R.M.D. Media
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POST NAVIGATION
WHAT IS PR?
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As many of you know, just this week I launched a . It's a look at
what works and what doesn't, when you're trying to reach media. For
this launch, I wanted to dabble in a Google ad campaign. Not something
I often do, so fingers crossed it will bring more great readers. That
said, when I was looking to set up the campaign, the realization hit
me: how does one search for information on PR?
If only defining what PR means was as easy as finding this point.
It's a tough term to search for. You could go specific and type
something like 'how to reach media' (not searched much) or 'pitching
media' (once again, a loser when it comes to search terms). Or you can
broaden the search and type things like 'PR campaign' or 'tips on PR,'
both of which have a much higher search rate, but remain very vague.
So how do you narrow down such a term as PR?
And that's when I realized that PR really is a terrible term to sum
up what reaching media is all about. This is why. PR obviously stands
for Public Relations. What does that mean? That can include a number
of different services, all offered by . They may provide media
outreach, but it can also include crisis management, developing your
public message/persona, media training, setting up speaking
engagements and a whole lot of other options that most new businesses,
consultants or independent business owners don't need to worry about.
Then there's the smaller services, like setting up media interviews,
acting as a liaison to media and creating excel sheets for
presentations to C-suite level reporting, to name a few, which serves
as the outsourcing arm of many PR agencies.
No wonder it's so hard to search for something simple, like pitching
media.
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INTRODUCING THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PR
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I have some exciting news to share with you today. After months of
planning and weeks of writing and rewriting, I'm finally ready to
provide the . This online guide will take you through how to develop
your own media outreach campaign as quickly and easily as possible,
without adding the extra expense of an agency.
In this , I have shared with you knowledge I learned while working
within a PR agency, as well as information from the journalist's
perspective so you know exactly what they want to see when pitching.
With this information gathered from my experiences working on both
sides of the media aisle, I'm ready to share it all with you so you
can implement your next media outreach strategy in minutes and start
connecting with journalists today. In the guide, you will learn:
* What the journalist wants to see when you reach out to them with
an idea
* How to find media that will suit your sales or campaign needs
* How to narrow down the list of journalists, to find the select few
that you have the best chance of connecting with
* The correct way to format a pitch, so the journalist will know how
you can help them immediately
* How to position yourself as an expert, so you will get multiple
journalists using you as a reliable source
* An incredibly simple 5-step process, so you can repeat it
over-and-over again, creating coverage for all your campaign ideas
* BONUS: INCLUDED IN THE GUIDE ARE EMAIL TEMPLATES SO YOU CAN ADD IN
YOUR INFORMATION AND BEGIN PITCHING MEDIA TODAY!
Plus, makes some star cameos as well.
For the first week, I'm providing this guide at a rate of 50% off! So
if you , then you will get the guide for less than $50! Considering
the price of an agency, which can run you thousands per month, what
better chance than now to reach media?
For more information on what you can get from the guide, please read
more here: . And if you're ready to jump in and start pitching media
today, then click the loud 'Buy Now' button below.
Can't wait to read about you in the news!
-Ryan
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NO BUSINESS IS TOO SMALL FOR PR
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Sometimes you go on vacation, and you come back to a boatload of
to-dos and worries. Other times, you come back to great news and an
exciting project. And that's the case for me this week. While I was
out, checking out Denver and San Francisco, a guest post dropped on
the Frugal Entrepreneur blog. It's the perfect topic, in preparation
for my Insider's Guide to PR which will be going live and available
for sale (at a steep discount) starting tomorrow!
In the post, I discuss why no business should overlook reaching
media. Why? Because it's a part of your that will help improve and
work in conjunction with all your other areas of business, like
marketing, customer service and sales. Yet, many business owners do
neglect the outreach and I assume it's because they don't know how or
think you need an agency in order to reach journalists. If you've read
my blog at all over the past couple months, you know how I feel about
a business owner's ability to on his/her own. But here's what I had to
say in the post:
I’ve worked in journalism for a number of years, and not once did I
see a pitch from a small business owner and think, “well, I’m
going to ignore this one because it didn’t come from an agency.”
There are many reasons to ignore a pitch, but that’s not one of
them.
The media doesn’t work that way. Journalists find stories by
talking to experts, diving into research and uncovering something new.
Much of what the agency does when they pitch is to get their clients
face-time with the journalist. The agency does this because they know
that if the journalist sees the client as an expert then s/he will use
the person again and again as stories arise within the client’s area
of expertise. Guess what? You can be that expert.
