Gayl Murphy, Hollywood Correspondent and Media Expert

A rather shy woman named Elaine – with a background and expertise in marketing – telephoned me the other day to talk about hiring me to media coach her in her quest to land the perfect client, so she could do a job she could really love.

Elaine explained, she’s been on the interviewing merry-go-round for so long, with so few nibbles on the brass ring, that she’s really starting to doubt her ability to ever land something (anything) really great.

Elaine called me because, she said, “Being at the end of one¹s rope offers options that being on the top of one’s rope doesn’t.” So she wanted to hire me to help her better sell herself and her skills in the client/job market. Fair enough.

Now from an outsider’s perspective, the combo of a marketer and a Hollywood Correspondent teaming up to land a client might seem like apples and oranges, but it¹s not. And I told her that she came to exactly the right person by calling me, and I¹ll tell you why.

My area of expertise is the “Media.” I’m a veteran Broadcast Journalist, Celebrity Interviewer, Media Coach, Speaker and Author. And when I’m not in front of a camera, or in back of a microphone, I coach businesses of all sizes, including experts, authors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and celebrities on how to work with the media and get their message out and how to tell it to sell it on TV, radio and it print. My book is “Interview Tactics! How To Survive the Media Without Getting Clobbered! The Insider’s guide to Giving a Killer Interview,” and that’s what I teach, coach and speak about.

So how does interviewing for a dream client, or dream job, relate to shinning on TV, or nailing a great radio interview?

Contrary to what you’ve heard, there’s more than one class of media, there’s two. The little media; you, me and everyone we know — our circle of friends, our family, associates, employers, employees and colleagues. You get the picture.

And then there’s the big media, or mass media, which is everything else; TV, radio, online, newspapers, magazines, books, satellite, commercials, infomercials, on-demand, cable, pay-per-view and so forth.

You’re a medium, and I’m a medium. This story and the website you’re reading it on are media. Every time you share your story with another person, or in a group, you’re talking to some form of the media ­ one-on-one, telephone, microphone, camera, computer, etc., because the “Media” is anyone, or anything that has the ability to take your message and move it forward — be it one listener, or one billion listeners.

And that’s the good news, because it means the rules for broadcast media darlings and non-broadcast media darlings are exactly the same! Murphy’s Law: “If you can’t tell your story in a concise and succinct way, with confidence, commitment, color, energy and detail, you can’t sell your story to anyone or anything. You’re not moving it forward.”

In the words of Steely Dan, it’s not enough to just “smile for the camera” anymore. You must have an inner mechanism ­ or “Interview Tactics!” ­ that enables you to flip your “media switch” and deliver your message, or pitch with the media-savvy knowingness of a two time Oscar winner, regardless of who is listening.

So how do you take your message and craft it in a way that people will hear it, take it in and move it forward?

As a veteran Hollywood Correspondent, I’ve interviewed over 14,000 celebrities and newsmakers, and I’ve had the unique opportunity to observe, not only how people successfully deliver their message, but how those on the receiving end listen and take this information in and process it.

The truth is, if your story is well-crafted – meaning it’s compelling, succinct, has energy, is well-constructed (beginning, middle and end) – and captures your listener’s imagination and attention in the shortest amount of time, your listener can¹t help but pass it along. They will tell someone else (maybe even the world) about you.

What this says is: what works in big media, works in little media. What works on TV and radio, works in the boardroom, the conference room, a job interview, a client interview, a trade show, even over the phone. These are “Interview Tactics!” and I’ll tell you what I told Elaine.

When you’re telling your story, bring your energy with you. Relax and enjoy.

In business, your product and service is your story (even if it¹s someone else’s business). You created YOUR brand of it, so your perspective is unique. You live it, so have a good time telling it.

Being interviewed is supposed to be fun. You get to be the star of the “Me Show,” starring “Me” (in this case it¹s YOU!).

When telling your story, your job is to capture your listener’s attention and imagination with your message. One of the best ways is by using color and detail. Don’t just tell me about that how rough and rocky the road to success was, describe how big the boulders were.

Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Know in advance what you’re going to say, just don¹t write a script. Think bullet points. Your story will flow easier that way.

When you can, connect your message/story/product/service to a news story, or trend in the headlines to make it relevant and newsworthy. The press and lay-people love to hear, and pass along, stories that are “ripped from the headlines.”

Stay on topic and stay focused. Be specific. Give facts, details and information. Do your research.

Keep people engaged so they’ll continue to ask you questions about what you do and how you do it. This makes you more dynamic and your story more compelling.

Speak up and speak well. If your voice is thin like Elaine’s, your message is thin. Listen to good speakers and hear how they sound. Confidence lives in your voice as well as the words.

Get a feel for your listener. Do you tell the epic version, or the Reader’s Digest version? Which ever you decide, get to the point and stay there. Don’t worry about leaving things out. Once you’ve opened the door you can always add more information on the back end.

All interviews are a give-and-take proposition. So listen carefully to what’s being asked of you. If you do your homework and you’re prepared you won’t need to anticipate. You’ll KNOW!

Have some solid sound-bites ready at a moments notice. Sound-bites are great because they’ll help you tell your story and keep it attention grabbing.

