Working with the media, you become hyper aware of the seasons and holidays. Always thinking of a tie in or a way to package your story so that it is timely. So when I started off writing this post on PR mistakes you may be making, I couldn’t resist tying it into Halloween.
Let’s face it, PR can be a bit of a mystery, so it become easy to make best guesses and figure it out as you go. While I love hands-on learning, there’s some things you simply cannot afford to mess up, especially as you are first out there trying to build your reputation.
With that in mind, I present, seriously spooky PR mistakes you may be making (with some practical tips, because that’s how we roll):
You’re a PR Ghost Outside of Launch
You are gearing up for the launch of your next e-course or info-product and you decide to throw some PR in the mix to round out your marketing. It’s the natural course of things to want more PR around the time of certain events in your business, but you need to avoid being a PR ghost when it isn’t launch time.
PR is about relationships and building credibility, so if you only “do it” when there’s something in it for you, that’s going to make people less receptive to your pitches in the long-run. PR isn’t seasonal, it should be something you focus on all year long.
Your Pitching is Right Out of a Horror Movie
You are in get it done mode, so you just want that speaking proposal submitted and that guest post pitch sent. So you slash through it to get it off the list.
Pitching is an art, one that requires preparation, starting with doing your research. Know who exactly you are pitching and what they are looking for. Understand the kind of content they publish or that speakers present at events.
Without your research, you know the stereotypical horror movie scene where the girl is running away from the killer? That’s the media or show organizers getting as far away from you as possible. You’ll be Freddy Krueger, Jason and Michael Myers all rolled into one.
You want to be the lovable heroine, think Sandra Bullock or even Katniss Everdeen if that’s more your style, but avoid pulling a Carrie and scaring off influencers for good.
Your Bio Makes You Sound Like a Zombie
As an entrepreneur, you probably have a bio that’s hanging out on your sales and about pages and selling you as an awesome expert of some sort. Often, the bio is an afterthought that gets done after these pages are written, which is wrong in so many ways.
That bio paragraph is probably more critical than you realize. It’s a first point of reference for customers and media, so it needs to sell you in 10 seconds or less. Go look at your bio. Does it sell you or do you sound like a zombie?
No matter what industry you work in, your bio should have some color. You are very much alive so you need you bio to show it. Sure, you need to be audience appropriate, but it should not read like it could be anyone in your industry’s bio.
{Need help with your bio? Check out the new Media Moxie offering – now in beta for only $99. Click here for the details.}
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Click to Tweet: Does your bio sell you or do you sound like a zombie? Spooky PR mistakes you ma be making via @magspatterson http://bit.ly/H7ni1N
Click to Tweet: Is your media pitching out of a horror movie? @magspatterson shares spooky PR mistakes you may be making. http://bit.ly/H7ni1N
