This is part seven of a seven-part series on earning the media’s attention and winning the coverage you want. Here are parts one, two, three, four, five and six in case you missed them.

Photo via cherrycoke

A lot of the tactics I’ve discussed so far in this series, such as producing your own media and becoming an expert, probably aren’t obvious for most business executives and entrepreneurs. But “traditional” tactics, such as news releases, can still work. Here are five traditional tactics (well — four plus a twist on one) that are still valuable PR tools, if you use them correctly.

1. Hold a news conference. News conferences (or press conferences or media briefings or whatever you want to call them) can generate news coverage, even front-page stories. But unless you’re the White House or a presidential candidate, reserve this for when you have a big announcement and you’re certain journalists will cover it. Here are some keys to an effective news conference:

• Create a media kit that includes a news release with the key news, plus a fact sheet and other background documents. Also include any visuals (still photos or video) in digital form.
• Hold it at a day and time that will work for your target media. That means scheduling it a few hours prior to print deadlines and avoiding times when TV or radio reporters might be delivering live newscasts.
• Set up the room to make it picture friendly for still photographers and videographers.
• Make contingency plans for bad weather if you’re going to hold it outside.
• Provide enough space so people don’t feel crammed in.
• If your location is far from where the media outlets are located, provide fast Internet access so reporters can file stories quickly and easily.
• Plan in advance who will say what.
• Having two or three speakers is OK, but don’t overwhelm journalists with a parade of bigwigs saying the same thing over and over.
• Expect to do further one-on-one interviews afterward.
• It’s OK to have some friends, allies and staffers sitting in the audience to make the room feel fuller. But don’t have them masquerade as journalists by asking questions or pretending to take notes; reporters will figure out what’s going on and your positive story will turn negative quickly.

2. Offer an exclusive. There’s nothing wrong with offering reports an exclusive, and many journalists still value getting the first (and perhaps only) chance to report on something. Exclusives can be a good way to take a solid news story and get a bigger bang out of it. It’s also a good way to get coverage from news organizations publication that demand longer lead times (as many weeklies and magazines do). Be warned, that if you deal with a number of competing journalists regularly, you may get complaints about this. But it’s OK — journalists never complain about being offered exclusives, just when they’re offered to a competitor. So if you use this technique be prepared to spread it around a bit over time.

3. Write a strong news release. PR does not stand for “press release,” but good, newsy releases still generate plenty of publicity every day. (And many poorly written, no-news releases end up reporters’ trash.) Want to make sure your release turns into a story? Think like a journalist and make sure you include the following elements:

• A clear, strong headline.
• A straightforward lead (the first paragraph) that uses strong language and tells the reader what the news is.
• A “nut graf” (usually the second or third paragraph) that explains why this news is important and why people should care about it. Remember that news outlets will ask themselves why their audiences should care, so make sure you answer that question.

4. Use an infographic as a news release. These will take some time and graphic design talent to pull together, but a good infographic could have a lot of appeal to reporters looking for something different.

5. Answer questions you’re not asked in an interview. Let’s say you land a media interview with one of these tactics. Not only can you use that interview to provide information and context about the news, but you can also plant a seed for another story. An interview is a great time to pitch another story. Be sure that whatever you might pitch is different enough from the topic at hand that you it won’t end up being included in the story the reporter is already working on. Also make sure you’re ready to follow-up. Here’s how that exchange might work:

Reporter: Well, I guess that’s all of my questions. Is there anything else I should know?

You: Not about this story, but we do have something interesting coming up in a couple weeks … if you’re interested. (Applying a bit of a soft sell here.)

Reporter: Oh, really? What is it?

You: We’re getting ready to  … (and you launch into your pitch)

What other “traditional” PR tactics have you used to successfully get news coverage for your company, cause or organization? Please share in the comments below.

P.S. If you enjoy this kind of practical information about public relations and marketing, you might want to sign up for my newsletter. You’ll get free updates from the blog, plus additional tips, ideas and resources that I don’t publish here on MarkTzk.com.

This is part six of a seven-part series on earning the media’s attention and winning the coverage you want. Here are parts one, two, three, four and five in case you missed them.

Virtually every piece of career advice I read for PR pros says that creativity is an essential part of the job. Given the volume of less-than-creative news releases and pitches that go out everyday, sometimes I wonder how many of my colleagues are really exercising their creative muscles.

Photo by Marganz

But the career advice is correct: Creativity is an essential part of public relations. And by being creative with the way you approach the media, you can land positive coverage for your company, yourself or your cause. Read on for a dozen ideas.

1. Tie in to the pop culture news of the day. For example, if a celebrity life receives a lot of coverage for something — bankruptcy, illness, the birth of a new child — ask yourself if you can add a local news angle to that. Financial advisors and accounts could say what advice they would offer to the celebrity with financial problems. Doctors, mid-wives and even a baby retailer can find angles to capitalize on a celebrity birth. The possibilities are endless if you’re alert and creative.

