Quick Tips on Pitching the Media for Small Business
May 21st, 2010 | Online & Small Business Resources,Small Business,Small Business Tips | 1 Comment »All of us small businesses and startup owners wonder how can we get more publicity and buzz about our product and business. Many of us also wonder what do we have to do to become a thought leader where the media actually comes to us for comment on industry matters. Well I came across this excellent short video by one of the best small business evangelists that is out there, Anita Campbell, the owner of Small Business Trends and BizSugar. Anita gives us some very common sense and practical tips for every small business and startup to use when they are pitching their business and product to the media to try to get covered. She also touches on how to build up your credibility with the media so you can be considered a thought leader.
Here is the video and its only a few minutes long, but it is packed with great tips from Anita Campbell.
Some of the tips Anita mentions in the video are:
1) To help get the attention of journalists and writers, blog about their stories.
2) When you blog about their stories, use the writer’s name and also link to their article. That will help get their attention.
3) When your product or company finally gets covered by a journalist, make sure you blog about the story and again include the name of the writer! We actually did this in a recent post when KikScore was covered by PressTV on issues of cybersecurity and safe online shopping.
4) When you are pitching journalists, give them useful information that will help them write a story.
5) During your pitch, give them other information besides about your business, including data about the industry, trends and even other influencers that the writer should interview.
6) Help the writer by giving them the names, contact information and as much information about those other people for their story.
7) Your pitching should not stop when you finally get some media coverage. Keep trying to build goodwill with the journalists and writers and that will increase the chances that they will come back to you for future stories.
These are excellent tips that we should all follow. Anita really is a great source that we previously named one of her sites as one of our top small business blogs that we like. I have met Anita on a couple of occasions including my day job out in Herndon, Virgina and at last year’s Grow Smart Business Conference in Washington DC. If you own a small business or run a startup, we at KikScore highly recommend following Anita on Twitter and also checking out her sites. Also she is from my hometown of Akron, Ohio – so I am sure she (and many others) may identify with my recent post about Lebron James and Small Business.
Please tell us how you pitch the media? Any tips would be appreciated!
Quick Tips on Pitching the Media for Small Business…
This is a post with a video from Biz Sugar / SmallBizTrends founder Anita Campbell where she gives some practical tips on getting the attention of journalists so that they cover your business and also so you build up credibility with them….