How your story can make a reporter’s day

As a reporter, I’m always looking for good stories to tell. As a business owner, you should always be looking for new places to share your story.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’s a huge opportunity here.

You can — and should — tell your story constantly through your website, blog, brochures and other media that you control. But when someone else tells your story, it’s even better. Consider just a few of the benefits:

• You gain legitimacy. Reporters don’t have a stake in your business, so when they suggest that you know what you’re talking about, people tend to believe it.
• You gain links. Most reporters will link back to your website if you ask them to, and that can provide a big boost to your search engine rankings.
• You gain endorsements. No, a reporter isn’t technically endorsing you by quoting you as a source, but the effect is much the same. You can use pull quotes throughout your site or simply note that you’ve been featured in X,Y and Z.
• You gain engagement. Readers who find you in a media story and click through to your site are generally more engaged than those who stumble across you via search or some other means.

So you’re convinced that you need to get yourself interviewed by a reporter. That used to be a costly and time-consuming chore involving blind press releases or paid listings in big, fat directories that got updated once a year. Fortunately, the Internet has made it all cheaper, simpler and much more targeted by turning the process on its head. Instead of experts going out in search of reporters, sites like Reporter Connection and Help a Reporter Out (HARO) allow reporters to post the specific stories they’re working on.

The variety of stories is huge — there is literally something for everyone on any given day. Here’s a tiny sampling of topics I’ve seen recently:

• How to set goals for your small business
• Looking for successful restaurant ad campaigns
• How has your executive MBA helped your career?
• How has flex time worked at your small business?
• Seeking expert on antique appraisals
• Seeking business travelers
• What “toys” do you have in your office?
• The best new smartphone apps for moms
• What sites do you use to improve your job skills?
• Small business leadership success stories

When you see something that looks like a fit, you can pitch directly to the reporter, making your case for why you should be included in his or her story. But be warned: The competition will be stiff. For a story in AllBusiness.com, I recently posted a query seeking very specific anecdotes from business owners who had tried daily-deal websites. Even with a narrowly defined topic, I still got more than two dozen responses in just the first two days. At that point, I stopped reading.

How do you break through the clutter and really grab a reporter’s attention? I’ll cover that topic in my next post. For now, though, do yourself a favor and sign up for a free membership at both HARO and Reporter Connection. Get a feel for the topics, get familiar with the process, and get ready to tell your story to a broader audience.

(Photo by flickr user Shavar Ross)

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