As for Elaine and her quest for the perfect client, she’s currently working on her voice and reworking her message and her pitch, so that when she throws it out there, she’ll be compelling and dynamic to listen to. And maybe, she’ll even get the brass ring!

Gayl is a Presentational Coach, Speaker and Author of “Interview Tactics! How to Survive the Media without Getting Clobbered! The Insider’s Guide to Giving a Killer Interview!”

As a Media Expert, Gayl Celebrit-izes CEO’s, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainment industry professionals, experts, inventors, investors and celebrities in business and entertainment to CELEBRITIZE themselves and their brands so they can TELL IT TO SELL IT! http://www.InterviewTactics.com

As a veteran Correspondent, Gayl’s has reported the news for ABC News, SKY News, BBC Radio, BBC TV, E!, HollywoodToday.net and BigMediaUSA among others. She has personally interviewed over 14,000 of the biggest celebrities and newsmakers in the world.

Radio Interview 101, by Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion
www.radio-media.com

Speakers are great at getting information, verbally, from point A to point B. One difficulty occurs, however, in situations where an intermediary (like radio) is involved. Radio is “invisible” to most people, including speakers; it is largely unknown to speakers why or how things are chosen to be “on the air”. If you only remember one thing, make it this: It is not how good a person speaks that determines if he/she will be PLACED on the air.

However, once a speaker IS chosen to be on the air, his/her speaking ability will have great affect on the listeners. This is why speakers do well with listeners once they get on the radio. It’s just the getting “on” in the first place that is the hard part. (And, doing well with on-air-sales is a different matter entirely, requiring you to know how to make contact announcements). So here are some specifics, tailored to speakers, to help you get radio interviews; these are the exact same techniques we use with clients, and they do work. They are, starting with the easier ones:

1. When promoting yourself to the radio producer or host, ask for a referral to a local business person, meeting planner, group organizer, or event promoter who may have interest in hiring you to speak for them. Since the radio person now knows your topic, and since radio people keep in good contact with most businesses and groups in their city, this is fairly straightforward for them to do. And note that this can be accomplished whether OR NOT they decide to interview you on-air.

2. If your topic is business or sales related, call the station’s sales manager and offer to do a one-hour telephone consultation with their sales department for free, in exchange for an on-air interview. If this works once, then offer to make it a weekly event, in exchange for a weekly on-air “bit”. If your topic is any kind of voice/acting/drama skill, then do the same thing but ask the program director instead. And if your topic is any kind of personal improvement/empowerment, then do the same thing but ask the general manager instead.

3. Offer the station program director a weekly custom-recorded topical “bit”, usually 30 seconds long, that they can air. The topic would depend on your personal topic, and the topic that the station wants to air. In return for this, they would interview you on-air. The number of “bits” required for one interview would be up for negotiation.

4. If your topic is sales, then offer the radio station sales manager this deal: When they give up on a tough prospect, you will call that prospect and attempt to close him (for a specified minimum dollar amount.) If you succeed, you will get an on-air interview. It’s important, however, that you only attempt this with the station’s “failed” prospects, because the salespeople there will not want to you interfering with their “hot” or “current” prospects.

(The following require field trips. The bonus of this is that since you would be in their city, you can do the on-air interviews live-in-studio. Traveling expenses are “usually” covered.)

5. Offer the general manager to speak for free at a “station sponsored” event. Many times these are charity/fundraiser events that the station donates air time for, and since these events are usually with groups or outdoor activities, it makes for a good crowd for you to speak to. In trade for your appearance there, the station would give you one or more on-air interviews (depending on what is negotiated).

6. Offer the sales or promotions manager to speak for free, live and in-person, at a station client’s event if the station gives you an on-air interview. If your topic matches up with one of their hot prospects, then your speaking (for free) at the client’s event may just help close the deal for them. They do the closing, and you do the traveling and speaking.

Related posts: http://www.speakerscommunity.com/blog/category/radio-talk-shows

View video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD May 1-3 LA, 18 fab speakers see program http://ping.fm/9QiX5 about 21 hours ago The team at Speaker Services has been working non-stop to organize the best Speakers’ Summit ever.  This is the fifth time we are offer the Summit and it gets better every year.  See the program http://ping.fm/9QiX5

The theme is SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ’09 – THE PINNACLE
THE TIME HAS COME – May 1, 3 in Los Angeles

It is priced quite reasonably $297 for three days!

This is James Malinchak and me.  James talks about how to land speaking engagements in the college market.

This is Jack Barnard and me-sweet photo! Jack is our master media, branding and presentation coach extraordinaire and he will be talking about the Secret of Speaking and more at the Summit.

SPEAKERS:
Jack Barnard, Jean-Noel Bassior, Alex Carroll, Lisa Cherney, Colin Daymude, Daniel Hall, Linda Hollander, Bill Johnson, Susan Levin, James Malinchak, Nancy Marmolejo  Barbara Niven, Sheryl Roush,  Ellen Reid, Lisa Sasevich, Rob Schultz, Marilyn Snyder, Nancy Solari, Geoff Zimpfer

Regardless of profession, everyone is an expert in their field and Speakers’ Summit ‘09 is the Pinnacle Opportunity to turn that expertise into a successful business; to not only master step-by-step the game of speaking, but to navigate the latest technology, and learn exciting new strategies for producing active and passive income.

