alright we are live welcome everybody
I’m super excited to be back for another
google hangout today we’re talking about
how to get free media attention for your
business and I have a special guest with
me andrew carter she is the public
relations specialist with Aweber and
that’s the email software that I use
every day to run my business and we’re
going to answer your questions and talk
about how to get free press for your
company Andrea welcome aboard hi guys
thanks Evan so as I’ve been said I’m
Andrea Carter I’m the PR specialist here
at a weber I work on the marketing team
awesome team here I’m just helping to
get media coverage for the organization
I’ve been doing PR for close to 10 years
I can’t believe I’m saying that but
it’ll be 10 years um in 2016 so I’m
really excited about that I love PR is
my passion is what gives me up every day
so I enjoy it so I’m glad to be here I
love it and for those you guys watching
as Andrews very first guy it’s my first
so go easy on me I’m a little bit
nervous but like i said i love so let’s
do it Cochran or cherry I for those of
you guys have been on before you know
there’s that box on the right side you
can ask your questions we’re going to go
through an order and then you can also
comment on the things that we’re talking
about and joining the discussion so
there’s a bunch of questions I became
Andrea but just before getting started
what are your quick thoughts on how a
business should get free media for their
company what are my quick thoughts on
how they should get em free media so um
what I actually was going to start out
with Emma was a quote from a book that i
recently read it’s actually by Murray
Newlands someone that I know that you’re
familiar with I saw they featured you
and some of his columns and everything
but I want to share this quote from the
book because I think it kind of really
highlights the value of public relations
and what it can do for your organization
whether you’re just starting out or if
you’re already an established
organization so he wrote the business
that can influence the media will win
the trust of the people simply because
consumers typically decide to purchase
from brands they trust and are familiar
with and so for me this pretty much
packs a mighty punch with in one
sentence of what the value of publicly
it’s about you getting your name your
your brand your messaging in front of
your target audience so that they become
familiar with you and so that the end so
that they trust you so that’s what it’s
all about that’s what a PR and media
coverage is all about I love it and I
think back to when I was first starting
my company IC IC getting the media as
your opportunity to influence thousands
tens of thousands hundreds of thousands
you know millions of people all in one
shots instead of you having to go well
one by one by one by one by one to talk
to all these people the reporters are
helping you spread that message for you
and if you look at a magazine or
newspaper article or a website you know
you’re going to pay more attention to
the stories or to the ads right these
are the stories and the stories don’t
have to cost you anything where the ads
cost you every time you’re trying to
advertise your brand in one of those
journals so it’s such a huge way to grow
your business I’ve gotten into the wall
street journal in New York Times and
Forbes magazine and especially I think
when you’re getting started to add some
credibility to what you’re doing it’s
just an amazing way to potentially grow
your company so we’re going to talk
about it today we’ve got a bunch of
questions and we’re just going to go in
order so guys you can leave the
questions on that chat box first up was
J reyez who is saying Jay rises a
regular contributor always asked the the
non-conventional deeper questions so you
always got to get ready when a Jay Reise
cleaning it off my question is what do
you think of unethically manipulating
the media allow Ryan holidays book trust
me I’m lying confessions of a media
manipulator no I didn’t know that Jay
rise I’m as a little bit of a you know
when to rustle some feathers so but I
was going to actually thanked him for
putting this in here before before we
actually did the chat today because I
feel like this is such a loaded question
and so many lamp potential landmines all
around it um I’ll say that I’m not I
have not read this book so I can’t
really speak to everything that the
gentleman says and within the book but
to the question of you know do I what do
I think of unethically manipulating the
media well I don’t try to condone
unethical practices so I’m going to say
that it’s never okay but specifically
within public relations and when you’re
working with media it’s on
was twice is not okay because here’s the
thing the risks that are involved with
going about something in a in a
malicious way a back door you know
unethical kind of way the risks are far
greater than any potential media
coverage and what I meant what I mean by
that is it that is uncovered you are
going to have so much of a more
difficult time doing some crisis
communications than you ever would have
so hands down working with the media I
would not suggest doing that at all yeah
I would tend to agree i think i think
the only case uh you know I think it’s
based on your personality I think in
general people are ethical good nice
people and that reflects and everything
that you do in your pockets you create
and how you deal with customers and how
you deal with the media how you end
yourself on social there are people who
build brands for themselves as being the
antagonist as being the person who you
like to hate and I think that’s
something that he’s probably done um but
I think I think it won’t work for most
people and you have to generally be true
to who you are and ideally you’re
putting out a message of actually is
helpful and contributing to the lives
and businesses of other people right but
you it but you’re right it’s all you can
always expect a loaded question who
terrorized I mean I should have given
you the heads-up it’s always started
yeah but but you you picked that you
recognized right away you got it okay
next is helper desk do you prefer media
attention from offline channels such as
newspapers and magazines or from online
such as blogs and relevant sites to your
industry sure so my personal preference
just from me doing public relations for
the past ten years or so is for the more
traditional so those online newspapers
and magazines and things like that but
for me that’s just a personal preference
because I’ve grown up in this and like
back in the day for us to see something
in print that was like a big deal like
oh they actually thought it was that
that good of a story that is actually
printed they spent the money for it and
things like that as things slowly or
actually quickly progressed two or more
media outlets moving online of course
you still want to go after those as well
my allegiance is still too
those traditional media outlets but what
I’m getting at is that at the end of the
day it really doesn’t matter though what
your personal preferences it’s about
where your audience is so here at aweber
or whether you’re you know starting a
new company or or an established company
wherever your target audience is that’s
where you’re going to go I don’t care if
it’s a blog I don’t care if it’s podcast
I don’t care if it’s the more
traditional media you figure out where
your target audience is what programs
they listen to what things they watch
and you go there that’s what you go
after I love it I couldn’t agree more um
I love it I think to add to it what I
would say I you nailed it that was my
answer do you think no first it’s always
harder going second no by Allah is great
like absolutely you got to know where
your audiences and target just like
people figuring out hey what social
media platform should I go on you know
well where’s your audience that’s where
you want to be the thing that i would
add maybe to traditional versus
non-traditional is i think it could also
depend on what your goal is if your goal
is just to get a recognition and to get
credibility i think the old school stuff
still has a little more weight to be
able to say you were in the New York
Times and Wall Street Journal adds a lot
more credibility for most people than to
say you are featured on PewDiePie is
YouTube channel kind of thing um
especially if you’re dealing with a
business world that you’re selling to
but if you want impact I would probably
say it’s easier to get the reach by
going online because it’s easier to get
to a big youtuber than it is to get to
the editor of a big traditional magazine
or newspaper so I would also in addition
to angels point about understanding what
your target audiences I would try to
think about what’s the goal is the goal
just to get kind of recognition
credibility is it a credibility
statement for you or are you trying to
just drive more people to your website
and get impact because I think that goal
might impact which way you go yeah but
do both hey Ellen embrace a genius at
the end don’t do one or the other you
could do both yeah actually that was
something that I was hoping would come
out in the conversation as well like
media relations and media coverage media
outreach is just one piece of the puzzle
all these things have to work together I
mean you have to be strategic about it
but it’s not going to be one single
thing that blows you up or you know that
it gets UMass attention all these things
have to work together well yeah I love
it next we should cap TV another loyal
viewer uh where’s the best place to
start for start-up small business and or
new youtubers thanks Andrea and Evan I’m
so the first place to start you know
assuming that you’ve done all your due
diligence of everything that we just
talked about right like you’ve
identified who your target audience is
you know where they are where they want
to be in things like that there’s a
couple things that you could do I would
start by taking a look at your space
that you’re in and looking at the media
coverage that other people have gotten
in your space so you can see the types
of articles the types of media that
they’ve done and then that way you can
also see which reporters are writing
about these things so it’s kind of
starting to survey the land if you will
to figure out okay who’s talking about
these things that I want to be known for
and then going after those types of
reporters another thing that I would
recommend is I’m a big proponent of
establishing a platform for yourself as
a thought leader within your industry
within you know your expertise and
things like that and so you know once
you identify what your target media
publications media outlets are you know
offer to contribute an article that
showcases your expertise now an article
like this it’s not going to be able to
say hey I do this and come purchase my
service or hire me but what it’s going
to do is when someone is looking for a
service like yours or is looking for a
product like yours when they go to
google and those articles start coming
up best believe they’re going to see
your name and oh by the way you’re going
to be established as a thought leader
for it another final thing that I would
recommend just kind of quick easy things
that you can do is utilize some of these
free services so help a reporter out I
don’t know if you’re familiar with it
but I’ve been using it since I’ve been
in PR it’s a free service you sign up
for and it’s basically three daily
emails that reporters is basically media
queries and so it’s a whole list of
various reporters who are writing
articles and they’re looking for sources
so all I do is come
and see hey what can a weber comment on
here what are you know with something
thats related to what we do that we can
help this literally help this reporter
out and get an article ran so those are
just some things that I would recommend
just starting out I love it hero is a
great source help a reporter out I think
it for anybody who’s trying to do that
one understand that you are an expert
you should be right as an entrepreneur
you should be an expert in your industry
what you do and for every article that
reporters writing they’re looking for
experts right you read any article
they’re shooting stats an opinion and
then there’s always some expert quoted
right that should be you for your
industry and here was a great free
resource to use one I use as well as
called PR leads.com similar I find a
little bit higher quality publications
but there’s also a cost it’s ninety nine
dollars a month but I’ve gotten into New
York Times and Forbes because of it so
um a good investment least from my point
of view a tip for that would be when
you’re writing to the reporter you want
to you want to write a story you don’t
want to say hey I’m an expert on that
happy to talk to you because they’re
getting so many people right into them
right if they have twenty to a hundred
people writing into them to say hey I
can help you out they’re going to go to
the ones that provide some values so in
that email will you reach out you want
to make sure you’re giving them value
and explaining your thoughts on whatever
piece that they’re writing so that makes
them want to call you yeah I would agree
with that and then another one in
addition to Harrow and the one that you
mentioned if there’s profit I don’t know
if you’re familiar with profinet as well
that’s also a pay service but one little
trick that I found though is if you
follow the Prophet account same for
Harrow even though heroines free but if
you follow the Prophet account a lot of
times they’ll post a lot of the queries
in Twitter so you can get you know some
free queries right there and see if
there’s anything that you can add in i’m
writing this down hold on crime and
equity i’m running to and you drop into
knowledge I like it Twitter and I
noticed that they do post some of their
queries of reporters who are looking for
things and it’s free like its Twitter so
that’s cool like it I like it I like it
um one more quick thought because she’s
being a youtuber and getting the tension
as a youtuber do you have thoughts on on
YouTube versus other marketing channels
or is there any advice we’d give us
specifically to a YouTube or is it the
same no matter what industry urine well
one of the things I noticed is that you
and our is it Rishi your VCR are good
friends right so I think what she’s
doing already what she’s doing already
is pretty smart and that she’s you know
networking she’s utilizing her network
so that you know for folks who already
have a huge following I don’t want to
say necessarily right in the hotel’s but
you’re expanding your network you’re
getting the exposure I’m based off of
the network that others have so I think
she’s doing it already yeah Rishi’s been
a loyal a little viewer as part of the
Master Hung group that I have to UM what
I would say is I think you should be
really active in the community that you
want to be known in so you know if
you’re trying to be a successful
youtuber and you’re trying to get
attention I would try to gravitate more
towards collaborations with other
youtubers people already have a YouTube
audience I think you could get more
leverage out of that than being featured
in your local newspaper as an example
because how many people reading the
newspaper are kind of daily YouTube
