Radio Publicity

7 ways to congratulate journalists—without brown-nosing

10/5/2011 By Joan 1 Comment

When a favorite journalist is promoted, leaves the newspaper for a new job, or wins an award, smart Publicity Hounds swing into action and deliver their congratulations, a very important part of building the relationship.

Be aware, especially, of things like writing, editing and photography awards. They don’t mean a hill of beans to the success of the newspaper, but journalists think they are a very big deal. I worked in newsrooms for 22 years, won many awards, and they were a huge deal.

How do you congratulate them without gratuitous brown-nosing? Here are seven ideas:

Send a handwritten note. Most well-wishers would cop out with an email. But you want to zig when everybody else is zagging. A postage stamp and a few minutes of your time are a cheap price to pay to stand out from the crowd.
Is the journalist on Twitter? If so, send a congratulatory tweet. Link to an article about the award so others who follow the journalist can read it.
Are you friends on Facebook? If so, post congratulations to their wall, and give the URL for the article announcing the award. You can also link to the winning article or project.
Create a short “way to go!” video and email the link. With a little editing, you can also provide the link for the winning project. Consider posting the video to their company’s website.
Go ahead. Ask the journalist if it’s OK to post the video to YouTube.
Is the journalist on LinkedIn? If so, consider writing a recommendation. But sure to explain what factors made their work so special, or what happened as a result. This is the place to recommend, not just congratulate.
Call and leave a short, cheery voicemail message.

Don’t do all of these, or it will, indeed, be brown-nosing. And never sneak in a pitch while you’re congratulating.

What Else You Shouldn’t Do

No flowers. Women reporters I’ve worked with love flowers, but they’d get the heebie-jeebies when sources sent them.
No gifts, gift cards or anything of value. Many newspapers have ethics policies that prohibit reporters from receiving these. Don’t put someone in the uncomfortable position of having to return a gift to you.
No tickets to sporting events, the theater or other entertainment venues.
Don’t invite the journalist to lunch and dive for the check. He might not be able to accept a free meal. See 18 ways to schmooze with reporters.

Don’t forget sports reporters, copy editors, photographers, graphic artists and other newsroom employees. Ditto for TV producers, anchors, sportscasters, meteorologists and radio talk show hosts. They love being congratulated, too.

What have I missed? If you’re a PR person, a journalist or a Publicity Hound, what ideas can you share that have worked well?

Also see: 12 ways to say “thanks” to a blogger or journalist

Filed Under: Blogs, LinkedIn, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity, Video, YouTube Tagged With: broadcast awards, build relationships with reporters, congratulate journalists, journalism awards, journalist relations

Today last day for Publicity Summit discount–3 spots left

9/23/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

Today is the last day to take advantage of a price break for attending Steve Harrison’s National Publicity Summit, Oct. 12-15, in New York City. Only three spots are remaining.

The price goes up by $1,200.00 after today, Friday, Sept. 23. Apply here.

Harrison is admitting 100 attendees who will get to personally meet over 100 top journalists/producers who do stories and shows for major media like: ABC’s The View, CNN, Fox News, Today Show, Woman’s Day, MSNBC, Live With Regis & Kelly, 48 Hours, Fox & Friends, ABC’s 20/20, USA Weekend, Dateline NBC, Inc., Health, Entrepreneur, Family Circle and many more top outlets.

All those media were represented at previous Summits. Most of them will be at next month’s event, along with producers and journalists from media outlets who will be attending for the first time.

“For the remaining 3 spots, we will consider all applications submitted through today,” Harrison said. “However, all things being equal, we’ll admit people in the order in which they applied. By the way, if you apply and for any reason I cannot accept you, I’ll give you a gift which will help you get more national media exposure.”

You’ll Learn How to Pitch

Harrison’s staff trains you so you can meet journalists face to face and pitch them with confidence.

After Rory Cohen, an expert in the psychology of success, attended the summit, she was booked on ABC’s “The View” and also got a cover story in Entrepreneur magazine. That created a snowball effect.

“After I was on The View, I was able to get booked on CNN, which then led to a four-page spread in People Magazine,” she said.

As a result of the summit, author Linda Franklin appeared on the “Today” show twice, Fox & Friends, Fox’s “Good Day New York,” Hallmark Channel’s “New Morning,” and in MORE magazine, Essence Magazine, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Sentinel, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, MSN.com, The Huffington Post and at least 25 radio stations throughout the U.S.

Full Disclosure: I am a compensated affiliate for this event and for any other products and services you buy from Harrison.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity Tagged With: freelancers, how to meet journalists, magazine journalists, national publicity summet, newspaper editors, newspaper reporters, Radio Publicity, steve harrison, tv publicity

3 ways to customize a pitch to journalists & get a “yes!”

8/18/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

The next time you pitch a journalist, will he read your pitch and know that you know who he is, what he covers, and why his audience should care about your story?

He will if you customize it.

That means sending a pitch that you can’t send to any other journalist because it’s unique to his media outlet, his beat or his audience. Those kinds of pitches prompt a journalist to think, “This is perfect for us!”