 THE PROMISE OF SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ‘09

√  DESIGN dynamite Power Point presentations
√  MASTER the art of Social Networking  Article Writing,Teleseminars, Webinars and other online marketing tools that make profits
√  LEARN to automate and monetize your business
√  MEGA-MARKET yourself as a speaker
√  ATTRACT a torrent of traffic to your website
√  CRUISE FREE and make bunches of money
√  DEVELOP your material in any time frame
√  DOUBLE speaking fees and triple bookings as a guest on radio shows
√  UNCOVER what’s uniquely marketable about you and your mission
√  GET and attract corporate sponsorship
√  LAND lucrative speaking gigs in the college market
√  DON’T get branded, get command-branded
√  USE high impact customized sales-closing strategies
√  BECOME a great storyteller
√  CREATE dynamic, stand-out one-sheets and brochures.
√  LEARN the difference between self-publishing and mainstream publishing
√  KNOW that the secret of speaking has nothing to do with theme, time, style

I  invite you to view video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD 

Last night I was on a panel about Being Heard – Being Seen.

The other panelists were Linda MacKenzie of http://www.healthylife.net radio and Marc Ryan of Green Health Life, The All Natural Interactive Internet TV Show.

The following is a very short video shot by my friend Jeannie Cottingham with my ultra flip camera as I was speaking.

While I was there I interviewed the co-founder of the Westside Holistic Chamber - Camille Leon and you can see a 40 second interview with her when you click here

This post about LinkedIn comes from Mahesh Grossman, President
The Authors Team, and Author of Write a Book Without Lifting a Finger.

He writes:

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, just changed my life.

To be honest, until a few weeks ago, I never took it seriously. From time to time a friend or an acquaintance would ask me to “link” with them, and I would, but I didn’t understand what to do with my network. In fact, I’m not sure I ever invited anyone to link with me.

Now I understand some of the power of this tool–and it’s especially useful for authors.

So here are five ways you can use LinkedIn to help you write, publish, and promote your book:

1) Ask for help with your content, including Web sites and people to interview.

LinkedIn has a feature where you get to ask questions, either of your network or of people in a particular industry. I am working on an e-book that will be a list of a particular group of sites. I asked the network where to find more of these sites and I got an amazing response that made this e-book my top priority. But you could also ask a question like “Do you know how I could find people to interview for my book who have a successful arranged marriage?”. Not only would you get suggestions on where to find people to interview, anyone with a successful arranged marriage would be likely to offer to be interviewed.

It’s also possible that people have already asked questions on your topic, so if you search the Answers section using appropriate keywords, you are likely to find some usable information as well.

2) Get introduced to famous authors and ask for testimonials

I am shocked at how many famous authors are on LinkedIn. I have a few bestelling authors as direct links myself–and I am only one introduction away, meaning someone in my network can introduce me–from several authors who have sold more than ten million books–and there aren’t that many authors who have done that. So if you were to join LinkedIn and link to me, you would be one level away from the bestselling authors I know, and two people away from these authors who have sold massive quantities of books. That’s pretty amazing. So if you have high quality work that has been vetted by a professional coach (one that has been published by traditional publishers!), you could approach a very big name author through LinkedIn.

3) Have a particular agent you want to be introduced to? There are 326 agents on LinkedIn.

I did a search on the term “literary agent” and found 326. I wouldn’t try to get introduced to all of them, but you do your homework and find a particular agent that is the most likely to be interested in your work, it could be a good way to make a connection. Once again, you have to really have studied the publishing business and know what you are doing to make this work. But it is an interesting strategy. (And I know of a number of editors from major publishing houses who are also on LinkedIn.)

4) Want publicity? There are lots of periodical editors and TV producers you can network with.

I know several publicists on LinkedIn, and some are connected to top editors and producers. Want to get in Time magazine or Sports Illustrated? There are writers and editors from those publications. Want to get on national television? Once again, you can reach out and try to connect with these folks, who are also on LinkedIn.

5) Want to connect to people who might help market your book? Ask the right question.

Once again, LinkedIn Answers gives you the opportunity to ask how to do something, and let people volunteer to help you. Ask a question like “I’m the author of a book about living a balanced life. I would like to be interviewed on 50 teleseminars this year. How do I find people who might want to host me on a teleseminar?” Whatever your goal is, ask how you can do it, or find people to help you. Some good Samaritans will come forward and say, “I’d be happy to have you on a teleseminar.”

So those are five ways to work with LinkedIn.com. The bigger your network, easier it is to get help.

Mahesh Grossman is the author of Write a Book Without Lifting a Finger (www.writeabooktoday.com) and President of The Authors Team (www.AuthorsTeam.com), a company that helps credible business experts become Incredible Business Authors, through ghostwriting, editing, coaching, publishing, publicity and marketing. For a fr/ee list of more than 400 agents as well as a newsletter with tips on planning, writing, publishing and marketing your book, go to www.getanagentnow.com.

