An excerpt from the book by the same name by Joan Stewart

Chapter 5: How to identify story ideas about you or your business

Does this sound like you?

You can’t understand why the business reporter at your local newspaper has quoted your competitor in five separate stories but hasn’t called you once. Or you’re puzzled about why bloggers seldom if ever link to your blog posts.

Your company sends out more than two dozen news releases every year about new employees and promotions, but they result in little more than a few lines of type.

The 12-page speech your boss wrote when he spoke at the local Rotary Club luncheon would have made an excellent column for the local business magazine. But after you mailed it to the editor, you never heard a word.

If your attempts at publicity have fallen flat, quit grumbling and start taking a proactive approach to free publicity by identifying interesting, compelling story ideas the media need. Yes, NEED. Newspapers, magazines and trade publications have hundreds of thousands of column inches to fill. TV and radio stations have hundreds of hours of news and community interest programs they must broadcast.

Bloggers need content. And people who participate at social media sites are hungry for tips, advice and other freebies they can share with their friends, followers and fans.

The secret to generating publicity from traditional and social media is knowing exactly what they want, then giving it to them.

Here are tickler questions designed to help you identify the best story ideas within your company or organization:

WHAT’S DIFFERENT?

Is your company doing anything unique, or different than your competitors?  Examples: A professional speaker who gives a quirky, memorable free gift to every meeting planner who hires her. A web site company that gives its customers discount coupons good for a web site update for every referral a customer sends. An agency that buys creative toys for its employees to use during brainstorming sessions to get their own creative juices flowing.

THE LOCAL ANGLE

Are you the local angle to a national or regional event? During the war in Iraq, many local newspapers and TV stations ran stories about people in their own communities who kept in touch with their relatives in the war zone. During the Columbine shootings in Colorado, newspapers interviewed local child psychologists and counselors who offered tips on how parents can spot warning signs in their own children.

PIGGYBACK ON A NEWS EVENT

After severe rains in Milwaukee a few years ago, a Minnesota company got several minutes of free advertising on a Milwaukee radio station by talking to the drive-time radio host about a special pump that removes standing water and moisture in the air. The host interviewed a company representative and gave out the company’s toll-free number.

PIGGYBACK ON TRENDS

Do you sell a product or service that ties into a national trend? A credit counseling agency might offer themselves as a source for stories about the whopping credit card debt wracked up by college students. A non-profit agency that advocates safety for women can promote its community classes by offering the media tips on how businesswomen can be less susceptible to theft of laptop computers in crowded places like airports.

PIGGYBACK ON A HOLIDAY

Are you doing something different on a particular holiday? Are you a management consultant who can suggest ways that companies can keep their employees productive during the holidays? Have you determined that it’s more efficient for your business to simply close down during the week between Christmas and New Year’s?

If you’re of Irish descent and give all your employees a half day off on St. Patrick’s Day, that story might interest the media. Remember that the week between Christmas and New Year’s is the slowest news week of the year, and an excellent time to seek coverage. A Wisconsin company got a six-minute story on the local TV station after it announced at the annual Christmas party that every employee was being treated to a trip to Disney World.

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TELL THE MEDIA ABOUT TRENDS

Have you spotted a new trend in your industry? Let the media know. Many accountants, for example, are becoming certified as investment counselors. If it’s a trend a reporter is interested in, don’t be surprised if they interview you for the story.

OFFER FREE ADVICE

What advice can you offer that will help someone else solve their problems? Tell reporters and bloggers that they can call on you for advice when writing about your area of expertise. Give them specific examples of how you help people save time and money.

WRITE HOW-TO ARTICLES

Editors of many newspapers, magazines and trade publications want articles that tell their readers how to do something such as get out of debt, discipline their children, have a safer work environment, set up a home office, or acquire a business loan. Those same articles should be posted at article directory sites like EzineArticles.com. Think of the number one problem your customers face, then write a how-to article about it.

TAKE A STAND ON ISSUES

Is there a local, state or national industry or political issue that you lobby for, or that you feel strongly about? Find the reporters or bloggers who cover that issue and share your thoughts with them. If, for example, your trade group is supporting local gun control legislation, call and offer to comment on the issue.

PUBLICIZE AN UPCOMING EVENT

Are you sponsoring an event such as classes, an open house, a free demonstration, or a fun event? Don’t just send a press release. Think of something visual that ties into the event. Then call your local TV station and ask if they are interested in doing a story a day or two before. Coverage before the event helps spark interest and boost attendance. Sign up for my free email tutorial 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.

