Fashion Mode

Get on TV, in newspapers, on major news sites, on radio, or in your industry's major magazine or newsletter --- and you've got powerful, free promotion that just won't quit.

Being covered by a reporter is FAR better than running an expensive commercial or ad.

In a way the respected news outlet with HUGE audience is putting their stamp of approval on YOU as a newsworthy subject.

And it isn't hard to do!

Surely you've watch TV news and wondered, "Don't they have anything more interesting to cover?" Most of the time those stories were suggested to them. You can suggest your story to a reporter, editor, or news director and have YOUR business one of the stories that is being covered.

1) Do you have a new idea or technology that is making a difference in people's lives? You might have a service that is improving the lives of niche but would be interesting to everyone. Maybe I'm just helping people along the rising river whose homes were flooded, but the entire community will want to know.

2) See a news story that has something to do with you? Maybe the state financial system is having problems and YOU are a CPA that has some ideas. Perhaps a school in another state has experienced a disaster and YOU are the principal of a local school who has already made steps to prevent such a disaster. This helps you piggyback on an existing story that has been grabbing headlines. It could give you a local angle. Media loves to cover that!

3) Stage a visually interesting event. Camera people from local TV and newspapers will be ready to cover it. The most successful such even I was ever involved in was for a charity that staged an ice cream eating contest between local reporters and radio DJs. Everybody loved watching famous locals gobble down ice cream while making themselves look a bit ridiculous.

Media won't come looking for you, so contact them. Call newspapers in advance. Call TV the day before and again the morning of your event.

Don't stop once you've gotten covered by media. Now that reporters know you, become a trusted expert they will want to contact any time your interest comes up in the news. You could be the accountant who gets called every year when the city budget is in the news, or the retired detective who gives local analysis of major crimes, or a local fashion expert who lets media know what's popular in your town several times each year.