No bullshit social publishing news and opinions. Follow Brandon.
(This post is brought to you by “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell“. I saw the film, it’s hilarious, and I want you to go and enjoy it when it hits theaters on September 25th.)
You should sign yourself up, right now, to be a source for Peter Shankman’s Help A Reporter Out. It’s a truly wonderful service that has helped me a great deal. I know it will help you.
But here’s the thing, make sure you read carefully about what the reporter is looking for. If you send email replies like the following, I promise you, you will be wasting your time and blowing potential opportunities:
Hi Brandon,
******************* is a sales training company offering training, coaching, motivational speaking and a full product line. We have graduated to Twitter, facebook and webinars. The latter three make all the difference for getting known.
On my Twitter and Facebook group, I continually put out free advice. The result has been my attracting people from around the world, numerous interviews, posting of my materials on their sites, building relationships with new prospects and my book, ********************************** is selling better than ever!
In September, I will be hosting both a teleseminar and webinar for free as an introduction to my 4-part webinar series on the *********************************system for growing a dynamic business.
My style has always been to attract business rather than pursue and that nets a far better clientele. The social media outlets make it easy to work in this manner.
Thank you for considering my input!
Sincerely,
xxxx
Why did I get this? I sent out a query looking for stories of failure. Not only does this reply have nothing to do with the query, it’s essentially a press release. The problem? Sending press releases, or adding reporters to your mailing list, is against the HARO rules. Don’t do it.
DO
1. Be brief.
2. Include contact information and the preferred method of contact.
3. Answer the query and provide something interesting about it. “You’re writing about failure. I’ve lost over $2,000,000 in an Internet start-up. Here’s the short version. If you think I’m a fit for your story, please contact XXXXXXXX”
