Grassroots Business Association

These are notes taken from the March 4th, 2009 talk titled Bending the media to your will: How to get free publicity for your business by Michelle Goodman, freelance writer and author of My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire and The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube, both published by Seal Press. She writes a weekly career column for ABC News and blogs about work/life balance at Nine to Thrive for the Seattle Times. For more scoop on the freelance life, visit Michelle's blog at Anti9to5Guide.com.

NOTES:

getting attention

  • Target 10 to 20 blogs, columnists, radio shows, etc. that speak to the audience you are trying to reach.
  • Use the Help A Reporter Out site, at helpareporter.com. Pay attention to the rules of the site and don't contact a reporter unless you have something relevant, you can get kicked off for wasting somebody's time. When contacting somebody include a few short details, your email, Twitter name, and blog or website.
  • Know that reporters hang out on social media sites like Fakebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Follow them and get to know what they are thinking about, when you need to contact them you have something to say ("I like what you wrote on Twitter about...").
  • Don't friend a reporter on Facebook unless everybody has, it can be awkward, instead look to see if they have a group you can join.
  • There is something called Journchat on Twitter on Monday nights where journalists talk to publicists, you can find archived conversations by looking for #journchat.
  • To get on the radar of a journalist or reporter subscribe to their blog, read they column and stories, follow them on Twitter, join their Facebook group
  • Set up Google Alerts on the topic or keyword of what you are working on to get a perspective on what other people are writing about or doing
  • Look up your subject on blogs through Technorati or Google Blogs. You can contact those blogs if you think they might be interested.
  • Keep in mind that freelancers are always in need of stories to work with. To contact them start by following them on Twitter.
  • Go to events where the media will be and chat, but don't be rude about pitching.

dos and don'ts

  • DO target reporters, publications and blogs that relate to your audience
  • DO blog or tweet yourself, show your expertise, offer advice, facts. Keep in mind a blog is a big commitment, if you don't have the time to keep one up consider doing a guest blog for a week during a relavant time (ex: CPA could blog before tax time). Have some online presence is good.
  • DO infiltrate blog communities by leaving comments frequently, bloggers will notice if you offer good information
  • DO position yourself as an expert, blog, teach a class, but don't spend so much time on it that you are unable to make money.
  • DO email press releases that are short, to the point, include your contact information, are possibly helpful to the subject the reporter might be working on, have a hook
  • DO modify a letter for each place you sent it to, include a specific name
  • DON'T send snail mail
  • DON'T phone somebody, a possible exception to this is a follow up,
  • DO get to the point in the subject line of your meail
  • DO contact a blog 4 to 6 weeks before an event, contact print media like magazines at least 4 months in advance.
  • DO submit your event to local calendars -- ex. a calendar listing in the SLOG can lead to a writeup online.
  • DON'T include attachments with a emailed press release, do have them to offer if requested
  • DON'T rely on graphics, people often have images turned off in email
  • DO include links in press releaes, just a few, do use something like tinyurl to shorten long links, this can also be done inside of Gmail itself
  • DON'T spam people with press releases, one a month at the most
  • DON'T auto subscribe people to your newsletter, it will only be an annoyance
  • DON'T follow up too many times, three is ok but after that try something else
  • DON'T give out a reporters contact information to others, you will only lose the trust of the reporter
  • things to do if you use Twitter: answer people, be interesting, AT message people
  • if you blog: blog often, have a standpoint and stick with it, comment a lot on other's blogs

resources

calendar resources

Copyright 2008 Grassroots Business Association