Architects have no time for media

One of the biggest hurdles to architects and designers getting published seems to be time. Everyone is so stretched within their practices, sitting down and putting together content for a journalist can just slip to the bottom of the list. But promoting your work in the right places is just so important.

Well, this week Nic and I were given the perfect example of how quickly you can get out to journalists. One of our users signed up, and within 15 minutes they had set up their project on the system and sent it to key publications they wanted to target. Within a few hours, they had made contact with editors and were ready to publish.

All a journalist really needs to get started:

• Professional photography
• Description of project
• Location
• Project type
• Credits

But let’s break this down to understand how long you actually need to spend preparing content…

Description text | 2 – 20 mins

You don’t need to spend hours crafting the perfect story. This is what journalists do. If you already have text on your website, copy and paste it in (that’s the 2-minute option). If you haven’t written anything yet, use our Brief, Challenges, Solutions storytelling tool. This doesn’t need to take more than 20 minutes – just write as if you were talking to a client.

DO NOT USE ARCHISPEAK!

Photography | 1 – 5 mins

If you’re planning to get published (or have an up-to-date website) you will already have your photography ready. All you need is a Dropbox or Google Drive link, with all the photos you’re happy to publish, and your photography is set.

Credits | 1 – 5 mins

Add all the relevant credits for the project, including photographer and project team members where relevant.

Q+A | 10 – 20 mins

Using a great tool like a BowerKit helps you to prepare a simple Q+A covering the Who, What, When, Where and Why – everything a journalist needs to understand your project. Again, don’t think too hard about this, just answer in your own voice, as if you were talking directly to clients (the kind without a degree in architecture/literature).

At the very most, this process should take you no more than an hour. If you’ve got all your ducks in a row, it can take less than 20 minutes.

So go check out a BowerKit like this one to see exactly what you need, and how quickly you can pull it together. Spending an hour up front can help you get published in the right places more often.