Sat, 20 Apr 2024 08:47:45 -0700WeeblyWed, 28 Mar 2018 01:24:26 GMThttp://www.jordankling.com/blog/how-to-get-media-coverage-in-5-easy-stepsArticles, interviews, news segments, or stories in newspapers, blogs, radio, or television are great growth tactics to drive awareness and positive public perception about your business. Many people believe that you need to hire a publicist or agency to get media attention, however, having strong communication skills and a sales background is all you need. Below are five easy steps to get free media exposure. 

​1) Identify what makes your story newsworthy 
This is the critical step in getting free media exposure. You need to be able to answer the question, why would the media outlet or journalist cover your story? What makes it newsworthy? Why would their readership be interested? If you can answer this question, you are well on your way to getting covered. Below are a few examples of newsworthiness to get you started:

• New business launches 
• New product launches
• Landing a high-profile client/winning new business
• Special events
• Charitable initiatives
• Celebrity involvement or appearances 

2) Write a press release
A press release is a mandatory action item in obtaining free media coverage. This is a critical step and can be a blog post in and of itself. The first component of a press release is a eye-catching headline with sub-headline. Basically, what makes your story newsworthy in one sentence. The first paragraph covers the who, what, when, where, and why of your story. The second paragraph will contains more details, and perhaps a quote to be used for the article. A paragraph of background information about your business should also be included. For more on this topic, check out this blog post from Hubspot.

3) Build a strategic distribution list
This step is where strategy comes into play. A spray and pray tactic does not work in Public Relations. Just like sales, you need to brainstorm who is the ideal target for your business (or in this case, story). Match the topic or theme of your story with appropriate media outlets and journalists who focus on your topic. Just as an obvious example, if your story is about a new business launch, you don't want to send a press release to the movie reviewer. Build your strategic list, gather names and email addresses of journalists, and send out your press release in the body of your email as well as as attachment. 

4) Follow up
This step will separate you from a vast majority. Journalists and media outlets receive a lot of press releases, and I mean a lot! Pro tip: The day after sending out your press release, follow up with everyone to ensure that the press release was received and did not get lost in the daily shuffle.

5) Be ready to pitch!
When you follow up on your press release, be ready to pitch your story. If you have followed these steps and have identified what makes your story newsworthy, then this should be simple. Try to add value to the person who you are pitching, for example, be ready to help with photos, interview availability, or even be willing to let your story be exclusive to the respective media outlet. Journalists are always hunting for content and unique stories, so you are actually helping to solve their problem, but always approach your pitch for their perspective, in other words, "whats in it for them." Follow these steps and I am sure that you will have success.  ]]>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:32:58 GMThttp://www.jordankling.com/blog/-top-5-tips-for-the-linkedin-beginner-to-that-will-create-an-immediate-impactLinkedIn is the #1 social network for business professionals with over 200 million users from over 200 countries and territories around the world. Your employees are using it, your competitors are using it, and potential clients and customers are definitely using LinkedIn. All business professionals should be using this powerful platform. If you are new to LinkedIn, below are my top 5 tips that you can implement today to create an immediate positive impact with your profile.

1)   Include a professional photo

LinkedIn is all about connecting, networking and building relationships with colleagues, contacts, potential clients, and strategic connections. Just like the real world, people like to know who they are talking to, and adding a picture will make you seem more approachable in the digital world.

Regarding the photo, use a simple yet professional head stock type picture. Never use a personal, non-professional picture such as one that you might use for your Facebook profile.

2)   Professional Headline

After your name, the next area that people will see is your professional headline. Think of your headline as a quick one-sentence snapshot of who you are and what you do. Many will simply use their title and workplace, others weave in skills or a value proposition. Your headline is also one of the main areas for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords. Think of how someone might find you in a Google search query and incorporate some of the main keywords.   

3)   Summary

After your headline, your summary is the next most important area from an SEO perspective. Your summary is the expansion of your professional headline. Here, you can go into greater detail about yourself, background, skill set, and accomplishments. Your summary is essentially your professional, work-related biography. This is also an area to pepper in key words to increase the searchability of your LinkedIn profile.

4)   Detailed Work History

I recommend going beyond simply listing your work experience. Provide details about all relevant work experience. Some will include a one-sentence description of the job and then list key accomplishments. I like using bullet as they are easier to read than paragraphs.

5)   Customized URL

When you create your LinkedIn profile, you will notice that the URL (or website address) will have a string of numbers and letters at the end. This is a dead giveaway that you are a newcomer to LinkedIn. Fortunately, LinkedIn gives us the ability to customize our URL. Sign into your account, then click “Edit Profile” from the drop-down menu under the profile tab. Under your profile picture, you will see your LinkedIn URL. To the right of your URL, there is an Edit button. Click edit to customize your URL.

Questions? Shoot me an email or tweet, I'm happy to help.]]>Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:20:38 GMThttp://www.jordankling.com/blog/-top-20-tips-from-hubspots-inbound-marketing-webinarHubSpot describes Inbound Marketing based on the concept of earning the attention of prospects, making yourself easy to be found and drawing customers to your website by consistently producing fresh content that customers value. Content can be in the form of blogs, articles, white papers, case studies, videos, podcasts, infographs, webinars, newsletters, etc. The content is then leaverage through social media to reach a mass audience. The strategy of Inbound Marketing is to position the content producer as the thought leader of a given industry in order to drive prospects to his/her website with the goal to nurture these leads to eventually become clients or customers. This strategy is particularly important to small business owners who may not be able to hire marketing or PR agencies but have the expertise to produce valuable content. 

Below are my top 20 simple tips from Hubspot's recent Inbound Marketing Webinar.

Facebook
1)     Posts on Sat and Sun get more likes than posts Mon-Fri
2)     Posts that get the most likes are 1) Photos 2) Status 3) Video 4) Links

Twitter
3)     The most followed accounts are ones that share the most interesting content with links, not conversations
4)     Tweets that ask to be retweeted get the most retweets
5)     Tweets that use the wording “please retweet” get more retweets that “Pls RT”
6)     4-5pm is when there are the most retweets
7)     Tweet more when others are tweeting less (tweet during non-peak times)

SEO
8)     Organic SEO is more trustworthy than paid SEO (PPC)
9)     The best areas for SEO are 1) Description 2) Title 3) URL Name
10)  Consistent fresh content is best for SEO (“You don’t need to hire an SEO guy, hire a Content guy”)

Blogging
11)  >50% of customers say blogging is important when making a purchase decision
12)  Morning posts during the work week get the most views and shares (someone at 8am will share a post that was made at 6am)
13)  Insights, analysis, answers, questions, advice, review, top and why are best words for blog title

Email
14)  Positive and passionate subjects are best
15)  Using ampersand (&) in subject gives impression that there is a lot of content (people like this)
16)  Personalize emails with recipient’s first name
17)  Have many links to the same content to increase clicks
18)  Saturday and Sundays are best days to send email

Lead Generation
19)  Best method is to give some kind of free offer – ie: download, ebook, webinar, video, white paper, consultation, etc
20)  Always use a call to action while avoiding “sales speak” – click here/sign up to get a free...
]]>