918-851-0102 | Public Relations Speaker

Public Relations – You must know how to tell your story in a way that is news worthy.

“You have to fake it before you make it.” – Lori Montag (Founder of Zany Bandz & Slap Watch)

**For more information about hiring Las Vegas Motivational Speaker, Dallas Motivational Speaker, Tulsa Motivational Speaker, U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, U.S. Chamber National Blue Ribbon Quality Award Winner, Clay Clark contact Make Your Life Epic today at 918-851-0102.

When the Beatles landed in New York City in 1964, “Beatle Mania” officially began. The 4 bands members got off the plane they were greeted by 3,000 screaming teenagers at the airport. Some were in tears and some were carrying placards with phrases such as “I love you, please stay”. Once these young pioneers of rock stepped off of the plane and onto the tarmac of Kennedy Airport they were instant celebrities! Did these 3,000 fans all happen to know the precise landing time of the Beatles or did someone tell them? Did these fans, run out and buy these placards or did someone give them a budget before telling them what to buy and what to write? Did these fans decide to scream at their own prompting or were they coached?

My friends, the beginning of “Beatle Mania” was one of the best examples of PR at work in American history. As the Beatles arrived to the United States the “British Invasion” hype looked as though it would be greeted by 10 kids who were vaguely familiar with this British Band and the songs they played. However, employees from the local radio station and the publicists for the Beatles organized and paid a group of teenagers to scream and cheer, thus perpetuating the creation of the atmosphere of hype that began to surround these four young men every where they went. How much less excited would America have been, if the American news outlets weren’t able to show that memorable footage of 3,000 teenagers and adoring fans screaming as they got off the plane? Did the Beatles become big because they already were big? Or did they become big because they were so good? Only God truly knows, but I know PR certainly did not hurt.

Frank Sinatra’s publicist team actually paid young teenagers wearing bobbysoxers to scream, cheer and fake actual hysteria as he performed. This began to create the atmosphere of HYPE and celebrity that would make Frank Sinatra famous. Did Sinatra become famous, because he had screaming fans before he was famous? I think it is worth considering.

People started inquiring about booking me for speaking events within days after I had received the United States Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year. Was I not smart up until then? Was my success not worth examining before I received this award? Would it have been smart for me to have hired a publicist to share our business accolades with the media earlier? Would it probably have been a good idea for me to get my information into the publications that event coordinators, conference organizers and workshop planners read along time ago? Would it make sense for you to begin launching a strategic public relations campaign designed to get your business in front of your target audience starting today? But how do you start? Who do you contact? And why would the media be willing to cover you and your business in the SUPER-IMPORTANT NEWS?

My friend, you decide right here and now that you are a BIG DEAL. Someday your business is going to make BIG MONEY, because starting right now you are going to treat your business, your employees, your clients and yourself, like you are a BIG DEAL. Whenever a peacock is trying to impress another peacock it will puff its feathers out to look bigger and more beautiful than it is. In nature, many animals are about to fight they will puff out their hair when trying to scare off a rival. Nature does it and humans do it. The goal is to look big before you are big. Because nothing creates momentum like momentum and nothing inspires confidence and trust like a little media coverage. Being on the news is big news for your business. During this chapter I am going to teach you how to get in the news, but it only works if you follow this system with tenacity, diligence and caution. There are only 4 major networks in most local markets and only 15-20 major publications that cover most industries. You don’t want to get reputation amongst the reporters, writers and news community as being “that guy.” Once you are known as “that guy” it is truly very hard to overcome this problem.

Getting your company featured in the news, in a magazine, on TV, on the radio, in a newspaper, on a news blog etc… Simply involves the following 7 step process:

1. Find out who currently covers stories about your market niche / industry, etc…

This process is really as simple as a grabbing a copy of each of your local papers to see which reporters covers which areas of focus. Even doing a “Google Search” for your industry plus the name of the local publication you want to research will get the job done. For instance, if I lived in Tulsa and I wanted to get my real estate business covered in the local media I would “Google Search,” “Tulsa World + Real Estate Market.” This search would soon show that Robert, might write about real estate in my city, while John might be the one who writes about business in my city. Krista covers the downtown related stories, while Lisa covers the news of the weird. Regardless of who covers what. It is absolutely detrimental that you begin to build a database of the reporters and journalists that cover each area of news for your location media outlets. As you look through the papers you will soon discover the reporters that write about the industry you are in. You must do this research for every publication that you have an interest of appearing in.

