Catarina's World

Media coverage can make wonders for your business. So solid news media strategies should be part of well-rounded publicity campaigns. As opposed to advertising, articles have high credibility, are read and for free – if you manage to get the editors’ interest. 

Media is constantly looking for news and are happy to write about companies and business people, provided they consider the story to be of interest to their readers.

Develop contacts in the media

Learn how journalists and editors work and decide what to publish. It's easier than you believe. Media is constantly looking for news and are happy to write about companies and business people, provided they consider the story to be of interest to their readers. Do you have a story to tell, positive news or wish to comment on something in the news related to your business? Pick up the phone and call the journalist. This can be particularly fruitful if your organization has an ongoing need to be in the newspaper or on TV.

Create news

Editorializing your news is crucial. What subjects are media interested in and why? What would make them interested in what you have to tell? Read, watch and study as many news outlets as possible and try to understand what makes news. Then present it in ways that make the journalist feel it is newsworthy.

Get to the point and keep it short

When sending press releases to media covering your field keep it short to the point. If it's long and complicated the editor may not even read it. Don't make it appear like advertising, boast or complicate it because that can work against you. Focus on what’s new, trendy, unusual, interesting, and of significance to the broadest numbers of readers. News organizations also love stories that arouse deep emotions – love, sympathy, hate, fear, anger – feelings that people can identify with.

Call the media swiftly

Journalists are flooded by emails so the best way of succeeding is to call him/her. Once you have got them interested in your story you can proceed with sending an email with information. And be swift. Nobody is interested in yesterday's news. If you spend too much time contemplating how to best get results you will miss the boat. Arrange a news conference if you believe, or know, you news will generate significant media attention.

Need help?

If necessary use a PR & Communications consultant. It doesn't have to cost a fortune but is well worth it. Media coverage can be make or break for your business so until you master the art of handling the press it is money well spent.

Don't hesitate to be interviewed and profiled in the media because it increases your chances of getting your news published. Look at Richard Branson. He masters the art of using himself as a living "advertisement" for Virgin Group. And I don't need to tell you how successful he is. Where would Virgin be today if Richard hadn't manged to get an abundance of media coverage? Don’t be afraid to ask for coverage and propose specific ideas. Your story could become the centerpiece on the front page. Don’t be discouraged or argumentative if your idea falls on deaf ears. You will learn from the experience. And don’ forget that the editor may turn you down today simply because the staff ’s time is taken up by other assignments. Be persistent. Be positive. Develop more and better ways to pitch your organisation into the news media. And whatever you do, don’t forget that if they don’t like you they will not publish your news. So make sure you come across in ways that make both you and the company look good.

(photo: aidasonne – PhotoXpress)

Talk about the devil! Five days after I published “Get back in the saddle again!” that’s what I had to do.

Almost back in the saddle of Catarina's World again.

Even if I didn’t get a fresh start at the time of my choosing, I definitely had to get back in the saddle with my blog, or it would simply have ceased to exist. Managed to make a mistake that wiped out my entire blog. Could start blaming others and moan about lost work. But what’s the point? It happened and I had to sort it out. Much better to re-frame the situation and try to make the most out of it.

The first thing I had to do was to inform you readers. Hence created a poll on Linkedin stating “The entire content of my blog Catarina’s World was deleted by mistake. Do you think I should post old articles again?” and sent to all my connections. Asked if I should put all articles back online, only the most popular or none. Within 3 hours 70 people had answered and about 90 percent wanted my blog up and running again with all or the most popular articles posted again.

Am really happy that you are so positive about my blog. Got such nice messages from both connections and other Linkedin users. Some sending me messages asking what happened since they couldn’t find my blog. Was delighted to note how many of you missed my blog and wanted it back.

And here it is again. Have given a lot of thought to posting old articles. Would like to but the catch is all comments,  tweets and diggs are gone. So new readers will get the wrong impression. Which is unfortunate since that the last 30 days before it was taken offline it had 4,885 page views, according to Google Analytics.

So I decided to write this article explaining my thinking as well as posting “Get back in the saddle again!” since it was such a coincidence that I had to do that so soon after publishing it. Almost makes me wonder if I should be careful what I think about since I may make it happen?

Are there any articles published earlier this year that you would like me to post again? If so, please make a comment below to let me know which ones:

• Scrap CAP – a way to reduce people smuggling?
• Get the energy to succeed!
• Tough times never last but tough people do!
• Wall Street deja vu
• Inventories can be managed – people must be led
• Learning – an access to having it all?
• Curbing global warming – replacing traditional aid?
• Political ideologies – filling the current void
• Global market – the way ahead
• Make a fresh start – restrain executive pay!
• Unrest on the European front
• Saudi versus Sweden, Part II – The Abaya
• Is the dream moving?
• Success – only an inch away from failure
• Saudi versus Sweden,Part I – Women
• Around the world in 22 years

Nothing is certain, as I wrote in “Get back in the saddle again!”. I took my blog for granted, but suddenly it just wasn’t there. It was hence time for me to bounce back and try to get something positive out of the incident. And as far as I’m concerned your reaction was a very positive development. And by not putting all my articles and photos online again my blog will be faster, which will be an added benefit. Even when you upgrade your hosting, which I just did, you don’t get a more powerful and faster server, just a larger database. So let’s enjoy the speed for a while! Then it will be time to get a larger database again.

(Photo: fotografiche.EU, Photo-Xpress)