Alan Weinkrantz

I am going to borrow from a term coined by my friend, Chris Brogan.

Before you start off on any type of PR initiative, grow bigger ears.

Don’t Pitch.  Start Listening First.

Get inside the heads of the journalists, bloggers and industry analysts you think should be covering your company.  How?  Read their content.  And I don’t mean the last article they wrote.  Go back in time.  Read a minimum of the last six months of their work and get a feel for what they write about, who they have covered, and perhaps what they may be missing out on, and in turn, why your story would be compelling to them.

Invest $100 in MuckRack

I have a subscription to MuckRack.  It costs $100 per month and you can go month to month.  Try it for one month and discover who is writing about the space you’re in, the companies you may compete with, key words and terms that fit your space, and subject matter that may be on the periphery of what you do.

Muckrack lets you build lists which are downloadable.  You can connect with journalists, analysts and bloggers via their social profiles, and search for their email addresses which are easy to find.

As you go through this process, you’ll find that you will not only have a much better understanding for who should possibly cover you, but what’s on their minds, what are trending topics and where you might come up with a great angle about something compelling and interesting that would merit your getting on their radar.

Allow yourself 90 days of doing this daily.  Invest 10 minutes a day.  Like anything, practice makes perfect.  Your pitch will not only get better, it will increase your chance of getting covered.

Photo shot on location in the streets of Tel Aviv by me.  Home of the best graffiti anywhere!