| There is a lot of great advice here. I started as Larry Ellison's handler almost 20 years ago, wrote a book on publicity (Barbara Corcoran endorsed) and teach an online PR class. Media has changed a lot in the last 5 years. It is important to familiarize yourself with the outlet and how the journalist writes. (ie) is the outlet known for listicles? (article to start and then '7 ways to crush it on a start-up budget.' Or, do they prefer pitches based on their editorial calendar? Identify your target customer and find out what they read, listen to and watch. If you have a tech product, focus on where a more technical audience might be like podcasts. You'd be surprised but it's not always the most well known outlet like Mashable that will drive sales or users. While that is great credibility and exciting, there are many opportunities out there. RESOURCE:
HARO www.helpareporterout.com is a good resource to sign up for - free opportunities 3x a day that journalists are posting. Since you will have the "lead" already, keep your response short and to the point. NEWSWORTHY:
To make something newsworthy, look at what is trending in the media. (ie) Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt getting divorced and then think about all the relevant angles. Angles could include being a divorce attorney and contacting your local news to talk about the issues they each face or if you have created a divorce app that helps with custody sharing, etc... you could discuss how that would work. We are in an era of high content consumption online and outlets like Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post rely on contributors. Forbes, for example, turns out 300 articles a day ... a DAY! There are more opportunities for your company to be featured now than in the past so that is good news for you. Try not to get discouraged. It can take time to figure out what works and come back to the journalist with different angles. I've found consistent follow up works. I know that I was rambling a bit but hope that helps. I have some free info on my site www.rachelaolsen.com if you're interested including audio interviews with a Forbes contributor and a writer for US Weekly, Men's Health and Rolling Stone. |