How to pitch a journalist before a conference - Jeff Byers - Healthcare Dive - 062

Having a great product is not always enough to be news worthy. It is much easier to get noticed at a conference when you know what journalists are looking for. On this episode, Shahid and I get a behind the scenes look at how to hack healthcare news. Jeff Byers, Associate Editor at Healthcare Dive, tells us how he spots trends, how to pick which conferences to attend and shares dozens of tips for how to get your company's story placed above the fold. 1:25 How you can reach out to get PR before a conference. 2:47 The journalist's conference to-do list: Writing, networking, industry knowledge gain, promotion, source building, assignments, interviewing individuals. 5:47 Categories of story topics for HIMSS vs HLTH 7:51 Does Healthcare Dive try to set the agenda for what everyone should be talking about or do you do more reporting on and explaining what is already out there? 11:10 Deciding which topics to write about is the biggest struggle. Do you write what you as the writer care about or what your audience cares about? 13:13 How to get a journalist to write about you: Know what they write about and know their audience. Pro-tip: Jeff's big on hospital trends. 14:44 How Healthcare Dive determines what trends are happening in healthcare. 17:00 Best resources for trend analysis. 18:50 Scheduling and preparing for meetings at conferences. 20:47 Get personal with your reporters. Ask them why they care about what they care about. Leads to unobvious answers. These are people. Build real relationships. 24:00 When starting a relationship with a reporter, don't make it transactional. Meetings don’t have to always lead to a story. Get on the radar. 26:40 Become a source, not a story. Being valuable will get you quoted more frequently. 29:22 Tips for reaching out to journalists and the nuances of following up. 33:47 Discussing details around current trends. Comparing HIMSS and HLTH. And the endless search for Hard News. 42:23 Everyone makes product announcements at conferences. Here's how you can get yours picked up. 43:37 What is Healthcare Dive working on now?   About Jeff Byers Jeff Byers is a healthcare journalist based out of Washington, DC. He is currently the Associate Editor for Healthcare Dive and covers hospital and digital health trends. He received his MPA from James Madison University and his BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. Cheese & Crackers > Cake.   Follow Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffpbyers About Healthcare Dive Our mission is to provide busy professionals like you with a bird's-eye-view of the healthcare industry in 60 seconds. We cover industry news and provide original analysis. Throughout the day, our editorial team analyzes the top news stories and publishes in-depth feature articles. You can also use our site to check out industry events, jobs, and more. Signup for Healthcare Dive's newsletter: https://www.healthcaredive.com/signup/ Check out Healthcare Dive's HLTH Coverage: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hlth-2018-what-happened-23andme-athenahealth-walmart/523190/ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/geisinger-to-provide-free-dna-sequencing-for-patients/522915/ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/andy-slavitt-town-hall-ventures/523118/ https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/change-healthcare-adobe-microsoft/523123/ Related and/or Mentioned on the Show Med Tech Dive (Coming Soon) Biopharma Dive Things Jeff is interested in: SDOH, smart cities, hospital consolidation, vertical integration, consumerism. Contact Jeff if you're a provider or digital company with an interesting take on data ethics in healthcare. How do you view data in the post Cambridge Analytica era? Catastrophic Care  Measure What Matters  Neil Versel Conferences Mentioned HIMSS, HLTH, Health IT Expo, Health 2.0, JP Morgan, Healthcare of Tomorrow, Health Datapalooza Subscribe to Weekly Updates If you like what we're doing here, then please consider signing up for our weekly newsletter. You'll get one email from me each week detailing: New podcast episodes and blog posts. Content or ideas that I've found valuable in the past week. Insider info about the show like stats, upcoming episodes and future plans that I won't put anywhere else. Plain text and straight from the heart :) No SPAM or fancy graphics and you can unsubscribe with a single click anytime. The #HCBiz Show! is produced by Glide Health IT, LLC in partnership with Netspective Media. Music by StudioEtar