A television appearance. A radio interview. A magazine article or a mention in a popular blog. Every business owner understands the value of positive media coverage. There’s no better way to build your brand. Media coverage is significantly more credible than paid advertising because the content is developed by an unbiased, third-party source. That’s why companies spend a lot of time and effort trying to capture the media’s attention.

What would you do if the Today show called?  Would you be ready?  You certainly don’t want to blow your opportunity.  A mishandled interview can damage your company’s brand. The key — careful planning and preparation.  Even a seasoned professional can make mistakes without preparing properly.  So here are some tips that can help you make the most your 15 minutes of fame.

First, never respond to a reporter’s call off-the cuff.  When you try to wing it not only do you risk making mistakes, but you also won’t make the most of the opportunity.  Find out specifically what the story is about and how it is going to be used.  Ask what topics or types of information the reporter is seeking.

Next, find out the reporter’s deadline for the story so you can arrange a convenient time to schedule the interview.  This provides you with the opportunity to plan and prepare your key messages.  What is it you want the audience to know?  Jot down your message points so you can stay in control of the interview.

Practice what you want to say.  Rambling, interjecting a lot of “you knows” or stumbling over words makes you look inarticulate and unprofessional.  Your mouth has memory so rehearse what you plan to say.

Avoid using slang, industry-specific jargon and acronyms. You want your message to be communicated with clarity. Answer questions in soundbites — in other words be succinct.    That’s particularly important for television interviews.  Most television segments are only  around two minutes in length. Even if the interview is taped, make your answers short and to the point.

Don’t be fooled by a reporter’s pregnant pause. Sometimes when you have finished answering a question the reporter won’t respond immediately. A lot of people who are uncomfortable with long pauses in a conversation feel compelled to continue talking. That’s when you can get yourself into trouble by talking too much.  Keep to your key messages and when you are finished — stop talking.

Always assume the microphone is on. You’ve probably chuckled at a few blunders public officials have made when they’ve forgotten to pay attention.  And nothing is ever off the record.  Off the record means different things to different journalists so if you aren’t comfortable sharing the information, don’t

Finally, “no comment” is never a good response in an interview. It is best to either answer the question or explain why you can’t. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it, and if possible, offer to help the reporter find the information she needs.

Media coverage can give you business a big boost, so plan and prepare to make the most out of your next media opp!

Have you ever opened up the paper or turned on the TV only to see your competitor being quoted as an expert?   Are there times when they are up there speaking to your target audience, when you think, “I know more than this person.  I should be up on that stage!”

Well you’re right.  If you are in fact exceptional at what you do, have a ton of experience or are sitting on a leading edge breakthrough it’s time to start adding some PR to the mix.

What exactly is Public Relations?

According to Wikipedia, it is “The practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics.  PR provides an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that provide a third-party endorsement and do not involve a direct payment.”

That’s right, public relations is when a third party endorses your public interest and news stories for FREE!  It differs from a referral which refers your products and services and differs from advertising because you don’t pay for it.  But it can be one of your strongest tactics for attracting and closing business.

Who are your Publics?

Typically a small business owner is trying to position themselves as an industry leader to:

• Customers
• Prospects
• Circles of Influence (Peers, Media, Strategic Partners, Industry leaders)
• The general public, and possibly
• Investors and/or employees

There are 4 key activities you can leverage to reach these publics.  Some or all of these may apply depending on your personality, speaking skills and level of expertise. They are:

1. Speaking online (webinars, videos) and offline (conferences, associations)
2. Writing online (blogs, online publications) and offline(magazines, newspapers, newsletters)
3. Working with the media
4. Social media engagement

Let’s have a look at each of these.

Speaking

Unless you are looking to become a professional speaker, speaking should be a way for you to capture leads (see Speak for Leads). Speaking allows an audience to not only get to know you, but to determine if they like what you have to say and if they think you really know your stuff. If you are worried about your speaking skills, look into public speaking courses through associations like Toastmasters. Chances are there are plenty of industry and special interest groups that can benefit from your wisdom and a lot of stressed out events people who will be relieved to have a great speaker for their audiences. Speaking can take many forms. It’s not only about being invited to speak to a group live.  It can also include recording yourself with a webcam or smartphone and posting it on YouTube, your site and other company’s sites. You can be a guest on a webinar, or blog radio show. The possibilities are endless and the other great bonus is, it provides you with new content you can use for our next section…..

Writing

You’re hearing it everywhere now, and I know I keep saying it over and over. Content is king. For service based companies this is how you SHOW your expertise. Even product based firms can benefit in sharing product specs, testing and demos. Start by creating your own articles for your own newsletters and posting those articles:

On your site
Via your social networks
On your blog
On article submission sites, and
Via strategic alliance channels (newsletters, sites)

Don’t shy away from approaching free magazines and publications (online and offline), to see if they might like to make you a regular contributor.

Working with the media

The first key step to working with the media is to identify exactly who you should be talking to. This means you need to start collecting the names of Newspaper reporters for relevant sections, TV and Radio Producers and editors of magazines and publications. Don’t forget those important thought leaders online as well!

Secondly start to listen and follow these media sources.  Set up RSS feeds for their name in Google News Alerts, follow their blogs, connect with them on social media sites and lastly subscribe to HARO.

The third step is to start communicating with them via their blogs, social media, online press releases and through pitching them your ideas. Share new trends, an interesting angle to a topical, major event, awards or recognitions or new innovations.

Once you get coverage, you can post this on your site and share it with your networks for even more credibility power. Don’t forget to also follow up and thank them for the coverage and measure your results.

Social Media and Online

While I’ve touched on this throughout the article, you should be looking for ways to increase your own star power via Social Media. A great place to measure where you are and where you need to go is through a site called KLOUT. Find influencers in your industry and look for ways to get more engaged online.  Many of today’s top experts are products of a strong online presence. It shouldn’t be an area you overlook.

Upping your PR may be adding some major to-do’s to your list or to the list of an already overworked employee, but these are important and effective actions every company should take. Assuming you are passionate about what your company does for a living, doesn’t it only seem right that you should be educating the public on the benefits you can offer to others and the problems your products or services can solve? Find a way to get it done!

When it comes to generating publicity/media exposure for a product or service, trying to determine the amount of time it might take to launch and maintain a successful media exposure campaign is a hard nut to crack. What is the optimal length of a campaign and how much effort will it take to get the job done effectively?

In my PR career, I have launched campaigns that needed the blast of just a few weeks of publicity and I have also maintained lengthy campaigns that generated media exposure for years. I can tell you that a single distribution of a media release is rarely effective. Most times, editors and reporters are working on multiple stories at once and need some time to consider your pitch. Although your release may indeed be interesting and newsworthy, the editor may simply not have the space to use your pitch at that point in the media outlet’s editorial calendar. So make sure he/she sees it again when that editorial calendar opens up a few weeks down the line. Keep in mind also that because media outlets receive so many media releases and story pitches these days, it can sometimes take them weeks before they actually get to something you may have sent their way. That’s why it’s important to conduct extensive media follow-ups over the course of several months to ensure media reception, proper media digestion and hopefully media acceptance of your release or pitch.

I always tell my clients, “No PR agency or publicist can FORCE the media to use their releases, but they CAN make sure that by the end of the campaign, the media has seen or heard about your message in one form or another – which will lead to solid media coverage.”

One of the keys to determining the length of a successful campaign is knowing when you have fired all your publicity bullets; when it’s time to re-pack the chambers with new ammo; or when you should move onto other marketing targets. Over the past several years, here’s how the campaign lengths have broken down for my clients:

1-2 month campaigns:   9%
3-6 month campaigns: 38%
6-9 month campaigns: 37%
9+  month campaigns: 16%

A) 1 – 2 month campaigns are most often timely, date-sensitive campaigns — a release or message tied to a current event that may be outdated in 6 – 8 weeks.  We can launch a campaign a few weeks before the event and generate some great spot coverage in newspapers, TV news shows and internet news sites nationwide — the campaign are finished in about 6-8 weeks.

B) Most new product publicity campaigns are best suited for the 3 – 6+ month time frame — allowing for the often drawn out lead-times of some media outlets. Having said that though, some product campaigns can be extended for several more months based on media reaction and subsequent consumer interest. For instance, a recent consumer electronics product publicity campaign started out as a six-month program, but that was stretched out over a year because of the sales fervor and popularity of the product.

C) The longest campaigns are for those clients whose businesses or expertise are “evergreen and regenerative” – meaning they are not tied to the shelf life of a new product launch; aren’t linked to a specific date; and can be re-stoked for a new round of media interest every few months. One of my longtime clients is a “tradeshow specialist”. Her expert advice is newsworthy anytime of year and can be covered editorially year after year – especially in business and trade magazines. That lends itself to multiple articles and features month after month in a wide array of media outlets. Remember — creativity and media pitching ingenuity can help add months of success to your publicity campaign.

A large number of hours will be spent planning and shaping your publicity campaign for the media market. The preparation of the media market research and the polishing of the media release may seem painstaking, but when done right, they are well worth the effort. After the initial launch of the campaign, be prepared to spend at least a few hours each day maintaining it: conducting numerous media follow-ups and making new media pitches, (emails, faxes, mailings and phone calls); fulfilling media requests (forwarding product photos, media kits/product samples, arranging interviews) and tracking/clipping articles and features.

If you have the time, staff and expertise to launch your own campaign, then take advantage of the media and get your message to them. But if your expertise lies in another area, and you or your staff lack publicity generating skills (or have little or no experience in dealing with the media) it might be best to hand it off to someone who can make sure its done right – the first time. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether you can handle your own publicity campaign:

Do I have the expertise and time to get it done effectively without hampering my current workload or that of my staff?

Do I have the writing capabilities to put together a media release or feature pitch to which editors, reporters and producers will respond?

Do I have the resources to conduct the media research and distribute my release to those media outlets?

On a timely note… with all the uncertainly surrounding the economy recently, many entrepreneurs and companies have been challenged by shrinking marketing budgets.

I believe that we entrepreneurs need to band together as much as possible to help as many as we can through this rough patch and back to solid growth.

To that end, I am now offering to discount my media exposure campaign service fee for the entire 3rd quarter of 2011 to help entrepreneurs with their tighter budgets and help them prosper once again into the 4th quarter and beyond.

If you or any entrepreneurs or businesses you know would benefit from this discount and national media exposure please feel free to contact us.

Our next guest post is from Todd Brabender,  President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc and a long time friend of Palo Alto Software. You can read more of Todd’s articles by going to bplans.com articles. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and inventions.

The call came into my office and the voice on the other end was very energetic, almost giddy: “I have finalized my marketing budget and need your help launching an advertising campaign for my new product,” he breathed. “Congratulations,” I replied, “but before you implement an ad campaign, I want to make sure you have explored potential publicity & PR opportunities that could generate some cost-efficient media exposure first.” Then, silence. “I never thought about that,” he sighed. “Frankly, I don’t know much about it.”

It’s a common conversation. Although many entrepreneurs or business people know a bit about publicity or media exposure, the majority simply don’t understand the full benefits of media exposure or how to go about generating features successfully. Media exposure has always been a cost-efficient way to market a product or business and generate clients or customers, but because of lack of knowledge or a misunderstanding of what media exposure is and does, many entrepreneurs don’t take full advantage of these publicity opportunities — and that can lead to missed marketing chances.

I recently surveyed a few dozen business owners and entrepreneurs in some newsgroups and business chat rooms about their knowledge of media exposure and publicity. I found out that only 37% knew that a simple “product profile” in a magazine was generated as a result of publicity or public relations efforts. Most thought the company had paid the media outlet to run the feature, much like an ad. And of that 37%, less than half of them knew HOW to generate a similar placement.

Another interesting fact, because of the recent slowdown in the economy, expensive advertising budgets have been slashed. As a result, many businesses are turning to media exposure/PR campaigns as a more affordable means of marketing to compete with other companies. Here are some ways to use media exposure and publicity placements to help your business:

Feature Placements/Media Notification
What some entrepreneurs might not realize is that we see feature placements from publicity efforts everyday in the media: product profiles, feature articles and contributed by-lined articles in magazines, newspapers, trade industry newsletters or on TV/radio/cable newscasts & shows. This is not advertising, this is what I call a “FEATURE Placement” or “Media Notification” of a product, business or industry expert. That is accomplished by notifying the appropriate media that your newsworthy product is on the market or your business is offering a unique new service. The targeted media will then run a feature placement that will spread that message to your consumer market. These placements can detail your product or business very effectively, giving consumers some objective, pertinent information that may well entice them to become future customers.

These placements are looked upon much more credibly than ad placements. That is not a slam on advertising. Paying for advertising placements is indeed an effective way to market your product. But the fact is, a positive feature placement such as a product profile in a magazine or a newspaper can be much more persuasive than a glossy, over-hyped advertisement – and a fraction of the cost. My point is that feature placements are an often time overlooked marketing vehicle for a business, and that entrepreneurs should understand the full benefits of these placements to make the most of their marketing efforts.

Feature placements are a wonderfully reciprocal way for you and the media to work together for the betterment of your business. The media needs to fill its pages and airtime with interesting information — and you need to get the word out to your market. Research the media market to find those media outlets and editorial contacts with which you can forge that mutually beneficial relationship. But you have to do your part and do it right – or the media will forge that relationship with your competitor. Make sure your media message is solid, contains newsworthy angles and isn’t disguised as overly commercialized ad copy. Have high-quality photos and media samples available and do all you can to make the media’s job of featuring your product as simple as possible. It also helps to have some sort of clipping service in place to track your placements and get you copies so you can use them in your secondary marketing programs.

Expert Branding
This type of publicity placement generating takes advantage of the expert knowledge within a particular business. It is an effective tool for entrepreneurs whose businesses are more service related, like consultants or specialists. Expert branding basically treats the expert like a product. Alert the media as to your expertise on a specific topic and avail yourself to serve as an expert interview resource for future articles or news feature segments. Additionally, the expert should write a few brief articles on a specialized topic and make them available to editors for review and possible publication. The challenge of this type of publicity placement is the tedious task of finding out which outlets accept “expert editorial contributions” or contributed by-lined articles in their publications. Again, it comes down to meticulously researching your media market to find those media outlets that may be in need of the editorial content that you can provide them.

With some creativity, expert branding can be effective for product-based businesses as well. One client of mine ran a fresh wild salmon distribution business and was looking to increase consumer awareness of his products. Based on his more than 20 years of experience in the wild salmon harvesting business, we expert branded him as a viable interview resource to health/food editors for features detailing the differences and benefits of wild salmon over farm-raised fish, as well as other related topics. In this case, my client (the expert) is identified and quoted in features and the name of the business and even a link to a website are often included for consumers to check out. This is great credibility building exposure at little or no cost.

Overall, when using the media to help market your product or business, take advantage of as many media exposure opportunities as you can. If you lack the expertise or time, a PR agency, media exposure specialist or publicist can generate these editorial placements for you. But the fee you pay them is a FRACTION of what it would cost you to buy similar sized ad placements. And those publicity placements typically lead to a much better consumer response right out of the gate – which is just what you need to boost your business to the next level.

Todd Brabender
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com
todd@spreadthenewspr.com
(785) 842-8909