If you’ve been on holiday and not been on social media for the past week you’ll have missed that I got into Forbes!
Now for those of you who don’t know Forbes is a global online magazine focusing on business, entrepreneurship, leadership and lifestyle. Exactly the type of magazine I want to get into!
It’s been on my list for a while as a publication I want to get in to. And I know that for sure because I felt a little pang of jealousy when I saw other get in it!
You must know that feeling? A little bit of healthy competition goes a long way!
So my eyes and ears were on the lookout for opportunities!
Know what makes PR gold
The first thing to say is that, stories are always about people. The press don’t necessarily want to write about you launching a new product or service. Unless it’s something that’s never been done before. Launching new products and services if just the bread and butter of running your business.
Have a think about where the stories are in your business.
They’re called your golden nuggets. What’s special about you and the way you do things that might be interesting to other people?
PR is always (well 99%) about stories, the human element, so it’s worthwhile trying to unlock what makes you Pr’able before opportunity knocks.
Get yourself on Twitter
I’ve been featured in The Ecologist Magazine and as a Natwest small business advisor through responding to requests on #journorequest on twitter – so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities.
I use tweetdeck and have columns with #journorequest and #prrequest all the time.
Journalists are no longer sitting at their desks waiting for your press release to arrive (although that is one way to do it if you have a killer of a story).
They’ve generally decided what they want to write about and then they’re out looking for people to give it the human element.
Journalists use #prrequest and #journorequest to call out and find people to match the stories they want to write about.
In the case of this article twitter moments worked a treat as it picked out Alison’s tweet from Forbes and listed it in the daily tweet I should pay attention top – bingo!
So the story here – want some free PR – get on twitter!
And in the case of when I was in The Guardian I responded to the weekly business round up email that wanted stories – so sign up to those newsletters!
How to make the most of PR
Share, share and share!
Post your excitement and share on twitter, linkedin and Facebook, Instagram and Instagram stories. People want to share a bit of that excitement with you.
In the case of linkedin and twitter I went against perceived wisdom and posted the link to the article (we know that these social media channels don’t really like outbound links) but in this case it was vital that people could read what I was talking about!
Create a blog post like this one, where you can have the outbound link and share the secrets of how it all happened.
Add the logo to the footer in your website. People like to see social proof that you are really an expert in your field, and these logos go a long way to help people feel that you are to be trusted.
The Moral of the story
So the moral of the story – a little bit of PR can go a long way. Get your stories ready to go, so you can reply quickly, and make the most of opportunities when they arrive – don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet!
New to twitter? These blogs will help you.
Want to find out what happened when I got in the Guardian.
Here’s the Forbes article!
