Anyone who has been on the Glam Adelaide website or social media accounts before would know that we attend A LOT of events. We get invited to even more. It’s a fabulous industry to be in, and we revel in the vibrancy that surrounds us, as launches, galas, media calls, influencer events, and dinners turn this city into a place we’d never want to leave. Over the past ten years however, we’ve come to experience some very good, and very bad events from a media perspective. We thought we’d put together a list of what we love so if you’re in the PR game, or just organising an event, you know what we’re looking for. Every media outlet is different though, so it’s always handy to get to know your journos or bloggers so you understand what they’re looking for.
WE LOVE
- Notice. Give us lots of notice when you’re inviting us to attend something. Even if it’s just a ‘save the date’, more notice means you have a much higher chance of us RSVPing and actually coming along.
- Social media info. If you’re approaching an online media outlet like Glam, or even one who just uses social media at events, you’re on the money if you give us handles (ours is @glamadelaide) or hashtags (again #glamadelaide) so we can make our posts relevant – and able to be found when you’re looking at the coverage from your event. Unique hashtags are also key. Always make one hashtag specifically for your event so those following along from home can see all the fantastic photos and info coming out of your event. Include them on the invite, emails to us about the event, the media release, have them visible on menus, around the event, whatever you can do.
- Maps. You know where your event is being held. Chances are, some of your guests may not. If you want us to be on time, show us exactly where to go, where to park, and we’ll be all over it.
- Lighting. If you want photos, any photos (yes even social media snaps) make sure your lighting is good. A lot of bloggers and media outlets literally shoot and post straight from their phones. Test it out yourself on your phone. Are the photos too dark? Lose some ambiance and raise the lights a tad if you want any decent coverage. Particularly for social media influencer events. We are there TO TAKE PHOTOS. Mood lighting is great but we don’t talk about the mood. We talk about the venue, the food, the drinks, whatever it is we are there for, and we want good photos. Some venues even set up ‘photography corners’ with lights and props all set up so for things like dinners where we are expected to snap food, the perfect lighting is available.
- Professional Photography. While we always try and attend an event and take photos, sometimes our best writers aren’t able to take a decent photo, and photographers aren’t always available. If you have a professional photographer at your event, media who can’t attend can use your photos and ensure you get coverage, or those of us who try and fail to get a good photo (maybe because of the lighting – see previous point), the coverage we provide won’t have to be average. You can also hire photographers who can provide content for your social media during the event (like Dougal McFuzzlebutt who is great with food photography) which can double up as post event coverage photos for any media who are short on shots. It just depends on what you need. And if you do supply photos, make sure you let us know if we need to credit the photographer (and make sure the photographer knows where the photos will be used!)
- Event Type Clarification. Is it a cocktail party with an abundance of food on platters? Is it a sit down dinner? Just speeches and drinks? We need to eat dinner, so if your event falls after business hours, let us know what to expect so we can plan the rest of our night (both from a timing and sustenance perspective). If it’s a wine tasting or a dinner with matched wines, let us know so we can grab an Uber instead of driving in.
- Embargoes. Let us know ahead of time. Will we be able to post about this straight away? Do you need us to hold off? On a busy news day, we won’t send someone to an event to do social media coverage if the content is embargoed. We’ll most likely just get the info off you and post about it later. We have a tiny team so need to spend out time wisely and can’t attend every event going.
- Menus. If you’re feeding us and want us to post about the food, give us each a menu we can grab all the details from for our captions. Even better, give us a paper version we can take away with us to use when we write up our articles.
- Media Releases. If you give us a paper version while we’re at the event, we can grab bits of info to include in our social media posts. Even a sheet with dot points of key info is extremely helpful. Then help us out by emailing us a version too. Then if we need to grab any info afterwards while we’re writing our stories, we’re not having to type out the lot from scratch. You’ll see the article online a lot faster that way.
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