Turn Yourself into a Media Marvel

I n the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. - "The Andy Warhol Diaries," July 27, 1978 and June 2, 1983. Whether you're charting a course to stardom, an unwitting soul cast into a media melee or a businessperson hoping to generate a little buzz about yourself in the community, you should know how to handle working with the news media. Since most of us are not the kind of people the media seeks out with requests for interviews, arming ourselves with the skills to get our stories told is essential.

For any ISO, setting yourself apart from the competition is part of beating the competition. In getting your customers and potential customers to see you separately from all the others, maybe your goal is to promote the services you offer. Maybe your goal is to gain respectability and become better known within your community.

Working with the press - and getting the press to work for you - can be an effective tool in letting people know about yourself and growing a business. You might be missing out on some valuable opportunities to tell people about yourself and how you do business. The media can be beneficial to promoting products and services, but you have to know how to approach it, what to give it and who your audience is.

Public relations expert Edward Segal's client list includes large corporations and organizations as well as individuals and smaller companies. He has placed articles, arranged TV interviews, created campaigns and acted as a spokesperson for more than 500 clients. He conducts seminars and writes articles, showing average people how to use PR tactics. His simple writing style provides all the nuts and bolts you'll need to assemble a complex campaign or to promote your business.

Most of us practice public relations every day, telling customers and clients or bosses and coworkers what we want them to know in meetings, job interviews or sales presentations. We tell people about ourselves, our businesses, our endeavors. We try to get our messages across. We promote ourselves.

The same principles apply to an independent sales professional trying to close a sale - you have to know who your customers are and what they want to buy.

In order to tell your story, you have to sell your story. Segal's guide to public relations and self-promotion provides an excellent overview of how to do just that. The book is divided into short chapters and covers the entire process of getting free publicity, from planning to implementing. Worksheet forms will help formulate ideas and strategies and define goals and audiences.

In Chapter 6, "Your Fame IQ," Segal recommends taking inventory of your products, services, expertise and accomplishments:

"Once you've decided why you want to be famous and how famous you want to be, it's time to identify and prioritize which aspects of your business or professional life you want to be famous for, and why. ...

"This inventory should reflect your career objectives, professional goals, business plan or organization's marketing strategy. What aspect of your personal or professional life can serve as the reason a news organization would want to do a story about you?"

Answering the questions Segal puts forth throughout the book will help you define your goals and should get your creative juices flowing - the idea is not to be shy when telling your story. He also provides suggestions, and discusses each, for coming up with ways to generate stories about yourself or at least get your name out there.

For example, Segal suggests making yourself a reliable source of information - let your local paper know what your area of business expertise is and be a dependable resource for background information or even direct quotes.

In Chapter 41 he suggests sending press releases to the information-hungry news wire services used by all print, broadcast and electronic media.

The book does cover a number of areas that probably will never apply to average people, but even these sections contain common-sense advice applicable to doing business in a professional manner. For instance, when you're dressing for a TV interview, Segal's wardrobe tips also make sense for dressing for business meetings.

Of course, consulting a professional public relations consultant is sage advice - as Segal says in Chapter 45, it's not as easy as it might look.

Just because an editor receives a press release does not guarantee it will be published or even read. PR people can help with formulating plans, devising communications and seeking out media coverage as much or as little as suits your budget.

What separates your PR story from everyone else's is exactly the same thing that sets you apart from your business competitors. You need to make sure everyone else knows exactly what that is. With help from Edward Segal's "Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame and More!," your efforts should be rewarded.

Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame and More! A Guide to Guaranteeing Your Business Success By Edward Segal John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York ISBN 0-471-37058-4 316 pages $16.95 paperback