viewers to the point of knowing who your
target audience is that and you’re
brought up at the start of the show I
think if you promote well within that
platform and connect with people within
your platform you’ll grow much faster
than if you go off platform none of the
our platform stuff doesn’t help I think
you just get more success and results
from being in platform yeah and I think
it so it goes back to what we’re saying
it’s about you know what your goals are
so you have to identify those that’s one
of the main things in order to be
successful with these things you have to
identify what your goals are at the
start it’s not enough just to say hey I
want people to know who I am or I want
you no more business you have to
identify specifically where your goals
are your messages so that you can always
stay true to those and refer back to
them so that everything that you do
aligns with those goals I love it ok
next Dennis Wagner if you had to use
only one thing think small budget small
budget to generate massive media
attention what would it be and why
I this is the million-dollar question
here yeah but here’s the thing it it’s a
million-dollar question because there is
no one thing like I cannot stress that
enough so Dennis unless you are best
friends with Oprah Winfrey there is not
this one thing that is going to you know
just caught catapult you into math
Success it’s it like we’ve been saying
it’s a combination of all of these
things working together but you mean you
have to have good story so um you know
what is the one thing that I can’t live
without sure I still use press releases
and that tends to you know get me a lot
of exposure for things that I do here at
Aweber if anybody tells you the press
releases that they’re lying because it
is still very much alive and it’s still
you know very profitable very successful
so there’s things like that but the end
of the day it comes back to what is this
story that you’re telling and so if the
story is there you trust me you’re not
going to have any problems getting the
mask the mask coverage and things like
that so it’s always going to come back
to the story that you’re telling and if
your best friend’s is Oprah let me know
cuz ya right you get me to come on we do
an interview for the Hangout you know uh
she could be my guest that’d be great um
yeah and we’ll have an tree onto it’ll
be the three of us I like it um okay but
to the to the question of an
entrepreneur an entrepreneur is so busy
running their company right like we’re
not slackers we’re working 80 hours a
week already just just running our
business and now we’re telling people
hey you gotta this is important you got
to do this too well like add it to the
list of the other hundred things i need
to do get a payoff what what’s the
starting point like we’re d where would
you say someone like Dennis starts uh
but what’s the first thing they should
do just start building a little bit of
momentum around this um I think it goes
back to Reese’s question of just kind of
surveying the land to see you know in
terms of what I want to be known for and
others who are whether similar to me or
what I aspire to be for my business what
kind of media coverage are they getting
but then add on to that ok what do I
bring to the table that’s fresh that’s
new that’s different and then you know
plan your attack and go from there but
it’s always going to come back to
story media coverage is not about hey
this is what I do here’s what I’m
selling it’s about here’s the story
here’s the value that it brings to your
audience and then once that story is
published the bang for the buck that you
get out of it that your name is in there
they will start to familiarize yourself
familiarize themselves with who you are
and what your business is but you got to
have a story have something that’s of
interest one of the things that helped
me when I was first getting started was
I made my own media list you know I
didn’t have money to go hire somebody to
work for me or an agency I just wanted
to do it myself and I just made a list
of all of the reporters who were
covering my industry and then also my
local area so I’m from Toronto so any
Toronto publication I would I would
cover if I was turned over now I’d
probably expand it to also include the
online media youtubers Twitter people
and every week I would reach out to them
with a new story idea and it wasn’t it
wasn’t just like a promotional like hey
I’ve launched a new product it was a
story that I could imagine them
publishing on their website in their
magazine in the newspaper um always had
a catchy headline always have a catchy
second headline yeah I’m so glad you
said that that was one thing I wanted to
make sure I mentioned like when you’re
thinking about media coverage think in
terms of headline that’s right so you
know what are the headlines that you
typically see and whatever your story
idea is could you picture that as a
headline is that something that you
yourself would be interested in reading
if you opened up the newspaper or a
magazine so that’s a really good point
think in terms of headlines yeah and so
like if you’re pitching somebody on a
YouTube channel think about what would
the name of the video be called Yeah
right if you’re pitching somebody for an
article in newspaper but would the name
of that article be called Yeah right if
you can wow them and get their attention
and they’re more likely to read write
the goal of the headline is to get them
to read the sub headline to get them to
read the next paragraph to get them to
continue reading the story so i would i
would do that every every week i would
send that out to my list of a couple
hundred people that I made a list of and
every time I got picked up by somebody
whether it was a radio show whether it
was a newspaper sometimes it would even
just copy and paste and you
print it exactly as is because they love
the story and didn’t even tell me about
it some of them so it really important
to write like a story that you can
imagine appearing on their channel or in
their magazine or newspaper more than
just a pitch of what you do and some new
product promo cool much rights in doing
a typical pitch to a journalist or media
channel seems boring have you ever done
something unusual or creative to get
coverage from the media um so I agree
that sometimes it can get boring and if
you think about it I think from the
perspective of the reporters that you’re
reaching out to right they are probably
receiving hundreds if not thousands of
media pitches emails a day with story
ideas that quite honestly if you talk to
reporters they say the majority of them
are junk so why not you know to your
point make it a little bit more creative
something that will grab their attention
so one example that I have is last week
was national customer service week I
don’t know if you guys are familiar with
it but here at a pepper we are a leader
or we’re bill leader in the ESP space
for our customer solutions department
right we’re known for having outstanding
customer solutions so we basically we
took national customer service week and
the fact that we are a leader for
customer service in our space and we
turned that into basically a media idea
things that we can share on our blogs
and things like that but to bring some
life to the story what we did was create
a video and we created a video that
showed our CEO and our COO talking about
why we’re a leader in customers in
customer service what we do here what
customer service means here at a weber
and then we also showed our CEO and our
co l in the customer solutions
department taking calls assisting
customers and things like that and so
what i did was i used that for my media
pitching so it wasn’t just hey national
customer service week is this week we’re
a leader and customer service so
consider an article from us no it’s
those things plus here let me show you
let me bring it to life for you you know
and so that’s another way that just kind
of mix things up for them and get a
little bit creative another thing that I
would also recommend speaking to the
point of not just a basic couple
and email create some visuals create
infographics create videos like we said
also if you have data to back up where
you’re saying or to support where you
are saying journalist love data um so
you know get creative with with how you
go about things and what you send to
them to bring a story to life for them
if it’s helping them do their job so I
totally agree that getting creative is
something that you should consider yeah
when looking at that question I think of
PT Barnum who used to have a circus and
he answered an elephant to plow his
fields just because the artists know
about PT Barnum that’s like a PR thing I
love PT Barnum yeah I study up I study
up I remember learning about that so ok
well for those who don’t know the story
there she be this train ride they would
go in and and people would look at the
train and they see this elephant plowing
a field and it just caused he was a big
who’s all about the curiosity and people
would then want to know like what’s
happening here and he would always milk
as much as he could from publicity but
never the typical like boring pitches is
always something different I think the
modern day is like Richard Branson who
drives to New York City on a tank and
like jet skis in and repels down
buildings and he makes big events out of
things I haven’t done anything anywhere
close to that I’m I think and mostly
poising are super boring and tame in
comparison but there is a guest room to
improve their the closest thing that
I’ve done that was different was when I
was just getting started in this
business I was what 22 years old and I
felt like I was in no name I didn’t have
a lot of credibility I was young people
would look at me like what we’re gonna
learn from this guy who’s too young so I
put together what I call the guide to
professional success and I contacted a
whole bunch of really well-known font
leaders like Anthony Robbins and brian
tracy and Zig Ziglar and kind of the
leaders at the time and got I said here
I want to create this guy professional
success I’m gonna have it as a free
download off my website can i use this
article and it was an article they had
written from their newsletter online
somewhere and i got permission from them
be able to use that article and I
combine all of the articles together and
then I added mine in there as well so
there’s like Evan with all of these big
names and so it started adding kind of
more instant credibility and people in
the media picked up on it because it was
kind of different so they’re interested
in reading it sharing it and it got me
my first kind of like hint of excitement
from the media okay well I think overall
I’m pretty boring I name is a good
challenge it’s a good challenge much to
do something there anything right a tank
through Toronto or something bigger
bungee jump from the CN tower to support
entrepreneurs or something I like it
though is good is a good challenge um
zeno writing in do you think there’s
such a thing as bad publicity I
understand media attention can be very
helpful but you think there are ways in
which it can hurt things you would want
to avoid so I do think there is such
thing as bad publicity now do you think
that there are ways that it can hurt on
the immediate example that comes to mind
for me is Donald Trump right so a lot of
what we’re seeing right now from him
yeah he’s all over the place he’s kind
of dominating the news coverage in terms
of the election right now but a lot of
people are also picking up on and
pointing out the fact that some of his
comments you know can be offensive or
they rub people the wrong way and he’s
consistently doing it a time after time
after time and so a lot of people are
saying and thinking that this is
eventually going to hurt him and so it’s
great that there is you know a lot of
media coverage that he’s getting but
consistently you know offending people
and things like that now don’t get me
wrong you gotta take a stand on things
and media people like that but when you
kind of cross that line where you’re no
longer respectful to people and doing
that consistently I think you run into
issues where you know it could be
detrimental instead of actually helping
you so that’s just one example that came
to mind for me when I saw that question
yeah I have mixed feelings on it um you
know I wonder if you asked Donald Trump
you know what he would feel like is that
hurting his brand or not because he is
getting an insane amount of coverage and
I’m sure a lot of people now hate him
because of it
but then do people the to his supporters
and people feel the same way now love
him and get more exposure because of it
I don’t know I’m on the fence the one
the idea that came to my mind was Rob
Ford who was our mayor of toronto I
don’t know if you the name means
anything to do but he did a whole bunch
of kind of really stupid things in the
media and and it put Toronto on the map
for a while in the US and yet there’s a
lot of times you know Canadian stuff
isn’t covered that much but it was in a
negative way right it wasn’t it wasn’t
put it in a positive light and I was
just hearing yesterday on the radio
talking about the Blue Jay game we’re in
the next round go jays go and they’re
still referencing rob for like all
Toronto is known for is the Blue Jays
now and and Rob Ford and I love my city
and its kind of I feel like it’s an it’s
a stain as much as he put it on the map
it’s also you put on them up a negative
way so I don’t know I I have mixed
feelings on it I don’t have a great
answer on that but yeah I mean because
it is you kind of never know how it’s
going to shake down and so to your point
about Trump it could well still have to
wait and see right if it’s either going
to hurt him or if it’s going to help him
but in your case like the example that
you were given that you were giving your
right you know once something like that
happens it’s kind of hard to separate
yourself from that once that bad news is
out there so to the question of whether
or not media coverage can in some way
have the potential to be a bad thing it
can because they can almost tattoo your
brain for for people with your brand is
so I think it can be a detrimental thing
yeah I think so in terms of what’s the
advice like so this is a question but
then what’s what’s the advice that you
would give to an entrepreneur around
that around just avoiding or cuz I mean
you I don’t have an easy answer for how
to avoid it because I guess that on the
one hand you don’t necessarily want to
play everything safe you have to take a
stand right so I guess my advice is
almost what you were saying before of
know who you are and stay true to who
you are don’t do something just for the
sake of trying to get probably
to the year because you know it’s going
to be controversial and get everybody’s
eyes on you if that’s not who you are
then I would say don’t do it so identify
who you are what you want to be known
for and stick to that and just tell your
story yeah so like would you give Trump
advice to like to tone down to say
listen dude you’re going off the deep
end I think what Trump is that yeah that
is who he is but my advice to him is to
tone it down and to consider the fact
that listen you know you’re running for
presidency and especially for a title
