Paul opens his favorite business magazine to find a fawning interview with Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Then he picks up
morning paper and reads a long story on a new donut chain being built in his town. Later he catches a feature piece on CNN about a guy who sells funny handmade shoes and learns accounting secrets from a CPA in Ohio.Media hands out millions of dollars in free publicity every day. As well as advertising works, a media story about you almost always pulls better. The familiar and respected voice of a newspaper editor, magazine writer, TV reporter, or radio personality talking about you holds lots of weight with audience.
How do all these businesses get media coverage? The secret varies depending on what your business does and HOW BIG it is.
Large in-the-news businesses like Amazon.com get coverage for practically any development. Political figures find their words in media for almost any pronouncement. The local college football team gets press even if there is nothing much to cover.
A Different PR Strategy For Small Businesses
Your small business can have a much tougher time if you try to approach media same way big organizations do. Media is almost entirely owned by large conglomerates and staffed by media pros who have never worked in a small business. The overall industry mindset is that big business is news and small business is--well--rarely news.
This all changes, though, if you offer good information or advice that will be helpful to media outlet's audience. Newspapers love it when a tax expert offers tips around tax return time. Radio stations get a big kick out of anyone who can keep their audience laughing. TV likes anything that is visual and brings out emotion (hide keys to a new car in a pool of jello, ask contestants to swim to win, and watch every TV station in town turn out).
Let's focus on you as media savvy expert. This is without question best strategy for consistently getting your small business in media.
Start by taking inventory of areas you are, or could become, an expert in. Think in terms of kinds of information a general audience would find interesting, helpful, or moving (these days many in media try less to explain and more to create emotion).
If you have a day care center, make a list of ten ways tired parents can keep an energetic youngster entertained and learning. Run an auto body shop? How about ways to avoid getting taken by mechanics and insurance companies after an accident.
If your area of expertise can relate to a hot topic in news--all better! Historians, lawyers, detectives, and political scientists get in media several times each year by giving informed tips relating to an event or scandal in news. You may even be able to provide a local angle for a national story.
