Relationships

The relationships you build with your local press don’t end once a story is written about your chapter. Your relationship with the media must be ongoing and authentic to maximize your potential impact as a voice for small business expertise and maintain SCORE brand awareness in your community.  

To grow your media relationships and build on your current foundation, follow these tips: 

1. Become a regular resource. Reach out to a reporter to meet up for coffee or lunch to learn more about the types of stories they’re currently covering and what they might be interested in reporting on in the future. Scheduling this opportunity allows you to learn more about where you can be helpful or potentially insert SCORE into the conversation or into an upcoming piece.
   
   
2. If a reporter isn’t available to meet for lunch or coffee, offer to set up a phone or Zoom call instead to learn more about their upcoming stories and where you can be helpful.
   
   
3. Reach out on a regular basis with timely stories and events related to your chapter. This helps continue the relationship and frame you as a resource within the community.
   
   
4. Offer to be a resource even if it doesn’t always benefit you. Sometimes, the information you have to offer isn’t what the reporter is looking for at that exact moment – and that’s okay! Be helpful where you can, point reporters in the right direction and they’ll remember this genuine communication and be more willing/receptive to future stories involving SCORE.
   
   
5. Send a positive email or engage on social media with reporters when you see one of their stories published. Feel free to congratulate them on successes and stories, even when they’re not related to SCORE.
   
   
6. Invite reporters to chapter events and/or workshops to get an inside peek on how things run; this opportunity gives reporters extensive SCORE background knowledge/insight and could even generate future story ideas involving your chapter!
   
   
7. You can build on the foundation of your current press operation by continuing to expand your list of local media contacts. Always be on the lookout for a good story or a new reporter covering issues impacting small businesses in your area.
   
   
8. Similarly to your chapter media spokesperson list, set a cadence of your choosing for contacting and refreshing your entire media list to be sure it is up to date.

As always, our public relations team (media@score.org) is here to provide additional guidance as needed. Thank you for sharing your chapter’s success and accomplishments!