We’ve written quite a bit in this blog about the importance of PR metrics in  monitoring and implementing successful PR.

However, while numbers and measurements surely have their place in your PR management, there are “soft,” non-numerical indicators that are worth looking at, too.

These are signs and symptoms that help you see whether your PR is going the right way.

Below, we offer you the…

7 Signs You Could Be Doing Better in PR

1. When you send out a press release or media pitch, your phone doesn’t ring.

Is there anything worse than not getting any reaction at all to your press releases or pitches? If this happens all the time, take a close look at:

• how newsworthy your pitches are

• the effectiveness of your press releases and media pitches

• the quality of your media list

2. Your interview skills are rusty.

When was the last time you were interviewed by a journalist or blogger in your industry? Can’t remember. Yeah, it’s been too long. If your pitches aren’t effective, it’s no wonder your coverage has been sparse and your media skills have suffered.

Don’t wait for interview opportunities. Always have your key messages burned into your memory. Practice in front of the mirror, or with employees. Use your “sound bites” at meetings or conferences. You never know when the next PR opportunity will come.

3. You don’t have a media list, or it hasn’t been updated in the last month.

With media organizations downsizing, it’s easy for your media list to get old and stale. Make sure the contact information in your media list is updated.

Another bad sign is if your media list includes only journalists in traditional media — radio, TV, newspapers and magazines — and don’t include bloggers, podcasters and vloggers.

Another thing to watch out for is a media list that does not include your contact’s social media profiles, such as Twitter handle, LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and personal website.

4. You don’t know what’s being said about your company, product, or your competitors.

There’s no excuse for you not to know what’s being said about your business and your competitors. It’s easy enough to stay on top of these things: Sign up for a Google alert for your company name, product name, and names of executives (and those of your competitors). Or populate your RSS reader with search results of these keywords.

5. Key journalists in your industry keep writing about your competitors (and not you).

If your company or product is new in the market, this is understandable. But if you’ve been around at least a couple of years, journalists who regularly cover your industry, especially local media, should recognize you by now.

If you keep thinking that you are the “best kept secret” in your industry, brainstorm some newsworthy activities or pitches you can make, and send them out ASAP. Building relationships take time, and the time to start is now.

6. You still don’t have a social media PR plan.

You can no longer ignore social media. It is here and it’s here to stay. It may seem like additional work for you, but in truth it’s easy to integrate social media into your traditional PR plan.

Need help? Download this complimentary social media PR guide.

7. You respond defensively to negative PR and customer complaints.

Social media has made it easy for everyone, including disgruntled customers, to publish their views on your product. If you react to negative publicity by being defensive — or worse, hostile — then you’re doing your image more harm.

Monitor what’s being said about you, so you can respond to complaints in a timely fashion. Take the discussion into a more private medium, such as email. And resolve the issue as quickly as you can.

As an example, a client had an unhappy customer who didn’t receive a product in the timeframe promised. The customer broadcasted a complaint over Twitter. By acknowledging the customer’s complaint quickly and looking into the situation, our client showed the public that they cared about their customers and are committed to doing right by them. We didn’t have to give anything more than an apology and making sure the package was indeed on its way, and the promised product arrived a few days later.

This is how negative PR becomes positive PR, because that same complaining customer has become one of our client’s biggest fans, constantly re-tweeting our client, posting photos on the client’s Facebook wall and singing their praises publicly.

Any More?

What other warning signs of failing PR have you seen out there? What’s one thing you could you be doing better?

Share them below, or let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

Image by martoppel

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Lady Gaga is a celebrity phenomenon. She rose to stardom on the wings of social media and has achieved so much in little time compared to her predecessors. Consider this:

• she has over 20 million Twitter followers
• almost 50 million people have liked her Facebook page
• she has won 5 Grammy Awards, among many other music awards
• in 2011, Forbes named her the #1 most powerful celebrity and #7 on its list of most powerful women
• she is estimated to have earned over US$90 million as of August 2011

If that’s not enough, the University of South Carolina has created a course, “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.”

Clearly, we can learn a thing or two from someone who has accomplished so much. What can Lady Gaga teach us about getting PR in a social media-driven world?

7 PR Tips You Can Learn From Lady Gaga

1. Start with a good product

Lady Gaga is not the greatest singer who ever lived. Her songs are not the best ever composed. But there’s no denying her talent.

She is classically trained in piano, and has played lead roles in school plays throughout childhood. She also writes her own music, designs her clothes, and masterminds her marketing.

PR Lesson:

It’s much harder for PR to succeed if the product is poor to begin with. But start with a good product, a product that customers would actually pay for and there’s no telling where you can go.

2. Stand out from the competition

From her meat dress to explicit videos, Lady Gaga is not afraid to shock and stir controversy. As we’ve said before, controversy is always newsworthy fuel for PR.

PR Lesson:

Don’t be afraid to ruffle feathers if it means being true to your brand.

3. Have a message and speak it boldly

Lady Gaga’s music and fashion choices all say the same message: Be yourself, accept who you are, including your weirdest quirks. This consistent message has resonated with her audience and turned them into wildly loyal “monsters”.

PR Lesson:

Know what you, your brand, and your product stand for, and shout it from the mountaintops.

4. Give up control

Unlike other artists, Lady Gaga allows everyone to post her music all over the Internet without asserting her copyright. As her music earnings show, this wide online piracy hasn’t hurt her earnings at all.

PR Lesson:

Once you create content and unleash it to the world, you often cannot control who uses that content. This is not always a bad thing – by others spreading your content and your message far and wide – you might reach your sweet spot of paying customers, much faster.

5. Make your own news

Perez Hilton, one of the entertainment media who first took notice of Lady Gaga, says she caught his attention through a video she made herself, independently of her record label.

PR Lesson:

Don’t rely on traditional media gatekeepers and producers to publish content about you. The tools are available today for anyone to create their own content. Keep your content platforms — blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, etc — fresh with new updates and relevant content. Time and time again, I see that it can take just one “tastemaker” or “influencer” to make a brand’s marketing content go viral (which can then translate to sales).

6. Reach new audiences through partnerships

Famous as she is, Lady Gaga willingly shares the limelight with the likes of Tony Bennett, Elton John, Cher, and Beyonce. No doubt these collaborations helped Lady Gaga reach new audiences and make new fans out of them.

PR Lesson:

Reach out to businesses that complement yours, so you can widen your audience reach. While you may be set about who your target customers are, partnerships allow you to tap into audiences you’ve never thought of, who would buy your product or service – if they just knew about you.

7. Persevere

We tend to think of success stories as happening overnight, without realizing all the time and hard work it took for the success to happen. Few know, for example, that Lady Gaga started out playing in small lounges in NYC.

PR Lesson:

Don’t get discouraged if at first you don’t see results from your PR efforts. The seeds you plant now, especially in social media, will bear fruit eventually, and for many years to come. That said, it’s essential to keep track of what does work and keep doing more of it.

What Did I Miss?

These are only some of the PR lessons we can learn from Lady Gaga. I’m sure there are many more.

What other lessons do you think can we learn from Lady Gaga to help us improve our PR? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Or let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

Image by Domain Barnyard

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In today’s guest post, PR professional Laura Ward takes us back to basics by explaining the key PR tools to consider and how to choose the right ones.

So you’ve decided to add public relations to your marketing mix. Or, you’re considering it. Either way, fantastic!  Congratulations on making (or, getting ready to make) a very smart business decision.

Public relations helps build brands, generate awareness and visibility, and drive bottom line results. However, simply realizing you need and want public relations doesn’t make developing and executing the right plan any less intimidating or overwhelming. PR is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the lazy.

Most times, upon answering questions about what they do for a living, PR professionals are the proud recipients of responses such as, “Oh, that’s nice. So, you write press releases.”

“Among a gazillion other things,” the PR professional thinks without verbally offering anything other than, “Yes, that’s definitely part of my job,” while mustering a polite smile.

Public relations is about much more than just press releases. Basically, PR is a tool kit. The. Ultimate. Tool kit.  Its tools are called tactics. Like a drill and a screwdriver, some tactics are used together. Other times, the only one you need is a hammer. It depends upon the project, how it needs to be structured, and what it needs to accomplish.

Whether you want to build, repair, or maintain your business, PR can help. But, how do you choose the right tools for the job?

First, you need to answer a few questions.

Who is your target audience? Identify key audience segments as well as their age ranges and geographic locations (local, regional, national, global).
What do you want to tell these people?  Indicate whether you are selling a product/service, raising money for charity, working to change perceptions, educate the public, or simply get noticed.
What media (traditional, online, and social) deliver news and information to your audience?  What newspapers, magazines, blogs do they read?  What television programs do they watch?

Next, you need to know your options.  Public relations tactics, or tools in the tool kit, include (but are definitely not limited to):

• Traditional media relations
• Online media relations
• Social media relations
• Byline articles
• Op Ed pieces
• Letters to the editor
• Blogging
• Trend pitches
• Community relations
• Events

Finally, you need to understand how each tool works.

Media Relations – Whether traditional, online, or social, media relations involves the development of a media list inclusive of the most appropriate editors, producers, reporters, Facebook pages, and Twitter handles for your organization’s interactions followed by thoughtful and timely communication/engagement with those on the media list. Successful media relations initiatives can elevate a brand via expert spokesperson placement, feature articles, and prominent social media presence.

Byline Articles – Often ghostwritten, byline articles appear in magazines and newspapers and tend to fit topically/thematically with content dictated by a publication’s editorial calendar.

Op Ed Pieces/Letters to the Editor – When a brand, business, or organization has a position or opinion to communicate about a particular subject/issue, it is often wise to craft and submit for publication an op ed article or letter to the editor.

Blogging/Vlogging – If a brand can make a commitment to posting a new blog and/or video at least once per week, this tactic can prove extremely successful in helping the brand gain traction online by driving web site traffic and building social media buzz.

Trend pitches – Most businesses live and breathe trends, whether setting them or contributing to them. Organizational leaders are automatically experts on those trends and can distinguish their brands by highlighting existing trends in new ways and predicting and introducing future trends.

Community relations – Some of the strongest and most valuable relationships a brand can establish and maintain are those with the communities in which its offices, retail locations, etc. are based. Whether through college scholarship programs or regular donations to local charities or other programs, brands can build reputations as good citizens by giving back to their communities. These good works can and should be publicized.

Events – From press conferences and media tours to fundraisers and community activities that include local celebrities, events of any size can reinforce brand awareness and identity through experiential relationships with various audience segments.

In most cases, the volume of the messages brands communicate is ultimately controlled by two things: budget and resources. Fortunately, public relations tactics can, and most often do, effectively maximize dollars for the greatest possible impact.  Dedicating resources, either internally or externally (or both) is paramount, provided those assigned to development and implementation of PR programs are capable of multi-tasking and meeting deadlines, but are not expected to multi-job (e.g., juggle PR, administrative, and financial duties).

Truth be told, most businesses and organizations can stand to benefit from utilizing a carefully mapped out strategic combination of nearly all the aforementioned PR tactics. The more tools plucked from the kit and successfully manipulated to work in concert with one another and speak to target audiences, the louder and more penetrable the messages and the greater their overall impact.

Laura Ward is the award-winning public relations professional behind WardComm Public Relations. She thrives on utilizing the written word, whether via press releases, by-lined articles, newsletters, websites, or social media; creating and executing public relations campaigns; fostering relationships with the media; planning events; multi-tasking and meeting tight deadlines. Follow Laura on Twitter.

photo credit: turtlemom4bacon

Related posts:

1. 109 Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible to the Media This post was first published in Copyblogger.com. My friend Patrick...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love to watch movies and this summer I noticed a lot of highly anticipated films. I find it amazing whenever a “summer blockbuster” not only breaks box office records, but also generates a huge buzz that gets people talking- sometimes months before the movie’s opening!

There are definitely more than a few PR and marketing lessons to be learned from the movies, but when it comes to writing your next media pitch, take special note of these ones:

Timing

Releasing a movie during the summer almost always guarantees more box office sales for that movie than any other time of year. Why? Because people have more free time during the summer to watch movies.

Tie your pitch into what’s happening around you. There are 5 things you should know about the media and one of them is that if you can answer the questions “why you?” and “why now?” you’ll get their attention.

Entertainment Factor

Audiences watch movies in order to be entertained. The media want to tell a story that will not just inform, but entertain their audiences and keep them coming back for more.

Don’t just write a pitch for the journalist or outlet you have in mind. Think about what matters to their audience and tailor your pitch to speak to their audience’s wants and needs first.

The First Ten

A summer blockbuster has to grab you from the first ten minutes or you may quickly lose interest. Likewise, you want to hook a journalist in from the first sentence of your pitch in order to keep them reading.

One of my favorite ways to get inspired to write a pitch is to ask myself: What’s the boldest, most outrageous or provocative statement you’re willing to make? It’s a fun question that will definitely get your creative juices flowing and help you write that compelling hook.

How do movies inspire your pitch writing? Your PR and/or marketing efforts? Share your tips in the comments below or send me a message via Twitter or Facebook.

Photo Credit: Bang It Out

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A question that entrepreneurs often ask me is “What should I focus on to make my business more successful: PR, Marketing or Sales?”

You probably think that I’d say PR without question, right? But the reality is a business would thrive better with all three elements working closely together.

Marketing works to communicate the value of your offerings to your customers, potential clients, employees and investors, through your own advertising, newsletters and website. It’s you talking about yourself.

Public Relations can be simply defined as activities that build awareness and credibility for your company, product or service through third-party influencers – such as the media and bloggers. It’s others talking about you.

Sales is essentially the act of closing the leads brought in by your marketing and public relations efforts.

• Even though there are at least 50 great things about it, PR can’t always guarantee you’ll get a good review or media article (or even an article at all) within the timeline you need it by. With other marketing efforts, you have control over your message and how often it runs in your chosen channels.

• On the other hand, traditional and online marketing can often require more money to do and don’t have the same power of persuasion as a third-party endorsement- like a positive article or blog post from a key influencer in your niche.

• Without marketing and PR, sales can pretty much cease to exist as you need these activities to help “pre-sell” your leads and bring them to your business.

It’s definitely worth it to take the time to figure out how you can better integrate marketing, PR and sales into your communications and business development plan. And if you already utilize all three, I suggest doing a regular check to see if they are still working in harmony together.

How is your company integrating your Marketing, PR and Sales efforts? What works or doesn’t work for you? I’d love to know your thoughts- leave a comment below or send me a message on Twitter or Facebook.

Photo Credit: Scott Maxwell

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve been thinking about my business a lot lately. So far, I’m really happy with the way things have been going. Business is growing faster than I can sometimes handle — and that’s a good thing.

However, it’s clear I need to prune some areas of my biz in order to let the other areas grow even more.

And so, I have decided to retire two of my products: How to Do Your Own PR: A Guide for Small Businesses and Social Media for Beginners: Generating Online Buzz.

Before I take them off the shelves, I’d like to give you the opportunity to buy them — at a huge discount.

From today until Friday, July 15, 2011, you can purchase How to Do Your Own PR and Social Media for Beginners for only $47 each.

That’s $150 off the regular price!

If you’re interested, grab these today, because after July 15, they will no longer be available — at any price.

Click here to check out this massive sale.

Or click on the ecovers below:

Remember, these products will disappear after midnight this Friday, July 15. So don’t wait!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yes, we all have them.

A professional crush is someone who is brilliant and you admire a lot (sometimes from afar). You want to follow in their footsteps. You’d love to pick their brains all day. You will do anything to work on a project with them.

For years now, one of my professional crushes has been Guy Kawasaki, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Apple evangelist and marketing guru. I first met and wrote about Guy in 2007 when he was speaking about his book The Art of the Start – a start-up bootstrapper’s bible that I still refer my clients to.

Like real-life crushes, throughout the years, my path would cross with Guy’s – close, but not quite close enough:

• My friend Ria Sharon hosted a “virtual pajama party” as a fundraiser and I was on the same “virtual stage” as Guy and Lewis Howes.
• When I started my blog two years ago with just four posts and a Twitter following of maybe a hundred, Guy tweeted about me and one of his followers contacted me to work for his company.  Talk about social media power.
• And more recently, Guy was interviewed by Maruxa Murphy and she mentioned to him that she first heard about him from me.

Like real-life crushes, I’m sure Guy still didn’t know me from the 365,000 followers he currently has on Twitter.

When I found out he was coming to Vancouver for an event, I thought about buying a ticket, but that wouldn’t differentiate me from the hundreds of people there. I wanted to stand out.

So I set out to enchant my professional crush from what I’ve learned from his books and speeches. Here’s what Guy says about Enchantment and how I, in turn, implemented it:

Remove Barriers to Entry

This is about making it easy for people to get started with your product or service. “Don’t ask people to fill out 10 fields of personal information to open an account. Don’t require an appointment for a consultation,” says Guy. “Instead, create a slippery slope that gets people to work with you as quickly as possible.

Since I knew Guy was promoting his new book and it seemed the event wasn’t doing any PR, I reached out to him to see if he wanted to do a media interview with local press. I showed that I understood his needs, and by helping him out, empower him with more exposure as well as allow him to “try” out our PR service with no risk and no obligation.

I’m thrilled when Guy responds to me with a “Yes, let’s do this.”

Deliver Bad News Early

As Guy says: “Shiitake happens: products have problems, deliveries get delayed, employees get sick. Be proactive and tell your customers about the problem before they discover the hiccup for themselves. And to get on top of your game, let them know how you’ll solve the problem at the same time.”

Guy had time for only one interview and it had to be with a national outlet. We managed to secure the interview two weeks in advance of the event, no problem.

But, shiitake happens. Less than 48 hours before the event, the reporter cancelled on us. I was really embarrassed, especially since Guy gave me two tickets worth $800 to the event as a thank you. I offered to return them.

Guy being Guy, he responds: “It’s okay. Attend the event anyway. I’ll just play hockey that morning!”

Enchanting, for sure.

And I have to say, I work with an equally enchanting colleague, Jackie Peterson. She placed numerous calls and emails, trying to get a national publication at short notice. Together, we also played the six degrees of separation game: “Who do we know, that would know so and so….”

With a little bit of persistence and creativity (all the while sweating bullets about our reputation with Guy), we managed to secure a national media outlet with a reach of over 1 million. And because we reached out to multiple people, more interviews are in the works.

Phew. Reputation with professional crush, rescued.

Allow People to Reciprocate

Guy says: “People you help, want to give back. Let them.”

Reciprocating doesn’t have to mean cash for your services. In our case, Guy gave us passes to the event, and is sending over signed copies of his book.

In other cases where you have demonstrated your product or service on a trial basis, you could ask for a testimonial that would help give you credibility. You could ask for feedback or mentorship. You could ask for an introduction to a company or a contact of theirs that you would like to meet. You might just get what you asked for!

Be A Yes-Man (or Woman)

Finally, Guy says “The single most powerful way to enchant is with a “yes” attitude. It means that you believe the customer is right and reasonable until proven wrong and unreasonable. Custom order? No problem. Early delivery? No problem. Return for full credit? No problem. The math might show that if you did this for everyone, you’d go broke, but not everyone will ask for such treatment. In fact, very few will, and those that do will become your greatest evangelists, so they’re worth the exception.”

Go forth and enchant your customers.

Enchant your influencers too. Often the goodwill you create will go further, and feel much better, than cold, hard, cash.

How do you enchant people with your business? Let me know by posting a comment below, or by sending me a message on Twitter or Facebook.

Reach Guy on Twitter.

Order his latest book, Enchantment, and take up Guy’s special offer.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This post was first published in Copyblogger.com. My friend Patrick Garmoe, a former reporter, wrote this piece and received permission for us to reprint it here. Enjoy!

Ever wonder why some businesses get press and some don’t? Getting a mainstream media outlet to pay attention to your business seems like an impossible-to-solve mystery.

You might see your competitors spouting a diatribe that you know for a fact is wrong, or that you could explain better.

“Why did they interview that guy instead of me?” you wonder.

Actually, it’s not you. 99 times out of 100, it’s not your qualifications, your knowledge, or your ability.

It’s your approach.

After 10 years as a journalist, I’ve seen just about every bad pitch you can imagine. And I’ve also come up with 109 foolproof ways to entice the media in your city to highlight your business — approaches that make the mainstream media unable to resist you.

(And lots of them work just as well with bloggers and social media influencers.)

Build Relationships Months in Advance of Pitching

1. Connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or in real life more than six months in advance of pitching a reporter.

2. Monitor the Twitter hashtags of your community. Often reporters chat with the public on Twitter, and you can respond to comments they make.

3. Compliment a reporter via Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail on a story he or she did.

4. Introduce yourself to reporters at big public or chamber of commerce events. Pass along your card, but don’t try and sell them the idea on the spot. Just be helpful.

5. Invite reporters out for coffee, and ask a lot of questions about them.

6. Leave a comment at the end of the online version of a story a reporter did, which you genuinely liked.

7. Congratulate them on their birthdays, or other personal news they post.

8. Comb through Muck Rack to find regional or national reporters on Twitter who cover your industry.

9. Write a positive blog post on your blog highlighting a story of theirs, and e-mail them the link.

10. Respond regularly to posts they’ve written either on their blog, or on a local community blog you’ve noticed they post on.

11. Visit city council meetings in your town. Typically there’s a reporter sitting around bored, that you can build a relationship with.

12. Sign up on helpareporter.com. Several e-mail lists are sent out daily, full of reporters needing experts for stories. Jump on those that fall within your expertise.

13. Scout publications with smaller and more targeted readerships, such as a local business weekly publication. These media outlets are often run by just two or three people, and they’ll jump at a guest column or article by you because it’ll save them the time of tracking down a story on their own.

14. Listen to AM radio stations, especially on weekday mornings or on Saturdays. Befriend one of the regular show hosts. Often they’ll highlight any business that is doing something interesting the public might find interesting.

15. Nix spending money on an online press release site early on. Those online press release systems are more useful for building inbound links, or if you’re already a recognized expert with a track record, and there’s a major news event breaking that you could discuss.

16. Ask them if they’d mind if you added them to your email list. Then provide them with education-based content marketing to sell them on doing a story about your business.

Once You’ve Met, Make The Pitch Transition Smooth

17. Say “yes” without fail if a reporter wants to interview you that day, even if it has to be over the phone or while you’re on vacation.

18. Offer occasional suggestions of angles you think would make great follow-up stories, especially that don’t have anything to do with your business. Nearly all stories are parts of a long-running issues, so reporters always need additional story follow-up ideas.

19. Offer to connect reporters to experts you know. If the reporter sounds interested, follow through with the offer.

20. Be a source for stories that fall within your expertise by letting reporters in your industry know you’re available when they need a source. This can lead to regular spots on the news.

21. Point reporters to blog posts you genuinely think they’d be interested in – whether on your blog or others. It validates you as an expert.

22. Treat journalists with respect. You’ll set yourself apart just by being friendly.

23. Keep a camera handy for “spot news” photo opportunities, and then pass along to the media outlet. This can be anything from a deer crashing into a department store while you happened to be there to a good shot of an event or store opening.

24. Offer to write a column on your specialty for the online website of a media site, or for a print publication in your area.

Ponder These Issues Prior to Pitching

25. Define the story in just one sentence, so you can easily explain it to the media in 10 seconds.

26. Include people in your story pitch. Many owners try to pitch their company’s achievements, but stories that sell normally have people involved, not just the company.

27. Focus on selling the benefits to viewers, listeners or readers first. It’s about their perspective of what you’re selling, not about how wonderful it would be for you to sell your product or service.

28. Think visually. When can a media station shoot video and pictures? If that’s not possible, are there video or pictures you can provide?

29. Avoid offering a posed or fake event or picture. They are typically frowned on by the media.

30. Hold an event where you’re actually doing what you’re talking about, and invite them to come, whether it’s to write a story, or just take a picture or video.

31. Post your video online for easy download, or put it on DVDs.

32. Seek permission from the individuals in a potential photo shoot ahead of time.

33. Highlight trends in which your business is just one of several examples. Nearly every trend can be turned into a story pitch, and it has the added advantage of letting you not hog the limelight, which reporters often don’t find appealing.

34. Provide actual users of your service or product for the media to interview. Their testimonials will boost your credibility.

35. Offer to review the facts or your quotes if you feel nervous the journalist misunderstood you. Don’t try to pressure the journalist into letting you review the entire article before publication, though, because media stations normally don’t allow this.

36. Provide a journalist with an expert to interview who has used and can vouch for your product. If you sell skin cream, for example, ask a dermatologist who likes your product to be available for an interview.

37. Copy relevant documents for the reporter, to provide at the interview, or prior to it.

38. Create a list of key dates and facts relevant to the story, along with potential quotes.

39. Write a couple paragraphs describing the process in simple terms, ideally with a drawing if the story is complex.

40. Write a killer press release in the form of a ready-made story, if submitting a story to a weekly or a daily in regions of fewer than 50,000 people. You’d be surprised how often a newspaper will print almost exactly what you sent.

41. Give reporters two weeks’ notice for an upcoming story or event.

42. Remain flexible. Reporters have days that are jam-packed with breaking news, and other days that are slower and more open to a less-urgent story like yours.

43. Choose to meet in person if an option, because the journalist will then get to know you better, and you’ll have more time with him or her.

44. Travel to where the story actually happens for the interview – whether in your office or an hour away at a gravel pit.

45. Muzzle the natural urge to provide stacks of background research. Most reporters don’t have the time or interest in looking through it.

46. Leap on breaking news relevant to your industry as a chance to put yourself in the local news. The shootings in Arizona presented an opportunity for anyone who deals with mental health to be interviewed on local radio, television and in the newspaper.

47. Pitch local stories to local reporters. National attention typically springs from local attention first.

48. Call ahead and pitch a story, if you’re showcasing your products at a local convention or other major event typically covered by the news. Otherwise reporters just walk the aisles and randomly choose businesses to speak with.

49. Watch the calendar, and pitch a story that would ideally run around major holidays, when things are often really slow in newsrooms.

50. Act enthusiastic. If you don’t seem excited about the idea, neither will they.

51. Express why this story is of value to your community. If it’s a story you wouldn’t bother watching or reading, don’t pitch it.

52. Show an image that encapsulates the story you’re trying to tell. When Google held a national competition, our video shot on a Flip Camera received national attention from a variety of media outlets because it easily showed in one image how wild the competition became.

53. Forget about giving up. Don’t be a pest, but keep trying every few weeks to pitch an idea, until a reporter gives a straight yes-or-no answer to your idea.

54. Write very short e-mails to reporters. Three or four sentences total. Your e-mail is much more likely to get read by busy reporters if it’s short and to the point.

55. Devote lots of time on e-mail subject lines to reporters. You can apply the same techniques for writing magnetic headlines for blog posts – they make both readers and reporters want to know more about what you have to say.

21 Kinds of Reporter Bait

56. Hold a fundraising drive.

57. Do X for the 10th, 20th, 50th year.

58. Launch a brand new product.

59. Sell product X locally for the first time.

60. Provide an environmentally friendly version of a product everyone uses – and be the only local place to purchase it.

61. Link your underlying story pitch with some basic human emotion, like love, fear or hope. Start a knitting story in memory of your late aunt, who taught you about knitting.

62. Frame your story as a local example of a national or international issue currently in the news. If Congress is debating health care, and your clinic has developed a unique program for handling people without insurance, you’ve got a pitch.

63. Time a pitch about your company for a few weeks before your company’s anniversary.

64. Buck a trend. It’s Christmas Eve, and you’ve seen an uptick in your toy store sales, while everyone else has noticed a downturn.

65. Launch a product or service in your community no one locally has ever sold.

66. Highlight that you’re doing something most people are afraid to attempt, such as starting a business during a recession.

67. Brag. If you’ve been interviewed by a local media outlet, a larger one, or a major publication, play it up. It shows you’re desirable as a media interview.

68. Spotlight unique ties to major events. Show how your business has doubled through word of mouth marketing after volunteering for two weeks during Hurricane Katrina.

69. Share how you just hit X,000 regular subscribers on your blog, and show how that translates to online sales. This process remains foreign and therefore fascinating to most reporters.

70. Reveal how you’ve transitioned a primarily brick-and-mortar store into doing a healthy amount of online sales.

71. Announce that your business for the first time employs four generations of the same family.

72. Embrace anything that makes you unique. A local jewelry store owner in Northern Wisconsin received media coverage across all of Minnesota and Wisconsin simply because the owner felt the end of the world was coming soon, and incorporated it into his commercial.

73. Compile fascinating data. OkCupid.com mined its customer data to show which smartphone users have the most sex. What kind of irresistible statistic could you compile from your business?

74. Run a weird contest. Be the beauty parlor giving a makeover to the husband of the women who makes the best case that he looks like a slob.

75. Write an e-book. Just being able to say you’ve written a recently released “book” can be enough of a news hook for a story.

76. Look for sections in the newspaper that highlight interesting businesses, often under headlines like “What’s That Business.” Normally a simple phone call with a pitch will secure a feature on your business.

How To Become A Favorite Source for Reporters

77. Explain things chronologically if possible.

78. Speak slowly, so the reporter has time to take notes and mentally process what you’re saying.

79. Tell the story twice. The first time give the sweeping overview, and then return to the start of the story, and fill in all the details. The second time around you’ll remember more and fill in gaps in the narrative, and the reporter will ask better questions.

80. Respond to a reporter’s phone call or e-mail immediately, or as soon as humanly possible. Reporters love dependable, helpful people.

81. Provide information from most to least important if time is irrelevant to the topic.

82. Allow the reporter to lead the interview if he or she comes with questions.

83. Wear a company logo, and dark, solid colors on camera. Clothes with stripes or checkered patterns look bad on television.

84. Don’t waste time. Assume you won’t have more than half an hour to speak to the reporter.

85. Answer the obvious questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How and So What.

86. Ponder how you will answer every potential question, and don’t assume there won’t be any difficult ones.

87. Stay on topic.

88. Offer to return as a regular guest either weekly, monthly, or as needed, once your first interview concludes.

89. Send an e-mail or note a day after the interview talking about how you appreciated the reporter’s time, or how great the story was.

90. Provide a clear call to action, if there is one.

91. Ask the reporter to summarize what you said every few minutes during an interview. This typically gives you a better chance to clarify and reiterate key points.

92. Repeat your key couple of messages, so it’s more likely to make it in the story.

93. Refrain from saying “no comment” if you can’t answer a question. Explain why you’d prefer not to answer.

94. Remain flexible with the reporter, even if he or she decides to take the story in a direction that isn’t ideal in your eyes.

95. Assume anything you say will be printed or stated by the journalist. Avoid saying “off the record” unless the reporter verbally agrees to keep what you’re about to say out of the story.

96. Work with one news outlet at a time on a story.

97. Talk in short sentences, using simple English.

98. Avoid slang, industry vernacular or abbreviations.

99. Provide a business card with your name, title, and what numbers to reach you at both during and after business hours.

100. Contact the reporter every few weeks, to remain top of mind, and find out when the publication or air date will be.

101. Post on your website and other online outlets footage of you on television. Have someone record or videotape the segment while on television, just in case the station can’t or won’t provide you with a copy.

102. Propose being on a local Sunday show or early morning show, which often gives you 20 minutes to highlight your business.

103. Pre-write tweets and a blog post, so you can quickly tell friends, family, clients and supporters when the story runs without losing time.

A Few Important Don’ts

104. Don’t cold call. Warm up the reporter by sending an e-mail first, with a paragraph spelling out the bottom line of the story idea, then follow up with a call a few hours or a day later, depending on the urgency of the story.

105. If you must cold call due to time constraints, never call after 3 p.m.

106. Don’t neglect your headline. Without a good one, you’re dead.

107. Don’t try to get an editor. Their mentality is often to help reporters eliminate mediocre story ideas. Reach out for reporters instead – they’re looking for material.

108. Don’t show up in the newsroom unannounced.

109. Don’t mail information in unsolicited.

The list might seem insanely a bit daunting. But if all you do is take one step in each category (and respect all of the Don’ts), you’re likely to gain more coverage than any of your competitors. The bottom line is: reach out, be helpful, and get busy.

I’ll hang out in the comments section to help out anyone who has questions. But quite frankly, I’d rather see you out there, connecting with reporters, selling stories about you and your fantastic business successes.

The publicity is there for the taking. All you have to do is ask.

Patrick Garmoe serves as social media strategist for PureDriven, a Minnesota digital marketing agency that specializes in helping businesses spread great ideas both online and offline, and offers a free, four-part online seminar to teach you how to garner online and offline attention for your business. You can reach Patrick on Twitter @Garmoe.

Top image from Yuri Arcurs Website

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When you’re not getting any media coverage, whose fault is it ?

Is it media’s? They’re preoccupied with other things, especially politics and show business — topics that probably don’t have anything to do with your product.

Is it the fault of your business? It’s just not interesting enough, or compelling enough to warrant media attention.

Or is it your fault? Are you doing something wrong?

To answer these questions, here are…

5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Any Media Attention

1. You never reach out

If you think journalists are preoccupied, you’re right. They’re always under pressure to meet deadlines, and a hundred different things are vying for their attention every day.

So if you never attempt to get some of their attention to you, then you have little chance for media coverage. A well thought out press release or media pitch, given to the right journalists or editors, will go a long way to keeping you on top of their minds — or at least pretty close to it.

2. You’re unprepared

The “luckiest” people are those who are always prepared enough to grab opportunities when they appear. If you don’t have a media kit and media page to provide information to interested journalists, if you don’t know what’s happening around you that might be relevant to your business, if you take forever to return calls or set up interviews, then you’re out of luck. Always be ready with some of the basic PR tools you need to get free publicity.

3. You don’t create your own news

If your business is interesting enough to attract customers, then it’s interesting enough for the media. But often, you have to package it that way. Regularly mine your business for media-sexy stories, and pitch these to the media.

Sometimes, you have to create your own news. Organize events, participate in fundraisers, conduct a study, or partner with more prominent businesses and organizations.

4. You’re not connecting with the right journalists

If you’re pitching to the wrong reporters and editors, then your story will never get told. Don’t send your media pitch to the business editor, for example, if your product is more suitable for the lifestyle section of a newspaper.

Also, don’t send out a template pitch to everyone on your media list. Take the time to personalize and customize each one, so you’re addressing what each reporter or editor is most interested in.

Know which media outlets and journalists reach your target audience and connect with them. With social media, it’s now easier than ever to get direct access to journalists.

5. You’re out of touch with what’s newsworthy

Any sort of media work is difficult if you don’t have your finger on the pulse of the media. That is, if you don’t know what media are publishing and broadcasting, how will you know what they’re looking for? Consume media and observe which stories get publicity. You’ll be surprised at how many opportunities you can spot this way.

Whose Fault Is It?

After reading the list above, I hope you now realize how much there is you can do to get more media attention. You don’t have to wait until journalists discover your awesome products. Go out there and shine a light on your business!

How can you do better? What can you start doing, or do more of, to gain more media exposure?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Or send me a message on Twitter or Facebook. I’m looking forward to it!

Image from Crestock Stock Photo

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One of the first things we do with new clients is look at their website to see if they have an online media center.

An online media center is a page on your website with all the important background information on your company or business. It should give an interested journalist the answers to the basic questions running in his or her head:

Who?

What?

Why?

How?

When?

So what?

Why you need an online media center

You may be wondering, “Why do I need a separate online press center or press page, when all the information about my business is already on my website?”

Even though you website may already explain what you do clearly and cohesively, a lot of times a business site is very deep. That means a lot of the important information a reporter needs are buried in separate pages throughout your site.

The reporter has to figure out what exactly your company does and why they and their audience should care about you. If reporters have a hard time finding the answers, then they’re simply going to leave your site. They’re not going to spend 10 minutes clicking around to find the answers.

What this means is, a good press page can rescue a good story!

And a bad one — or not having a press page at all — can kill a potential story about you and your business.

With a good media center, a reporter landing on your site will be able to quickly go to the tab marked “Press” or “Media Center” and know that all the information is there for them to learn about your business and make a decision about whether to write about you or not.

Unfortunately, not all business websites are properly organized and written to provide the information media need quickly and easily.

A dedicated press page or media center is the answer. It will make a journalist’s job much easier, which means more media coverage for you.

What should be in your online media center

Think of your media center as a press kit in digital format. It contains essentially the same elements a physical press kit would have, such as:

• Company Background. A brief background of your company: how did it begin, what is its vision and mission, what milestones has it reached?

• Photos. Photos of you and other essential personnel, as well as beauty shots of each of your products. You may also include photos of special events, if they are newsworthy.

• Bios. Short biographies of the company owners and founders, as well as top management.

• Products. Include a list of your products or services, with a brief description of each. Mention why each product or service is significant in the marketplace. You can link out to detailed descriptions.

• FAQs. Provide answers to the most commonly asked questions you get from media. Or what you anticipate reporters would want to ask. This can be a useful place to “plant” a question, such as one that reveals a unique or little-known fact about your product/service.

• Possible Interview Topics. Go ahead and provide a list of topics best suited to your products/services and business. Dig deep to uncover all the media-sexy stories your business can tell.

• Press Releases and Media Coverage. Include a list of previous press releases you have written as well as any media coverage your business has received. If possible, link to where the articles are published online.

• Contact Information. Prominently display how a reporter can contact you and do make sure the telephone number and email address you provide are where someone can reach you immediately!  With tight deadlines and breaking news, if you’re not available the reporter will move on to their next source.

How to organize your online press page

All this information can be difficult to organize on a single web page, especially if you have a number of products/services. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Tabs

To keep everything within a single page, you can use tabs. Each element will have its own tab, and all the tabs are visible at the top of the page. This makes it easy for the reporter to go from one tab to the next without leaving the press page.

• Within-page Links

You can have all the elements on one long page, but at the top of the page, have a hyperlinked list of all the contents. That way, the reporter stays on one page while accessing all the information he or she needs. However, this can get unwieldy for very long pages. Make sure you have plenty of “return to top” links throughout the page, so the reporter can return to the list of contents easily.

• Links to Other Pages

Another way is to populate your press page with links out to separate pages for photos, products, etc. This will require the reporter to leave the press page, but with proper navigation links, it doesn’t have to be difficult to move around.

Work with your web master or designer to decide on the best structure for your press page.

How are you doing?

Do you currently have an online press center? If so, what does it look like? How can you improve it?

If you don’t have an online press page yet — what are you waiting for?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post them in the comments below. Or connect with me on Twitter or Facebook and let me know what you think!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.