Once you realize your ability to position yourself as the expert,
it's simply just taking the steps to make sure you give off that
expert aura. For more on how to do this, check out the rest of the
post on .
And look out for my Insider's Guide to PR, which will be available
for sale tomorrow. In it, I'll give you the tips and tricks that
agencies use to reach media. Plus, I'll provide you with detail on how
to pitch media in a way that the journalist will want to connect with
you. Stay tuned for more!
CONTINUE READING Posted in , , , | Tagged , , , |
ARE ALL PLATFORMS CREATED EQUAL? WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA SITE SHOULD YOU
CHOOSE?
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I recently had the opportunity to write a guest post for Main Street
ROI. In case you haven't heard of them, they provide great value to
independent business owners, teaching them ways to improve their SEO
efforts.
I'm heading to the home of social media, but how do you choose which
one to choose? (h/t to for photo)
In the post, I spoke about how entrepreneurs, consultants and
independent business owners should attack , considering the time
constraints that they face as the leader of a company. One thing that
came from my thoughts when forming this idea, was that often a
strapped for time business owner attacks in one of two ways:
* Being on every social platform
* Avoiding social media at all cost
While the first option can lead to you wasting time and not showing
much results for your efforts, the second option can lead to serious
problems with your online reputation. That's because ignoring the
medium doesn't help anyone, and just because you are avoiding it
doesn't mean your customers are. So what happens if they complain
about your service or ask for help? You have no way to respond, and
that makes your company look unprofessional and uncaring.
But there's plenty of ways to jump onto social media in a way that
will take little time, while assuring you're getting the most from the
medium. I talk more about this at Main Street ROI, so please check out
the full post here: .
And another note, I'm heading to San Francisco next week for the
first time. Any suggestions on food/sites to see, would be most
helpful! Posted in , , , | Tagged , , , |
ATTACHING TO A SHARK: AN EXAMPLE OF SHOWING EXPERTISE USING WAL-MART
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Have you ever seen those fish that swim along sharks, grabbing
morsels of food as the bigger one dines? It's a unique adaptation that
these fishes have developed, and the shark doesn't seem to even bother
with them. So they continue to live while the shark is none the wiser.
Well when story ideas, where you can show off your expertise, you
often need to play the role of the scavenger fish, and use the shark
in order to access time with a journalist.
Use the bigger guys to your advantage, and become an expert.
I came across a great example of such a today. a social media time
management company, , provided a new infographic. But instead of
keeping the infographic general about social media, they narrowed it
down to evaluate a single company's strategy. The company happened to
be Wal-Mart.
Based on the information they discovered when looking at the retail
giant's social media strategy, they could share an informed opinion of
Wal-Mart's Facebook success or lack there of. Based on this
information, they can then who want to understand why a company, with
the budget of Wal-Mart, isn't doing better online. I'll let
Recommend.ly's CEO Venkat Ramma explain, via AllFacebook: Posted
in , , | Tagged , , , , |
DEFINING AN EXPERT FOR MEDIA
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The word '' really is just an awful term. It's vague. It's daunting.
It's like the worst marketing campaigns you find on the Internet that
promise the moon and provide little in return. The word 'expert' is
full of it.
You can always trust an expert, right? What really makes an expert
anyways (photo by )
Yet, so much of what I talk about on this blog and in the upcoming
guide on how you can develop your own includes that word: 'expert.'
Because when , you must show you have the knowledge and skill to
provide the journalists with valuable information. But does that mean
you truly are an expert? Have you received your diploma of expertise
from pitching media college? Have you felt that confidence swing
knowing you truly know it all when it comes to XX field? Not likely,
and frankly I would worry about you if you answered yes to any of the
scenarios above!
But, then, what makes an expert for purposes? That's a tough question
because there's no clear, hard-fast rule. And the truth is, the
journalist often doesn't know just how much expertise you may or may
not have before they . They hope, based on your pitch and your proof
of expertise, that you can answer their questions, but it's a
crap-shoot for them as well.
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FREE GUEST POSTING TEMPLATE NOW AVAILABLE!
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Hi all, I just wanted to share some exciting news from R.M.D. Media.
We have just made available a new template, that will allow you to
quickly plug in your information and start pitching editors at
magazines, trades and blogs your ideas for a guest post. All you have
to do is sign up for the on the right or entering your email below!
