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The best PR happens away from the office

The best PR happens away from the office

South Carolina's Beamer builds relationships and shares stories before the football season

Gail Sideman
July 31, 2025

Save the date: NIL information coming your way! Join a panel — that includes me — for PRSA’s Entertainment and Sports Section NIL Collective Series, Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m. EDT. I’ll talk about how athletes can train for media and business opportunities like they train for their sport. Other panelists will dig into different parts of the name, image and likeness space. Register here. If you send me questions by email, I’ll answer them on the panel.

Speaking of NIL, if you’re an athlete or know an athlete who wants to learn and earn during their college careers, share this basic to-do post as we head into a new athletic-academic year —> New Season. New Classes. New Ways to Slay NIL.

Beamerball goes beyond X’s and O’s on the football field.

For University of South Carolina coach Shane Beamer, connecting with the media is a way of life.

This week, Beamer hosted his fifth “Birdies with Beamer” golf scramble, which paired local reporters with the Gamecocks coaching staff for 18 holes away from the office. Reporters got golf, lunch and a post-round press conference previewing the upcoming football season. On-field coaches were available for interviews after Beamer’s time at the mic.

Shane Beamer makes a preseason round of golf an opportunity for his staff to speak informally with media covering the Gamecocks football team.

It got me thinking about one of the most obvious ways to build and maintain strong media relationships: Make yourself and your organization’s leaders available.

Sounds simple enough, but you’d be amazed how many A) don’t do this or B) ignore media calls when asked for input (if you’re a regular reader, you know that’s one of my pet peeves).

Example: A former client went AWOL when a national outlet contacted him several times to appear on-air to weigh in on storylines. He was— and still is—an expert. He didn’t disappear because he didn’t like the network, but… I still don’t know why. It made him look bad and made me look like a fool each time I had to chase him down. I kindly warned him: Keep ghosting them, and you can scratch them off your list when you want coverage.

They stopped calling. I would have, too.

Of course, there’s a clear PR lesson. Go old school. Break bread and have some fun before you need media—like Beamer does before the season ramps up. Here’s how that helps:

1—> You’re among the first calls when reporters need an expert for a story.

2—> You build relationships when media aren’t stressed with deadline pressure.

3—> When you’re off the field and away from the pressroom, media get to know you as a human, not a corporate robot.

4—> Got a new project or book? They’re more likely to say yes when you pitch them, too.

5—> Your response—or silence—reflects on your entire organization. It’s bigger than you.

Props to Beamer. He’s not the only one working on media relationships, but he’s among the few who do it with a play day. That says a lot about how he respects the people who cover his team.

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