The number one rule of being successful in the world of publicity (or in just about any other field, for that matter): Don't sabotage your efforts with dumb -- and easily correctable -- mistakes. Here then are the dumb things that publicity seekers do. Avoid them, and you'll be well on your way to scoring great coverage!
1. Thinking Like an Advertiser
The more you remind a reporter that you're a commercial entity
seeking promotional exposure, the less chance you have. Blatant
ad copy, excessive use of trademark symbols, overblown quotes,
puffed-up claims and other techniques better suited for
advertising copy are sure ways to assure that your release gets
trashed.
You must think like an objective journalist and have a sense of perspective about who you are and what you sell and communicate that in your materials. If you just can't do that, chances are you've been...
2. Getting Too Close to Your Product
If you spend all day eating, breathing and sleeping packing tape,
it's easy to start believing that the slight change you made in
the thickness of your company's new packing tape is an advance on
par with the printing press and the polio vaccine. Now, if you're
planning on working with Packing Tape Monthly, perhaps the
editors of that fine publication will agree. But the guys down
at USA Today may hold a different opinion.
In deciding (a) what's newsworthy and (b) how to present this news to the media, it's vital that you take many steps back and view your company as a marginally interested outsider might. If you can't do that, ask friends, family and other outsiders to help.
3. Getting too Close to a Journalist
I've worked with lots of reporters whose company I enjoyed. I've
shared meals and drinks with a bunch of them. One thing I've
never done, however, is forget who they are and what their jobs
are. If a reporter is interviewing you, whether in person or on
the phone, never say anything you wouldn't want to appear in a
story.
Journalists have different interpretations of what "off the record" means and it's foolish to try to test those limits. Carefully think about everything you say, don't be pressured into commenting on things you don't feel comfortable about, stay on message, don't gossip, backbite or share secrets. In short, just as the journalist has his or her job to do, so too do you. Stay smart.
4. Obsessing Over the Big Hits
Maybe you really will get on Oprah. And maybe you'll win the
lottery and never have to work again. In either case, it's
probably a good idea to have some backup plan in place in case
you don't beat out the 10 million or so other folks who harbor
the same dreams.
It's fine to think big, but smart publicity seekers know that time spent getting actual press coverage is a better investment than chasing dreams. So go ahead and send that press kit to Oprah but, in the meantime, work your butt off to get placement in weekly papers, syndicates, e-zines, local radio and other less glamorous places.
Scores of successful businesses have been built on such "small" publicity. You don't need Oprah or Newsweek or The Today Show. You need coverage - anywhere and anyway you can get it.
Dreamers dream. Publicists get publicity.
5. Reading from a Script
It's pretty annoying to pick up the phone at dinner time only to
have some guy reading a script about how great vinyl siding is.
Now imagine how a journalist, who's busy working on deadline,
feels about "publicists" calling up to do the same thing again
and again.
f you're planning to phone pitch a journalist, never read from a script or repeat a rehearsed spiel. She's a human being, so talk to her that way. (And always start your call with "Is this a good time to talk?". Never just launch into your pitch.)