During the webinar I’m hosting at 3 p.m. Eastern Time today, Aug. 18, on “A Simple 5-Part Formula for Delivering the Perfect Media Pitch and Hitting it Out of the Park,” I’ll discuss how to customize a pitch. Here are three approaches:

Piggyback off a previous story the media outlet covered and pitch it as a “follow up.” That’s media lingo, and it will attract his attention. I gave an example in this post I wrote earlier this week about a candy shop in a mall.
Pitch a story idea for a specific section of his newspaper, a specific department in his magazine, or a certain portion of a radio show. Example: “This story is a perfect fit for the Consumer News Round-up segment of your show.”)
Pitch a story that appeals to a personal hobby or interest that ties into his beat. Let’s say you sell decorative corks and stoppers for wine bottles, and you’re pitching the food and wine editor of a magazine. His Twitter profile mentions he’s a wine collector. You could add this to your pitch: “Your wine collection will be as pleasing to the eye as it is to the pallet with a selection of wine stoppers from whimsical to elegant.”

Today’s webinar also includes handouts that explain how to customize the same pitch for three different media outlets, 27 story ideas you can pitch when the idea well is dry, and examples of great pitches that have generated mountains of publicity.

If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because I’ll send you the link for the page where you can download the video replay, the handouts, and all the other materials.

You can also sign up after the webinar is over and you’ll be led to the download page.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Radio Publicity Tagged With: free publicity, pitch reporters, pitching journalists, story ideas

12 ways to say ‘thanks’ to a blogger or journalist

5/24/2011 By Joan 8 Comments

The blogger whose audience you’ve been dying to get in front of publishes your guest blog post, letting you strut your stuff to a new crop of potential customers and clients.
A journalist who works for your local business journal writes a flattering, error-free feature story on your new business, and it makes the front page of the paper, complete with a photo and sidebar.
The editorial page editor of a national newspaper contacts you to write an opposing viewpoint to a column on a controversial topic that another expert submitted.

Each of those is every Publicity Hound’s dream!

But don’t stop there. It’s time to say thanks—not with flowers or flashy gifts, but with thoughtful gestures they will remember.

Here are 7 ways to say thanks to bloggers and journalists:

Send a handwritten thank-you note. Almost nobody does this anymore.
Send a handwritten note of appreciation to the journalist’s or blogger’s boss, explaining how gratifying it was to work with them, and why.
Return to the blogger’s blog periodically to comment on posts.
Tweet about his blog content, and link to it.
Does he have a Facebook page? Like it, share his content, and be sure to tag him. (See 12 More Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on the New & Improved Facebook.)
Email the blogger and suggest ideas you’d like to see him write about. Bloggers love it when readers give them ideas for content.
Ask the journalist, “How can I help you?” This is one of 10 magic phrases that bloggers and journalists love.
To say thanks to the staff of a newspaper or magazine, or a TV or radio station, make a contribution to the media outlet’s favorite charity.
Give a journalist a scoop.
Write a recommendation on LinkedIn.
Share flattering information about the blogger or journalist in a LinkedIn group. (See Your LinkedIn Power Formula 2: Advanced Strategies for Writing a Killer Profile, Cashing in on Groups and Creating Company Pages.)
Offer a story idea about someone else, or another company, that has no relation to you.

I can’t say this too many times: Do NOT send gifts, particularly to newspapers and magazines that might have ethics policies prohibiting gifts.

What other ways have you said thanks? Bloggers, what have your readers done to show their appreciation?

Filed Under: Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity Tagged With: journalist appreciation, letter to the editor, linkedin company page, linkedin group, thank bloggers, thank you note

15 ways to publicize a major publicity hit

4/22/2011 By Joan 6 Comments

The next time you generate publicity in a major newspaper or magazine, or at a blog, or you get onto a TV or radio show, don’t stop there.

You also need to publicize your publicity.

That’s what Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity is doing, after landing her client, Landmark Education, in an article headlined Friendly Fight: A Smarter Way to Say “I’m Angry” in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. She first heard about the need for sources when her company received a query from the journalist and posted it on PitchRate.com, Wasabi’s media leads service.

Turns out that Michelle already had had a relationship with the reporter. And she not only responded with her own client, but she did much of the leg work finding couples who the journalist could interview.

She emailed me earlier today to share the good news:

“A career high for me, Joan. I just HAD to share it with you. Masthead teaser of the Wall Street Journal for my client Landmark Education. Here’s my blog post in case you can use it and remind people you were my mentor years ago!!!! You helped me understand the subtle needs of newspapers because of your background.”

So I asked Michelle, one of the first graduates of The Publicity Hound Mentor Program, to make a list of all the ways she’s going to publicize the publicity. Here’s her short list:

Twitter.com.
Facebook post.
Blog post featuring my role.
New business reference; secure quote from client and/or media contact about placement.
Suggest to media contact that I would love to help their media friends and co-workers (this landed me another HUGE top tier contact).
Add to new business proposals and new business conversations.
Thank media contact.
Create short Bitly links to track traffic inside social media.
Share with other media contacts, affiliates, family and friends about mentioning this placement in how to score PR, build media relationships and teach others about what it takes & how long it takes to score such a placement (look in mirror Joan–wink–you are part of this task).
Do a YouTube video promoting; discussing placement.
Schedule a teleseminar discussing how placement was generated.
Add to websites establishing further credibility.
Write “how to score media coverage like this” bylined articles for web portals, blogs, magazines and other media venues.
Invite radio and TV producers to interview me on how I scored the WSJ front page masthead.
Challenge potential new clients to find out from competing PR firms the size, scope and timing of their recent media coverage to see if they can top a WSJ front page masthead within the recent year; any PR firm worth their salt will have top tier media coverage in the past year or don’t hire them.

Michelle, by the way, is the consummate expert at piggybacking onto breaking news events to generate publicity for her PR clients. That’s why I invited her to be my guest on the webinar I hosted last year on ”How to Tie Your Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU.”

Many of the items on her list above come from years of generating media hits. Can you think of anything else that should be added to her list?