Here’s to your bestseller.

Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound wrote this post in her blog and there is a ton of information here not to be missed.

Don’t miss this critical step when creating your publicity plan.

Start adding bloggers and editors of electronic newsletters (ezines) to the list of people who you will contact if you want publicity.

If you’re a publicist, and your PR client is adamant about getting coverage in top-tier media like USA Today, The New York Times, O magazine and on big shows like “Today” and “Fox & Friends,” take the time to explain that your client must also get in front of the thousands of people who don’t read those newspapers or watch those shows and prefer, instead, to receive their information online.

One of the big advantages of pitching bloggers and ezine editors is that unlike traditional media, the information you provide has a way of spreading online rather quickly. If it shows up in an ezine, and that ezine is archived, people will be able to find it months and even years later.

—Most bloggers and ezine editors write about specific topics. A stay-at-home mom who has her own home-based business, for instance, can offer information to bloggers and ezine publishers who write about stay-at-home moms or home-based businesses, or both.

—The best bloggers blog several times a week. Because they present a constant stream of new information, the search engines give good ranking to blog posts. That means that when somebody searches Google for “dog obedience tips,” the list that Google returns on the left side of the screen will include blog posts, not just websites.

—When journalists are doing research for their articles, most of them use a search engine to find background, commentary, statistics, experts and other sources. If they end up at your blog, at a blog where you are mentioned, or at an ezine archives where there’s an article about you, they might call you for their story. Many journalists also subscribe to electronic newsletters devoted to the topics on their beats.

—Bloggers love to link to each other’s posts. If an influential blogger mentions you, or your product or service, other bloggers who link to that post may help you get in front of an entirely different audience. The publicity builds and builds, like a snowball rolling downhill.

—I publish an ezine on publicity. Another ezine publisher who writes about publicity might ask if she can use one of my articles in her ezine in exchange for me using one of her articles in my publication. Some of the people on her ezine list, who want information about publicity, might not know about me. When they read about me, they might visit my website, sign up for my ezine and perhaps even buy my products. It’s a win-win.

How to research blogs

I’ll bet many of you already know about bloggers you’d love to target.

If you’re looking for others, go to Technorati.com. Type in a topic such as “engineering” and you’ll get a list of either engineering blogs, or blogs that mention the word engineering. From there, you can research each blog and see if it’s likely to reach your target audience.

Once you’ve found a blog that’s a good candidate for your pitch, spend some time reading it so you’re familiar with what the blogger writes about.

One of the very best ways to get a blogger’s attention before you pitch is to post a comment about a topic they discuss at their blog. I’ll sometimes post two or three comments within a week or two at a particular blog before pitching that blogger with my idea.

Why? Because I want the blogger to recognize me when I pitch. It shows I’m willing to become involved in the conversation, not just contact them when they want something.

It’s best not to be too promotional within your comment. Instead, add to the conversation, then email the blogger privately to let them know about other information you have about your product, service, cause or issue.

How to find ezines

I like to use New-List.com where about 9,000 ezines are listed. You can also do a Google search for “health care ezines” or “construction ezines” or whatever the topic happens to be.

EzineSearch.com lists more than 10,000 ezines, with thorough instructions on how to search for what you need.

BestEzines.com includes includes information on more than 2,200 ezines representing more than 15 million permission-based email members.

NetTop20.com website includes the top 20 ezine directories.e most popular and highest-rating ezine directories on the Net today.

What ezine editors want

Ezine editors want content-rich material for their publications. So don’t be shy about pitching them. This is the type of content they love:

Free advice
Press releases about news their readers want
Links to short videos that are entertaining or instructional
Top 10 lists
Commentary on controversial topics
Other resources their readers will find helpful
Success stories
How to” information
Frequently asked questions and answers on a particular topic
Jokes and quotes (I include a dog joke in each issue of my ezine and readers love them!)
Polls and surveys
Quizzes and other briefs (See “Briefs, Fillers & Quizzes)

Another way to research is to ask the kinds of people you’re trying to get in front of which ezines they read. Ezine editors just like me are always looking for content like success stories, comments on controversial topics, innovative business practices, anything that will save people time and money, the rising stars in a particular industry, and the story and personalities behind a particular award a company has received. Email the editor and offer your information.

Now, you’re ready to start contacting bloggers and ezine editors. If you’re successful, email me and tell me all about it. I might write about you in my own ezine or this blog.

To learn more about the Publicity Hounds website and offering click here.

The MediaSpeak Symposium was a great success. Here’s a few comments.

Pitching to live producers was an experience needed to jumpstart the process to demystify the experience.
- Cindy Kludt, Grief Counselor, Author

Susan and Jack created an amazing learning situation with a variety of media experts.
- Laurie Hacking, Coach, Author

The MediaSpeak Symposium provides authors, entrepreneurs and business experts with the confidence and tools to obtain the interviews and globally promote their products and services.
-Craig Nabat, Entrepreneur

Terrific 3 days to actually test out the methods. The Symposium was a tremendous experience. It really helped me to put everything in prospective.
- Aubrey Fine, Professor, Author

Dr. Fran Pastoria and Aubrey Fine practice their pitch

Marlin Keesler pitching his book to Dr. Meg Haworth

Pitching to Nita Vallens, Inner Visions, KPFK FM

Today I had one of the hardest days with technology. Does that ever happen to you? I am laughing about now but when it was happening I was not a happpy camper.

