Okay, so you’ve been sending out press releases and WOW! One
of them connected! You landed your first radio interview
on a local station or a reporter from a nearby newspaper has
called.
You might be so excited about this initial success that you
forget the SECOND most important thing you can do to turn
this event into dollars.
The end of the interview is just the beginning of your
opportunity.
During my sportscasting days, I read a quote by baseball
Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. He said,
‘The media are like birds on a wire. When one flies, they
all fly.’
In other words, once you attract attention, other folks in
the media automatically become interested. There’s a little
bit of a ‘herd mentality.’
Here are just a few tips for extending or ‘proliferating’
your media successes WAY beyond the radio station or
newspaper that first features you.
Broadcast events:
Ask the host or producer if they know of others in the media
who might be interested in your story. With mass
consolidation going on, many media outlets are now part of
huge chains or conglomerates, and you may be able to get
referrals to people in the same company who produce shows in
other cities.
Make sure you arrange to get a tape of the show. Offer the
tape to print reporters in your area.
Post segments of the interview on your website. But make
sure you have permission from the station.
If you already have some media contacts, let them know about
your appearance before the interview, and offer
to send them a tape afterward.
Print Stories:
Copy the story and put it on your website. Notify other
publications who might be interested, including radio and
TV.
Send a thank you note to the reporter who wrote the story,
and in an oh-by-the-way fashion, suggest other topics of
similar interest. Think of yourself as a resource, and do
anything you can to make the reporter think of you that way
too.
Get reprints of the interview/story and distribute them. If
you’re not sure how to go about this, see Joan Stewart’s
outstanding
Special Report #13 ‘How to Recycle Your Publicity’ at
http://www.get-free-
publicity.com/publicityhound.htm
Joan also explains in detail how to use the reprints to
maximum advantage.
Non-media ‘proliferation:’
You can also spread the word in ways that are not related to
the mass media. For instance:
Send an email or a postcard to your business contacts
letting them know where-and-when your media ‘event’ takes
place.
If you belong to any newsgroups, be sure to let other
members know about it, and offer a link to the story or
recording if possible.
Put some brief info in the signature file of your email
program, and again, offer a direct link if possible.
Do these things and you’ll ‘get the snowball rolling
downhill’ as your media successes gather momentum and the
free publicity piles up.
Drive in a flood of new traffic, sell more products and
services than ever — and maybe even make yourself famous in
the process.
Subscribe to George McKenzie’s ‘Get Free
Publicity’ Ezine and receive a 5-day mini-course on how to
get for thousands of dollars worth of positive — and
positively free — advertising and publicity.