for a position like that right we’re
talking about an entire country where
the votes that you want this is that the
first set of people so offending people
rubbing people the wrong way you got to
kind of take it easy so yeah I would
just advise that he turns it down just a
little bit just look all right cool
interesting interesting uh-huh okay next
sherry um I helped start and volunteer
for Park watch for our seven hundred
acre park there’s going to be a huge
right up and pictures of us in the paper
is there a way to incorporate my
business name discreetly um I think I
just need to know a little bit more here
in terms of incorporating your business
name so I just need to know if you want
if you are going to incorporate your
business name and how your business is
associated with it like there has to be
a natural connection between the two and
it has to add to the story so whatever
your business is and in relation to the
door and in relation to the program that
you started what is the connection how
do the two work together to tell a story
outside of that I can’t really think of
a way to just slide in your business
name for the sake of you know knowing
that there’s going to be media coverage
for it has to add to the story yeah I
would thinking the exact same thing what
might be helpful is understanding the
purpose behind it like as part of the
story that the media is covering why did
you do this that you started organizes
why was it so important for you to put
this on right why is Park watch that’s
an important part of your community and
then that is something that the media
would want to quote right like it was
started by this person and they’re
sharing your opinions and often
they’ll put in cherry from whatever
company to add some context to it but I
grew it has to be part of you know if
you could tie in your whatever your
company does if looking after the
community is part of it like if running
your business and you want it to give
back was part of it like if you can tie
the story I agree like that’s the best
way to do it otherwise it feels like a
pitch and they’re not gonna they’re not
going to say yes to it um just to kind
of piggyback on that do you have
thoughts on how entrepreneurs can use
okay I get this truck all right like I
want to get back it’s charity I want to
help whether they’re organizing
something or donating to something or
just spending their time somewhere do
you have feedback on how they might be
able to feel good about themselves but
then also get some promotion and use it
for for publicity um I think it goes
back to what we were just saying if you
you if you are doing it like you’re
helping about a charitable organization
and some kind of weight it relates to
your business it all it always has to
add value to the story it has to tell
the total story so that’s really the
only recommendation that I have for that
got it yeah it’s so like maybe to add to
it some things I think it might be to
ask if you can be put on their website
right so looking if one you linked into
them and showing what you do in the
community could be great for your
website if clients come to you and say
you know so i’m looking at a weber same
looking at doing i’m buying some i need
email marketing software for my company
right now here what a weber hear what
other guys I go to a weapons website and
there’s a story about how they’re giving
back to their local community that makes
me feel a little bit closer to a weber
more likely to want to sign up with them
versus somebody else and so like same
thing for you if you could share this
store on your website that adds
credibility and just a feel goodness to
making me want to work with you i know
that’s a word make it up and then i
would try to get a link from their site
as well I want that helps you with your
SEO which will help you with your
business but also anybody visiting that
website it says hey it’s supported by
aweber supported by you know Harry
you’re supported by whoever
and it it puts the brand in there and
they mail some me click through on it to
say hey I’m curious to know who’s
supporting these guys and the media
might also be curious to know hey who’s
supporting these guys so that could also
help also maybe a story that just you
know if you believe that businesses
should be giving back like if that’s
part of what you’re all about that could
be a story in itself and that you’re
challenging other businesses to stand up
and give back and you know you’re doing
it in your own small way by doing this
thing and other companies doing it in a
bigger way but just issuing a challenge
to other entrepreneurs to hey we want to
fix up our community entrepreneurs have
a responsibility to give back and help
out that could be a story in itself that
gets attention for you but also there’s
a story and the benefits the community
in the publication that those receiving
this planet that point that actually
just reminded me of something that I’m
going to make sure I shared with people
when you’re thinking about media
coverage and you’re thinking about ideas
to Evans point it’s not always just
about your business and what you do like
I started out by saying you know you’re
telling a story but really the goal is
to get your name your branding in front
of people so they become familiar and
recognize who you are but you can do
that in ways similar to what Evan just
said so as you’re thinking about story
ideas think about these human interest
things right think about ways that um
you know if you’re helping individuals
or things like that just think about
things that will appeal to people as
humans because that’s the thing we’re
all human and so we all have these
things these same thoughts these same
once the same you know how come there
isn’t somebody who’s doing this if
you’re thinking it is nine times out of
ten somebody else is singing it too so
if you can take that thing and turn it
into a story that works for your
business goals you’re going to have
success I love it you know I said go
ahead nah I have a totally tangent
thought I just found an interesting we
both match our backgrounds I’m black on
black and you’re on purple oh nice
rinsing it nice it like the question of
that is I wonder if you had tips for
headlines so if you are now
pitching this are there some general
rules we talked about the importance of
headlines do you have general tips on
what makes a good headline sub headline
that people watching here can take home
and sir to implement sure um headlines
that relate to something of human human
interest if you have stats and they show
something that is either counter
intuitive or you know something that
would surprise people stats are always
good a lot of people like the the tips
of things so like these listicle type
things so if you have an idea for
something lists out the five ways that
your business brings that value again
you’re not selling your business but
here’s why is the value and what people
should be thinking about so those are
like some of the headlines that you
could think about I love it I remember
one of the early press releases I did
was I went to the City of Toronto
website and looked at how many
entrepreneurs were being created every
year and I turned that into a story to
say X number thousand entrepreneurs
created this year in Toronto and I got
picked up by a radio show on a local TV
station a local magazine just fun taking
a number from the city of toronto
website i like it is publicly available
information that i just turned into a
story and people picked up on it i love
it journalist love so here at Aweber we
do try to keep track of our stats and
you know what our customers are doing in
terms of their use of email marketing so
that if i go to pitch a story i can say
something like you know email marketing
is a value for this reason but then i
have the stats to support it as well
journalist will eat that up because it’s
hard numbers we have the the customer
base and the huge numbers to back it up
and to show it love it um cool nick i’m
running a social project to help
refugees and physically challenged
individuals get back into employment
what can i do to get the media to help
me um to help you so this one I would
probably go along the lines of what
we’re saying a human-interest type thing
um but for the folks that you are
helping get some testimonials so give
some people that you have helped and
tell that story right so it’s not just
about hey this is what I do but here is
an actual
person who I have helped who was a
refugee or what have you and they went
from this point to that point there now
there now employed again so give some of
those stories that you can share with
the media that’ll definitely help yeah i
agree i would I think I would lean
towards making it about not about you
but making about the individual people
that you help uh and you will be a
natural byproduct of that story right
like they came to this country and then
they met you and then they got a job
right so that’s something that’s
powerful um the other angle that I might
go with is just using some stats to call
out the government or to call out the
public sector or the private sector to
say we should be doing more to help
these people so like X number people
come to this country every year as
refugees and why can’t find know why
number people can’t find jobs and are
ending up you know doing whatever right
if you could compile those stats and
then you have yourself as a thought
leader to comment on those stats what
that means that I think that could be a
pretty powerful story as well that
people would want to pick up on ya
similar to that even I mean we always
hear the news talk about the
unemployment rates and things like that
so for this business it could be okay we
got the news that the national average
unemployment rate is X but did you know
of that unemployment rate of that number
X amount are you know refugees or things
like that and then you kind of piggyback
off of existing news that people are
already talking about but like I was
saying before you add a new perspective
to the story you bring a fresh
perspective that people either aren’t
considering and hadn’t thought about and
there’s your news yeah and speaking
about piggybacking I would use what’s
happening in the media right now right
so now election if you’re in the US it’s
election election every time here on the
news something new about the election
that’s gonna happen for a while all
right we’re still a while when is your
election day I November right is it all
in November I thought it was I thought I
was like next year no oh no oh you’re
right you’re right I’m sorry go ahead I
should know this but go ahead I don’t
know but it’s gonna happen for like the
elections in America are
insanely long processes first you have
to win for your party and then you have
to go through the election so it’s like
this long drawn-out thing which which is
great because it’s in the media a lot
and you can easily piggyback off of
those things so are any of the
candidates talking about this in any way
good or bad you agree or disagree right
and then that becomes a story right we
talked about Donald Trump so Donald
Trump’s view on refugees I don’t know
what it is maybe it’s a great one that
you agree with maybe it’s a one that you
absolutely despise and hate but as soon
as you start talking about Donald
Trump’s view on something it’s much more
likely to get picked up and then you’re
like the opposing opinion or you’re the
supporting opinion and so if you can
piggyback off any of the candidates
whoever is being talked about the most
it’s a great way to be able to draw
attention to your cause yep um cool
Sherry’s asking about smoothies oh I
mentioned the shoutouts I was making
smoothies she asked if it’s from my
wife’s garden I don’t know what’s in
this one it’s if it’s red it’s beats ah
the big Marta is gone though the garden
is gone it’s it’s October it’s Canada
man that our gardening season doesn’t
last very long Tamara how can I tell the
story of mica with cerebral palsy how
can you tell the story of her I don’t is
that is that a trending I feel like it
is it a personal thing it’s a personal
thing I think it’s a personal thing um
so I mean I guess it’s fine what is the
story yes what’s it yeah you have to
figure out what the angle is but the
angle being you so and we keep kind of
going back to the same points right it’s
a matter of what your goals are for your
business or or what it is that you want
to accomplish by telling this person’s
story and so whatever that is you kind
of craft a story around that so if she
you know is overcoming obstacles or
things like that you can build a story
around these things that would be
interesting to people but you have to
start with knowing you know what you
want to accomplish when somebody sees
this story or here’s the story or reads
a body or something like that what is it
that you want
to do and you have to kind of crap the
story in a way that gets that message in
there so unfortunately i don’t know more
about this story or what it is that
she’s seeking to accomplish but i’m sure
there’s like a human a human-interest
angle there or something of that sort
that you could use yeah and back to
engines point from like the very top of
the show but knowing your audience there
may be multiple ways to bring this out
by pitching different stories of
different channels right so you know I’m
an entrepreneur channel does Mika do
anything entrepreneurship of many inches
of entrepreneurship you know if they
watch an entrepreneur video does make a
get all excited I’m just throwing
examples and you know you can partner up
with the piano channel maybe Micah’s
learn to play piano once the special
just you know like whatever whatever
Micah’s hobbies interests are those
could all be potential resources for you
to connect with people in those channels
to draw attention to what’s happening
yeah so yeah so like multiple stories
for multiple publications and channels
um sorry yet something else added on
that I didn’t I didn’t you ok ok good
good kid we’re riffing I like it um Lucy
B was it a dumb idea to have my press
release released press release released
on a Friday ok so there is no magic day
but I do try to stay away from fridays
and the reason being that you know it’s
a friday a lot of people tend to take
their vacations on fridays things of
that nature so here when we send out a
press release we normally go on like a
monday or a tuesday um so what i say it
was dumb no I wouldn’t say that but I do
try to stay away from Friday’s just for
the reasons you know of people taking
vacations or taking a long weekend or
something like that and it’s also like
the end of the week people are kind of
checked out and people not as many
people may see your news or see your
news release things like that but
earlier in the week it’s kind of like
retuned in like we’re ready for the week
what’s the news things like that we’re
checking our email checking to see
what’s going on in the news so I would
try to stick to the earlier half of the
week yeah
and Lucy you know like congrats on
getting that press release out that may
be your first one and good you know you
learn you keep going you’re gonna make
lots mistakes as you grow and you got
some wisdom from and right here now and
so the next one that comes out early on
in the week yeah I find you know test
test right you have your list you have
