You have been there before; the media is covering a topic that is relevant to your business, but you still cannot find a way to get yourself into the conversation. It seems the media is not interested in what you have to say, or maybe you don’t know what to say. In the end, it goes by as a lost opportunity.
As always, barring doing something terrible, there is no sure way to guarantee that you will end up in the media. However, you may be able to follow some steps to ensure you have the best shot at making it into the news. See below for four steps to take when trying to catch a media wave.
Listen To What They Are Saying
It may sound obvious, but many times reporters complain that they receive pitches about things that are not remotely relevant to the discussion at hand. Sometimes a pitch that seems relevant to you may not seem relevant to a reporter. For this reason, make sure to connect your pitch to what is going on in the body of the email—always remembering to keep a certain degree of brevity.
Look At Who Is Listening
Different types of people are going to be interested in different types of news. Although it is almost certain that when the topic is relevant to your business the audience is one that would benefit your business, make sure to be aware of who is listening so to craft your message accordingly. A quick look at the response to the news on social media will also give insight at who is listening and what they have to say about it. Do they have any questions that you may be able to answer?
Plan What Your Are Going To Say
This may be both the easiest and the hardest step. Sometimes you may know exactly what you are going to say but can’t get the media interested, and sometimes you know you would be of interest but you don’t know what to say. In general, you can break down what you can say into three different categories: advice or commentary, statistics, and solutions. When deciding which one of the three to present, ensure you have a credible pitch and target the needs of the audience you have already determined is listening to the news.
Join the conversation
Just because you cannot end up on TV or in the news doesn’t mean you have to be left out of the conversation. Now thanks to social media you can tweet or post directly in the middle of all the talking. You can reply to a commenter’s question, provide follow up to a news article, or just add your own commentary. By targeting a reporter with a well-crafted comment concerning their article, you may even be able to catch their attention and get an article of your own.
Hopefully the above will help you plan out your approach better the next time a topic of interest comes up.
