| overview A newspaper article about the unique design of a local restaurant
appears and weekend business picks up 25 percent. A doctor publishes a popular book on his
specialty and his practice doubles. A toy salesman is interviewed on radio before
Christmas, telling parents how to buy toys, and his customers seek him out the following
year for buying advice. A young writer appears on a small cable TV show and sells several
thousand books the following week. These individuals have all benefited from a personal
public relations program.
We live in an information age. We need only review the
number of papers and magazines on the newsstand, stroll through a bookstore, spin the
radio dial or work the TV channel selector to see the number and variety of information
sources. Most of us let this information/media system do nothing except entertain or
divert us. Yet the individuals receiving media attention benefit from that coverage.
Instead of letting the media system merely aim information
at us, why not let it disseminate information about us and for us? We, too, can generate
the financial and career benefits publicity brings. The problem is that most professionals
do not know where to begin or how to attempt gaining this valuable media exposure. If you
have a product to sell, an event to promote, a service to describe or a name which needs
recognition, this book solves your problem.
There truly are Secrets of Personal PR – techniques
that can help you advance your career, promote your product or money-making event, or
build your credentials. At the heart of the techniques are two important guidelines.
First, your efforts will be much more productive if they are part of an integrated plan.
There is a step by step progression of media targets which leads to ever more prestigious
appearances and coverage. Print media provides credibility for radio and TV appearances.
Publishing articles and books helps establish the newsworthiness of the topic. Local
coverage provides demonstration media for national limelight and so on. The methods for
using this plan unfold from chapter to chapter.
The second guideline – a point which certainly
provides many of the title’s “secrets” – is that you must look at all
you do from the media point of view. Many individuals make the mistake of concentrating on
what the media will do for them, instead of on what they can do for the editor, producer
or host. By understanding the unique needs of the various media professionals, you will be
a welcome individual resource for them rather than simply being a bother.
Twenty eight years ago I quit my job to start a consulting
practice. What has happened since is amazing. My clients now offer me ten times more for a
one hour talk than I earned per week at the beginning. Along the way have been four books,
three video programs, numerous articles, two wireservice stories, and over 250 broadcast
interviews in three countries. There are listings in Who’s Who in the World,
International Men of Achievement – all because of a Personal PR program.
But this was done the hard way. I am an expert on how NOT
to deal with the media. My first book was rejected over 100 times. My articles have been
lost by some of the finest editors anywhere. I have become tongue-tied on national TV and
struggled through classically fouled up interviews. Nevertheless, the results obtained
show what perseverance and the techniques in this book will do.
In the midst of this “hard way” process there
were opportunities to observe how the media system worked and also to ask everyone for
advice and suggestions. The results are here for you to master and use. This book may not
make you famous by Friday. But it can help you get your share and more of the limelight,
and show you how to handle it. I’ll see you in print and on the airwaves.
table of contents
Preface
1: Why Blow Your Own Horn?
2: Developing a Media-Hot Angle
3: Building Credibility with Writing & Video
4: Obtaining Print Exposure
5: Obtaining Radio Exposure
6: Obtaining Television Exposure
7: Implementing a Personal PR Plan
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