your topics you send it out your test
you see what works um you know we’re
talking about a weber i tested an insane
number of combinations to find out what
the best day and time to send up my
email newsletters work and for me it’s
wednesdays at five in the morning so
that’s what I send out in my
autoresponders go out at wednesday at
five in the morning because that’s when
people will open it up has the highest
open race and so the bigger data set you
have the more you can test so if you
have a list of newspapers or you’re
reaching out to our youtubers or if
you’re doing email marketing you know
use your stats to see what works and
then continue to improve I mean
definitely use best practices the next
test is try wednesday see how that works
for you or try to yeah right there’s a
good point that you’re bringing up Evan
which is you know not only the testing
but just making sure that you’re
monitoring and measuring especially for
I’m small business owners and
entrepreneurs because you’re just
starting out with your media coverage
start measuring these things early
figuring out what works and what doesn’t
if you get media coverage and it drives
a lot of traffic to your to your website
or something you know what works right
and keep iterating off of that and keep
doing more of it so constantly monitors
to see what is working so that you can
do more love it next question could you
please clearly spell out the resources
you mentioned herro PR leads profinet
others so list of the resources yet so I
use help a reporter out um the acronym
for is har oh you can sign up for that
it’s a free service you’ll get three
emails per day with media queries from
reporters who are writing about stories
profinet is something that I used when I
was this was two jobs ago I worked at a
university and so it’s
similar to Harrow but it is a paid
service but like I was saying to Evan I
found that if you just follow them on
Twitter I doubt they’re putting all of
the queries but they are putting some of
them so just get them and you’re in your
Twitter feed so you can see if there’s
something that you can possibly respond
to another one that I didn’t mention but
this is just for press releases press
release distribution one free service is
prlog its PR and then the word log ello
G and I think it’s just prlog.org but
that’s the service that you can use to
send press releases for free press
release wire distributions they tend to
be a little bit expensive but prlog is
one that I’ve used in the past that’s
free love it and so thank you for that
and I think what I’m gonna do is once
the video is done i’ll add those in the
description so for everybody who is
interested you guys can check it out
there and and if we if we come with any
more along the way for sure yeah cool um
question what is andrew’s twitter handle
my twitter handle is speed loves PR
because i love PR so um she and loves
it’s about Lu vs and then the letters PR
she loves PR what Andrews twitter handle
is already in the descriptions if you
can check in there and also her about me
so you can find out more about all of
her links on social and follow her yeah
um what is the best place for
advertising tv youtube somewhere else um
again i know i’m being a drum here but
where is your audience so it’s hard for
me to say this is the best medium or
this has the best return because it’s
all about where your audience is um that
one I I honestly it’s hard for me to say
so I’m a my background is in public
relations as opposed to more of the ad
buys and things like that I’m so Evan I
don’t know if there’s something that you
can add here to that because I be
hesitant to give my advice will probably
be wrong and I know the honest answers
that’s what it’s all about I love it
what I would say is
you know any time you’re spending money
you got it really careful right because
you can drop money on advertising super
quick and drain your budget and not get
any results so small tests are always
the best way to go I would test online
first because it’s cheaper and you can
get fast results you know doing a TV
commercial that’s not cheap that’s not
cheap just to buy the time but also to
produce the actual message right the
content is mega expensive so i would
start online you can do fairly
inexpensive facebook ads i think if
you’re new advertising faith facebook is
probably the best way to go because of
the targeting you know you can say i
want people who are Christian who live
in Oregon and like the Toronto Blue Jays
right like you can figure that out and
advertise just to those people and so if
you know the type of customers that
you’re trying to go after if you can get
that specific then it’s much easier to
market to them and so you can use dark
posts to be able to get to them I just
probably your best bet you can do other
you could do Twitter ads you can do
YouTube ads you can do stumbleupon ads
but I would probably start facebook and
and test test test test test what NGO is
talking before tests us a defender
ations see what works and then expand
but i’d be super concerned about just
dropping budget into something because
it’s it’s so easy to waste your money on
advertising and not get a response yeah
um how do you go back to associations
that you work with before but the
founder has passed away he was a huge
contact so what kind of associations are
we talking about I don’t know it’s a
good thing but it’s I mean so you take
that question if you’re trying to go
back to a client work with before or
even a media oh you’ve worked with
before a group you volunteer with the
four that’s you know the CEO or the head
was a really important contact for you
another gone you know it’s like you’ve
got into New York Times and now that
contact of yours is gone how do you get
back in and develop a new relationship I
think it’s basically yeah it is about
developing those new relationships and
so you know bringing
the value to the table one person may be
gone but although that person is gone it
doesn’t mean the value or whatever
you’re bringing to the table is gone so
it’s just a matter of you know working
the network within establishing those
new relationships and then still letting
the new relationships that you are that
you are forming letting them know what
value you’re bringing to the table and
just establishing new ones yeah I would
I mean to add to that I would one not
you’ve learned this valuable an
important lesson for the next time you
know make more than one contact an
organization so know you’ve learned a
hard lesson on going now when you deal
with future clients you want to learn
who the people are under them that might
take over so you know you have that
lesson learned to though there’s got to
be people in your organization who would
know you right if you work with the CEO
and and and the head of the Association
and they were a huge contact and the big
supporter there has to be somebody in
the organization who knows about you who
work with them who you work with on some
projects it’s kind of super rare to you
know head of organizations like to
delegate and bring on teams it’s super
rare to have somebody working only with
them with zero external contact so I’d
be looking at who else in the company in
the Association you might know even if
it’s not the right person that would
hire you or work with you again but they
would know your name and understand the
value that you can’t bring to them and
reach out whether it’s a coffee whether
it’s a phone call so with an email I
just sit down with them and try to
understand what the ignitions going if
they could be of any potential
assistance to you get to know them a
little bit more there’s got to be some
people in our organization that could
that would if you show up would remember
your name and your face yeah okay we did
the twitter handle holy cow the question
we’re short on time guys the questions
are instantly uh-huh is there a way ya
askin I knew or not enough questions you
get the lots of like crazy the nation is
turning up uh is there a way to actually
talk to Andrea or past Aweber host to
help with starting out with a Weber
oh yeah absolutely so I don’t know some
of my colleagues are in the chat but my
contact information is there and I mean
I don’t mind giving out my email address
its Andrea see at a weber dot-com so
feel free to shoot me an email and then
in terms of getting you started trying
out our service where i’ll absolutely be
able to point you in the right direction
cool yeah i mean from my experience
everybody Weber has been super helpful
even if they’re not the person to talk
to you they’ll kind of like point you in
the right direction you just call it in
honestly they’ve got a phone line just
calling you’re gonna get some pretty
friendly service that’s why I worked on
that media fish exactly as I didn’t me
yeah yeah so so it’s great if you want
to get started you can reach out um
there is also a link in the description
about getting started you can follow
that too for more information yeah I’m
next question how does word-of-mouth
relate to the PR um it relates because
if you get that media article you get
that news coverage that you’re looking
for people will start talking and then
not only will people start talking they
will start tweeting and then they start
retweeting and it just kind of hoodlums
from there so as we were saying before
all of these things work together in
terms of your media outreach that you’re
doing the coverage that you’re getting
but then it’s also your marketing if
you’re going to do paid advertising it’s
your social it’s your email marketing so
all of those things were together so one
thing that I will also say since we’re
talking about how all this works
together and starts to spread is I’m at
a web or an email marketing company
right and so say you get some news
covers you can share that with your
email onions in your newsletters let
them know the media coverage that you’re
getting that is to get people talking
and spreading the word so make sure all
of these things work together whether
it’s in the inbox it’s on social or what
have you um it’s just getting the name
out there in front of people so they
recognize you and they start talking I
love it we will rapid fire because I
know we’re short um bendre know how I
can reach journalists in Stockholm here
in Stockholm it’s so hard with Swedish
media
too open-minded as Americans I must be
honest any idea is Andrea she’s asking
you yeah that’s a tough one because um
I’m not familiar with too many of the
reporters out there but just kind of
like we were saying before figure out
which ones that you are interested in or
where you want to be covered and those
reporters that are covering the things
that you want to be known for figure
just look at them and do your homework
so that’s one thing i didn’t mention
right do your homework in terms of the
types of articles that these reporters
do so that when you go to them you
already know what their style of article
is what kind of reports that they
typically right about that would be of
interest to them so you’re kind of going
into the conversation or into the media
pitch with a little bit of knowledge
already that can only help yeah I wasn’t
saying even though wasn’t at me I was
gonna answer the same way just look at
how they’re already writing articles and
then model that to then create right if
you’re if you’re like this crazy
American I nobody wants to listen you
because you know your crazy ideas and
Stockholm was so different than the rest
of the world then look at what they’re
doing and how can you model that to
think of the store written about you I I
agree um Steve is writing uh what are
three great ways to advertise yourself
three great ways to advertise yourself
through media coverage would be like I
was saying before just establishing a
platform for yourself as as a thought
leader so by line articles i’m really
really big one though so it’s getting
your expertise out there letting people
know what you do and what you’re known
for i’m in a way that brings value to
the audience but it also gets your name
and your message out there um I guess
also like I was saying before make sure
that all these things work together so
if you have an email marketing audience
that you’re sharing your messages with
let them know like that you’re getting
things in you know media because that as
that third-party credibility so just
kind of let them know let your your
different audiences know what you’re
doing for a third one what’s the
question again Evan tell me what go back
I moved on let’s go uh Steve what are
three great ways to advertise was
exact question oh I think you said
advertise yourself no I I added that I
added that but it’s that question at
three great ways to advertise oh alright
well you want to give the third one down
I thought I think yourself i’m curious
cuz i added that so what’s to yourself
what were you gonna say I’m excited
what’s in yourself also just a blog or
something so right so that you’re able
to showcase your expertise that’s
something that I just started on because
I’m trying to elevate my platform as
well as someone who is expert and in PR
and things like that right so I’m
creative vlog and so one of the things
that I was able to do was with my blog I
wrote a blog post and it was about
something that was going on in the news
media and what do you know a herald
query came through and they were looking
for something that I wrote about on my
blog and I was able to share that with
them and they use some of it so you know
create almost like this um this space
that shows your expertise that people
can refer to and they can go to it and
see it anytime that they want you know
we got a name drop the blog now so it is
very very new um and it’s not even like
officially launched or anything yet but
it the website is the pr maverick so
it’s you know just as it spelled it’s
the pr maverick and so you’ll see all
about me what I do here at a weber and
then just my thoughts on PR who’s doing
it good who’s doing it badly um and will
let’s talk about it so pure Miami com
looky remember com okay okay I got guys
in the description after she you guys
can check it awesome where we’re at
we’re at the time this is great Thank
You fun and oh my goodness it is over it
was a lot of fun though I really really
enjoyed the questions so this was a
really really good time before we go
though Evans so I saw a tweet that you
put out the other day and it was about
the entrepreneur champion of the I’m
sorry yeah the entrepreneur champion of
the day yeah it was another ESP Evan so
I just had to show you because we’re
talking about you know news coverage and
breaking news and everything this here I
don’t know if you can see it but this is
the crown we are the reigning where the
reigning champions for ESP so just make
sure you may
that known when you’re talking about
champions in the ESP space Aweber is the
champion in the ESP space okay I love it
I can show it on the crunch put on the
count to the matches it matches
everything no I’ll say it’s picture okay
how do you write next mmm baby i love it
oh awesome so thank you Andrew so much
for your time thank you guys for
watching it all your questions and you
can check out all the resources
underneath and we’ll see you again next
month with another awesome YouTube hang
out thanks Andrea guys thank you thank
you