Here’s what happened when I attempted to conduct the second complimentary teleclass for the MediaSpeak Symposium and somehow, due to a combination of circumstances I managed to lock most of the attendees out of the call including my second guest and then I could not connect with my first guest. Apparently he was not in the host room as I was and I muted everyone out.

I did manage to record the call and if you can handle the first few minutes of me yelling, can you hear me? wait, stop talking, I want to introduce our guest speaker…you might want to listen in or download the mp3. Michael Dresser, our guest took over and handled the call until I managed to get the reigns back. It did feel like I was on a run away horse or train. The call is quite interesting-all about how to sell your services on the radio. Click here to listen

So this post today is from my colleague Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound- about not pitching your books or programs as story ideas with many helpful hints. Joan has a great website, blog and tons of articles, products and special reports on her site. Visit her website to learn more tinyurl.com/yv7s9e

Here’s Joan

When I speak to groups of professional speakers, authors and small publishers throughout the U.S. and Canada, they look at me dumbfounded after I tell them the Number One thing they must do if they want more media attention for their books and programs.

They must stop pitching the books and programs as story ideas. Immediately.

With an estimated 175,000 news book titles published last year, and millions of presentations given by speakers and trainers, is it any wonder we’re turning off journalists by pushing our books and programs?

When I worked as a newspaper editor, we routinely hauled boxes of unsolicited new books to the local library or Goodwill. If we were in a hurry, we threw the books—complete with expensive, gold-embossed press kits—into the wastebasket.

I know this is painful to hear. But unless you’re contacting a book reviewer, few if any media people care what’s between the two covers of your book.

What the media do care about, however, is what’s between your two ears. They want to know about your expertise. They want to tap into your brain. They’re overworked and underpaid. And they’re eager to know how you can help them do their jobs more easily.

• Can you help them write a good story?

• Can you give a lively radio interview without constantly hawking your book?

• Can you offer free advice for their audience?

• Can you create a clever quiz on your topic of expertise for a national magazine?

• Can you talk in pithy sound bites that will make their viewers smile?

• Can you take a strong position on a controversial topic that will make their readers angry?

• Most importantly, can you offer solutions to people’s problems?

If so, and if they cover you, guess what they’ll probably mention in their article or on their program? Your book, of course.

While other speakers are zigging, you should be zagging. So position yourself as a valuable source that reporters flock to again and again. The following strategies will really catch the media’s attention.

Promote your expertise

Media people seek out, interview and want to stay connected to experts.

Yet many authors are either reluctant to position themselves as experts, or they call themselves experts when they really aren’t. Read the excellent White Paper titled “The Expertise Imperative” written two years ago by five members of the National Speakers Association, some of whom are authors. It outlines the six levels of expertise and what you need to do to get to the next highest level.

You’ll see that expertise isn’t only about how much you know, but how much you do.

Once you become an expert, tout it in your email signature file, your media kit and on your other marketing materials. Make sure the homepage at your website states your expertise.

For example, my homepage has this statement at the top: “Publicity expert Joan Stewart shows you how to use free publicity to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, position yourself as an expert, sell more products and services, promote a favorite cause or issue, and position your company as an employer of choice.” When a reporter Googles “publicity expert,” my website is usually at the top of the list.

Go deep, not wide

Too many authors make the mistake of playing the lazy numbers game. They wimp out and waste money by relying only on blast fax services to distribute their news to a gazillion media outlets. Truth is, blast faxes are effective in only a small percentage of cases.

Why? Because when you send them, you treat the media like cattle—herding them all into the barn at the same time, force-feeding them from the same trough, then herding them back out again, all with the same story.

You must convince each media outlet that your story is customized only for them. But you can’t do that if you’re targeting 3,000 media. So start by hand-picking only 20 or 30 newspapers, magazines and TV stations. I call this creating a Top 20 Media Hit List.

Let’s say you’ve written a book on customer service. Choose 20 metropolitan newspapers and write a news release that’s almost identical for each newspaper. But in the release you send to the Chicago Tribune, name three Chicago companies that you think treat their customers like royalty, even if those companies aren’t mentioned in your book. Mention three San Francisco companies in the release you send to the San Francisco Examiner. And so on.

Each newspaper will immediately notice “the local angle.” And that makes your story stand out from the rest.

Ask the magic question

While lots of other authors are trying to cram their books down the throats of talk show hosts, assignment editors and beat reporters, you will stand out if you take a different approach.

Start by developing a relationship. Call a media contact, introduce yourself and explain your areas of expertise. Then ask the most important question you can ever ask someone in the media. “How can I help you?”

Repeat after me: “How can I help you?”

Media mutts never ask that question. Publicity Hounds always do. Pay attention to what the journalist tells you, then help however you can.

When I worked as a reporter, my best sources were those that would let me call them at home late at night, when I was on deadline, to ask a question about a complicated topic I didn’t understand. Other golden sources let me check in with them every few weeks and pick their brains about trends they were seeing within their industries. Position yourself as a valuable source and the media will come back to you again and again.