Providing guests posts are great way to show your expertise to the
publication's audience. It also allows you to reference it when
pitching other media, which can lead to more guest posts or more
interviews, depending on what you're looking for. Plus, there's the
huge SEO benefit, as well. So don't avoid pitching your ideas to blogs
you read on a daily basis, just because you're less well known company
or expert. Publications like good ideas, and they're just as likely to
come from you as they are from a large organization.
If you have any questions for me, once you take a look, feel free to
add a comment or reach me via my . Either way, I'll be happy to
respond.
Start pitching your way to more today!
CONTINUE READING Posted in , , | Tagged , , , , |
APPLE'S CATCH 22 AND WHAT THAT SAYS ABOUT YOU
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You might have heard, but Apple announced its latest lineup of new
products, including the next generation of iPhones. The iPhone 5 will
bring with it a number of , including 4G access, bigger screen,
lighter feel, yadda, yadda yadda. I'm not really into talking about
the finer points of tools like phones and tablets, particularly on a
blog about independent business marketing, although I will be getting
the iPhone 5 come the 21st since I've had my old phone for over three
years now. It's time!
While Apple should be viewed as a case study of success, it's still a
double-edged sword.
That said, Apple's success story is well known. But you're starting
to see cracks, as now not every announcement comes with the cache that
it once had. For instance, a number of journalists have talked about
how the iPhone 5 is. Or how they wish it did this or that or this
other thing. It's a far cry from when it launched the first iPhone.
And part of the reason has nothing to do with the phone, but simply
because the company had much of the features leaked prior to the
launch. So there was plenty excitement weeks ago, but now it's sort of
old news.
And that's the Catch-22 that Apple finds itself in. It has been such
an innovative company, that no matter what it brings out, it can't
live up to the past. Add on to the fact that it used to hold secrets
like a Las Vegas casino vault, and every event they hosted felt like
Christmas Day, it's not a surprise that some are underwhelmed. Unless
it creates an entirely new innovative product (btw, two game-changing
technologies in 5 years isn't bad) or keep that secrecy, then people
will be disappointed. Yet, still people want more. So they release a
new version of their phone and it can't live up to the past. Damned if
you do, damned if you don't.
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10 RESOURCES TO BUILD A FREE MEDIA LIST
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When launching a for your company, there's one area that could suck
the most time: building the press list. It's difficult, without hiring
a third party, not to at least take a few hours to build a list that's
filled with publications and journalists that might cover your company
or talk to you about an issue in the news. While you can cut down on
this time by spending on a journalist listserve, like Vocus or Cision,
it will cost you. Instead, you can do this with free services found
online.
Building a media list yourself can take some time, but cut it down
with these free resources
These services can provide lists of publications in your keyword
search that you're trying to pitch to or provide you with journalists
in the same search. But you should read some of the journalist's work
before adding them to your list. That's because, as an independent
business owner, you will need to ensure that you target your efforts
pitching media with precision. This will help you save time while also
allowing you to reach journalists that have potential in covering you.
So while this may lead to a few more hours of extra work at the
beginning of a campaign, it will create more hits and responses during
your outreach efforts.
There's a number of posts that have listed to build your own, but
they were published a few years ago. I've included below a number of
tools mentioned in the older posts that still work, as well as few new
tools that have arisen since the growth of social media or simply just
overlooked. Posted in , , | Tagged , , , , |
PITCHING THROUGH HARO - STAY RELEVANT
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HARO is a great tool for independent business owners to reach media.
Just make sure you're helping, instead of spamming, them.
One of the great tools that every small business owner looking for
media coverage should utilize is , aka HARO. I'm sure many of you have
heard of the tool. It allows journalists to inform the community on
what type of sources/story they're looking for and provides an
opportunity for anyone matching the description to reply. Independent
business owners and entrepreneurs should use the service on a weekly
basis, looking for these opportunities to at top-tier publications.
But it can also go terribly awry.
Today, The New York Times actually described this going wrong. The
how she enjoys using HARO because of the sources she's able to
gather through the tool, but is often shocked by some of the just
remarkably poor responses. Here's a portion of her surprise:
photo by: Posted in , , | Tagged , , , , |
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ABOUT ME
I'm a journalist, content creator and consultant to small businesses,
with a focus on media outreach and social media marketing. You need
insight into how PR/marketing agencies get their placements, then
you've come to the right blog. I'm here to tell you how to get your
small business noticed, from the journalist's perspective. I also love
golf, basketball, cool new restaurants, traveling and trying new ways
to test my limits (the girlfriend loves that one!). © 2012 -
R.M.D Media | |
