How to Get Media Exposure
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Starting your own organizing business is an exciting adventure, but before you can become successful, you need to let as many people as possible know that you exist. Until you have money coming in, you may be reluctant to invest in advertising, but that’s probably a good thing, as paid ads are rarely cost-effective for service businesses. You can reach a larger audience in a much more powerful way by getting your business mentioned on TV or radio, or in newspapers, magazines, or other publications. And the best part is, it won’t cost you a small fortune!
Being quoted as an expert in your field has a lot more impact on readers than merely purchasing an ad, because it shows that someone other than you values your knowledge, thereby building your reputation and growing your business brand. Furthermore, people often skip over advertisements, unless they are truly creative. Honestly, when you’re reading a magazine or newspaper, how many ads do you pay attention to?
So how can you get the media to notice YOU?
The traditional method is to send out a press release whenever you have something newsworthy to share. Perhaps you’ve won an award, or maybe you’re the first professional organizer in your small town. Media contacts are inundated with releases every day, so if your story offers something unique, you have a much better chance of getting noticed.
When I was a new professional organizer, I decided to take part in National Organizing Week. That particular year, Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) had selected Big Brothers and Big Sisters as the national charity who would receive free organizing services from members across Canada. After contacting my local organization to make arrangements, I customized the press release template I’d received from POC and sent it out to the local media. The people at the local TV station were so surprised to learn that there was such a thing as National Organizing Week that they decided to come and interview me for the evening news! I’m not going to lie to you and say that I was inundated with phone calls and emails from potential clients after that, but people did mention for several months that they’d seen my interview, and to this day I’m able to say that I’ve been featured as an organizing expert on CH News, which enhances my credibility.
Keep in mind that reporters and journalists do not rely on press releases for their story lines. Topics are often assigned to them by editors, or they may have their own ideas to pursue. For this reason, a strong online presence can be very beneficial. I’ve been approached by media contacts on a number of occasions just because my website or my blog came up when they conducted an online search on the topic they were researching!
Because searching the web can be such a daunting and time-consuming task, many reporters in search of experts to interview go through a third party service such as Source of Sources (SOS – formerly HERO) or Connectively (formerly HARO). Visit their websites to learn how you can access the requests, and be sure to follow all the guidelines when responding to a query.
By the way, I check both services daily and let my clients know about inquiries that might interest them. When you sign up for a Website Care Plan, you get a lot more than just plugin updates!
Photo © Ischukigor / Depositphotos
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Great ideas – I would also recommend going to websitegrader.com, they do a free analysis of your website and give you suggestions on how to increase your visibility.
That’s a fantastic tool, Jodi – thanks so much for sharing it!
I offered tips to Connectively back in the day. It was a great way to get a bit of exposure. Whether it lead to any clients, I’m not honestly sure. I’m in a large media market (metro NYC), so haven’t had a lot of luck with media exposure. However, I have seen that many organizers in other markets have gotten a lot of coverage and exposure, which I think is great! If you can do, why no, right?
As long as you have the time to craft a response, why not indeed?
I signed up for Qwoted. They have a free membership which allows you to pitch to 2 queries a month. I did that for awhile and found that there were many more than 2 queries a month that I wanted to pitch so I now have a paid subscription. Check it out.
I’ve never heard of Qwoted – thank you for sharing it! I’m glad you’re finding it so worthwhile.
Great idea, Janet! I found that reporters are more likely to look for unique specific topics. Many reporters found me online after reviewing one of my articles on their topic.
That happened to me quite a bit when I was an organizer, but not at all since I’ve evolved to website management. Not exciting enough I guess!
Having come to professional organizing after a first career in broadcasting, I feel like I lucked out, as I knew the ins-and-outs of local media. A press release can be a great start (especially for introverts) but keeping yourself top of mind for TV, radio, and print media often means developing a relationship with journalists, assignment editors, and anchors. In the second year of my business, the local newspaper wrote and article about my business, using quotes from me and profiling the woman who’d been my very first client.
A local morning news anchor saw the article, called me to come on once, and then by making sure that I sent him ideas for possible future segments (and by providing bullet points so the journalists don’t have to come up with their own questions) every few months, I was able to stay top-of-mind. Organizing isn’t necessarily newsworthy on its own, but we can always come up with ideas to dovetail with what local media wants to discuss. For national coverage (particularly useful for those who work virtually), I used to love HARO (in all of its incarnations) and I’m watching how SOS is coming along.
I’ve learned that developing genuine (but not too chatty) relationships with magazine editors and assignment editors, and coming up with ideas for them before they need to think of them, is key. Making yourself useful and sparing them work is what really gets us in front of the media, and positioning our expertise with regard to how it will help their viewers/readers (and catch their attention) is what keeps them coming back.
Thanks for the excellent reminders on how we can accomplish media exposure that’s a win-win-win for us, the media, and the audience!
Julie, thanks so much for sharing your insights gained through working in broadcasting and as a media source.
I was featured in a wonderful article in our local paper (the big daily, not one of the smaller weekly ones) where someone even came and took photos of me in my home office, but that came about because I knew the columnist. I’ve also had success with HARO but there’s so much competition that it’s hard to get noticed, especially if you don’t respond very quickly. It’s not unlike applying for advertised jobs as opposed to tapping into the hidden job market.
I have never sent out a media release. I am afraid to do it. Sounds like I should swallow my fear and try it. I have a good social media presence and so get requests from TV radio newspapers and magazines. I also contribute to Industry Leaders and Authority Magazine. For all of the POC members, Colette Robicheau did a free 5 part webinar series about media for POC’s 25th anniversary. They are on the POC website until February 25/25 . Lots of good information on media releases.
I know you’ve had some good coverage lately and think it’s great that they came to you – you’re obviously doing a lot of things right!