The Importance of a Media Database in Public Relations: After a first-day integration philosophy outlook, I spend my first week learning about Public Relations. I never had a job in Public Relations, but I knew it would be to understand not only in this role but in developing media relationships for the future. Sarah had developed a Communications and Social Media Manual for me and in it, I found some great information that an aspiring Public Relations professional should know. The three most important articles I would read would be “How to stand out as a PR Intern,” “4 Ways to improve quotes in press releases,” and “How to write perfect e-mail pitches.” These three key skills really taught me how to coordinate a Public Relations department.
After some intellectual reading, Sarah met with me to talk about a Media Database. She explained to me that it was important for the LAA organization to have a well-organized database to have contacts in place for outlets and also create better relationships. It was my task to create this database. We didn’t just need names, we needed concrete contact information. This included company, First and Last Name, Title, Department, E-mail, Phone number, and Address.” It would be an ongoing project for me until the last day. It was very tedious, but the organizations and different media organization I would be gathering would really help put the LAA brand out there. Building media relationships with Hispanic leaders of CNN, MundoHispanico, Multimedia X, Univision 34, and Turner Broadcasting would not be an easy feat. But creating over 300 contacts for a media database in Excel for all influential media leaders in print, radio, Hispanic magazines, TV, and socialite media in the greater Atlanta area was something that helped my brand also in just good work ethic.
In the end, I even went through my list to connect with them all on Linkedin. Funny thing was half of the Latinos on my list didn’t have a Linkedin. And those like Maria Perez with 4,599 of them out there were just too hard to find.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A MEDIA DATABASE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS