Picture it: Your company is getting ready to launch a new product, holding a big event, or just reached an important milestone and you want to make sure the public knows. But how do you get the media to cover your story without being an annoyance to busy reporters and editors?
We have a few tips that work…if handled correctly.
- First, build a relationship with the people you are trying to get to cover your story. Before jumping right in to ask them to be at your grand opening, consider following them on social media and sharing the stories they’ve covered, retweeting them and liking their Facebook pages. You can even go old school and take them to lunch to tell them about your business and find out more about the types of stories they are looking to cover.
- Second, be efficient and effective in your pitch to the media. They get hundreds of emails and phone calls everyday about great story ideas. Why should they cover your story? Make sure you give them valuable story ideas and clearly explain to them why your story is important. And be efficient in your explanations– like all of us, these are very busy people.
- Third, respect the media member you’re pitching to and what they do. Remember what we mentioned in point two, they are busy people. So if they don’t return your call or email right away, give them some time. Don’t bother them every hour with details on why they should cover your story. Unless it’s breaking news, give them a few days to actually digest the information and determine whether it is worth a story, and then follow-up. Be patient. Positive results take time.
- Finally, don’t tell the media how to do their story. They are professionals, just like you, and they know what their job entails. It is your job to feed them the information they need and their job to craft the story to make it valuable to their audience.
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to get your story covered by the media, or need someone to do it for you, give us a call at 239-690-9840.
