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How can you get your story picked up by the media? Here are a few practical tips to follow.

1. First become familiar with the media outlets you plan to contact. Your pitch should address how your story will work for them. In your pitch, tell them what makes your story right for them.



2. Show producers and journalists receive hundreds of pitches every week, so don't take "no" personally. It could be that they recently did a similar story, or your particular story angle just isn't right for them, or it might not be the best time for your type of story.  Timing is very important when it comes to introducing story ideas to the media. Ask them if someone else may have an interest in your story.


3. If at first, you...

Finding good leads for speaking engagements can be a daunting task especially when you’ve never spoken in front of a crowd before. Even if you have gotten a few gigs, it can be challenging to get hired on a consistent basis. Don’t get discouraged.  Thousands of speakers are making a living from the stage and so can you.  There are multiple ways to find leads for paid speaking engagements.

9 Methods to Find Contacts, Get Booked and Fill Seats

1. Become a leading authority and expert in your niche. Generate awareness about your company and the problems you solve so that you can set yourself apart from your competition. People seek experts who are seen as trusted authorities.


2. Speak for free until you get a paid gig.  Free is good; especially when you have no...

Do you have a special event or occasion, or a unique story to share about your company? If so, you should be sharing it in a press release. Press releases are an excellent way to keep your company in the spotlight. They allow you to share with your allies, employees, customers, and prospects what you are doing in your industry.

When you distribute a press release to the masses through a service like PR Newswire or PR Web, you increase your chances of getting picked up by hundreds of major media outlets including magazines, newspapers, top media websites and broadcast TV affiliates. Press releases can help open the door to inquiring minds – people who want to learn more about what you do. Whenever you distribute a press release you should also...

Doing media interviews -- whether it’s radio, newspaper, television or magazines, and even blogs -- is free publicity. And if you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re consistently leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table. There’s a huge difference between advertising and publicity and I’ll give you four reasons why publicity has a better advantage over paid advertising:

• It’s free.
• People pay more attention to it.
• People are much more likely to trust and believe the message being presented.
• You reach a much larger audience who wants to buy from you.

Just to quickly share with you the real value of publicity: A single radio ad can cost you anywhere from $400 to $20,000 or a lot more per minute depending on the network or show and whether it’s local or national....

As a former award-winning TV producer and host, and a current PR/publicity professional and magazine publisher, I have been on both sides of the media interview playing field. I understand what makes a great interview source, how to conduct an interesting interview, and how to give a compelling interview. There are a few tricks of the trade that can make you look like a pro -- which will make the reporter’s job easier and most likely translate into a better publicity opportunity.

Here are a few basic tips to follow:

• When a publicity campaign generates a media response, try to respond as quickly as possible to the initial contact and subsequent requests from them. Reporters, editors and producers, and show hosts are on a constant deadline. If they don’t get what...

Have you ever watched or heard someone do a television or radio interview and after the interview, you couldn’t remember the phone number even though you were interested in learning more about their product or service? I have had that experience on numerous occasions. If you can’t easily remember their contact information, it becomes a lost sale for them. As a business owner, you should put yourself in that same position. When doing media interviews, wouldn’t you want your listeners or viewers to easily recall your contact information? A vanity or toll-free number is a combination of letters that represents or defines a company’s identity or brand and because it is a very effective marketing technique, these “phone words” should reflect your brand or a description of your brand or identity as...

Before making the choice to purchase an item, such as a mobile phone, or to take advantage of a service such as eating at a restaurant, we most commonly ask for others' opinions on a particular brand or company. That helps people to avoid products and restaurants that are bad while finding out what they can hope for from the rest of the market. That's the process of using a review to check out a particular item, and it's one of reputation management's prime tasks. Reputation management on the Internet is a way to protect and enhance the reputation a business or brand has online. You can do that in-house, or you can employ others to do it for you. No matter what, product reviews are key to reputation management. Those...

Ask yourself the reason why Nike and McDonalds are such popular companies. Is the reason that they are making the best products or services? Is it their long history that automatically confers a reputation for reliability on their brand or company? It's because each of them has a fine reputation for accomplishing what it set out to do. Everything hinges on reputation. Nike's reputation is as a creator of great quality sports gear, and McDonald's is among the top fast-food restaurants on the planet. Reputation is more important than money, both for individuals and for businesses. It's what would lead others to give you their trust and purchase what your business is offering. A good reputation for your business would bring words like QUALITY or EXCELLENCE into people’s minds. Most consumers,...

Advertising is informing the world of how awesome you are, while publicity allows others to sing your praises and let the world know how awesome you are. Which do you think is more effective? When businesses and organizations realize how important publicity is, they tend to have more success than those who rely only on advertising to reach their target market.

Print media, radio, and TV news shows are full of content about companies and organizations. Those with the knowledge of how to present materials in a professional manner to the right people will receive media coverage at no cost, while those with no understanding of how publicity works have to depend on advertising budgets to reach their audience, typically with results that are much less impressive. Here are a few thoughts to...