2. Gather the contact information for those that cover your market niche / industry.

Once you have discovered the first and last names of the journalists and members of the media that write about your industry niche for each media outlet, it is time to do some more research. We must now gather their contact information. This is generally very easy to do, because most journalists and reporters publish their contact info freely so that they can be reached by people in your city that might have “an inside scoop” for them. Look on the “contact us” sections of the websites for each company they represent. Call the media outlets over the phone and ask for their contact information. Discover the pattern with which their email addresses are signed. For example, you might discover that the emails for the Sun Times all are in the following format: Jill.Smith@SunTimes.com, Naven.Johnson@SunTimes.com, King.Richard@SunTimes.com, etc… With obvious patterns like this, it does not take a genius to discover what Moses Malone’s email address would be: Moses.Malone@SunTimes.com. My friend, you must be resourceful here. You can do it! However, if you can’t you need to stop with this entrepreneurship non-sense as soon as possible, because being an entrepreneur is all about being crazy resourceful.

3. Build rapport and establish yourself as the expert for your industry with these reporters.

To build sincere rapport with the members of the media that cover your industry niche for the various outlets, I recommend making a quick initial call to them, while following up with a quick hand-written physically mailed note of appreciation for them and the level of quality they bring to their writing. Remember, the members of the media are people too! Ultimately they have goals and dreams, just like you. What are the dreams of a journalist and reporter? What makes these members of the media tick? What gets them excited? As a rule, I have found that the following character description is true of the overwhelming majority of the media:

The typical member of the media is a four year graduate from a liberal arts college. They are usually left-leaning (Democrat) in their political leanings. They tend to feel underpaid and overworked. Because they cover the news everyday, and because many of them have to come up with a news story that meets their publication’s standards every 24 hours, most tend to rely heavily upon Publicists and PR firms for the stories they cover. They are always in a hurry and they are always up against a deadline for getting something “on the air” or “in the news before they go to print.” Most have a strong desire to do well in a smaller local market in the hopes that their work will get noticed on a national level which will offer them the opportunity to work for a national media outlet or content provider. Help them break and big story and they will love you forever. They take their commitments and promises very seriously. They will never give up their sources and they work very hard to build trust with the local news makers so they can always have the “inside scoop” about what is going on. They need these insiders for the “tips” and “news story ideas” they provide.

Because the profile above is so accurate, the script for your first call to them should really be very similar do this. “Hey is this Pat? Pat, did I catch you right up against a deadline? Ok, well here’s the scoop. I do a lot of work in the downtown real estate industry, and I just want you to know that I’m a fan of your work. That article you wrote about the new hotel downtown was great. Well hey, I know you have to run, I just wanted to let you know, I do a lot of work downtown and if you ever need a source for your downtown stories, please don’t hesitate to call.”

Follow-up this call with the mailing of a hand written note. let them know how much you enjoy their work. Make sure to include your contact information and your area of expertise, so that they can use you as an expert resource in the future.

4. Develop a marketing / public relations calendar full of events, press conferences, parties, conferences, visually appealing, intriguing, Genius-World-Breaking and other newsworthy events that would be of interest to the journalist’s core audience.

Now that you know who covers what, and now that you have established yourself as an expert in your local community it is time for the fun part. You now must develop your 12 month plan. Remember as Napoleon Hill once wrote, “Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” Nothing will happen until you write this plan and commit to turning it into reality.

You must create 12 month PR strategy. Your strategy must be filled with innovative ideas that will keep the media talking. The best way to do this, is to do a “Google Search” for your industry’s name plus the name of a local city (other than the one that you are wanting to work in).

