Tips For Choosing A Good Media Relations Consultant

By Sherry Gross


Hiring external consultants for short term projects is becoming very common in businesses today. As in-house resources become sparse and impartiality is required, companies opt to hire consultants who can get the job done. However, hiring such an expert for the first time can be a little bit intimidating. This article provides essential information that will help your company or organization identify the best media relations consultant.

For a start, you can always seek referrals from other in your industry or similar organizations. Ask around from people you trust to see if anyone can point you in the direction of consulting firm he/she found professional and also effective. This way, you will have a number of tested and proven consultants to choose from.

Experience also plays very crucial role in quality of services. Because of this, it is advisable to go with experienced consultants. You need someone who has been in the media consulting practice for long enough. Long enough here means a minimum of five years.

Of course you will also have to compensate the adviser for his/her services. And because there is no standard charge for this, each and every consultant is always likely to have unique charges. Because of this, comparison shopping is highly recommended. This will help you identify an adviser whose charges are within your organization range. At the same time, you also need to beware of suspiciously cheap consultants. Suspiciously low charges can sometimes mean lack of experience on the part of adviser.

Communication between you and the adviser is also going to be crucial. You need an expert with good communication protocol. Trying calling your prospective consultants office and see how fast your call is picked up. You can also drop an email to the consultants office and see how long he/she takes to respond. Do not commit into working with any adviser you are not convinced with his/her communication protocol.

Any serious consulting company will not fail to have personal website where they interact with customers. You can also read customer reviews from your prospective consultant website. This will further confirm to you whether he/she is the right choice for your organization.

Apart from the referrals and online searches, you can also advertise for the job on the local dailies. Very many consultants who are qualified and are interested in the job will thus get the opportunity to apply. You also need to start the process in advance. This is important because the demand for good media consultants is usually very high.

Engaging a media consultant or consulting firm is a wise move. However, you need to carefully evaluate your options before making a choice. Otherwise, it will just turn out to be a waste of resources for your organization which is not what you want when you decide to engage media adviser.




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