Articles: Anthony Mora Communications
Public exposure is not just for huge companies with deep pockets. The media can take you into the same offices, boardrooms, and even bedrooms of the most powerful people in the world. But, how do you get in? And, once you're in, what do you do? It takes time, patience, and dedication, but once you have mastered the art, you can transform your dreams into reality.
Time, Newsweek, CNN, Oprah, The Today Show, USA Today, Vogue, People ... how many of these media outlets have you been featured in? If you've been in one, that's great. Three? Even better. All of the above? Congratulations, you've hit
a grand slam. None? Why not? You're not ready? Not expert enough? Not primetime material? Let's look at it another way. Are you good at what you do? Are you willing to take that leap and establish yourself as an expert and an educator? My bet is that you can be featured in the media. I am not talking about your 15 minutes of fame, but about establishing yourself through the media as an expert in your field.
Media exposure can give credibility to a business, sell products, bring in clients, forge new alliances, bring you in contact with benefactors you never knew existed, and take you into the offices, boardrooms, and even bedrooms of the most powerful people in the world. Appearing in the media as a news story can help build a business and legitimize a career more quickly and effectively than any other form of marketing.
Why are public relations and media exposure such powerful tools? Simple. Referrals, or the lack thereof, are what make or break most businesses.
For example, if the owner of a restaurant sings the praises of his cuisine, you may listen, but unless you're awfully naive, you'd be at least somewhat cynical. It's his business to praise his business. If, on the other hand, you come across a patron of that restaurant with no vested interest in its success,
and that person raves about the service, the wine, and the Chicken Alfredo, chances are you will not only believe that person, you will probably be eating
there within the month. Business growth basically comes down to that very low-tech, old-as-the-hills strategy known as "word of mouth."
Good public relations and media exposure magnify the word-of-mouth effect. They empower you to broadcast referrals around your city, state, country, or even around the world. Harnessing the media's power and focusing it on you and your
business is not only power, it's magic. Through PR, you are the story - you are the news.
Public relations is a remarkably powerful, effective, and exciting approach, and it has become a sophisticated process that requires preparation, knowledge, and an overall game plan. Leaping into the deep before you know how to swim often results in drowning. It's important to understand the process, study the media, and learn the how's and why's of good PR.
The question is, will you be passively affected by the impact of the media,
or will you take control, use a proactive approach, and benefit from the
unique power that the media offers?
The truth is that almost everyone can benefit from public relations. All
of us have discovered a new product, a business, or a service from a magazine
article or TV segment. Now it's time to turn that equation around and
let others discover who you are by picking up a magazine or watching a
news program.
Launching an effective media campaign consists of more than simply
writing press releases and putting together press kits. If you do it haphazardly or incorrectly, you're better off not doing it at all. The last thing you want to do is alienate the press, which is usually what happens when wellmeaning but inexperienced individuals try their hand at running their own
media campaigns without any prior knowledge or training whatsoever. For
a campaign to be truly effective, it needs to be well strategized and
thought out. It is a cumulative process that builds day by day and month by
month. I have seen both businesses and careers launched through public
relations, but I have also witnessed campaigns that went nowhere. The latter
is usually due to ignorance of the process.
I have had the opportunity to see how PR works from both sides of the
street. As a journalist, I was barraged daily by press releases, press kits, and phone calls from media relations representatives and others trying to convince us to run a story on them or their clients. The trouble was, very
few of them gave us stories to run with; nine times out of 10, all they
were offering was hype - smoke and mirrors. Some were so pushy or abrasive
that not only did I not run their stories, I eventually refused to take
their calls. They became a nuisance - people to be avoided. It is easy to
alienate the press.
When speaking on radio or TV, you may have only one or two minutes.
You have to speak in bullet-points and use "sound bites" - great slogans that
people can remember you by. One I use for my company is: "Don't read the
news, be the news!" Learning to effectively communicate is a life skill.
When speaking to the media, you'll be much more effective if you are clear,
concise, and on target.
The biggest communication mistake businesspeople make is telling their
prospects all about their service. The same holds true with the media. When
you're being interviewed, producers don't have time for your life story. Just
like sales prospects, the media want to know how your product, your practice,
or your service affects them.
Communicate your message in the shortest amount of time with the greatest
impact. This is an important business skill, as well as a media skill,
because we live in a 24/7 world and we're assaulted with up to 20,000
images a day. Our attention spans are short - only about 10 seconds - so
you need to engage the listener and you need to do it quickly.
A media interview is not a conversation. Both sides have an agenda. You want to
generate interest in your company; the producer wants good ratings. It's not
much different when you speak with prospective clients. You want to interest
possible clients, and they want to know what's in it for them. Keep in mind that the prospects you're trying to interest are busy having an internal conversation that has nothing to do with you. They may be hungry, late, mad at the dog, and wondering how soon they can leave. How can you hook the interest of a prospect and focus his or her attention on you and your service in 30 seconds or less? You need to learn to Speak Your Business in 30 SecondsTM.
A 30-second message is also called a "verbal business card". You use your
verbal business card 22 times more often than your paper card. How much
blood, sweat, and tears went into designing that paper card? How about
your verbal card, which has a significantly greater selling power?
Consider these two hypothetical examples of a mortgage broker's verbal
business card: "I help people find their dream homes."
Or
"I teach people five secrets of equity and finance so they can leverage other
people's money and hang on to more of their own."
The first message or verbal card is educational. But what if someone is
not looking for a dream home? The second message is a media hook: Its
purpose is to hook interest, grab focus, and create urgency to know more
about you now, and it broadens the marketplace to include everyone who
is interested in money.
Don't label yourself and close off the conversation. Use verbs like teach, create, design, repackage, or develop. Then show you can fulfill your
prospect's needs. Verbs are the most powerful engines in the English language.