For example, if I was in the wedding industry in Dallas and I wanted to develop a marketing calendar for my Dallas wedding business. I would search for “Miami Wedding Industry, plus the name of the local publication.” I would then begin to write down what the articles in Miami were about. I would do this research for each one of the major publications in Miami until I had my 12 ideas based upon what they Miami media actually covered locally in my industry. It the Miami media thought the story was news worth enough to warrant media coverage, there is a strong possibility that my local media will feel the same way about our local story ideas.

My friend, your life will be much easier if you commit to being a “Pirate instead of a pioneer.” Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” His comments were demonstrating his belief in not-reinventing the wheel every time. If somebody else has done it before you, by all means use their ideas in a new and creative way, but don’t feel the need to start from scratch with a completely original idea every time. If you do this, you will need to live for 6 lifetimes to every get anything done.

5. Write a newsworthy story / “press-release” in a standard format that will appeal to the journalist’s core audience.

Overtime journalists have developed a setup formula with which they expect every press-release to appear. Due to the extreme busyness and the dead-line driven nature of today’s media, they also expect you to know what this formula is. They expect you to write a catchy headline for them. They expect for you to include the facts that support the details of the story. They expect your press-releases to be news worthy and appropriate for them and their areas of focus.

Doing a simple “Google Search” for a standard press release format will help you to learn the standard format the news media wants your releases in. However, you must never forget that your “press-releases” are being sent to humans, humans like you and me that get flooded with SPAM, and unwanted emails and faxes.

6. Submit your “press-release” to the media at the times when they are listening and at intervals that are appropriate.

Nobody gets more bad story ideas and poorly written news ideas than the members of your local media. Thus, their defenses are up, so you must write email subject lines, email bodies and press-releases that get their attention for all the right reasons.

The members of the media expect you to know what times of day work best for them for you to submit your press-releases. Not knowing this information is not excuse. You must find out when the best time is to submit your press-releases and when the worst time is. If your local reporter is in a staff meeting and news planning meeting everyday at 10:00 AM and they are in the habit of checking their email for news story ideas right before this meeting each day, it might make sense to always send them news stories at 9:50 AM. You must find out the time of day when each of these reporters and members of the media are the most receptive to news story ideas. You do not want to be “that guy” who always calls them right when they are in the process of finalizing an article that must “go to print” in the next 10 minutes.

7. Follow-up with a “quick call” to verify that press-release has been received without irritating anyone.

Use this script when placing your follow-up call to keep this call from going badly, “Hey is this Jim? Jim are you up against a hard deadline? Well hey, here is the scoop… I just sent you an article about how the State of Texas will benefit from the 42 graphic design jobs that are being created in downtown Dallas by the good folks at Clay & Associates. Did you receive the fax and email I sent you? As always, if you have any questions, just let me know.”

Be prepared to talk fast to think fast and to answer any questions they may have about the validity of your story, your sources and your ideas. Understand that the very nature of a reporter’s job forces them to be alarmingly direct and frank. They simply, must move quickly if they are going to hit their deadlines. And they will hit their deadlines or they will be dead.

8. Follow-up on every feature, news article or TV segment with a compliment, and a hand-written “thank you note”

The overwhelming majority of the members of the media have very high-integrity and huge passion for what they do, because they certainly do not get paid enough to be in it just for the money. Every time a reporter or member of the media writes a story about something they are putting their neck out their. Get in the habit of writing a handwritten note to thank them for their gracious article and the time they allotted in covering the story. Sincerely compliment the areas of the feature piece that you liked the most then send this physical letter to them in the mail ASAP. Build relationships with these people and is well. Irritate this people and you will have problems.

**If you would like more information about to specifically write a press-release in a format that the media wants you can call our office today at 918-851-0102 or you can visit us online at www.MakeYourLifeEpic.com. The best book ever written on the subject of Public Relations and PR Marketing is “Guerilla PR 2.0” by Michael Levine. Get this book and use it as a reference. It will help you tremendously. If you would like to hire a PR firm to handle this madness for you, we can also recommend the best PR firm for you. Just give us a call.

For more information about Las Vegas Motivational Speakers & Public Relations Check out the following links:

Public Relations – You must know how to tell your story in a way that is news worthy.

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