Are your media relations efforts working? At mid-year, this is a great time to assess. It may be your last, best time to improve this area of communications operations and ensure a positive impact on this year’s performance.

We’ve recently published our, “Guide: Mid-Year Marketing and Communications Assessment.” Please check it out when you can. It talks about more than just media relations, but let’s spend just a few paragraphs exploring how to make sure these efforts are coordinated, integrated and effective.

Website traffic: Are your media relations efforts driving traffic to your website? They should. If not, maybe you haven’t included the right links, or any links, in your releases. Reporters appreciate any “link-love” you can send their way. They’ll remember that in the future.

Media relations and social media integration: Today, your media relations efforts and social media usage should be fully integrated – they are inseparable. Make sure you’re linking through your social media channels to good media stories. This will, in turn, drive some traffic to the media outlets (they are all looking for clicks anywhere they can find them).

Key message inclusion: Make sure you evaluate whether your carefully considered key messages are finding their way into stories, whether online or in traditional media. If not, pull back and assess why. Ask yourself, “Are they too complicated?,” “Did our spokesperson communicate them accurately?,” or, “Do we have too many key messages?”

Take this time to assess your media relations efforts. Review our, “Guide: Mid-Year Marketing and Communications Assessment.”  While doing so, see what we have to say about marketing and branding, social media, crisis preparedness and assessing your website.

Have a great summer.