Get Free Media Exposure, Promote Yourself As An Expert

Promote Yourself to Earn Media Exposure

You have to promote yourself to earn media exposure, and this can be done in two main ways:

• When news breaks, or
• By enterprising a newsworthy story

Let’s Talk About Breaking News.

Whether it happens locally or nationally, find a way to insert your expertise.

For example, if you are an expert in online security, you could be the go to person to talk to when a big university or company has a data breach. It’s big news, so the media will most likely try to find different angles to cover.

Making sense of it in layman’s terms or talking about ways to comeback from the breach and prevent it from happening again could be possible angles…

and you as the online security expert should contact the media yourself and pitch that angle right away.

The conversation would go something like this:

YES.

It’s that easy.

Let’s Talk About Enterprising News.

It’s sometimes a little trickier to enterprise news stories, depending on what your profession is. This is when you need to find a way to make yourself and your expertise newsworthy.

Remember, this isn’t advertising. This is public relations.

If you want earned media, you need to have a newsworthy story to tell.

For example, I used to represent the Beebo. You may have seen the creator, Martin Hill, make a deal with Lori Greiner and Ashton Kutcher on Shark Tank.

Around Father’s Day, I pitched his story to Entrepreneur. Not Beebo’s story.

I talked to a writer about him quitting his job and becoming a stay-at-home dad. While he was taking care of his infant son, he noticed a problem and couldn’t find a solution, so he created one.

Now, that is a story.

Promoting the Beebo as a product is not. Making something newsworthy means having a “real person” to interview.

Here’s another example.

An owner of a jewelry store where customers could come in and make their own jewelry wanted media attention for her business. After talking to her to find a story, we found one:

Moms were coming in to make their own jewelry for fun, but some turned it into their own at-home business and became entrepreneurs. It all started at this store, so obviously the store would be mentioned and hopefully the owner would be interviewed, but the story wouldn’t be about the jewelry store or the owner. It’d be about that “real person.”

I like to use the the three E’s to determine if a story is newsworthy:

Keep Pitching And Keep Changing The Pitch.

You don’t want to email the same journalist every two weeks with a new story.

Realistically, they can’t cover you every other week.

For example, if you are in real estate, here is a way you can mix up your pitches over time:

1. Send your first pitch with a business angle containing sale numbers. (Media outlets love numbers.)
2. Then, make your next pitch have a family angle with an increase of families moving to a certain area because of the great schools and parks in the area.
3. After that, you could go for interior decorating or real estate photography with drones, etc.

More On The Beebo Example

Remember the Beebo I mentioned earlier?

Here are two different ways I got them media coverage:

1. I earned the product coverage in Entrepreneur with a “stay-at-home dad creating a product angle”.
2. Then, I got the Beebo on the Rachael Ray Show where a mom participated in a “Human Lab” and reviewed the product. The segment was about 10 minutes long. (Do you know how much it would cost to advertise nationwide for that long?!)

Moral of the story: two great outlets with two very different pitches and two very different stories.

Follow Up Is Key

Remember, you are one of many e-mails and phone calls a journalist receives each day. It’s not hard to get lost in the inbox-noise.

Don’t think they are not interested. Maybe your pitch was never seen. Many times it’s not, so always follow up.

Make Your Pitch AND Subject Line Catchy… And Short.

Again, it’s the busy inbox problem.

You want to catch someone’s attention right away with the pitch itself. But, if you want them to get to the pitch, you’ll need a short and catchy subject line.

I once represented a running app called Heat Running. I got it featured on

• the ABC station in Washington DC
• the Washington Post
• the Chicago Tribune
• Men’s Fitness
• Women’s Running

and many other publications.

How did I do it?

I rarely pitched the app itself.

Instead I pitched the story behind the app – which was a great story.

Usually, the subject line read: Man creates running app after losing 200+ lbs.