THINK TECHNOLOGY

How are you using technology in interesting or unique ways? Have you found a way to draw lots of traffic to your web site—with resulting orders? Are you using the latest technology during your speaking engagements? Is your sales force using technology to stay in touch with existing customers and seek out new ones?

FINDING AND KEEPING EMPLOYEES

How are you attracting and keeping qualified employees? By letting them work from home? By recruiting in places like Fort Lauderdale during spring break? By setting up trust funds for children of employees who stay longer than a year? By offering casual day every day of the week? The labor  market is a red-hot topic, and demographers predict that it will become even hotter.

YOUR LIFESTYLE

Does the type of clothing you wear, the home you live in, your hobbies, your relationships with your family, the food you eat, and where you travel on vacation say something unusual about you? These stories are ideal for lifestyle sections, food pages, travel pages and special interest magazines. Even though the articles are not necessarily business-related, the reporter most likely will ask you what you do for a living, and that’s a chance to plug your company or organization, particularly if it ties into the reason they are writing. (Example: You speak internationally and have an extensive collection of wine you have bought during your travels. This would be a GREAT story for food page editors, and it would publicize the fact that you are a professional speaker. Also pitch this to bloggers who write about wine.)

ALLIANCES AND PARTNERSHIPS

Has your organization formed an interesting alliance or partnership with another business or non-profit? Call the business reporter and share the information. Be willing to explain the results you expect to see from such an arrangement. And be sure your partner is also willing to speak with a reporter.

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TALK ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS

What are the three biggest business problems you are facing? Find out the name of the reporters who cover your industry. Then share the information with them. Who knows? Someone might read your story and call you with a solution you might not otherwise have known about.

TALK ABOUT YOUR MISTAKES

What are the biggest you have made, and how would you advise other people from not making the same ones? Don’t be embarrassed. Everyone makes mistakes. And if you’re willing to discuss yours, there’s a good chance the media will be willing to write about you.

POLLS AND SURVEYS

Are you taking a poll or survey, either among your customers or among the public? Homewood Suites, a Texas hotel chain, got great publicity from results of a survey that asked guests what they do in hotel rooms. Almost one in five respondents said they jump on the bed.

Iams pet food company surveyed its customers about their relationship with their pets. An overwhelming 91 percent of the people polled admitted saying “I love you” to their pets. In addition, 63 percent of respondents sleep with their pets at their sides. Results of the poll were released several weeks before Valentine’s Day. (Brilliant!) How about taking a poll asking your customers about the most unusual way they use your product or service?

CLEVER CONTESTS

Have you thought about sponsoring a clever contest? To celebrate its 100^th anniversary, OshKosh B’Gosh launched a six-month nationwide search for the oldest pair of bib overalls. Thrifty Rent-a-Car sponsors an annual Honeymoon Disasters Contest. Entries result in amusing feature stories printed in major newspapers and magazines throughout the country. For additional publicity mileage, the company announces results near Valentine’s Day, giving the media a perfect story that piggybacks on a holiday.

THE FOUR SEASONS

Think about story ideas that tie into the four seasons. Has your company found a way to keep cool or cut utility costs? Suggest it during the dog days of summer. Hospitals, clinics and medical schools can offer the media a list of experts to pass along helpful tips on how to avoid getting colds and flu during the winter. Lawn care companies can share tips on how to prepare your lawn during the spring.

CELEBRATING AN ANNIVERSARY?

The fact that your company is celebrating an anniversary or birthday isn’t news. But it would be more enticing to the media if you could tie it in to a clever event. A button manufacturer published a lavish photo history of the button—including its uses—on shoes, clothing, furniture and accessories. An accounting firm celebrated its centennial by publishing a giveaway book of commissioned original renditions of what select artists thought it meant to be 100. A national rental car company rented out its fleet of cars for free one day.

CREATE TIP SHEETS

Can you write a tip sheet that explains how to solve a particular problem, or how to do something? It includes helpful free advice. Topics sound like this: 11 Ways to Snag More Business from Your Web site, The 7 Secrets of Profitable Self-Promotion, 9 Ways to Save Money on Insurance Premiums. Each tip sheet should have a short introduction of a sentence or two. At the end, print a paragraph that states the name of the author, the author’s credentials, and contact information such as phone number, e-mail address and web site URL. Think of the Number One problem your customers are facing, and offer tips on how to solve it.

CHANGING YOUR FOCUS?

