Film Public Relations (PR) Firms Site Owners and Leaders

Networking Though Pre-existing Business Contacts to Form New Relationships

Networking Partner Hand Shake

Networking Though Pre-existing Business Contacts to Form New Relationships

Networking is essential in any business. Building mutually beneficial relationships is the one of the keys to good business. That is why Networking Though Pre-existing Business Contacts to Form New Relationships is important. This applies to contacts in any field, including motion picture studios and cable, broadcast, and streaming TV show networks.

When I began working on my first film / TV website, I began acquiring the names and email addresses of people working in PR firms of all sizes.

Asking Questions

When I began emailing these online publicists, introducing myself, I asked them for screener discs and advanced screening admissions. I then began doing something intuitive. I began asking the online publicists questions, gathering intelligence on the PR industry and how things worked. I was new. I didn’t know anything but I wanted to so I asked questions. And guess what? Most, if not all, constructively answered.

They gave me new contacts and pointed me in the right directions.

I then contacted those new online publicists contacts with cleanly edited introduction email messages. I then began building relationships with them.

The Referral and Persistence

An example of my communications: I emailed and get onto the mailing list of the independent film arm of a major film studio so that I could review and publish reviews for their films online. I used that contact inside the company to get a referral to an online publicist within the major motion picture arm of the same studio.

I received an email saying they were “looping” me into the appropriate individual in the major motion picture arm of the studio. That person’s email address was in the CC section of the email. I now had an internal referral and the email address to personnel in the very department that I wanted to contact.

Getting the initial internal company referral was key and took years. It meant I didn’t have to re-introduction myself and that I had already been pre-vetted.

I won’t bore you with the details of what happened afterwards. It did not go according to plan. Lets just say that I made contact with the online publicist around the release of a major motion picture, didn’t receive an advanced screening invitation to the film after speaking with the online publicist for weeks, and stopped my efforts with that individual and that branch of the organization.

I renewed those efforts recently (years later) with that very same online publicist in major motion picture branch of the aforementioned studio. Now I receive advanced screening invites to both arms of the studio.

Before I was accepted onto the list for the major motion picture arm of organization, the online publicist for that branch of the studio (who dealt primarily with New York screenings, more on that later) wanted to know specifically where the reviews for their motion pictures would be published. I sent him the URL where all of our film reviews where housed going all the way back for eight years.

Presentation

During the interim between when I first made contact with the online publicist in the major motion picture arm of the studio and when I made contact the second time, much had changed. The look of the website had be updated. The arcane, custom built website had been replaced by a new, modern-looking, pre-built theme that was fully SEO optimized. We had more writers. We had been accepted into major film festivals and film / TV conventions. We had numerous, on-going podcasts. We had almost triple the amount of Twitter followers. Put simply, we had grown since we first introduced ourselves to the online publicist for the major motion picture branch of the studio.

Night had turned to day.

Leveraging the New Contact

I told the online publicist in the major motion picture branch of the studio that we had writers in NY and LA and that we wanted invites to screenings in both states. I was “looped” into contact with his L.A. counterpart.

I mentioned a Canadian writer on our roster and I was able to get that writer into a Canadian screening for a film from the major motion picture branch of that studio.

Lessons Learned from Networking Though Pre-existing Business Contacts to Form New Relationships

1. When a new contact asks to see your site, make sure it looks professional. Also make sure that information (e.g. reviews) is easily accessible.

2. Make sure you have twenty to thirty reviews published on your site, the newer the reviews the better. That shows that you are current, working, and on point.

3. Don’t be pushy but be clear. You want admission to advanced screening for reviews purposes only. Then reference where those reviews will be published online.

4. Be patient. Relationships take time to build.

Query

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About the author

Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook, ProMovieBlogger, and TrendingAwards.

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