Use the media as a good partner!
March 25, 2009Let me ask you: Do you know how to get free publicity in the newspapers:)?
Do you think I know:)? Short answer: Yes.
It’s as simple as this: If you are in the financial business like me you look around in the bigger newspapers in the financial columns. You do a notification of the journalists who write articles frequently there. They usually have an email adress you can reach them at.
You email the journalist and simply ask him: “What kind of stories are you looking for this month?”. It doesn’t matter what they are focusing on that particular month, because your aim is to tailor make a story that is newsworthy, that entails your company and that also entails what the journalist are looking to make a cover story on.
Example:
You lead a debt relieve company and the financial journalist is this particular month after a story covering “the growing presence of scamsters in business”. How can you tailor make a story for this journalist that entails your company and his aim? That is the stuff to think about. In this case you may think something like this “hmm, my company could ask the journalist to write a story about my company doing a campaign to stop scamsters by paying the legal costs for 1 guy already affected by this scamster crowd the journalist want to have a cover story on. The news value is in the sobbing story about this innocent man getting screwed over and now this nice company jumps in and saves the little guy”.
Tailor make your story to the story the journalist wants to tell and you will be golden. Try it:).
[...] [...]
That’s exactly what I am going to do. Actually turned down by two local reporters. It turns out that my business is compete with their. The downside is that they are aware of my existence. The good side is they are constantly check my progress.
Will give it a tray with different questions to ask.
How about Radio and TV station? They seem to be more affective.
Thanks for the great information!
Hi Terence, first of all thank you for sharing:).
You can do this with all kinds of media, really. The thing to think about is the reciprocity factor. The journalists wants something, a story to entice their subscribers, and if you can tweak what your company does so as to give them a great story (a story they want to cover), then it is a win-win. Though try to stay away from direct competitors, they will not be open toa deal:). I remember when I started my financial company, I did a big mistake of going to my (and I somehow, stupidly, didn’t understand this) competitor and tried open up a JV and they almost destroyed the reputation of my company (and also my private reputation as an entrepreneur). Big mistake, so stay away from the direct competitors, because they only have one interest at heart: destroying you so they can stay in business:).
But try all kinds of media: radio, tv, newspapers, blogs etc. As long as you play by their agenda a little bit and give them a story they want to write about that particular week or month and you will be golden. It could also create a spin off effect where the journalists may call you the next time they have a need for a story. Then you could tweak what your company does at that moment to, ones again, fit the story they want to cover:). Act like a cameleon.