Discussing Adaptability, UMN’s Strategic Communications Public Lecture Invites Sinar Mas Land’s Head of PR

Sinar Mas Land’s Head of PR Quinta Binar (fourth from left) with UMN Communications Faculty lecturers in a Strategic Communication public lecture at UMN’s Lecture Theater, Wednesday (23/4). (Doc. UMN)

TANGERANG- The Strategic Communication (Stracomm) study program at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN), held a strategic media relations public lecture that brought Sinar Mas Land’s Head of Public Relations, Quinta Binar, to UMN’s Lecture Theater on Wednesday (23/4).

For the record, before joining Sinar Mas Land as Head of the PR Department in 2024, Quinta also served as Account Director and Manager at Burson Cohn & Wolfe Southeast Asia (BCW SEA) and PR Consultant at PT Fortune PR.

As a long-time practitioner in the world of public relations, Quinta shared her experiences ranging from how corporate communication (corcomm) works to what it takes to be an adaptive corcomm.

According to Quinta, corcomm plays a vital role in managing how information in the company can be conveyed to external parties. This function is part of building the company’s image. Corcomm is in charge of absorbing information from other teams holding company projects and preparing the information material for the media.

Therefore, a corcomm’s ability to build relationships with the media, from conventional to online, is very important.

This can be done in various ways, from media engagement to activities outside of professional work that build closeness. In Sinar Mas Land, for example, one of the activities is joint sports activities and editor-in-chief forums.

“With this kind of engagement, we can exchange information on what is happening. If the source is a journalist, especially the editor-in-chief, it becomes an essential insight for the corcomm team,” said Quinta.

Sinar Mas Land’s Head of PR, Quinta Binar, delivered a public lecture on media relations. (Doc. UMN)

Meanwhile, through media engagement, the corcomm’s team of this property development company maintains relationships ranging from local media networks so that local media gets the latest information from Sinar Mas Land projects to the ‘Sinar Mas Land Property Outlook’ event, which invites company directors to property observers to be covered by the media.

“Building relationships cannot be done once or twice. Therefore, there are various media networking activities, inviting the media to events, and so on. Efforts must be made to build relationships and understanding,” Quinta said.

The Importance of Writing Skills and Understanding the Media Industry

To effectively deliver company information, Quinta said a corcomm must continue to follow and understand the situation of the media industry. This includes current issues and the political stance of each news media.

“The more we understand the situation of the media industry, it will help us make decisions later, including being able to create relevant content and choose the right channel to reach the target audience,” said Quinta.

Knowledge of the media industry is beneficial not only for choosing the right media channel but also for determining the form of information delivery, whether it is enough through releases alone, whether a press conference is needed, or whether a focus group discussion is more suitable.

Some of Quinta’s tips include researching the conglomerate media industry in Indonesia, regularly checking media registered with the Press Council, and using the media database platform, Telum Media, to monitor the movement of journalists and media in Indonesia.

This understanding will later be reflected in press releases and standby statements written by a corcomm. Compared to public speaking, Quinta said it is more important for a corcomm to have writing skills.

“Being able to write is a big possibility for corporate communicators. Make releases that are newsworthy, relevant, and based on public interest,” Quinta said.

Quinta also shared tips on writing press releases, starting with finding a relevant angle through extensive research, ensuring 5W+1H writing and news value, and writing that is concise and no more than two pages.

In addition to writing skills, a corcomm needs the ability to adapt to technology in following the increasing number of information delivery channels, including conducting media monitoring. This is required in order to measure how much the company’s news is published by the media and how much value the news publication has.

“Corcomm needs to be adaptive and follow developments to make the media always be in the company’s information loop, but by not leaving the existing journalistic rules approach. The old school media relations approach still needs to be done because not all stakeholders depend on just one channel,” Quinta concluded.

Public lecture on media relations of the Strategic Communication study program with Head of PR Sinar Mas Land Quinta Binar at Lecture Theater UMN, Wednesday (23/4). (Doc. UMN)

By LAS | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan , di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara.