How I got the media to talk about my side project
Hey everyone. Here's a repeatable, step-by-step process I figured out to get media to write about me, resulting in a backlink, traffic, publicity, and, of course, subscribers. I used this to get mentioned in MarketingProfs (a major marketing site) and Forbes.
I know it's long but I tried to make things as concise as I could.
First, you have to consider things from the journalist's perspective. Why should they write about you? Most journalists have "beats". That is, topics they cover. You need to have something that they like that they will cover (usually a piece of content). For me, I did original research. An easy way to validate this is to see whether they have written about similar things in the past. Remember, journalists get a lot of pitches. Most of them are not targeted.
A note on research. It's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. There's a lot of public data out there. You can also analyze a small amount of data (like 100 rows of something). You can use free online tools to come up with some graphs.
Then, get a list of 50 journalists you think are a good fit.
Then, you want to follow them on Twitter, respond to a few of their tweets. This at least puts you on their map.
If you want them to cover a piece of content, ask them beforehand whether they'd be interested in the piece and some questions they have about the topic. Journalists like to collaborate on research.
Then, create your content with their feedback.
Finally, let them know. If you did it right, you'll have a few stories written about you.
Be sure to continue to nurture the relationships you've built.