“Press people who have met me often end up contacting me for interviews or will at least reply when I send messages.”

– Elizabeth Grace Saunders (@reallifee), founder of Real Life E^[6]

Sell your uniqueness.

“Every company has something unique about it — you just have to know how to package it for the press. Are you a single mom? Are you from a small town? Promote yourself as a ‘single mom from a small town makes good’ story. Is your company the first company to ever do X in California? Talk about it! It doesn’t matter if it’s not your company itself that initially gets the attention of the press. Once the microphone is in your face you can talk about whatever you want — including your company’s new growth strategy.”

– Windsor Hanger (@windsorhanger), co-founder of Her Campus Media^[7]

Tell a story.

“Nobody cares about your products or its features. Ask yourself, ‘So what?’ Your new product holds 50GB of music? So what? Your tires never run out of air? So what? Craft a story that features your product and you’re far more likely to get great press.”

– Ramit Sethi (@ramit), founder of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com^[8]

Use trusted PR tools.

“Develop relationships with media types on Twitter, join HARO^[9] [Help a Reporter Out] and be sure to stay relevant. Also if you want to isolate the part of your business that is interesting enough to get press just figure out what part is the most controversial, then ham it up a little and go from there.”

– Maren Kate (@marenkate), founder of Escapingthe9to5.com^[10]

Think stories — not pitches.

“The media is in the business of emotional appeal. Thus, always think in terms of stories. The media rarely wants to hear about products or services unless they are utterly state of the art. On the other hand, they do want something people can connect with on an emotional level. Ask yourself, what story does our [product, service, company] tell?”

– Kent Healy (@kent_healy), author of Learn, Earn and Don’t Get Burned^[11]

Network! Network! Network!