We’ve moved the blog to www.ChristinaDaves.com/blog. Check out our updated post that discusses being newsworthy.
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Anyone can make themselves or their business newsworthy. It just takes some creativity and outside of the box thinking.
That’s one of my specialties at PR for Anyone®. I help you figure out how to make yourself stand out of the crowd and get the media and your customers to take notice.
I was at an event last week where Linda Boland Abraham, Co-Founder of comScore spoke. I couldn’t believe my years as the founder of a $600+ million dollar publicly traded company talked about how she gets free publicity for her business and products by establishing herself as an expert in her industry.
Instead of always pitching a product or her business per se, she pitches herself as the expert in that industry and of course she and her business are always referenced in the articles or on television. She’s frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal and featured on national television.
Here are my best tips for making yourself newsworthy.
1) What are you an expert at? Find a niche in your industry and become THAT expert. Offer something to the media that no one else can.
I created a product and a space in the marketplace that never existed before. I took an ugly medical boot and made it fashionable. The media loves this story of seeing a need, creating a product idea, and seeing it through to market. It never gets old.
2) When breaking news in your industry happens, pick up the phone and start offering your expertise.
I was shocked when after the initial Target breach, my local NBC station had on an “Executive Business Coach” to talk about the ramifications. I’m sure she was the first one to pick up the phone and call. It would have been better suites for someone in I.T. security or a Cloud specialist but the early bird got the worm and this Business Coach was the featured expert on the Target Breach story.
3) Think outside of the box when pitching the media
The media sees the same thing over and over. Give them something new and creative and they’ll be thrilled. Anytime you can make their job easier and give them a good story idea, you become someone they will pay attention to.
One way to do that is using the non-traditional calendar. I appeared on FOX for National Healthy Foot Month. An author who wrote a book on honesty was featured for National Honesty Month, and I saw a local baker appear on National Bacon Day with a cupcake with bacon sprinkles. What fun, creative ways can you pitch your business to the media?
Let me know what great ideas you come up with and if you want some help, check out Creative PR Strategies on our shop page.
To Your PR Success,
Hi Christina,
I really enjoyed reading this article and listening to your superb interview on Blog Talk Radio with Patty Farmer. This one thing has had me completely stumped over the years when it comes to media. I’ve been called the female version of Neal Donald Walsch more times than I care to count, but if you know who he is, then you’ll understand what I am about to ask you. How does someone like me (an expert in connecting people to God, themselves and others) create a marketing hook for something like this? I write books and speak publicly, I’ve taken marketing courses from the best of the best and still find this aspect beyond challenging. Would love to chat about it sometime. ~ Kellie