2. Do something charitable. Volunteer: Head up a fund drive for a worthy cause or take on a worthy cause as your own. Then seek publicity for the cause. You’ll benefit by association. One local law firm I know of got glowing coverage in part because the partners told a reporter about how they took six weeks off to travel to India and help in recovery efforts after the devastating 2004 tsunami. True, your charitable activities ought to reflect authentic beliefs and values. But if you or your company is already doing this work you should consider spreading the word. Remember this kind of coverage could also helps support the charitable cause.

3. Find out what your employees are doing that’s charitable and pitch those activities and individuals to the media. To ensure your company gets in the story (and make those employees even happier) you could even support those activities by matching their personal donations or making at least a portion of their volunteer time paid leave. Remember, lots of companies participate in the United Way, so it’ll take a bit more creativity than simply announcing you’ve achieved your annual goal. But often you’ll find an individual, cause or activity that is interesting and different enough to attract media coverage. Even if your company isn’t mentioned, such coverage is often encouraging and empowering for employees, helping them feel good about their company and motivating them.

4. Do something interesting or entertaining. Have an interesting or unusual hobby? Have you traveled somewhere exotic recently? Pitch stories about that. While the resulting coverage probably won’t focus on your business, you and your company could get some attention and exposure out of it. I know one local businessman who is passionate about Civil War re-enactments. That could be leveraged for positive media coverage.

5. Respond to competitors’ announcements. Many companies are reluctant to react to other companies business moves, especially those of competitors. But the rarity of such responses makes them a draw for reporters. If you’re the industry leader, you may not want to do this, but it could be a good tactic for other companies, especially upstarts looking to upset an industry’s status quo. Here’s an example of how one CEO did this, taken from David Meerman Scott’s excellent book Newsjacking (which, by the way, has all sorts of creative ideas for winning news coverage).

6. Run a contest or promotion with a charitable angle. Maybe you’re offering a percentage of sales to a local charity for a period? Let the media know.

7. Head up a civic initiative. If you’re involved with a local civic group or public-private board and that group is advancing a major initiative, be visible in that effort. Talk about it with the media — and with other influencers. You’re likely to land at least a little coverage (often in a positive context), and you might even get a reporter interested in a profile focused on you.

8. Hold an event for the community. Can you put on a carnival, fair or some kind of event for the local community? Do that and you’ve got a good chance of getting local media to show up and, in the process, get some coverage. (And the event itself will give you opportunities to market directly to potential customers.)

9. Create a photo opp. Sometimes the best stories are told in pictures — unusual events, rare happenings, or simply something that’s fun and out of the ordinary. Notify TV stations and the photo editor of the local paper that there’s a good visual to be had.

10. Create case studies and customer stories. Maybe the real story is not about you, but about a customer and (not so incidentally) how your company/product/service helped that customer in some interesting, important way. Write those up, get buy-in from the customer and then publish them online and use them as news pitch topics. If you’re using any of the techniques I mentioned in “Part 4 — Create your own media,” this will also fit in nicely with that. If your customer is willing (and many will be), you could offer them to reporters as sources/interviews.

11. Instead of pitching what your business sells, pitch how your business operates. Most companies default to seeking media coverage about their products and services. However, reporters are often interested in stories about different or unusual ways that companies operate. If you have many telecommuters, funky and creative office space or have implemented of ROWE, pitch those angles. Anything that’s different about how your company operates could be a hook for a positive story. Note that these differences must be clear and concrete to outsiders. Saying you have corporate values that differentiate you from competitors is probably not going to impress a reporter; telling reporters that your company offers unlimited vacation time (as Netflix does) probably will.

12. Offer reporters a behind-the-scenes look. Provide tours of manufacturing areas or an insider’s tour as construction is being finished on a new building where many people will work. Instead of waiting for the day when everything is final, give journalists a sneak peek. This kind of look behind the curtain can also help you build positive relationships with reporters that will result in better coverage down the road.

What creative tactics have you used, or seen others use, to get media coverage? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

Coming next: Harness traditional media relations tools. Sign up for my email list to make sure you don’t miss any of the posts in this seven-part series.

This is part five of a seven-part series on earning the media’s attention and getting the coverage you want. Here are parts one, two, three and four in case you missed them.

Probably the toughest part of earning good coverage is predicting what story topics your targeted media outlets are actually interested. In a perfect world it would be simple — you’d get your story ideas from reporters, editors and producers themselves and then tailor your pitches to match those ideas.

Photo via

We don’t live in a perfect world, but you can find out exactly what kinds of subjects and story ideas many news outlets and journalists are interested in — while they’re still looking for sources. Easy, right? Well, you’re still going to have to work at getting the coverage, but the six techniques below should give you a head start.

1. Nominate individuals (and your company) for lists and rankings published by the media. There are lots of possibilities. A few examples:

• Weekly business journal lists and awards – 40 Under 40, Women in Business, industry rankings and more.
• State business magazine rankings, such as top lawyer or top doctor.
• National lists in your industry trade publications, or national business lists like Inc.’s Inc. 500 ranking.
• Local weeklies’ lists of best pizza place, gym or whatever. These sometimes are determined by popular vote, but you can campaign for your business.