Publicity Hounds use these other magic phrases to build media exposure

• “What kinds of sources are you looking for? Perhaps I can help you find them, even if the story doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

• “If you have a last-minute cancellation, call on me to fill in as a talk show guest. I’ll move a mountain to help you.”

• “On a slow news day, call me if you’re desperate for story ideas.”

• “If I find articles in my trade magazines that I think would help you cover the banking industry, is it OK if I send them to you?”

The Publicity Hound website is loaded with free tips and tricks and valuable educational tools. Get tips on selling books from someone who really knows how to do it.v I recommend her enthusiastically. Visit her website to learn more tinyurl.com/yv7s9e

Note: If you are interested in booking yourself for radio interviews I recommend checking out our affiliate Alex Carroll, the Radio PR. He offers a comprehensive list of talk show producers. Click here to learn more.

Join us for the 3rd annual MediaSpeak Symposium, October 11-13 in Los Angeles where we will be discussing and practicing Media and PR skills plus pitching live to the media..

The 5 Best Ways to Get Media Attention for Your Business
by Fern Reiss, CEO, PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com

Fern Reiss weighs in today on how to get media attention for your business.

You can learn more about getting media attention for your business if you attend the MediaSpeak Symposium where you will learn to master the message and master the media plus have an opportunity to pitch live to radio, TV and print media on October 11,12 and 13.

This is a partial list of the confimed media for the Pitch Fest

Radio: Health Radio Network, LifeSytle Talk Radio Network, Business Talk Radio, The Aware Show-KPFK, Inner Vision Radio Show-KPFK, Beyond Words-KCLU, NPR National News Magazine. Help Your Self,KRLA 870 AM, Shrink Rap, KCSN 88.5 FM, Women’s Inspiration, KCSN 88.5 FM, Get Unstuck, Big Media USA, ABC Radio Networks, Satellite Sisters

TV: The Wright Place, AMC, TV Guide Channel, Speak On It, Voices of Tomorrow, Living Spirit Channel

Print: Journal of Longevity, Los Angeles Sentinel, The Learning Annex

Here’s Fern

How do you get journalists to write articles about you? In the past year, I’ve been featured in over 100 magazines and newspapers worldwide (including many of the biggies, from The New York Times to Fortune Magazine). How do you get that kind of attention for your book or business? Here are my top techniques.(See my special report, http://www.PublishingGame.com/mediareport.htm for an even deeper look at how to maximize your media attention.)

Be media worthy
This should be obvious, but even experienced publicists seem to overlook it. Journalists are looking for news, for trends, for cutting-edge story ideas. They’re not looking for “I published a new book” or “I hired a new employee” or “I have a great new business idea!” Even though those sentences have the word ‘new’ in them, that’s not sufficient for most journalists, whose first reaction is, “Who cares?” If you can satisfactorily answer the “Who cares?” then you’re well on your way to nailing down a story.

Learn to coin juicy soundbites
Besides having a newsy story to tell, it’s also helpful if you can present it in a juicy, clever way. Most of the stories that are covered by today’s media profile people who can tell a good story in an interesting way. Get some consulting or take a class with someone whose expertise is coining soundbites in order to maximize your ability to be quoted. (I offer this consulting, as do others.) What do I mean by a soundbite? Take, for example, the time I was featured in a major wire service syndicated news story, in a story on the bankruptcy of WonderBread. My quote—which appeared first in an article that also quoted the CEOs of Krispy Kreme and Bruegger’s Bagels—was “America’s donut days are dead.” (If you don’t understand why that was a desirable quote, quickly run out and get some training!)

Send out publicity releases regularly
On a consistent basis, send out press releases on whatever you’re doing. Depending on your business objectives, you might want to send out releases monthly or weekly, but try to develop a regular pattern that reporters can rely on. Barbara Corcoran, whose company became famous as New York City’s biggest residential real estate group, attributes much of her tremendous media success to the regular publicity release of “The Corcoran Report,” where she quantified the average condo and co-op sale in the city. Use one of the low-cost or free press release services for your frequent communications, and a more upscale press release service infrequently for your particularly important communications.

But do targeted publicity too
Don’t just send generic press releases to publications randomly; do targeted publicity as well. When you speak to most publicists, their idea of targeted releases is sending to 500 publications instead of 10,000. When I say targeted publicity, I mean zeroing in on one publication, and one editor or journalist at that publication, to whom to address your story. A few years ago, when I wanted some major international publicity for Expertizing, I sat down with all the business magazines and decided which one was most appropriate; then I read back stories by everyone on the masthead until I’d zeroed in on the journalist who was most likely to appreciate my story. I sent him a press release—just one press release, just to him. Two days later he phoned, and a few weeks later he attended my all-day Expertizing Workshop in Boston. The result? A full page story in Fortune Magazine. (More on how to target publications most effectively in the Expertizing Publicity Forum— http://www.Expertizing.com/forum.htm)

Sign up for the Expertizing Publicity Forum
If you’re promoting a nonfiction book or general –interest business, consider my new Expertizing Publicity Forum, where each week you can tell top journalists about your business—and hear their personalized tips on how you can best promote it, and whether they’re interested in writing an article about it for their publication. Participants have gotten placement in everything from The New York Times to USA Today, and two participants got literary agents and big publishing deals! For more information, check out http://www.Expertizing.com/forum.htm.