If you say, "I am a website designer," you are labeling yourself. My internal "what's in it for me" says, "I don't need you." But if you say, "I've developed two software tools to increase my clients' market share by up to 30% in five months," all of a sudden you have an interested audience.
The second verbal card mentions a number of secrets. Numbers are magic,
and the media love them. Think of how many times you have seen leads
like, "The Top 10 Best-Dressed List," "Eight Rules for a Great Marriage," or
"Six Ways to Train Your Puppy." Numbers create urgency. Clients often
remember the numbers long after they've forgotten the message. Why are
numbers so irresistible? Because we measure our lives by them. What's
your age? Weight? Income? SAT score? If someone has five secrets that you
don't have, he has a kind of power - there's an irresistible urge to know
what they are. Numbers are like peanuts: You can't eat just one. The verbal card also addresses a basic need to hang on to your money. A dream home would be great someday. Your money is something you can emotionally connect with right now.
Can you reach your prospect's emotions? Can you touch a need that keeps
your prospects up at night? Think for a moment. What need does your service
or business really fulfill for people? More money, better relationships, and
better health are three of the most basic needs we have. Do you fulfill one
of those needs? Can you help someone create a bigger client base, a healthier
bottom line, or more personal time? That's what you want your prospects
to feel on an emotional level: not what you do, but what you can do for them.
If you can tell a compelling quick story that illustrates how you can meet
those needs, you not only have a fantastic pitch for a prospect, you also
have the perfect media pitch. One of the most important
One of the most important points about media training is that you learn to tell not sell. No one likes a hard sell. We like to buy, but we don't want
to be "sold." When interviewing on TV or print, the best way to present yourself is to tell great anecdotal stories about your clients or patients.
When talking to prospective clients, soft-sell. Tell great, short, dramatic stories about your clients' problems and how you solved them. Paint
pictures with your stories; make them compelling and engaging. The message will be delivered, don't worry.
Remember, public relations is a subtle art. When placing stories in the media, you want to entice the reader or viewer to buy your product or try your service, but you also have an equally important second objective. You want to powerfully and effectively communicate with the public. I can't emphasize this point strongly enough. You create an effective campaign by telling compelling stories. Through those stories, you communicate and educate. That way you not
only reach your target market and establish yourself as an expert, you become - you got it - the news!
Anthony Mora is president and CEO of Anthony Mora Communications, Inc., a public relations firm based in Los Angeles. To learn more about Anthony
Mora and his new book, Spin to Win, a how-to book on PR, visit www.AdvantEdgeMag.com/004.
You're ready to place your story in the media, but what do you do now? Before you move forward, step back and review your objectives and your approach. What is your pitch? What is the story that you're offering to the media? Are you pitching a story that meets the media's needs? Have you defined your target market? Does your press release effectively address that market? Does your media list effectively target that market? Can you modify your story and pitch ideas so that you can reach a broader target market? Is your press release grammatically correct, easy to read, and no more than one page long? These questions are going to start becoming automatic.They will become your media mantras.
Put together a select list of media outlets that you want to approach, keeping your target audience in mind.This is your first outing, so don't get too ambitious. I suggest that you initially target the local media. Along with your local TV programs and newspapers, study the cable outlets, community papers, college papers, and business newsletters. Start small; learn to walk before you try sprinting.
Don't think that because you're going to smaller or local media outlets your job is going to be made simpler. One of the odd quirks about the media is that often the smaller the outlet, the more demanding the producer or editor will be. I can recall several instances where the editor of a small local community paper was much more difficult to work with than an editor at Time or Newsweek would ever be. Every now and then, you'll run into someone who thinks that being difficult is a mark of professionalism. If you run into that, just roll with the punches, be polite, present your story, and move on. Do not become confrontational or argumentative.That's a sure way to ruin your campaign.
Media outlets vary. Each magazine, newspaper, and TV program has different needs and demographics. Each time you're preparing to pitch a story, put yourself in the place of that editor or segment producer.Try to think the way he or she thinks, and you will be much more creative, and more effective.Now put yourself in the place of the reader or viewer. If you're going local, pick a local slant. If you're going national, broaden your pitch. If you were a reader of People magazine, would the story you're pitching interest you? If you were a CNN viewer, would your story be of interest? Are there various ways to write your release that would interest both a People magazine reader and CNN viewer? You may want to come up with three or four different releases to send to different outlets.
It is a process of continually reviewing and refining. Constantly look at how you can better express your message, pitch your story, and present yourself. I can't overemphasize that you're pitching a story, not a person or a product.
Consider pitching articles to newspaper and newsletter editors in your area. Offer to write a free feature article on a topic that has to do with your particular area of expertise. Pitch an informative or how-to article that will help both educate and inform the readers. Ask the editor if he or she would be kind enough to run your name and phone number at the end of the article. If you are uncomfortable writing an article, hire someone to write it for you.This is the type of article that truly helps position you as an expert in your field.
It could take some time. You might have to pitch three or four different ideas, but, eventually, a newspaper, radio show, or TV program will listen and schedule an interview.
Let's see if you're ready.Have you practiced conducting mock interviews? Have you done some media training, even if it's only with a friend? Do you have a list of the main points you want to cover? Have you stood in front of a mirror and asked yourself some anticipated questions, reviewing how you'll answer and how you'll look? You owe it to yourself to give the best presentation and interview you can.
The good part is that you started. If you are prepared, you know your topic, and you give the media a good interview, then other media outlets will follow.The media and the public will begin to see you as an expert in your field.You'll start getting calls about your product, your service, or your practice.Your hard work will pay off as the interviews begin and your media campaign takes flight.
To see an example PR Piece and Press Release, click here or visit www.AdvantEdgeMag.com/004 today.
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For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com
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