I’m super excited to be back for another
google hangout today we’re talking about
how to get free media attention for your
business and I have a special guest with
me andrew carter she is the public
relations specialist with Aweber and
that’s the email software that I use
every day to run my business and we’re
going to answer your questions and talk
about how to get free press for your
company Andrea welcome aboard hi guys
thanks Evan so as I’ve been said I’m
Andrea Carter I’m the PR specialist here
at a weber I work on the marketing team
awesome team here I’m just helping to
get media coverage for the organization
I’ve been doing PR for close to 10 years
I can’t believe I’m saying that but
it’ll be 10 years um in 2016 so I’m
really excited about that I love PR is
my passion is what gives me up every day
so I enjoy it so I’m glad to be here I
love it and for those you guys watching
as Andrews very first guy it’s my first
so go easy on me I’m a little bit
nervous but like i said i love so let’s
do it Cochran or cherry I for those of
you guys have been on before you know
there’s that box on the right side you
can ask your questions we’re going to go
through an order and then you can also
comment on the things that we’re talking
about and joining the discussion so
there’s a bunch of questions I became
Andrea but just before getting started
what are your quick thoughts on how a
business should get free media for their
company what are my quick thoughts on
how they should get em free media so um
what I actually was going to start out
with Emma was a quote from a book that i
recently read it’s actually by Murray
Newlands someone that I know that you’re
familiar with I saw they featured you
and some of his columns and everything
but I want to share this quote from the
book because I think it kind of really
highlights the value of public relations
and what it can do for your organization
whether you’re just starting out or if
you’re already an established
organization so he wrote the business
that can influence the media will win
the trust of the people simply because
consumers typically decide to purchase
from brands they trust and are familiar
with and so for me this pretty much
packs a mighty punch with in one
sentence of what the value of publicly
it’s about you getting your name your
your brand your messaging in front of
your target audience so that they become
familiar with you and so that the end so
that they trust you so that’s what it’s
all about that’s what a PR and media
coverage is all about I love it and I
think back to when I was first starting
my company IC IC getting the media as
your opportunity to influence thousands
tens of thousands hundreds of thousands
you know millions of people all in one
shots instead of you having to go well
one by one by one by one by one to talk
to all these people the reporters are
helping you spread that message for you
and if you look at a magazine or
newspaper article or a website you know
you’re going to pay more attention to
the stories or to the ads right these
are the stories and the stories don’t
have to cost you anything where the ads
cost you every time you’re trying to
advertise your brand in one of those
journals so it’s such a huge way to grow
your business I’ve gotten into the wall
street journal in New York Times and
Forbes magazine and especially I think
when you’re getting started to add some
credibility to what you’re doing it’s
just an amazing way to potentially grow
your company so we’re going to talk
about it today we’ve got a bunch of
questions and we’re just going to go in
order so guys you can leave the
questions on that chat box first up was
J reyez who is saying Jay rises a
regular contributor always asked the the
non-conventional deeper questions so you
always got to get ready when a Jay Reise
cleaning it off my question is what do
you think of unethically manipulating
the media allow Ryan holidays book trust
me I’m lying confessions of a media
manipulator no I didn’t know that Jay
rise I’m as a little bit of a you know
when to rustle some feathers so but I
was going to actually thanked him for
putting this in here before before we
actually did the chat today because I
feel like this is such a loaded question
and so many lamp potential landmines all
around it um I’ll say that I’m not I
have not read this book so I can’t
really speak to everything that the
gentleman says and within the book but
to the question of you know do I what do
I think of unethically manipulating the
media well I don’t try to condone
unethical practices so I’m going to say
that it’s never okay but specifically
within public relations and when you’re
working with media it’s on
was twice is not okay because here’s the
thing the risks that are involved with
going about something in a in a
malicious way a back door you know
unethical kind of way the risks are far
greater than any potential media
coverage and what I meant what I mean by
that is it that is uncovered you are
going to have so much of a more
difficult time doing some crisis
communications than you ever would have
so hands down working with the media I
would not suggest doing that at all yeah
I would tend to agree i think i think
the only case uh you know I think it’s
based on your personality I think in
general people are ethical good nice
people and that reflects and everything
that you do in your pockets you create
and how you deal with customers and how
you deal with the media how you end
yourself on social there are people who
build brands for themselves as being the
antagonist as being the person who you
like to hate and I think that’s
something that he’s probably done um but
I think I think it won’t work for most
people and you have to generally be true
to who you are and ideally you’re
putting out a message of actually is
helpful and contributing to the lives
and businesses of other people right but
you it but you’re right it’s all you can
always expect a loaded question who
terrorized I mean I should have given
you the heads-up it’s always started
yeah but but you you picked that you
recognized right away you got it okay
next is helper desk do you prefer media
attention from offline channels such as
newspapers and magazines or from online
such as blogs and relevant sites to your
industry sure so my personal preference
just from me doing public relations for
the past ten years or so is for the more
traditional so those online newspapers
and magazines and things like that but
for me that’s just a personal preference
because I’ve grown up in this and like
back in the day for us to see something
in print that was like a big deal like
oh they actually thought it was that
that good of a story that is actually
printed they spent the money for it and
things like that as things slowly or
actually quickly progressed two or more
media outlets moving online of course
you still want to go after those as well
my allegiance is still too
those traditional media outlets but what
I’m getting at is that at the end of the
day it really doesn’t matter though what
your personal preferences it’s about
where your audience is so here at aweber
or whether you’re you know starting a
new company or or an established company
wherever your target audience is that’s
where you’re going to go I don’t care if
it’s a blog I don’t care if it’s podcast
I don’t care if it’s the more
traditional media you figure out where
your target audience is what programs
they listen to what things they watch
and you go there that’s what you go
after I love it I couldn’t agree more um
I love it I think to add to it what I
would say I you nailed it that was my
answer do you think no first it’s always
harder going second no by Allah is great
like absolutely you got to know where
your audiences and target just like
people figuring out hey what social
media platform should I go on you know
well where’s your audience that’s where
you want to be the thing that i would
add maybe to traditional versus
non-traditional is i think it could also
depend on what your goal is if your goal
is just to get a recognition and to get
credibility i think the old school stuff
still has a little more weight to be
able to say you were in the New York
Times and Wall Street Journal adds a lot
more credibility for most people than to
say you are featured on PewDiePie is
YouTube channel kind of thing um
especially if you’re dealing with a
business world that you’re selling to
but if you want impact I would probably
say it’s easier to get the reach by
going online because it’s easier to get
to a big youtuber than it is to get to
the editor of a big traditional magazine
or newspaper so I would also in addition
to angels point about understanding what
your target audiences I would try to
think about what’s the goal is the goal
just to get kind of recognition
credibility is it a credibility
statement for you or are you trying to
just drive more people to your website
and get impact because I think that goal
might impact which way you go yeah but
do both hey Ellen embrace a genius at
the end don’t do one or the other you
could do both yeah actually that was
something that I was hoping would come
out in the conversation as well like
media relations and media coverage media
outreach is just one piece of the puzzle
all these things have to work together I
mean you have to be strategic about it
but it’s not going to be one single
thing that blows you up or you know that
it gets UMass attention all these things
have to work together well yeah I love
it next we should cap TV another loyal
viewer uh where’s the best place to
start for start-up small business and or
new youtubers thanks Andrea and Evan I’m
so the first place to start you know
assuming that you’ve done all your due
diligence of everything that we just
talked about right like you’ve
identified who your target audience is
you know where they are where they want
to be in things like that there’s a
couple things that you could do I would
start by taking a look at your space
that you’re in and looking at the media
coverage that other people have gotten
in your space so you can see the types
of articles the types of media that
they’ve done and then that way you can
also see which reporters are writing
about these things so it’s kind of
starting to survey the land if you will
to figure out okay who’s talking about
these things that I want to be known for
and then going after those types of
reporters another thing that I would
recommend is I’m a big proponent of
establishing a platform for yourself as
a thought leader within your industry
within you know your expertise and
things like that and so you know once
you identify what your target media
publications media outlets are you know
offer to contribute an article that
showcases your expertise now an article
like this it’s not going to be able to
say hey I do this and come purchase my
service or hire me but what it’s going
to do is when someone is looking for a
service like yours or is looking for a
product like yours when they go to
google and those articles start coming
up best believe they’re going to see
your name and oh by the way you’re going
to be established as a thought leader
for it another final thing that I would
recommend just kind of quick easy things
that you can do is utilize some of these
free services so help a reporter out I
don’t know if you’re familiar with it
but I’ve been using it since I’ve been
in PR it’s a free service you sign up
for and it’s basically three daily
emails that reporters is basically media
queries and so it’s a whole list of
various reporters who are writing
articles and they’re looking for sources
so all I do is come
and see hey what can a weber comment on
here what are you know with something
thats related to what we do that we can
help this literally help this reporter
out and get an article ran so those are
just some things that I would recommend
just starting out I love it hero is a
great source help a reporter out I think
it for anybody who’s trying to do that
one understand that you are an expert
you should be right as an entrepreneur
you should be an expert in your industry
what you do and for every article that
reporters writing they’re looking for
experts right you read any article
they’re shooting stats an opinion and
then there’s always some expert quoted
right that should be you for your
industry and here was a great free
resource to use one I use as well as
called PR leads.com similar I find a
little bit higher quality publications
but there’s also a cost it’s ninety nine
dollars a month but I’ve gotten into New
York Times and Forbes because of it so
um a good investment least from my point
of view a tip for that would be when
you’re writing to the reporter you want
to you want to write a story you don’t
want to say hey I’m an expert on that
happy to talk to you because they’re
getting so many people right into them
right if they have twenty to a hundred
people writing into them to say hey I
can help you out they’re going to go to
the ones that provide some values so in
that email will you reach out you want
to make sure you’re giving them value
and explaining your thoughts on whatever
piece that they’re writing so that makes
them want to call you yeah I would agree
with that and then another one in
addition to Harrow and the one that you
mentioned if there’s profit I don’t know
if you’re familiar with profinet as well
that’s also a pay service but one little
trick that I found though is if you
follow the Prophet account same for
Harrow even though heroines free but if
you follow the Prophet account a lot of
times they’ll post a lot of the queries
in Twitter so you can get you know some
free queries right there and see if
there’s anything that you can add in i’m
writing this down hold on crime and
equity i’m running to and you drop into
knowledge I like it Twitter and I
noticed that they do post some of their
queries of reporters who are looking for
things and it’s free like its Twitter so
that’s cool like it I like it I like it
um one more quick thought because she’s
being a youtuber and getting the tension
as a youtuber do you have thoughts on on
YouTube versus other marketing channels
or is there any advice we’d give us
specifically to a YouTube or is it the
same no matter what industry urine well
one of the things I noticed is that you
and our is it Rishi your VCR are good
friends right so I think what she’s
doing already what she’s doing already
is pretty smart and that she’s you know
networking she’s utilizing her network
so that you know for folks who already
have a huge following I don’t want to
say necessarily right in the hotel’s but
you’re expanding your network you’re
getting the exposure I’m based off of
the network that others have so I think
she’s doing it already yeah Rishi’s been
a loyal a little viewer as part of the
Master Hung group that I have to UM what
I would say is I think you should be
really active in the community that you
want to be known in so you know if
you’re trying to be a successful
youtuber and you’re trying to get
attention I would try to gravitate more
towards collaborations with other
youtubers people already have a YouTube
audience I think you could get more
leverage out of that than being featured
in your local newspaper as an example
because how many people reading the
newspaper are kind of daily YouTube
viewers to the point of knowing who your
target audience is that and you’re
brought up at the start of the show I
think if you promote well within that
platform and connect with people within
your platform you’ll grow much faster
than if you go off platform none of the
our platform stuff doesn’t help I think
you just get more success and results
from being in platform yeah and I think
it so it goes back to what we’re saying
it’s about you know what your goals are
so you have to identify those that’s one
of the main things in order to be
successful with these things you have to
identify what your goals are at the
start it’s not enough just to say hey I
want people to know who I am or I want
you no more business you have to
identify specifically where your goals
are your messages so that you can always
stay true to those and refer back to
them so that everything that you do
aligns with those goals I love it ok
next Dennis Wagner if you had to use
only one thing think small budget small
budget to generate massive media
attention what would it be and why
I this is the million-dollar question
here yeah but here’s the thing it it’s a
million-dollar question because there is
no one thing like I cannot stress that
enough so Dennis unless you are best
friends with Oprah Winfrey there is not
this one thing that is going to you know
just caught catapult you into math
Success it’s it like we’ve been saying
it’s a combination of all of these
things working together but you mean you
have to have good story so um you know
what is the one thing that I can’t live
without sure I still use press releases
and that tends to you know get me a lot
of exposure for things that I do here at
Aweber if anybody tells you the press
releases that they’re lying because it
is still very much alive and it’s still
you know very profitable very successful
so there’s things like that but the end
of the day it comes back to what is this
story that you’re telling and so if the
story is there you trust me you’re not
going to have any problems getting the
mask the mask coverage and things like
that so it’s always going to come back
to the story that you’re telling and if
your best friend’s is Oprah let me know
cuz ya right you get me to come on we do
an interview for the Hangout you know uh
she could be my guest that’d be great um
yeah and we’ll have an tree onto it’ll
be the three of us I like it um okay but
to the to the question of an
entrepreneur an entrepreneur is so busy
running their company right like we’re
not slackers we’re working 80 hours a
week already just just running our
business and now we’re telling people
hey you gotta this is important you got
to do this too well like add it to the
list of the other hundred things i need
to do get a payoff what what’s the
starting point like we’re d where would
you say someone like Dennis starts uh
but what’s the first thing they should
do just start building a little bit of
momentum around this um I think it goes
back to Reese’s question of just kind of
surveying the land to see you know in
terms of what I want to be known for and
others who are whether similar to me or
what I aspire to be for my business what
kind of media coverage are they getting
but then add on to that ok what do I
bring to the table that’s fresh that’s
new that’s different and then you know
plan your attack and go from there but
it’s always going to come back to
story media coverage is not about hey
this is what I do here’s what I’m
selling it’s about here’s the story
here’s the value that it brings to your
audience and then once that story is
published the bang for the buck that you
get out of it that your name is in there
they will start to familiarize yourself
familiarize themselves with who you are
and what your business is but you got to
have a story have something that’s of
interest one of the things that helped
me when I was first getting started was
I made my own media list you know I
didn’t have money to go hire somebody to
work for me or an agency I just wanted
to do it myself and I just made a list
of all of the reporters who were
covering my industry and then also my
local area so I’m from Toronto so any
Toronto publication I would I would
cover if I was turned over now I’d
probably expand it to also include the
online media youtubers Twitter people
and every week I would reach out to them
with a new story idea and it wasn’t it
wasn’t just like a promotional like hey
I’ve launched a new product it was a
story that I could imagine them
publishing on their website in their
magazine in the newspaper um always had
a catchy headline always have a catchy
second headline yeah I’m so glad you
said that that was one thing I wanted to
make sure I mentioned like when you’re
thinking about media coverage think in
terms of headline that’s right so you
know what are the headlines that you
typically see and whatever your story
idea is could you picture that as a
headline is that something that you
yourself would be interested in reading
if you opened up the newspaper or a
magazine so that’s a really good point
think in terms of headlines yeah and so
like if you’re pitching somebody on a
YouTube channel think about what would
the name of the video be called Yeah
right if you’re pitching somebody for an
article in newspaper but would the name
of that article be called Yeah right if
you can wow them and get their attention
and they’re more likely to read write
the goal of the headline is to get them
to read the sub headline to get them to
read the next paragraph to get them to
continue reading the story so i would i
would do that every every week i would
send that out to my list of a couple
hundred people that I made a list of and
every time I got picked up by somebody
whether it was a radio show whether it
was a newspaper sometimes it would even
just copy and paste and you
print it exactly as is because they love
the story and didn’t even tell me about
it some of them so it really important
to write like a story that you can
imagine appearing on their channel or in
their magazine or newspaper more than
just a pitch of what you do and some new
product promo cool much rights in doing
a typical pitch to a journalist or media
channel seems boring have you ever done
something unusual or creative to get
coverage from the media um so I agree
that sometimes it can get boring and if
you think about it I think from the
perspective of the reporters that you’re
reaching out to right they are probably
receiving hundreds if not thousands of
media pitches emails a day with story
ideas that quite honestly if you talk to
reporters they say the majority of them
are junk so why not you know to your
point make it a little bit more creative
something that will grab their attention
so one example that I have is last week
was national customer service week I
don’t know if you guys are familiar with
it but here at a pepper we are a leader
or we’re bill leader in the ESP space
for our customer solutions department
right we’re known for having outstanding
customer solutions so we basically we
took national customer service week and
the fact that we are a leader for
customer service in our space and we
turned that into basically a media idea
things that we can share on our blogs
and things like that but to bring some
life to the story what we did was create
a video and we created a video that
showed our CEO and our COO talking about
why we’re a leader in customers in
customer service what we do here what
customer service means here at a weber
and then we also showed our CEO and our
co l in the customer solutions
department taking calls assisting
customers and things like that and so
what i did was i used that for my media
pitching so it wasn’t just hey national
customer service week is this week we’re
a leader and customer service so
consider an article from us no it’s
those things plus here let me show you
let me bring it to life for you you know
and so that’s another way that just kind
of mix things up for them and get a
little bit creative another thing that I
would also recommend speaking to the
point of not just a basic couple
and email create some visuals create
infographics create videos like we said
also if you have data to back up where
you’re saying or to support where you
are saying journalist love data um so
you know get creative with with how you
go about things and what you send to
them to bring a story to life for them
if it’s helping them do their job so I
totally agree that getting creative is
something that you should consider yeah
when looking at that question I think of
PT Barnum who used to have a circus and
he answered an elephant to plow his
fields just because the artists know
about PT Barnum that’s like a PR thing I
love PT Barnum yeah I study up I study
up I remember learning about that so ok
well for those who don’t know the story
there she be this train ride they would
go in and and people would look at the
train and they see this elephant plowing
a field and it just caused he was a big
who’s all about the curiosity and people
would then want to know like what’s
happening here and he would always milk
as much as he could from publicity but
never the typical like boring pitches is
always something different I think the
modern day is like Richard Branson who
drives to New York City on a tank and
like jet skis in and repels down
buildings and he makes big events out of
things I haven’t done anything anywhere
close to that I’m I think and mostly
poising are super boring and tame in
comparison but there is a guest room to
improve their the closest thing that
I’ve done that was different was when I
was just getting started in this
business I was what 22 years old and I
felt like I was in no name I didn’t have
a lot of credibility I was young people
would look at me like what we’re gonna
learn from this guy who’s too young so I
put together what I call the guide to
professional success and I contacted a
whole bunch of really well-known font
leaders like Anthony Robbins and brian
tracy and Zig Ziglar and kind of the
leaders at the time and got I said here
I want to create this guy professional
success I’m gonna have it as a free
download off my website can i use this
article and it was an article they had
written from their newsletter online
somewhere and i got permission from them
be able to use that article and I
combine all of the articles together and
then I added mine in there as well so
there’s like Evan with all of these big
names and so it started adding kind of
more instant credibility and people in
the media picked up on it because it was
kind of different so they’re interested
in reading it sharing it and it got me
my first kind of like hint of excitement
from the media okay well I think overall
I’m pretty boring I name is a good
challenge it’s a good challenge much to
do something there anything right a tank
through Toronto or something bigger
bungee jump from the CN tower to support
entrepreneurs or something I like it
though is good is a good challenge um
zeno writing in do you think there’s
such a thing as bad publicity I
understand media attention can be very
helpful but you think there are ways in
which it can hurt things you would want
to avoid so I do think there is such
thing as bad publicity now do you think
that there are ways that it can hurt on
the immediate example that comes to mind
for me is Donald Trump right so a lot of
what we’re seeing right now from him
yeah he’s all over the place he’s kind
of dominating the news coverage in terms
of the election right now but a lot of
people are also picking up on and
pointing out the fact that some of his
comments you know can be offensive or
they rub people the wrong way and he’s
consistently doing it a time after time
after time and so a lot of people are
saying and thinking that this is
eventually going to hurt him and so it’s
great that there is you know a lot of
media coverage that he’s getting but
consistently you know offending people
and things like that now don’t get me
wrong you gotta take a stand on things
and media people like that but when you
kind of cross that line where you’re no
longer respectful to people and doing
that consistently I think you run into
issues where you know it could be
detrimental instead of actually helping
you so that’s just one example that came
to mind for me when I saw that question
yeah I have mixed feelings on it um you
know I wonder if you asked Donald Trump
you know what he would feel like is that
hurting his brand or not because he is
getting an insane amount of coverage and
I’m sure a lot of people now hate him
because of it
but then do people the to his supporters
and people feel the same way now love
him and get more exposure because of it
I don’t know I’m on the fence the one
the idea that came to my mind was Rob
Ford who was our mayor of toronto I
don’t know if you the name means
anything to do but he did a whole bunch
of kind of really stupid things in the
media and and it put Toronto on the map
for a while in the US and yet there’s a
lot of times you know Canadian stuff
isn’t covered that much but it was in a
negative way right it wasn’t it wasn’t
put it in a positive light and I was
just hearing yesterday on the radio
talking about the Blue Jay game we’re in
the next round go jays go and they’re
still referencing rob for like all
Toronto is known for is the Blue Jays
now and and Rob Ford and I love my city
and its kind of I feel like it’s an it’s
a stain as much as he put it on the map
it’s also you put on them up a negative
way so I don’t know I I have mixed
feelings on it I don’t have a great
answer on that but yeah I mean because
it is you kind of never know how it’s
going to shake down and so to your point
about Trump it could well still have to
wait and see right if it’s either going
to hurt him or if it’s going to help him
but in your case like the example that
you were given that you were giving your
right you know once something like that
happens it’s kind of hard to separate
yourself from that once that bad news is
out there so to the question of whether
or not media coverage can in some way
have the potential to be a bad thing it
can because they can almost tattoo your
brain for for people with your brand is
so I think it can be a detrimental thing
yeah I think so in terms of what’s the
advice like so this is a question but
then what’s what’s the advice that you
would give to an entrepreneur around
that around just avoiding or cuz I mean
you I don’t have an easy answer for how
to avoid it because I guess that on the
one hand you don’t necessarily want to
play everything safe you have to take a
stand right so I guess my advice is
almost what you were saying before of
know who you are and stay true to who
you are don’t do something just for the
sake of trying to get probably
to the year because you know it’s going
to be controversial and get everybody’s
eyes on you if that’s not who you are
then I would say don’t do it so identify
who you are what you want to be known
for and stick to that and just tell your
story yeah so like would you give Trump
advice to like to tone down to say
listen dude you’re going off the deep
end I think what Trump is that yeah that
is who he is but my advice to him is to
tone it down and to consider the fact
that listen you know you’re running for
presidency and especially for a title
for a position like that right we’re