I am all about PR and Media these days for professionals, authors and speakers.

As you may know we are offering the third annual MediaSpeak Symposium in October and I expect that we will have sell out crowd.

Today I am sharing a recommended resource with you for PR as well as photos from the ’06 Symposium and am showing off two of our faculty members for the ’07 Symposium.

Here’s some of the folks from MediaSpeak06

This is Michael Dresser. He’s a Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host on LifeStyle Talk Radio Network and Health Radio Network 5 days a week as well as a nationally recognized Media/Communications Coach.

He’ll be talking to us at the Symposium about How to Sell Books on the Radio, TV or any other public venue.

Ellen Sandler will talk to us on how to Pitch to Hollywood.

Want to turn your ideas into a screenplay or a TV pilot?

Attendees said:
The MediaSpeak Symposium was a fabulous training on how to approach the media and speak your message in a way that is arresting and newsworthy. For any professional who 
wants to be seen and heard by millions, this is an event not to be missed!
-
- Chellie Campbell, Speaker & author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire

What phenomenal results! I pitched nine people and got five offers simply and only because of what I learned at the Symposium. I have never had such an immediate application of a newly learned skill with such positive results.
- Pam Hogan, Trainer, Author Keeping People out of Prison one Training at a Time

Reminder: Early registration fee for 3 days is only $347 and $497 after 9/1.

Learn more and register

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
The Publicity Hound, Joan Stewart is one of my favorite resources. I love her website and blog. She is brilliant and gives so much information away for free and her special reports, CD’s/transcripts etc are very reasonable and full of terrific easy to understand information.

If you want publicity for your programs and your products, publicity expert Joan Stewart says, “you must stop pitching your programs and your products and start pitching your expertise.” Joan, also known as The Publicity Hound®, is a publicity expert who also happens to be a professional speaker.

Her website will show you how to capture the attention of media people and have them coming back to you again and again for story ideas, background, commentary and interviews.

The Publicity Hound website is loaded with free tips and tricks and valuable educational tools. Get tips on selling books from someone who really knows how to do it. I recommend her enthusiastically. Visit her website to learn more tinyurl.com/yv7s9e

I just got back from the National Speakers’ Association in San Diego.

It was great fun.

We found that many of the speakers were interested in the Video Demo-3 camera shoot coming up in November. I think we will be full. We only take 18 people. I was showing demo samples on my computer in our exhibit booth.

Also of great interest was the MediaSpeak Symposium, October 11-13. Several people signed up right away when they heard the early registration fee for 3 days was only $347. This is our third year offering the Symposium.

I need to send out the Speakers’ Guidelines to about 20 people so they can get listed in our Directory. Since 92 we have been bringing speakers and audiences together.

The Speakers’ Bootcamp is full for August and we have a wait list at this time.

BTW: My mentor for Web Marketing 2.0 and this blog Michelle Price tells me that she is taking on new clients to help them get their blogs plus also creating a marketing strategy for them so that it brings them mucho business. Take a look at her website AThirdMind.com

Here’s some photos I took at the conference of friends and colleagues.

Jovita Jenkins (r) and Terry Green (l)
Jovita is the author of Get Out of Your Own Way and Terry is a VA. Her business is Fastype and she helped me out during the conference.

This is Scott of Beyondee taking a photo of a client. Beyondee takes your photo and creates business cards for you- 1,000 cards for only $59.

I’m hoping he’ll be at the MediaSpeak Symposium so the attendees can take advantage of the great deal.

Jack Barnard relaxing -Jack is our master branding, media and presentation coach

Jack and Susan in the Speaker Services Booth

Jill Lublin (r) and me. Jill is one of the speakers at the MediaSpeak Symposium. Her company is Promising Promotions

Blanche Katz stopped in for a visit.
Blanche is an ElderCare Educator

Marilyn Snyder of Interactive Concepts
She is all about Power Point Design

Acutrack
On-Demand CD/DVD Services. Acutrack enables you to create, produce and deliver your content on CDs and DVDs.
Terry Green won their give-away of 100 CD’s and she gave it to me. Can’t wait as they will do all the work for me.

James Malinchak, The College Success Bootcamp King. He had a great booth and he offers an awesome College Bootcamp.

A few days ago I talked about Alex Carroll the Radio PR Guy. He has a database of radio talk show hosts and producers who book speakers/authors for their shows. Today I am sharing a tip from him on how to create a pitch or media hook plus examples of radio show listings from his database.

Also included in this post is one of my favorite recommeded resources audioacrobat.
Have you considered doing your own radio show or podcasting? Or do you simply want to have an audio prescence of your website or blog? How about recording a teleclass and creating a product from it? You can do all of the above plus more if you have audioacrobat.

