| |
| |
|
PR Information |
|
How to Get a Story About You or Your Business in USA Today
I am often asked by clients to target USA Today for media coverage, and with good reason: USA Today coverage can have a significant impact on businesses and organizations.Here's why: 1. Circulation of USA Today: USA Today is the largest U.S. daily newspaper, with a Monday through Thursday circulation of over two million, and a Friday circulation of 2.7 million. 2. Additional Media Coverage Resulting from a Story in USA Today: Many media outlets -- TV in particular -- follow USA Today stories closely and do TV segments based on USA Today articles. So, if you're featured in USA Today, there's a good chance you'll receive coverage in other media outlets. What are USA Today journalists looking for? Here are some tips: 1. Hop on the hot news story. Sometimes, there's one story that the news is focusing on heavily (Hurricane Katrina, the Runaway Bride, etc.). Many times there are ways for your business to tie into the news of the day, which is pretty much all the media wants to cover. For instance, Hurricane Katrina is a hot news story at the time of this writing. In a USA Today story on gas prices related to Hurricane Katrina, a small business, gasbuddy.com, was quoted. In a story related to the financial impact of Katrina, a small business, Stone & Youngberg, a firm that deals in municipal securities, was included as a source. 2. Tie your business or organization into a current trend. USA Today rarely profiles individual businesses or organizations. But they will often include you in a larger trend story. For instance, if you make diamond jewelry for babies, you may not get your own business profile, but you may be included in a larger trend story about companies that offer "Baby Bling," according to Lifestyle Editor Kim Willis. 3. Offer several sources, notes Small Business Reporter Jim Hopkins. You may have a great trend idea, but if it's hard for the reporters to find sources, the story idea may die. Offering sources is one way to make the story happen -- and you can control the names you give. So if you are looking for great media coverage, consider focusing on USA Today. Copyright 2005 - Margie Fisher Margie Fisher is president of Margie Fisher Public Relations. This information was excerpted from her Special Report "How To Get a Story About You or Your Business in USA Today," available at http://www.margiefisher.com. You can also learn about her Pay for Results Publicity Program? and her free biweekly PRactical P.R. newsletter at http://www.margiefisher.com.
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Get $1000 worth of Advertising for $60 ©2004 Jeffrey DobkinSixty dollars doesn't go a long way in buying advertising space. But if you spend it creatively, you can get over ten times that value in newspaper or magazine lineage. How To Get FREE Publicity Whenever You Want ! What you are about to read is a step by step guide to getting FREE publicity. Simply, this is advertising that costs nothing, yet can bring in regular and substantial orders for your products and services. PR: Whats the Point? Here's the point: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished. Not Getting the PR Results You Want? The reason might be this simple: as a business, non-profit or association manager, you're too focused on communi- cations tactics and not on a workable blueprint for dealing with those important outside audiences whose behaviors most affect your department, division or subsidiary.If this sounds familiar, the blueprint I refer to provides the tools required to persuade those key external stakeholders to your way of thinking. When Tactics Are Not Enough Your public relations people are busy. The buzz is all about hits on a radio show or mentions in a newspaper column. Can Your PR Game Plan be Salvaged? If, as is often the case, you are preoccupied with comm-unications tactics instead of working a plan to actively pursue those outside audience behaviors that stop you from achieving your objectives, the answer is yes.Fortunately, it's no big deal making the switch to a public relations problem-solving sequence that works. Why Restaurants Go Out of Business Recently someone asked me why so many restaurants go out ofbusiness. I answered that too many people open a restaurantbecause it's their dream. There Is No Such Thing as Competition A wise friend of mine has often said, "There is no such thing as competition." I happen to agree with that philosophy. 4th Quarter 2003 Publicity = 1st Quarter 2004 Prosperity As the year starts to wind down, many businesses and entrepreneurs are making plans and budgets for the year 2004. Those plans could include anything from setting up goals for new products to preparing marketing, sales and PR/publicity campaigns. How PR Helps Managers Win Anything that lets managers achieve their managerial objectives is a winner.It's a bullseye when the right public relations alters individual perception leading to changed behaviors among key outside audiences. Publicity: Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Never Say These Words to a Reporter Everyone has something that drives them up a wall. You may be surprised at what aggravates reporters. Speak Up Another way to really become known in your area is to speak up. Make yourself available to talk to every civic,business and educational group that will have you. R.O.I. -- O.K., Heres The Deal! You can SO measure return-on-investment for a public relations program!Try this.Accept the fact that people act on their own perceptions of the facts, and that this leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When Should You Outsource Your PR Efforts? 1) Do you NEED solid, consistant media exposure.. How About MANAGING Your Own PR? It's one thing for a senior manager to approve story angles for the publicity folks to use in shopping around for print and broadcast placements. Not an especially large amount of managing needed there. How To Share Your Success Story Without Sounding Like You Are Bragging A great way to celebrate your achievements and capitalize on your successes is to share them with your clients, members, community leaders, and other influential decisionmakers. But how can you do that without sounding like you are bragging?Tell the story of your success using one of these five approaches, which will work for newsletter articles, website content, and press releases. Press Releases How do press releases or interest stories have an effect on meeting new potential clients?Press releases can make the difference between being known and being just the same old service that everyone offers. You need to set yourself apart from all the others. The Press Release is Dead (Now Will Somebody Please Tell the Clients?) In competing for a piece of business not too long ago, my PR firm was asked to supply three samples each of recent clips, bylined articles we'd authored for clients, and press releases.For two of the three requirements, the issue was our embarrassment of riches. Nows The Time To Get Christmas Media Coverage Publicity seekers know that Christmas can provide a bonanza of media coverage. Every media outlet, it seems is cranking out a special edition on gifts for the winter holidays. Maybe the Strongest PR on Planet Earth? Strong for business, non-profit and association managers when they use the fundamental premise of public relations to produce external stakeholder behavior change - the kind that leads directly to achieving their managerial objectives.And strong when they do something positive about the behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect their organization.
|
| home | site map | contact us |