Snap up the Shout Outs: PR for the Solopreneur

A post on being a solopreneur is not of interest to all but it has proven to be popular with many.
So here’s the plan. I’ll add one solopreneur post

every other Saturday. On those weekends, I’ll also run a travel post on Sunday.

The weeks in between, I’ll send the solopreneur post via email. Please sign up.

Next week via newsletter: Search Engine Optimization and the Net’s Holy Grail: Page One of Google

Snap up the Shout Outs:
PR for the Solopreneur.

Get the Solopreneur Bi-weekly Newsletter

Email:

Public relations is often touted as fabulous, free marketing. Well, it can be fabulous but it’s not free. It takes time and, as we all know, time is money. If you plan to add public relations to your long list of to-dos, use tactics that get you that coveted coverage efficiently.

Court the media but don’t depend on them.
Coverage in the news or a relevant blog can be more valuable than any promotion you pay for.This is why you want it. However, it comes with no guarantees. Even if you get an interview there are countless ways for your coverage to go by the wayside. I strongly believe that small business and solopreneurs should focus on marketing strategies that can be controlled first. Then, with time available, focus on public relations.

The good news is that there are a few things you can do that don’t distract you from your core business but do deliver results. I give you five strategies to help you get the attention of the media and snap up some shout outs.

Set yourself up to be found by the media
The number one PR priority is to help the media find you and be ready to help them when they come knocking. Like everyone else these days, journalists turn to the web for information. Optimize your site for the search engines (Next week’s post is via newsletter. Sign up above.) and include a media page on your site where you have press releases and links to coverage you’ve already received.

HARO – Help a Reporter Out
Based on the principle that “everyone’s an expert at something”, Peter Shankman offers this service free. Reporters sign up in the reporter group. Sources of information (you) sign up in the other group. Peter sends out as many as three emails a day with a list of media requests for information broken down into categories. Go to your category of interest, scan the headlines, click on any of interest for details and respond if you think it’s worth your time and that of the reporter you’re contacting. You can follow Peter on Twitter @helpareporter. He announces more urgent reporter needs there.

September 8/09 update: HARO just pointed me to a free white paper on the fundamentals of PR. This is a good read for anyone that needs the basics. It’s located here: http://3.ly/ANE

Twitter
Twitter is not just a novelty site. Use it strategically and you can gain ‘authority status’ and media attention. Tweetdeck and Su.pr from Stumbleupon are both useful tools. Watch a few videos on YouTube on how to use Twitter before you start – it’s always good to know the etiquette. Choose who you want to follow carefully. Keep your tone friendly and focused on the value you have to offer. Reveal a bit about your own values through your tweets. Develop relationships with others by being helpful. A number of media opportunities have come to me this way.

Blogs and other online media.
Subscribe to blogs you respect and opportunities may arise. Chris Guillebeau publishes The Art of Non-Conformity. I really respect what he does. In a recent newsletter, he put out a request for social media success stories for a guide he was writing, It took me about 15 minutes to compose my submission, (and then another half hour to grapple with the fact that he was going to publish it verbatim). I made the list of 30 out of a few hundred stories he received. That’s easy PR.

Press releases.
The traditional press release is still useful: send them to a short list of priority media; add them to your site to share company news; distribute them through free press release services on the web. I haven’t had a nibble yet but I post my releases on these sites because, at minimum, they provide valuable links:

Related posts: