How I Got My First Interview with a TV Producer

One strategy that is often overlooked by small business owners is trying to get media exposure. Small business owners often think that what they are doing is ordinary and boring and that media won’t care or want to interview them.

In this post, I want to explain how I got my first phone interview with a TV producer from a morning show in a recent experiment to get real publicity.

Two Key Ways to Get Media Exposure

There are two key ways that I know of to get media exposure and coverage. The first way is to network with media professionals and the second is to send press releases. I’m going to talk about sending press releases because quite honestly, that is the approach I took.

What to Write About

There are different ways to get media attention, including coming up with newsworthy material and tying into currently popular stories. But as a small business owner, one of the best ways to get covered is to position yourself as an expert.

I know someone who got the opportunity to talk to the CEO of fly.com, which is similar to Priceline and Travelocity. What they do is talk about trends in air travel and things like that.

For my baby shower business, I just wrote about trends in baby shower spending and purchases. That’s the release that finally got me my first call.

In general though, you should try different angles and stories. My first story was about blowing out some inventory on Ebay for $1. No one cared about that. But if you try different things, then eventually you may something that works.

Which Distribution Service to Use

There are tons of press release distribution services, but to reach real reporters, you need to be on PR News Wire. PR News Wire is the most expensive, but this is where real reporters go to get their stories.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Real companies are willing to pay money to send out news releases while other newbies use free and cheap press release services. The higher cost of distributing through this service screens out some of the noise.

What to Include

Be sure to include your contact name, email, and phone number on your press release so that people can get in touch with you. In addition to linking to your site, if you want real media people contacting you (and you should), create a media page on your site and link to it from your press release.

On your media page, be sure to include links to other press releases, relevant visuals and downloads, and how to get in touch with key people in your organization, particularly media contacts.

In a future post, I will write about what happened during the interview. Stay tuned…