2. Get publication editorial calendars. Not all publications have them, but business publications and trade publications often do. You can pitch editors and reporters based on the topics outlined on their editorial calendars. Among outlets that have them, most editorial calendars are published in the fourth quarter or early first quarter. They can usually be downloaded from the website or obtained by calling the advertising sales department. It’s important to find out what publication deadlines are so you know when to pitch ideas for these issues, so make sure you know your target media[link to first post in series]. Also note that some publications will change their editorial calendars over the course of the year, so it’s useful to check in from time to time and see if there have been any updates.

3. Subscribe to HARO and (if you can afford it) Profnet. Both services send multiple daily emails filled with reporters’ requests for sources on various topics. It only takes a few minutes a day to scan these emails and respond to relevant story ideas. It’s important to follow the rules of these services and not use them to harvest reporter email addresses or spam them with irrelevant pitches. That will earn you the enmity of journalists and may get you banned from receiving these emails. Both services also have Twitter accounts where they post urgent media queries – @helpareporterout and @profnet.

4. Take local stories and make them national. You can take interesting stories happening in your local market, add a pinch of commentary and sprinkle on some national statistics and then pitch them to national media. The key is to find local stories that are part of a national trend.

5. Take national stories and make them local. You can also take an interesting national story, such as a piece that’s appeared in a high-profile national outlet such as USA Today or on CNN, and localize it. By doing a little footwork to come up with local examples of the trend, you can package up a story that local reporters may find very attractive. Here again the key is to have some perspective or analysis of your own to add.

6. Pitch year-in-review perspectives on your industry to key reporters. Many publications already do some form of this story, so be proactive in making yourself available as an expert source and providing data and anecdotes to help flesh out the story.

Have other ways of getting your story ideas directly from news outlets? Please share it in the comments below.

Coming next: Get creative! Sign up for the email list to make sure you don’t miss any of the posts in this seven-part series.

This is part four of an seven-part series on earning the media’s attention and getting the coverage you want. Here are parts one, two and three in case you missed them.

Social media expert Chris Brogan, PR authority David Scott Meerman and others have said that in an era of blogging, social media and email marketing, all companies are media companies. Usually they apply that in the context of publishing content, especially online, that can earn the attention of potential customers and help convert prospects and leads to sales.

Photo by Bill Owen

But by becoming a mini media company – through blogging and other tactics – companies and organizations can also get media attention and earn positive news coverage. As a bonus, many of these can do double-duty as mailings to clients and

prospects or fodder for content marketing efforts. Here are five specific tactics for getting the coverage you deserve:

1. Write an article or op-ed piece that a publication could run on its own. Many outlets run pieces written by outside sources, including industry experts and executives. Here are three tips to get you started:

1. Pitch your idea and get the go-ahead from an editor first. Don’t waste time writing something you can’t place. Sometimes an editor may ask you to submit something before making a decision, but if possible get commitment to run the piece first.
2. Write in a newsy, plain-English style. Avoid industry jargon, drop the highly technical language (unless you’re writing for a technical publication), and skip the formal, corporate tone.
3. Offer newsworthy, interesting content that is not blatantly self promotional. It may, however, promote a view of your industry or a view of customers’ problems that is in line with the products or services your company offers.

2. Write guest posts for blogs. As the lines between mainstream traditional media and new media (everything from the Huffington Post to local blogs) blur, guest posting can be an excellent strategy to get coverage. Not only do you get readers directly from those blogs, but mainstream reporters may follow-up with you as a source since you’ve established yourself as a credible expert on a topic.

3. Administer a survey (it may or may not be associated with your business). Then announce the survey results to relevant reporters. Surveys are popular fodder for stories, and journalists will usually, at least, cite the sponsor of the survey. The survey should be credible, but it doesn’t have to be the most scientifically rigorous study ever produced to be interesting and newsworthy.

4. Write a letter to the editor.  Sometimes when you want your voice heard in an important debate or discussion in your industry, writing a letter to the editor is a good way to get your view across. This is not a place to idly pontificate on an issue. But if you or your company has a specific viewpoint or position that you want heard, this can be a very effective tactic to get in the media. The key is to be brief, persuasive and have an opinion. Because publications are often sensitive to companies using letters to the editor as a promotional tactic, you must have something authentic to say and you must avoid anything that reeks of self promotion.

5. Record short videos, post them online and send the links to journalists. Just as with blogging, a short video can be effective in making your voice heard on specific topics and issues, and allowing journalists to hear your positions on them. This is can be an especially effective tactic if you’re targeting broadcast media that will be interested in how you come across visually and how you sound. This doesn’t mean your video has to be broadcast quality, but paying attention to lighting and sound will improve the quality.

Have questions about how to create your own media? Want to add another tactic or have a resource to suggest? Please share it in the comments below.

Coming next: Get story ideas from the media. Sign up for the email list to make sure you don’t miss any of the posts in this seven-part series.