{"id":2769,"date":"2013-10-21T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=2769"},"modified":"2020-03-30T23:21:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T03:21:18","slug":"media-coverage-company-earned-blasted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/media-coverage-company-earned-blasted","title":{"rendered":"Media coverage for your company should be earned, not blasted"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was chatting with a friend who\u2019s a freelance journalist the other day, and I asked him what he prefers to hear about the most in a pitch from PR people. His response:<\/p>\n

\u201cExplain to me why I should care if I\u2019m not getting paid to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well said, sir. Publicity is a tricky thing. Contrary to popular belief, one cannot just wave a magic wand and make a glowing feature story on the cover of the New York Times appear.<\/p>\n

Sorry, but as good as your Kool Aid tastes, not everyone is drinking it.<\/p>\n

The reason that many companies don\u2019t get the media coverage they want is because they haven\u2019t done anything to earn<\/a> it. This is particularly important for startups because publicity can play a big role in shaping your company\u2019s story and the way the public perceives you. And let\u2019s face it \u2013 you\u2019re a startup, so you have no \u201cproven track record.\u201d You need validation from an unbiased third party.<\/p>\n

So how do you earn great media coverage?<\/p>\n

Publicity vs. PR<\/h3>\n

The first thing to keep in mind is that PR is not publicity. Publicity is what media relations falls under. PR consists of much more \u2013 content creation, speaking, events, awards, data-driven campaigns, etc. \u2013 and should work in conjunction with a publicity strategy. Note the word \u201cstrategy.\u201d Bursts of news announcements every now and then don\u2019t constitute a strategy.<\/p>\n

Without a strategy, you\u2019re just asking people to forget about you. Content moves so quickly today \u2013 your news announcement is old within hours. It has to be an ongoing process where you can shape your story over time.<\/p>\n

Consider: Where is my company today? Where do we want to be in a year? Five years? What\u2019s the story we\u2019re going to tell then, and how are we going to start communicating the journey now?<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, you want people to care about what you\u2019re doing. You want to build an emotional connection with your brand. You want to be considered a thought leader in your industry.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s not going to happen if you mass blast a press release to a list of contacts that you\u2019ve never communicated with before.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not going to happen if you keep trying to shove the same marketing speak down everyone\u2019s throats.<\/p>\n

So How Do You Get People to Care?<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Take a \u201cquality over quantity\u201d approach<\/strong>: Handpick the target media organizations that specifically cover what your company does. Get to know them and what they write about. Develop a relationship. Craft a story exclusively for them. Do they prefer to dig into the business model? Do they focus on the entrepreneur behind the business? Are they looking for tactical startup tips? Find out and then assess whether you have something valuable to add to that conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Don\u2019t be selfish<\/strong>: This goes back to the definition of earned media. Not every story is going to be all about you and what your company does, especially if you haven\u2019t done anything new\/different in a while. You have to give to get something in return. Maybe that\u2019s your expert point of view on a story that isn\u2019t about you. Maybe it\u2019s a behind-the-scenes look at how your technology works. Or an exclusive Q&A where you give advice based on your unique experience. No one wants to listen to someone who can\u2019t step down from the soapbox.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Find a way to be relevant<\/strong>: What is the headline of the story you\u2019re trying to get a journalist to write? That\u2019s always a great place to start. Can you envision it? If not, can you explain why you\u2019re telling this story now? Is it new? Does it affect millions of people? Does it tie in to a larger societal trend?\u00a0Let\u2019s put it this way: Would you read the story if it wasn\u2019t about your own company?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Don\u2019t be a robot<\/strong>: Meep jargon meep jargon meep. Leading provider of meep meeeeeep. You get what I\u2019m saying. Earn your media by telling a story in plain English. But what\u2019s more than that: explain what it means for the end-user (in the media\u2019s case, their audience). Talk about the benefit, not the features. How is this product\/service making someone\u2019s life easier or better? How does it fill a void in the marketplace? Why can\u2019t I live without it?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \"RobotWhite-JeremiahBritton\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The trickiest thing about publicity is that there\u2019s never a guarantee. All you can do is make sure that you\u2019re always trying to provide something valuable to others and not just yourself. If you do, you\u2019ll find that PR will end up accomplishing exactly what you wanted it to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          I was chatting with a friend who\u2019s a freelance journalist the other day, and I asked him what he prefers to hear about the most in a pitch from PR people. His response: \u201cExplain to me why I should care if I\u2019m not getting paid to.\u201d Well said, sir. Publicity is a tricky thing. Contrary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":949,"featured_media":33738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMedia coverage for your company should be earned, not blasted<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was chatting with a friend who\u2019s a freelance journalist the other day, and I asked him what he prefers to hear about the most in a pitch from PR peopl\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/media-coverage-company-earned-blasted\" 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