Many entrepreneurs suffer from inability to grasp the importance of publicity.
If you aren’t letting people know about your accomplishments, especially the media, you’re making a big mistake.
The good news is, you can change the way you approach publicity and it can actually be fun.
To increase your business success, you want to be in the public eye.
Publicity comes in many forms and it has been said that free publicity is the most valuable.
Free publicity is valuable because it is often more convincing than advertising. People believe a news story more readily than they believe an advertisement.
The perception is that you must be doing something right if your products or services are featured in the news.
Free publicity is generated by newsworthy business activities your business is associated with, the type of activities that great news stories are born from.
Paid publicity is advertising where you’ve paid a price to get your message out and have full control of the message.
This generally occurs through traditional media placement and sponsorship opportunities.
Publicity -- especially free publicity -- is subjective because we really have no concrete way of knowing what will be deemed newsworthy.
There is no clear cut answer as to what will spark definite interest. But, your information must be newsworthy. So, it’s important to understand the meaning of news.
News, by definition, is previously unknown information.
Oftentimes businesses do some really great things and they either don’t believe they’re newsworthy or they haven’t looked at operations from an objective view to determine if there could be a story to tell.
Joan Stewart, also known internationally as The Publicity Hound, shares some advice. “The most important thing that a small business person can do if they want publicity is to make the media’s job easy.
That means writing short, compelling, newsworthy press releases. It means giving them story ideas relevant to their target audience. It means inviting them to call on you for story ideas, background, commentary and anything else they need.”
You’ll want to get some exposure in the local, if not national, media.
Remember, it’s your job to tell the media what you’re doing. They are not going to seek you out unless they know you’re doing something interesting.
On the other hand, you don’t want to contact the media about something that really is of interest to only you and few select family members. Remember, news is subjective but it needs to have a broad appeal.
I have observed many businesses over the years who feel like it’s the media or reporters job to seek them out. While reporters do deliver the news and they sometimes do investigative research to find that news, you’ll have better odds of coverage if you do your part.
Are you telling your story? Is it newsworthy?
This article may be reproduced in it’s entirety with the following inclusion: Lisa Manyon specializes in POWERFULLY communicating business messages to get results.
Her work has been featured by the National Association of Women Writers and her article Nine Ways to Network More Effectively is slated to appear in Bob Bly’s upcoming networking guide.
Manyon acted as a team leader for Lorrie Morgan – Ferrero’s Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp. Manyon’s eBook is now available and you can learn more here http://writeoncreative.com/blog/biz/
Be sure to sign up for Manyon’s Musings to receive savvy marketing insights delivered right to your in box http://www.writeoncreative.com/WOC-Ezine.html Write On ~ Creative Writing Services, LLC. ©
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Publicity, Get the Maximum Mileage Out of Your Story!
One hundred years ago publicist Ivy Lee created the press release. And it is still the key for getting others to spread the word about your company - and do it for free.
Whether you write your own press releases or get help from a professional copywriter, whether you drop off your release on the editor's desk personally or use www.PRWeb.com to broadcast your news across the Internet - you can benefit from the resources below.
Every company, even yours, has a story!. You've got to think like a reporter. Your company may be doing the same old things you've always done - when something happens, perhaps half-a-world away, that will cause the media in your area to want to know more about what you do.
You've got to be ready to tell that story. You do have a unique story and you've got to be telling it - or at least ready to do so when the media calls.
These articles were chose from several sources, selected because they offer relevant information - from the most simplistic to the most complex. In addition the authors often demonstrate how you can do-it-yourself publicity hound.
And if you can't do it yourself - you'll be a much smarter consumer of copywriting, on and off line publicity services offered by experts.
