Continuing my September PR Master Class series…

Nearly all companies have the wrong people reaching out to the media.

Too many firms fill their PR departments with young, unsophisticated just-out-of-school kids (I call them VYPRAs — Very Young PR Adults). These folks, most of whom are in their first or second job full-time job are charged with communicating about your multi-million dollar products.

They blast press releases to the media.

They call and email but generally give up far too quickly. They haven’t had opportunity to learn professional perseverance yet.

Of course, more than 95 percent of the people they blast with releases never get back to them.

To be successful with the media, you need helpful, long-lasting relationships with journalists — and bloggers too. Even if they know how to develop relationships (big if) these fresh faces simply haven’t been at it long enough to do so.

What to do instead?

Imagine how stunned journalists would be if an executive phoned or emailed with an idea or development? What if your executive team were to spend five minutes per day — every day — cultivating relationships with the media. They can do it on their smart phones while on the run.

What if you assigned each executive 60 members of the media? They can contact one person per day, and if they do this for three months — one quarter of the year — they’d reach everybody. Then they’d start again at the beginning.

What if 25 executives at your firm did this?

They would have 6,000 high-level contacts with the media annually. Six thousand!

Journalists would be tripping over themselves to help these people. They’d cover your company out of appreciation and relief.

Imagine the results!

(Of course, this doesn’t eliminate the youngsters. They would take over the process once a story was in the works.)

Dwell on this idea for a minute before you move on to other content on the Internet. It’s simple, takes five minutes per day and it can revolutionize your PR success — on its own!