AudioAcrobat is a powerful and easy online radio and audio/video content development tool and a recording, streaming and hosting service. All of your audio messages are automatically converted into a single of html code that can be uploaded to any website. Dave Barrett, the owner offers training every week. See the schedule for the week of July 9 & 10. below. Try it out for 30 days for free. Click here to try it out.

You can see how I uploaded an MP4 of our speaker and authot Julie Thong to audioacrobat click here and to listen to audio see Lisa Marie Platske . Listen to a replay of a teleclass of a Q & A teleclass that I did with Jack Barnard on The Speakers’ Bootcamp or take a look at the Speakers’ Summit Hot Seat Video’s we produced . If you would like to develop a one camera streaming video for your website or blog etc you might want to attend the BizSpeak and Video Workshop September 15 &16 in Los Angeles and also see the streaming samples that I uploaded to audioacrobat .

BTW: On July 23, I am offering a free teleclass with Nita Vallens, talk show host for KPFK, Inner Vision and Jill Lublin, Guerilla Marketing. We’ll be talking about online media rooms and what producers/hosts say they look for in a compelling guest. Sign up Both of these ladies are speaking at the MediaSpeak Symposium in October.

At the MediaSpeak Symposium you will learn how to pitch to the media and actually have an opportunity to pitch live to radio, TV and print folks.

Back to Alex’s tip:

The first step towards being a guest on big radio shows is coming up with a great “media hook,” or “show pitch.”

Here’s a fill-in-the-blank formula that you can use to create a show pitch that is guaranteed to grab a producer’s attention virtually every time …

* Pitch Formula: “___ things you must do immediately when ______________”

And here’s a couple of examples of how you might apply it:

Show Pitch: “5 things you must do immediately when you find out the company you work for is about to be bought out”

Show Pitch: “3 things you must do immediately when someone starts yelling at you … or threatening you”

This is a very versatile show pitch formula and can be used for almost anything. The word “must” makes it especially compelling, and the word “immediately” makes it urgent. Here’s some more examples: “7 things you must do immediately when the Fed starts lowering interest rates,” or “when your flight gets cancelled,” or “when the principal calls and your kid’s in trouble,” or “when you notice an odd growth on your skin,” or “when you wake up from a bad nightmare,” or whatever. It’s pretty much limitless.

If you are ready to pitch to talk shows I suggest you purchase the database listing which includes 1,264 radio shows, faxes, e-mails, websites, categories, show descriptions, time slots, number of listeners, frequencies, markets, time zones, news directors, public affairs directors, program directors, and more … for each show.

And it is the only database available of just the big shows. Here’s the link to order the talk show database.

Sample of radio talk show producers on Alex’s list.
Rank, Host, Producer, Phone, Address

#1, Sean Hannity, James Grisham, 212-613-3800
WABC, 2 Penn Plaza, 17th Fl., New York, NY 10121

#2, Michael Savage, David Ruben, 541-664-8827
Talk Radio Ntwk., 724 E. Pine St., Central Point, OR 97502

#3, Howard Stern, Gary Del’Abate, 212-584-5100
Sirius, 1211 6th Ave., New York, NY, 10020

#4, Dr. Laura, Fax pitches to 818-461-5140, 818-377-5300
Premiere, 15260 Ventura Bl-500, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91403

#5, George Noory, Lisa Lyon, 541-955-0100
Premiere, 777 NE 7th St., Grants Pass, OR, 97526

#6, Bill O’Reilly, Ron Mitchell, 212-301-3000
Fox News, 1211 6th Ave., New York, NY 10036

#7, Glenn Beck, Stu Burguiere, 610-617-2033
WPHT, 10 Monument Rd., Bala Cynwyd, PA, 19004

#8, Laura Ingraham, Mike Kincaid, 541-664-8827
TRN, 724 E. Pine St., Central Point, OR, 97502

#9, Jim Bohannon, John Stolnis, 202-457-7997
Westwood One, 2020 ‘M’ NW, Washington DC, 20036

#10, Mike Gallagher, Jason Hiatt, 972-831-1920
Salem, 6400 N. Beltline Rd, Ste 210, Irving, TX 75063

Here are the upcoming comimentary AudioAcrobat training choices:

Monday – July 9, 2007

Basic Training…75 minutes

2:00 PM Eastern Time (EST)
1:00 PM Central Time (CST)
12:00 Noon Mountain Time (MST)
11:00 AM Pacific Time (PST)

———————————-

Podcasting and Video…75 minutes

Please have an audio recording for this class

7:00 PM Eastern Time (EST)
6:00 PM Central Time (CST)
5:00 PM Mountain Time (MST)
4:00 PM Pacific Time (PST)

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Tuesday – July 10, 2007

Podcasting and Video…75 minutes

Please have an audio recording for this class

2:00 PM Eastern Time (EST)
1:00 PM Central Time (CST)
12:00 Noon Mountain Time (MST)
11:00 AM Pacific Time (PST)

————————

Basic Training…75 minutes

7:00 PM Eastern Time (EST)
6:00 PM Central Time (CST)
5:00 PM Mountain Time (MST)
4:00 PM Pacific Time (PST)

***************************

Conference Call Number: (605) 990-0001

Remember you can try it out for 30 days for free.