14 Publicity Tips You Can't Live Without

How do you best promote yourself and your cause? The list could easily be 100 items long. But 14 items stand out that can make yours a winning media campaign. And here they are:1.Establish a Consistent Look The only way to get your release pulled and looked at first, is if the editor becomes familiar with your name, and the quality of your previous stories.2.Submit Anything To Start Off With Get your name on file. Whether or not they run your first story isn’t important, you just want to have a “previous story” on file the next time something important comes up.3.Keep On Submitting Always be on the lookout for good stories. Editors need to see your name popping up regularly.4.Watch The News Become “The Authority” on your subject. Watch what’s happening around the world. Send out timely press releases, and be ready when editors call wanting to know about something that broke the news this morning.5.Keep Up On The Trades Understanding the trends and aims of your profession is essential to your being able to speak knowledgeably when called without notice. 6.Piggyback Your Cause Find community events where you can offer your services. If media personalities know you can deliver a good interview, they’ll probably insist on talking to you.7.Be A Character Don’t be afraid to get out of yourself. Study successful talk show hosts. Watch how they work topics, how they keep your attention. Become a fun, knowledgeable person to interview. Your character is as important to an interviewer as your story is. Comics are constantly on the radio, to crassly promote themselves, just because they liven up the show.8.Network In All The Right Places Go to the gala balls, the fund raising banquets, the Lions Club or Country Club events. Anywhere the press might be looking, be sure they see you hanging out. And make a point of striking up a conversation as often as comfortably possible.9.Remember Names Everybody loves to hear their name. Specially reporters. Carry a small spiral notebook and write down names and details on every media person you meet. It helps immensely in remembering who they are the next time you run across them around town.10.Buy Your Advertising At The Same Place It helps establish name recognition with your audience, but more importantly, it gives you a solid “foot in the door” at the venue. Having a sales person walk your press release in to the city editor is a sure way to get it read. 11.Become The “Good Guy (or Gal)” Find ways to meet the needs of the media folk. Send doughnuts to the morning drive guys for no reason. Offer to supply the coffee and doughnuts for volunteers during the next PBS fund drive. Be very careful never to come across as trying to bribe a story. Flowers or chocolate for no reason is a no no, calendars, engraved calculators or background, easy to understand information packages on your topic are great P.R. moves.12.Follow Up On Stories ALWAYS send thank you notes for any interview or story a paper or station runs. With a little imagination you can often parlay this “after the fact” moment into more coverage. One singer more than doubled her coverage by sending flowers the week after her interview to a PBS television station thanking them for the time, and wishing them a successful fund drive (which just happened to be in progress). Her flowers and note kept showing up all day, along with clips from her interview.13.Stay In Charge Of The Interview Don’t let interviewers take off on dead ends. Remember always, you are the authority on this topic, and a bad interview will ultimately reflect only on you. If an interviewer is trying to dig in areas the general public will find boring, be courteous, answer the questions quickly, and then point the conversation where it should be headed, towards the more fascinating and lively topics.14.Finally, Don’t Be Afraid To Create News Write a book, do a survey, author a research project, anything that’ll take yours out of the “boring profession” category. Always look for the angles you know will fascinate the general public and become the authority in those areas.And then sit back and allow fame to find you.

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