talking about an entire country where
the votes that you want this is that the
first set of people so offending people
rubbing people the wrong way you got to
kind of take it easy so yeah I would
just advise that he turns it down just a
little bit just look all right cool
interesting interesting uh-huh okay next
sherry um I helped start and volunteer
for Park watch for our seven hundred
acre park there’s going to be a huge
right up and pictures of us in the paper
is there a way to incorporate my
business name discreetly um I think I
just need to know a little bit more here
in terms of incorporating your business
name so I just need to know if you want
if you are going to incorporate your
business name and how your business is
associated with it like there has to be
a natural connection between the two and
it has to add to the story so whatever
your business is and in relation to the
door and in relation to the program that
you started what is the connection how
do the two work together to tell a story
outside of that I can’t really think of
a way to just slide in your business
name for the sake of you know knowing
that there’s going to be media coverage
for it has to add to the story yeah I
would thinking the exact same thing what
might be helpful is understanding the
purpose behind it like as part of the
story that the media is covering why did
you do this that you started organizes
why was it so important for you to put
this on right why is Park watch that’s
an important part of your community and
then that is something that the media
would want to quote right like it was
started by this person and they’re
sharing your opinions and often
they’ll put in cherry from whatever
company to add some context to it but I
grew it has to be part of you know if
you could tie in your whatever your
company does if looking after the
community is part of it like if running
your business and you want it to give
back was part of it like if you can tie
the story I agree like that’s the best
way to do it otherwise it feels like a
pitch and they’re not gonna they’re not
going to say yes to it um just to kind
of piggyback on that do you have
thoughts on how entrepreneurs can use
okay I get this truck all right like I
want to get back it’s charity I want to
help whether they’re organizing
something or donating to something or
just spending their time somewhere do
you have feedback on how they might be
able to feel good about themselves but
then also get some promotion and use it
for for publicity um I think it goes
back to what we were just saying if you
you if you are doing it like you’re
helping about a charitable organization
and some kind of weight it relates to
your business it all it always has to
add value to the story it has to tell
the total story so that’s really the
only recommendation that I have for that
got it yeah it’s so like maybe to add to
it some things I think it might be to
ask if you can be put on their website
right so looking if one you linked into
them and showing what you do in the
community could be great for your
website if clients come to you and say
you know so i’m looking at a weber same
looking at doing i’m buying some i need
email marketing software for my company
right now here what a weber hear what
other guys I go to a weapons website and
there’s a story about how they’re giving
back to their local community that makes
me feel a little bit closer to a weber
more likely to want to sign up with them
versus somebody else and so like same
thing for you if you could share this
store on your website that adds
credibility and just a feel goodness to
making me want to work with you i know
that’s a word make it up and then i
would try to get a link from their site
as well I want that helps you with your
SEO which will help you with your
business but also anybody visiting that
website it says hey it’s supported by
aweber supported by you know Harry
you’re supported by whoever
and it it puts the brand in there and
they mail some me click through on it to
say hey I’m curious to know who’s
supporting these guys and the media
might also be curious to know hey who’s
supporting these guys so that could also
help also maybe a story that just you
know if you believe that businesses
should be giving back like if that’s
part of what you’re all about that could
be a story in itself and that you’re
challenging other businesses to stand up
and give back and you know you’re doing
it in your own small way by doing this
thing and other companies doing it in a
bigger way but just issuing a challenge
to other entrepreneurs to hey we want to
fix up our community entrepreneurs have
a responsibility to give back and help
out that could be a story in itself that
gets attention for you but also there’s
a story and the benefits the community
in the publication that those receiving
this planet that point that actually
just reminded me of something that I’m
going to make sure I shared with people
when you’re thinking about media
coverage and you’re thinking about ideas
to Evans point it’s not always just
about your business and what you do like
I started out by saying you know you’re
telling a story but really the goal is
to get your name your branding in front
of people so they become familiar and
recognize who you are but you can do
that in ways similar to what Evan just
said so as you’re thinking about story
ideas think about these human interest
things right think about ways that um
you know if you’re helping individuals
or things like that just think about
things that will appeal to people as
humans because that’s the thing we’re
all human and so we all have these
things these same thoughts these same
once the same you know how come there
isn’t somebody who’s doing this if
you’re thinking it is nine times out of
ten somebody else is singing it too so
if you can take that thing and turn it
into a story that works for your
business goals you’re going to have
success I love it you know I said go
ahead nah I have a totally tangent
thought I just found an interesting we
both match our backgrounds I’m black on
black and you’re on purple oh nice
rinsing it nice it like the question of
that is I wonder if you had tips for
headlines so if you are now
pitching this are there some general
rules we talked about the importance of
headlines do you have general tips on
what makes a good headline sub headline
that people watching here can take home
and sir to implement sure um headlines
that relate to something of human human
interest if you have stats and they show
something that is either counter
intuitive or you know something that
would surprise people stats are always
good a lot of people like the the tips
of things so like these listicle type
things so if you have an idea for
something lists out the five ways that
your business brings that value again
you’re not selling your business but
here’s why is the value and what people
should be thinking about so those are
like some of the headlines that you
could think about I love it I remember
one of the early press releases I did
was I went to the City of Toronto
website and looked at how many
entrepreneurs were being created every
year and I turned that into a story to
say X number thousand entrepreneurs
created this year in Toronto and I got
picked up by a radio show on a local TV
station a local magazine just fun taking
a number from the city of toronto
website i like it is publicly available
information that i just turned into a
story and people picked up on it i love
it journalist love so here at Aweber we
do try to keep track of our stats and
you know what our customers are doing in
terms of their use of email marketing so
that if i go to pitch a story i can say
something like you know email marketing
is a value for this reason but then i
have the stats to support it as well
journalist will eat that up because it’s
hard numbers we have the the customer
base and the huge numbers to back it up
and to show it love it um cool nick i’m
running a social project to help
refugees and physically challenged
individuals get back into employment
what can i do to get the media to help
me um to help you so this one I would
probably go along the lines of what
we’re saying a human-interest type thing
um but for the folks that you are
helping get some testimonials so give
some people that you have helped and
tell that story right so it’s not just
about hey this is what I do but here is
an actual
person who I have helped who was a
refugee or what have you and they went
from this point to that point there now
there now employed again so give some of
those stories that you can share with
the media that’ll definitely help yeah i
agree i would I think I would lean
towards making it about not about you
but making about the individual people
that you help uh and you will be a
natural byproduct of that story right
like they came to this country and then
they met you and then they got a job
right so that’s something that’s
powerful um the other angle that I might
go with is just using some stats to call
out the government or to call out the
public sector or the private sector to
say we should be doing more to help
these people so like X number people
come to this country every year as
refugees and why can’t find know why
number people can’t find jobs and are
ending up you know doing whatever right
if you could compile those stats and
then you have yourself as a thought
leader to comment on those stats what
that means that I think that could be a
pretty powerful story as well that
people would want to pick up on ya
similar to that even I mean we always
hear the news talk about the
unemployment rates and things like that
so for this business it could be okay we
got the news that the national average
unemployment rate is X but did you know
of that unemployment rate of that number
X amount are you know refugees or things
like that and then you kind of piggyback
off of existing news that people are
already talking about but like I was
saying before you add a new perspective
to the story you bring a fresh
perspective that people either aren’t
considering and hadn’t thought about and
there’s your news yeah and speaking
about piggybacking I would use what’s
happening in the media right now right
so now election if you’re in the US it’s
election election every time here on the
news something new about the election
that’s gonna happen for a while all
right we’re still a while when is your
election day I November right is it all
in November I thought it was I thought I
was like next year no oh no oh you’re
right you’re right I’m sorry go ahead I
should know this but go ahead I don’t
know but it’s gonna happen for like the
elections in America are
insanely long processes first you have
to win for your party and then you have
to go through the election so it’s like
this long drawn-out thing which which is
great because it’s in the media a lot
and you can easily piggyback off of
those things so are any of the
candidates talking about this in any way
good or bad you agree or disagree right
and then that becomes a story right we
talked about Donald Trump so Donald
Trump’s view on refugees I don’t know
what it is maybe it’s a great one that
you agree with maybe it’s a one that you
absolutely despise and hate but as soon
as you start talking about Donald
Trump’s view on something it’s much more
likely to get picked up and then you’re
like the opposing opinion or you’re the
supporting opinion and so if you can
piggyback off any of the candidates
whoever is being talked about the most
it’s a great way to be able to draw
attention to your cause yep um cool
Sherry’s asking about smoothies oh I
mentioned the shoutouts I was making
smoothies she asked if it’s from my
wife’s garden I don’t know what’s in
this one it’s if it’s red it’s beats ah
the big Marta is gone though the garden
is gone it’s it’s October it’s Canada
man that our gardening season doesn’t
last very long Tamara how can I tell the
story of mica with cerebral palsy how
can you tell the story of her I don’t is
that is that a trending I feel like it
is it a personal thing it’s a personal
thing I think it’s a personal thing um
so I mean I guess it’s fine what is the
story yes what’s it yeah you have to
figure out what the angle is but the
angle being you so and we keep kind of
going back to the same points right it’s
a matter of what your goals are for your
business or or what it is that you want
to accomplish by telling this person’s
story and so whatever that is you kind
of craft a story around that so if she
you know is overcoming obstacles or
things like that you can build a story
around these things that would be
interesting to people but you have to
start with knowing you know what you
want to accomplish when somebody sees
this story or here’s the story or reads
a body or something like that what is it
that you want
to do and you have to kind of crap the
story in a way that gets that message in
there so unfortunately i don’t know more
about this story or what it is that
she’s seeking to accomplish but i’m sure
there’s like a human a human-interest
angle there or something of that sort
that you could use yeah and back to
engines point from like the very top of
the show but knowing your audience there
may be multiple ways to bring this out
by pitching different stories of
different channels right so you know I’m
an entrepreneur channel does Mika do
anything entrepreneurship of many inches
of entrepreneurship you know if they
watch an entrepreneur video does make a
get all excited I’m just throwing
examples and you know you can partner up
with the piano channel maybe Micah’s
learn to play piano once the special
just you know like whatever whatever
Micah’s hobbies interests are those
could all be potential resources for you
to connect with people in those channels
to draw attention to what’s happening
yeah so yeah so like multiple stories
for multiple publications and channels
um sorry yet something else added on
that I didn’t I didn’t you ok ok good
good kid we’re riffing I like it um Lucy
B was it a dumb idea to have my press
release released press release released
on a Friday ok so there is no magic day
but I do try to stay away from fridays
and the reason being that you know it’s
a friday a lot of people tend to take
their vacations on fridays things of
that nature so here when we send out a
press release we normally go on like a
monday or a tuesday um so what i say it
was dumb no I wouldn’t say that but I do
try to stay away from Friday’s just for
the reasons you know of people taking
vacations or taking a long weekend or
something like that and it’s also like
the end of the week people are kind of
checked out and people not as many
people may see your news or see your
news release things like that but
earlier in the week it’s kind of like
retuned in like we’re ready for the week
what’s the news things like that we’re
checking our email checking to see
what’s going on in the news so I would
try to stick to the earlier half of the
week yeah
and Lucy you know like congrats on
getting that press release out that may
be your first one and good you know you
learn you keep going you’re gonna make
lots mistakes as you grow and you got
some wisdom from and right here now and
so the next one that comes out early on
in the week yeah I find you know test
test right you have your list you have
your topics you send it out your test
