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I could sense that my 7 year old’s curiosity quotient was increasing by the day. Before she could broach the question, I said, “I know you heard me mention the word media map and you are keen to know about this new jargon, you have stumbled upon”. Her wide smile was taken as a big Yes

In Public Relations, It’s useful to have all the information in a media map in a tidy format. But Media Map should be the beginning of the pitch research process, not the end. After you discover what types of media your stakeholders are listening to, it’s time to determine who the key influencers are within those media segments. In other words, find those particular journalists, bloggers, analysts, consultants, etc. who write about or comment on your industry and whom your prospects and customers trust. There are two simple ways to do this.

One: read, read, read. Read a variety of publications and learn as much as you can about the publications relevant to your business. Pay attention to the bylines and take note of the people writing about your industry.

Two: Locate the journalists covering your beat. An excellent resource for finding journalists is through Twitter. This is a very Web 2.0 method and one that is updated often. The two Twitter pages to try are Media on Twitter and Twittering Journalists.

In today’s media landscape the professional blogger is gaining relevance within the news making community. In fact, some blogs are better read than many traditional newspapers and magazines. Make sure that both traditional media and social media is an integral part of your media map. You can check out Buzzgain’s Do it Yourself PR to learn in detail about understanding the media map.