Is your company changing its focus, switching product lines, expanding services, entering new niche markets or making any major changes in the way it does business? If so, let the media know. Be willing, however, to talk about the reasons behind the change. If you’re trying a new product line because the first one flopped, be willing to say so.

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Joan St

By Fripp’s PR agent Pam Lontos (member of NSA-CF)

While there are many ways to appear in the media, writing an op-ed piece is an excellent way to make yourself known and establish yourself as an authority with the public. Like letters to the editor, op-ed pieces should put forth a point of view – but the op-ed piece is longer than a letter and generally gets better play.

Op-ed stands for “opposite editorial,” referring to the page facing the editorial page – the page on which the newspaper publishes its own institutional statement of opinion.

When it comes to choosing an op-ed topic, the more controversial the better. An op-ed piece isn’t a research treatise or a summary of information. Rather, it’s an argument, a strong statement of position, and the promotion of a point of view. And you will develop your argument in a short 500 to 700 words.

The opinion pages are considered the most prestigious real estate in the newspaper, so you must ask yourself, “Why should the reader care?” As with a news release or a story pitch, the reason your topic is important right now should be made crystal clear. The first few sentences must enlighten the reader as to why your topic is relevant and pressing.

For instance, here are some op-ed headlines from some of the nation’s leading newspapers:

“Health Care Can’t Wait” – Washington Post.

“Why Women Need Katie Couric to Succeed” – Chicago Sun Times.

“The Phantom Tax Cuts” – Palm Beach Post.

Academicians, scientists and researchers have a tendency to save their juiciest conclusions for the end of the piece (mostly because that is the structure expected in an article submitted to peer-reviewed journals). The structure of the op-ed piece is the complete opposite. The conclusion or most compelling fact must come first. Well-crafted arguments should follow, making a clear case and concluding with a call to action.

Before attempting to write an op-ed piece, read several of them in local and national newspapers to gain a feel for how they are done. At large organizations, it’s not unusual for the op-ed piece to be ghostwritten by a staff member or freelancer, then submitted to the newspaper under the byline of the CEO (or other relevant expert). If you don’t have the time to pen your own op-ed piece, you should be able to easily find someone in your local public relations community who can be hired to draft the piece for you.

Your op-ed piece will hit home with editors if you can combine a gutsy, passionate approach with logical analysis of a situation. As with any other form of writing submitted to the news media, language must be clear, punchy and direct. Editors will read for clarity. They will screen out any piece that lacks appeal to the average reader. They are looking for plain English, an argument stated simply, complete with concrete imagery that helps the reader comprehend.

A brief bio-note outlining your credentials should be added to the end of the piece to save the opinion editor from the work of tracking that information down. Editors are often likely to be most receptive to pieces written by someone within the local community, so be sure to submit to your hometown newspaper as well as to all the newspapers in your state.

However, don’t limit yourself to simply a local or state marketplace for your ideas. True, some large newspapers will demand that you submit to them exclusively. (You can ask the editor’s preference when you submit your piece.) But many opinion-page editors understand that op-ed pieces are distributed to newspapers throughout the country.

If you have expertise on a particular topic or have written a book on the subject, be sure to mention it. Experts have an edge on the op-ed page. For instance, the opinion editor of the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia was happy to receive a piece on the dangers of secondhand smoke written by the dean of the nursing school and the director of the cancer center at West Virginia University.

Both the dean and the cancer center chief, a medical doctor, were able to write authoritatively – and not only because they knew about the latest research on secondhand smoke. They also had personally seen patients who suffered from cancer and other lung diseases as a result of secondhand-smoke exposure. This gave them credibility with readers and also made their piece attractive to the paper’s opinion-page editor.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting an op-ed piece:

Be provocative, original, timely. Try to say something current. For example, tie your subject into a natural disaster or social trend or the consumer news of the day.

Give examples. Use facts and statistics. Explain why you have come to the conclusions you are drawing.

Write about ideas you feel strongly, even passionately about. Tie your argument into your own experiences. The most effective op-ed pieces have arguments based on values and emotions, not simply dry reasoning. While the op-ed pieces take a more complex approach to a subject than a letter to the editor does, the ordinary reader still needs to be able to relate to the piece.

Keep these ideas in mind and you will have no problem developing op-ed pieces editors will value and publish.

Pam Lontos is president of PR/PR, Fripp’s public relations firm based in Orlando, Fla. Author of “I See Your Name Everywhere.” For a free publicity consultation, e-mail Pam@prpr.net.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Sales Presentation Trainer, Keynote Speaker, Executive Speech Coach

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