Monday, July 10, 2006

Creating a Media List

With a media relations campaign, you don’t control the final message the way you do with a paid ad. However, when a media outlet runs a story on your business or community, you get the benefit of an apparently objective third-party endorsement. The public tends to give greater weight to the information than they do to an ad.

Use these tips to help maximize your success with publicity campaigns:

- Determine your primary geographic market. This could be a particular city or geographic region.

- Put together a list of newspapers, television and radio stations, newsletters and magazines that reach those markets. There are publications available for purchase that includes listings of media contacts at newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations.

- Verify your list of contact names, addresses and phone numbers and make sure they cover your topic or industry.

- Become familiar with the publications, programs and media on your list. Read the publications, watch the television programs, listen to the radio shows, and get to know the content and style.

- Update your list at least quarterly or any time that you make media calls and find out that someone new is covering your industry. Job changes are common in journalism.

Once you’ve assembled your media list, you can use it to send news about your business, story ideas and trends to the media who cover your industry.

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