Answer true or false to the following statements:<\/p>\n
—The first time I call a media outlet, it’s always to pitch a story idea about me, my company or my client even though I usually don’t read the publication or watch the program I’m pitching.<\/p>\n
—When I call, my pitches usually zero in on the product or service I’m selling, or the cause or issue I’m trying to promote.<\/p>\n
—I’ll call the local newspaper and ask them to cover a boring ground-breaking, ribbon-cutting or check-passing ceremony if I have to. I know they won’t cover it, but I’m too much of a wimp to tell my boss his idea stinks.<\/p>\n
—If I think I can get away with it, I’ll sometimes ask a reporter if I can read the story she has written about our company before it’s printed.<\/p>\n
—I once called a local TV station and asked them to cover our (fill in the blank) event because we worked so hard on it and “deserved” the coverage.<\/p>\n
—When a newspaper photographer comes to my company to take a photo, I ask if he can send me one or two extra prints.<\/p>\n
—If I’m pitching a blogger, I come right out and ask if she can include the price of our product in her post.<\/p>\n
I know. I know. Most of you would rather swallow a handful thumbtacks than do any of those things. But lots of Media Mutts are guilty of doing them.<\/p>\n
How do I know? Because for many years, I was on the receiving end of those kinds of pitches, dumb questions and thoughtless PR gaffes. They make a mutt look like a beggar, standing on the street corner, tin cup in hand.<\/p>\n
If you can do the media a favor before you ask them for something, you stand a far better chance of having them cover your story.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0“Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with Media People,”<\/a> I mention that if you can comment on a journalist’s work, that’s one of the very best ways to get their attention.<\/p>\n So few people do that. And if you do it, they’ll notice. I promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Answer true or false to the following statements: —The first time I call a media outlet, it’s always to pitch a story idea about me, my company or my client even though I usually don’t read the publication or watch the program I’m pitching. —When I call, my pitches usually zero in on the product\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":0,"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,205],"class_list":{"0":"post-573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"tag-media-relations","8":"tag-pitching","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41689,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/41689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}