How to Make First Contact

They may not be aliens, but they aren’t your next-door neighbor either.

So how do you go about contacting a new media contact for the first time? Do you follow them on Twitter and send them a DM? Do you email them? Make a cold call? Or do you simply just show up in person, and knock on their door?

Depending on the industry you’re in, the first medium of contact can differ. If you’re contacting someone in the web or tech industry, chances are an electronic form of contact will work best. Sometimes though, an old-fashioned handshake can work best.

Do your best to determine the most appropriate method of contact – after all, do you really think it makes sense to send a tweet to the 60-year-old contractor down the road? No.

Who can I contact?

Before you start contacting people, you need to figure out the appropriate people and companies to target.

For example, if you’re a small iPhone developer that has just released its first application – do you think it makes sense to contact CNN? How about Macworld, or TUAW?

I wouldn’t go as far as to say you should never contact any of these companies – you’ll need to use your judgment again. If your application has been picked up all over the place (i.e. featured in the App store or in an iPhone commercial, or already covered on some equally popular websites), you may have the leverage you need to contact some of the bigger names.

One way to leverage something like this would be to put it right in the subject of an email, i.e. The Netsetter App: Featured in Apple’s Latest iPhone Commercial. This will greatly improve your chance that the person on the other end of the line will even give you the time of day to open the email, let alone read it.

So what do you do if your application wasn’t in Apple’s latest TV ad?

You start small. Contact bloggers who run personal (often not-for-profit) blogs. Try to find one in your user niche of users, rather than one reviewing other iPhone applications (in this example).

For instance, if you were releasing an application similar to Photoshop Mobile, you’d want to go after designers, photographers, and other creative people – as opposed after a more general website like TUAW.

Individuals running smaller (but popular) blogs are often looking for new content to write about, and are always looking to meet new people. The same can’t always be said about the larger “company” websites – they may see your contacting them as purely a selfish request for traffic (even if it’s not the case).

So I’ve found a cool, independent blogger – now what do I do?

There are usually three ways to get hold of a blogger: a contact form on their website, Twitter, or by sending them a direct email. Some may list their contact phone number. Don’t use it.

I’ve personally networked with approximately two hundred bloggers/media folk in a period of 3 or 4 months – without picking up the phone once. Again, this isn’t the case for every industry, but in general, people don’t want interruptive phone calls.

Personally, I find it’s best to avoid using Twitter as your initial form of contact. It doesn’t hurt to follow the contact, but avoid sending them a “Hey, my name is _____ and I wanted to share _____” tweet, or DM.

Contact form or direct email?

Generally, I’ll opt. to send a direct email instead of submitting a contact form, because it offers more flexibility and the ability to store a record of the outgoing communication.

Below are a few important things to consider, when contacting by either method.

Drop-down options

Not all contact forms allow you to enter your own subject line. Oftentimes you’ll have to choose from a drop-down menu of some sort. If you’re choosing an option from a drop down menu, make sure you choose the most appropriate option – not the option that they’re likely to be most interested in (i.e. don’t choose the “Hire me” option just so they look at it first). If you do this, you’ll lose all credibility.

Communication history

Sending your target an email means you’ll have a copy of your outgoing message. You won’t always receive a copy of your original email if you get a response, so if possible, it’s best to send them an email.

As you start hearing back from people, you can keep track of what works – and when you don’t hear back, you’ll know what’s not working.

Subject line

As mentioned earlier, try to use something catchy here. By catchy, I don’t mean using exclamation marks, caps lock, or including X amount of lottery winnings in the subject line. You’ll want to mention something familiar or appealing to the recipient – this may require some research before sending your message (more on that later). Keep your subject line as short as possible, and capitalize the beginning of most words (except and, the, etc.).

I’ve applied some of what I’ve learned from Adwords optimization to subject lines, and it works. You’ll notice noticeably higher conversion rates when using initial caps for every word in your Adwords text ads. Since this is not advertising, and you’re emailing a writer, don’t get too crazy with this.

The Golden Rule

We all receive junk mail and shady business propositions everyday – if you don’t, consider yourself lucky!

If you receive junk mail daily, you can use it as a learning tool. I can’t count how many 800-word emails I’ve received that I delete before reading; emails starting with “Dear Sir or Madam”, or messages containing wallpaper-sized graphics go to my trash almost immediately. Whatever bothers you probably bothers other people – don’t send people the type of mail you yourself mark as “junk”!

Signatures

If you’re sending a direct email, make sure you’ve thought about your signature.

For a long time, I had a signature explaining the company I worked for and the products we sell. This transitioned into a hybrid of the aforementioned along with my email address, Twitter name, and AIM account. Then it dawned on me – why would I need to include my email address when I’m sending them an email FROM THE SAME ADDRESS? This isn’t 1995. In addition, if the person wants to find you on Twitter, I’m sure he or she will have no problem doing so (if your name is John Smith, maybe it doesn’t hurt to include your unique Twitter ID). And AIM? If they haven’t ever spoken to you, why would they want to chat with you on an instantaneous level?

I now have a simple signature that includes my name, and a happy face. I don’t always include the face, but sometimes I find it helps to make the email seem more personable. You definitely don’t want to include a .JPG or .PNG of an actual happy face, or your face for that matter – I once received a no-less-than-1024×768 headshot in the signature of a woman who had contacted me. If there is some sort of super urgency involved in your line of work, you could consider adding a phone number, otherwise I’d stay away from it – they’ll ask for one if they need to call you.

Do your homework

It’s extremely important to do your research before contacting someone. If you’re emailing a blogger in hopes of a review or giveaway, make sure they’ve written posts like that in the past. Read at least two or three pages of their blog, and scope out their Twitter account before sending them anything. Even better, watch/follow them for a little while before making contact – the better you know somebody, the easier it will be for them to relate to you in your first contact with them.

PR is all about forming meaningful relationships. Go beyond the product or service you’re trying to get them to talk about. Social networking makes this easier than ever – poke around their Twitter account, browse their Flickr photos, and read their “about” page.

Find something in common and don’t take without giving.

You probably wouldn’t invite an alien into your home right away – but with a little background information and a shared hobby or two, you may consider it.