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Many news outlets are looking past Halloween and Thanksgiving and starting to think Holidays. Start brainstorming about the kinds of stories you can pitch to the media that you can hook into this special time of year. Ask yourself:

1. What about my business or product can I make into a holiday story?
2. How can my product help others in this time of year?
3. What stories have media members covered in the past around this time of year and how can I relate it to my business?

Perhaps you sell vitamins or bracelets, some kind of a product. Think of the magazines that would be interested in showcasing what you have as a gift item. If you sell herbs, this is a great time to tie in a story about holiday health woes and what can be done to settle stomaches after stressful relatives and a big meal.

*TV, radio and other broadcast news will want your story a little closer to the actual time of year, but monthly or bi-monthly periodicals schedule way ahead. This is the time to be thinking of pitches to periodical media.

We are in the midst of an econonomic crisis, businesses are afraid, people are afraid. Money gurus are now telling people to pull out, conserve, wait. So how can you and I keep our businesses going while everyone is holding on for dear life? Follow the money. Whether you are into selling vitamins or public speaking, you must address where the money market is headed with your potential clients. Some may be tempted to pretend there is nothing happening, that this is all just a media scare, that the problem is not as big as people think it is. Whether true or not to you, it’s still the news of the day and people are going to react to it. Media companies are going to be looking to cover stories dealing with it. So, if you are smart, your message will not be to tell people everything is fine but to acknowledge the problem and tell the public how your company can fix it. Even if you’re selling chocolate you can talk to the media about your new less expensive packaging, or your encouragement to stock up while supplies last. You might even develop a new trade or wholesale policy, etc. Whatever you do, offer solutions, offer a life saver and definitely address the media with it.

It’s all in the follow-up.

E-mail is a great tool, but writers and editors get inundated with hundreds of pitches each week, so a call – at least to follow up after sending an e-mail query – is more likely to get you noticed. Introduce yourself and give a succinct pitch. Even if you get rejected, you’ve started a beneficial relationship for future opportunities.

I’ve had clients who say it’s been nothing but a waste of time. They’ve written them before and sent them out to media, but no one called for the scoop. What many peole may not realize is that the media needs more than just a press release these days to prompt them to cover your news.

It’s who you know that counts:
This isn’t earth shattering information. If you know the right editor or reporter (or know someone who does, hint, hint) you are much more likely to get to the person you need to talk to about your story.
It’s the method
you use.

It’s the method you use:
Sending a press release out via fax or email is the old way of grabbing the headlines. Not only that but the online media world is where it’s at in terms of news these days. Bypass reporters and other information gatekeepers by sending your info through Facebook, MySpace, with SEO press releases, RSS feeds, blogs, widgets, self publishing sites like Digg or Newsvine, etc. to increase awareness of your message.

Fact: Over 90% of US reporters say they check Google News for story ideas at least once a week.
It’s your plan of action:

It’s your strategy:
Having a strategic messaging plan in place will make the difference in simply sending something out about you that no one reads and making your information viral.

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You’ve been to the networking meetings, you’ve been to the seminars that tell you to have an elevator speech. IMHO the only time you’ll ever use this is in the seminar that tells you to come up with an elevator speech. However, you can look brilliant in front of all the other networkers at the same meeting by having a really great 15 to 30 second speech already prepared. I recommend 15secondpitch.com for help on creating one for free.

By the way, mine is:

“Hi, my name is Sarah Buhr and I am the Owner of Big Star PR, specializing in Online Public Relations. I help businesses grab online media attention through search engine optimized press releases, social media marketing and connections to online journalists to pitch their news stories. I keep up to date with the latest technology and make sure I have the best connections to help clients truly get the best coverage they can for their product or idea. Call me at 801-864-1830 or visit my website at bigstarpublicrelations.com for more info.”

It’s official doomsday, according to finance reporters everywhere. Major money institutions have gone belly-up or swallowed up in the day’s market upheavals. The Dow plummeted 500 points. Stock brokers heads can be seen spinning down Wall Street. Add that to the oil crisis mid-summer, bad business deals and recent government mortgage broker bailouts and a heavy recession. Are we in a crappy time to be doing business or what? Actually, this is a great time, if you’ve got sass appeal.

Sass is about stating your case in a way that gets you noticed. Right now everyone is starting to tighten their budgets even more than before. Many small businesses will no doubt be cutting the most important part of their budgets - marketing. The very thing that helps future and current customers remember them and bring them in. So guess what you should be doing while they aren’t doing it? If you really want to stick out and get noticed, this is the perfect time to do it.

While everybody else is saying sell, sell, sell, you’ve got to think buy, buy, buy. While everyone else is dumping stock, employees, budgets, you have got to be the one sticking your neck out there. You want to be bigger than you are? You want to reach to the next level? You’ve got to be different, think different, get noticed! Start by telling people who you are and what you are about while everybody else is hiding under a rock and waiting for the bad news to pass.

PR TIP: In New York City Fashion week has descended, Spring
fashion week that is! Many of you may be thinking that sounds
crazy as it’s only September, but this is a visible reminder that
magazines are working three to six months ahead of schedule at all
times. That means your public relations campaign should be in tune with the seasonal stories they will be covering. I just spoke with a couple today who are currently planning their Valentine’s Day issues. This means that whether you are an expert, service, or product, you should be planning your publicity accordingly.

With all the social media outlets out there: Twitter, Digg, Furl, Plaxo, Facebook, Myspace…etc, etc, etc. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all your friends and collegues. You’d need to dedicate one whole, full-time employee just to scan for your friends latest posts and entries. But never fear, Friend Feed is here. This is a site where you can keep up on all the people you know, no matter where they posted to. This is a great tool in keeping track of customer feedback and market trends as well.

A press release is supposed to be a valuable information resource for reporters looking for good news stories. But sometimes a company uses it as more of a promotional piece. I strongly caution against this. The “look at our amazing company/products” message doesn’t get very far in the news room. Editors, producers and reporters are usually of above average intelligence and they see right through that kind of promotion. Sure sometimes (and by this I mean rarely) you can twist a few arms and get some coverage, but why do it that way when you can give an actually good news story that a lot more reporters are likely to talk about?

What you really want to do is put together a strategic idea that will help you stand out and make the news. Do something wacky, weird or interesting. Get out of your comfort zone and get some attention. Paint yourself blue if you have to. Just do something that makes you stand out.

For example, The Eels, a rock band from the UK, wanted more recognition in the US market. So they bought a one second ad to be broadcast during this last Superbowl. Yep, just one second. What can you do in a one second ad? The band had just enough time to say the first letter of the name of their new album. Huh? Exactly!

The media scratched their heads over their one second ad buy as well. And then they wrote about it. The band was contacted by several different media outlets to ask them about the story behind the ad, resulting in the coverage the band was looking for.

Another example is a restaurant in my city that lets people decide the price they are going to pay for their meal. There are no set prices. They just let people pay what they think the meal is worth. That’s novel, that’s interesting. Maybe a restaurant doesn’t have to do this everyday, but maybe one week or one day a year they do this. That’s newsworthy. It isn’t about how great their food is or how nice it is inside. Nobody cares to write about that. They are doing something different.

Think about your business. Stop thinking “My product is great, buy it” and start thinking what you can do to grab some attention.