you see what works um you know we’re
talking about a weber i tested an insane
number of combinations to find out what
the best day and time to send up my
email newsletters work and for me it’s
wednesdays at five in the morning so
that’s what I send out in my
autoresponders go out at wednesday at
five in the morning because that’s when
people will open it up has the highest
open race and so the bigger data set you
have the more you can test so if you
have a list of newspapers or you’re
reaching out to our youtubers or if
you’re doing email marketing you know
use your stats to see what works and
then continue to improve I mean
definitely use best practices the next
test is try wednesday see how that works
for you or try to yeah right there’s a
good point that you’re bringing up Evan
which is you know not only the testing
but just making sure that you’re
monitoring and measuring especially for
I’m small business owners and
entrepreneurs because you’re just
starting out with your media coverage
start measuring these things early
figuring out what works and what doesn’t
if you get media coverage and it drives
a lot of traffic to your to your website
or something you know what works right
and keep iterating off of that and keep
doing more of it so constantly monitors
to see what is working so that you can
do more love it next question could you
please clearly spell out the resources
you mentioned herro PR leads profinet
others so list of the resources yet so I
use help a reporter out um the acronym
for is har oh you can sign up for that
it’s a free service you’ll get three
emails per day with media queries from
reporters who are writing about stories
profinet is something that I used when I
was this was two jobs ago I worked at a
university and so it’s
similar to Harrow but it is a paid
service but like I was saying to Evan I
found that if you just follow them on
Twitter I doubt they’re putting all of
the queries but they are putting some of
them so just get them and you’re in your
Twitter feed so you can see if there’s
something that you can possibly respond
to another one that I didn’t mention but
this is just for press releases press
release distribution one free service is
prlog its PR and then the word log ello
G and I think it’s just prlog.org but
that’s the service that you can use to
send press releases for free press
release wire distributions they tend to
be a little bit expensive but prlog is
one that I’ve used in the past that’s
free love it and so thank you for that
and I think what I’m gonna do is once
the video is done i’ll add those in the
description so for everybody who is
interested you guys can check it out
there and and if we if we come with any
more along the way for sure yeah cool um
question what is andrew’s twitter handle
my twitter handle is speed loves PR
because i love PR so um she and loves
it’s about Lu vs and then the letters PR
she loves PR what Andrews twitter handle
is already in the descriptions if you
can check in there and also her about me
so you can find out more about all of
her links on social and follow her yeah
um what is the best place for
advertising tv youtube somewhere else um
again i know i’m being a drum here but
where is your audience so it’s hard for
me to say this is the best medium or
this has the best return because it’s
all about where your audience is um that
one I I honestly it’s hard for me to say
so I’m a my background is in public
relations as opposed to more of the ad
buys and things like that I’m so Evan I
don’t know if there’s something that you
can add here to that because I be
hesitant to give my advice will probably
be wrong and I know the honest answers
that’s what it’s all about I love it
what I would say is
you know any time you’re spending money
you got it really careful right because
you can drop money on advertising super
quick and drain your budget and not get
any results so small tests are always
the best way to go I would test online
first because it’s cheaper and you can
get fast results you know doing a TV
commercial that’s not cheap that’s not
cheap just to buy the time but also to
produce the actual message right the
content is mega expensive so i would
start online you can do fairly
inexpensive facebook ads i think if
you’re new advertising faith facebook is
probably the best way to go because of
the targeting you know you can say i
want people who are Christian who live
in Oregon and like the Toronto Blue Jays
right like you can figure that out and
advertise just to those people and so if
you know the type of customers that
you’re trying to go after if you can get
that specific then it’s much easier to
market to them and so you can use dark
posts to be able to get to them I just
probably your best bet you can do other
you could do Twitter ads you can do
YouTube ads you can do stumbleupon ads
but I would probably start facebook and
and test test test test test what NGO is
talking before tests us a defender
ations see what works and then expand
but i’d be super concerned about just
dropping budget into something because
it’s it’s so easy to waste your money on
advertising and not get a response yeah
um how do you go back to associations
that you work with before but the
founder has passed away he was a huge
contact so what kind of associations are
we talking about I don’t know it’s a
good thing but it’s I mean so you take
that question if you’re trying to go
back to a client work with before or
even a media oh you’ve worked with
before a group you volunteer with the
four that’s you know the CEO or the head
was a really important contact for you
another gone you know it’s like you’ve
got into New York Times and now that
contact of yours is gone how do you get
back in and develop a new relationship I
think it’s basically yeah it is about
developing those new relationships and
so you know bringing
the value to the table one person may be
gone but although that person is gone it
doesn’t mean the value or whatever
you’re bringing to the table is gone so
it’s just a matter of you know working
the network within establishing those
new relationships and then still letting
the new relationships that you are that
you are forming letting them know what
value you’re bringing to the table and
just establishing new ones yeah I would
I mean to add to that I would one not
you’ve learned this valuable an
important lesson for the next time you
know make more than one contact an
organization so know you’ve learned a
hard lesson on going now when you deal
with future clients you want to learn
who the people are under them that might
take over so you know you have that
lesson learned to though there’s got to
be people in your organization who would
know you right if you work with the CEO
and and and the head of the Association
and they were a huge contact and the big
supporter there has to be somebody in
the organization who knows about you who
work with them who you work with on some
projects it’s kind of super rare to you
know head of organizations like to
delegate and bring on teams it’s super
rare to have somebody working only with
them with zero external contact so I’d
be looking at who else in the company in
the Association you might know even if
it’s not the right person that would
hire you or work with you again but they
would know your name and understand the
value that you can’t bring to them and
reach out whether it’s a coffee whether
it’s a phone call so with an email I
just sit down with them and try to
understand what the ignitions going if
they could be of any potential
assistance to you get to know them a
little bit more there’s got to be some
people in our organization that could
that would if you show up would remember
your name and your face yeah okay we did
the twitter handle holy cow the question
we’re short on time guys the questions
are instantly uh-huh is there a way ya
askin I knew or not enough questions you
get the lots of like crazy the nation is
turning up uh is there a way to actually
talk to Andrea or past Aweber host to
help with starting out with a Weber
oh yeah absolutely so I don’t know some
of my colleagues are in the chat but my
contact information is there and I mean
I don’t mind giving out my email address
its Andrea see at a weber dot-com so
feel free to shoot me an email and then
in terms of getting you started trying
out our service where i’ll absolutely be
able to point you in the right direction
cool yeah i mean from my experience
everybody Weber has been super helpful
even if they’re not the person to talk
to you they’ll kind of like point you in
the right direction you just call it in
honestly they’ve got a phone line just
calling you’re gonna get some pretty
friendly service that’s why I worked on
that media fish exactly as I didn’t me
yeah yeah so so it’s great if you want
to get started you can reach out um
there is also a link in the description
about getting started you can follow
that too for more information yeah I’m
next question how does word-of-mouth
relate to the PR um it relates because
if you get that media article you get
that news coverage that you’re looking
for people will start talking and then
not only will people start talking they
will start tweeting and then they start
retweeting and it just kind of hoodlums
from there so as we were saying before
all of these things work together in
terms of your media outreach that you’re
doing the coverage that you’re getting
but then it’s also your marketing if
you’re going to do paid advertising it’s
your social it’s your email marketing so
all of those things were together so one
thing that I will also say since we’re
talking about how all this works
together and starts to spread is I’m at
a web or an email marketing company
right and so say you get some news
covers you can share that with your
email onions in your newsletters let
them know the media coverage that you’re
getting that is to get people talking
and spreading the word so make sure all
of these things work together whether
it’s in the inbox it’s on social or what
have you um it’s just getting the name
out there in front of people so they
recognize you and they start talking I
love it we will rapid fire because I
know we’re short um bendre know how I
can reach journalists in Stockholm here
in Stockholm it’s so hard with Swedish
media
too open-minded as Americans I must be
honest any idea is Andrea she’s asking
you yeah that’s a tough one because um
I’m not familiar with too many of the
reporters out there but just kind of
like we were saying before figure out
which ones that you are interested in or
where you want to be covered and those
reporters that are covering the things
that you want to be known for figure
just look at them and do your homework
so that’s one thing i didn’t mention
right do your homework in terms of the
types of articles that these reporters
do so that when you go to them you
already know what their style of article
is what kind of reports that they
typically right about that would be of
interest to them so you’re kind of going
into the conversation or into the media
pitch with a little bit of knowledge
already that can only help yeah I wasn’t
saying even though wasn’t at me I was
gonna answer the same way just look at
how they’re already writing articles and
then model that to then create right if
you’re if you’re like this crazy
American I nobody wants to listen you
because you know your crazy ideas and
Stockholm was so different than the rest
of the world then look at what they’re
doing and how can you model that to
think of the store written about you I I
agree um Steve is writing uh what are
three great ways to advertise yourself
three great ways to advertise yourself
through media coverage would be like I
was saying before just establishing a
platform for yourself as as a thought
leader so by line articles i’m really
really big one though so it’s getting
your expertise out there letting people
know what you do and what you’re known
for i’m in a way that brings value to
the audience but it also gets your name
and your message out there um I guess
also like I was saying before make sure
that all these things work together so
if you have an email marketing audience
that you’re sharing your messages with
let them know like that you’re getting
things in you know media because that as
that third-party credibility so just
kind of let them know let your your
different audiences know what you’re
doing for a third one what’s the
question again Evan tell me what go back
I moved on let’s go uh Steve what are
three great ways to advertise was
exact question oh I think you said
advertise yourself no I I added that I
added that but it’s that question at
three great ways to advertise oh alright
well you want to give the third one down
I thought I think yourself i’m curious
cuz i added that so what’s to yourself
what were you gonna say I’m excited
what’s in yourself also just a blog or
something so right so that you’re able
to showcase your expertise that’s
something that I just started on because
I’m trying to elevate my platform as
well as someone who is expert and in PR
and things like that right so I’m
creative vlog and so one of the things
that I was able to do was with my blog I
wrote a blog post and it was about
something that was going on in the news
media and what do you know a herald
query came through and they were looking
for something that I wrote about on my
blog and I was able to share that with
them and they use some of it so you know
create almost like this um this space
that shows your expertise that people
can refer to and they can go to it and
see it anytime that they want you know
we got a name drop the blog now so it is
very very new um and it’s not even like
officially launched or anything yet but
it the website is the pr maverick so
it’s you know just as it spelled it’s
the pr maverick and so you’ll see all
about me what I do here at a weber and
then just my thoughts on PR who’s doing
it good who’s doing it badly um and will
let’s talk about it so pure Miami com
looky remember com okay okay I got guys
in the description after she you guys
can check it awesome where we’re at
we’re at the time this is great Thank
You fun and oh my goodness it is over it
was a lot of fun though I really really
enjoyed the questions so this was a
really really good time before we go
though Evans so I saw a tweet that you
put out the other day and it was about
the entrepreneur champion of the I’m
sorry yeah the entrepreneur champion of
the day yeah it was another ESP Evan so
I just had to show you because we’re
talking about you know news coverage and
breaking news and everything this here I
don’t know if you can see it but this is
the crown we are the reigning where the
reigning champions for ESP so just make
sure you may
that known when you’re talking about
champions in the ESP space Aweber is the
champion in the ESP space okay I love it
I can show it on the crunch put on the
count to the matches it matches
everything no I’ll say it’s picture okay
how do you write next mmm baby i love it
oh awesome so thank you Andrew so much
for your time thank you guys for
watching it all your questions and you
can check out all the resources
underneath and we’ll see you again next
month with another awesome YouTube hang
out thanks Andrea guys thank you thank
you
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