How To Double Your Media Placements

This is one of those no-brainer tips that sounds so obvious, yet few remember it.

If you want to double the number of your media placements, pitch not only stories but photos and graphics. With newspaper and magazine space at a premium, you sometimes stand a far greater chance of getting a photo published than a lengthy article.

“Especially with the digital cameras that are available today, making photos available to editors automatically DOUBLES the space you receive,” says freelance writer writer Pat Luebke. Yet one of her pet peeves is people who want publicity but don’t have photos available, or make photos available only “on request.”

Here are some tips for generating publicity from photos:

• If you have a great idea for a photo, call the photo desk at your local daily or weekly newspaper. Photographers are under pressure to come up with great news and feature photos and they, too, have “slow news days” just like reporters do.

• Ask for a photo before your event. If your Rotary Club is hosting a pancake breakfast, how about asking the newspaper to shoot a photo of club members mixing pancake batter?

• Think weather. How does the weather affect attendance at an upcoming event? Or your company’s sales? Here in the Midwest, snow rakes are popular during stowstorms so we can rake snow
off our roofs, and hardware stores that sell them are virtually guaranteed of getting publicity.

• Think kids and pets. TV crews love stories about kids and pets. Anytime you have a kid, or a pet, or both, your chances for TV coverage increase.

• Provide your own photos. Smaller publications that don’t have photo staffs often rely on photos submitted by readers. Today’s digital cameras make it easy to take good-quality photos.

• Don’t forget information graphics. Maps, bar charts, pie charts and tables that compare statistics, and other information graphics, are often welcome by editors who need to fill odd-size holes on a page.  Before you write a press release, ask yourself, could we explain our news better with a graphic?

– Joan