Journalist Are Human Too
By Cheval John
Here in Houston, a top ten media market, a journalist have to know how to do live shots, write their own scripts and put together an article for the respective news station’s website at the same time.
They will have to start their journalism careers in a smaller television market to earn work experience before they can apply for larger television stations in the major media markets.
To add on to the workload, they now have to be on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to keep track of breaking stories happening in their respective cities and the world.
Since a lot of journalists are being laid off across the nation at their respective media outlets, it puts a heavy workload on the rest of the staff who managed to keep their jobs.
So these same journalist are looking for news stories everyday.
What does this have to do with an entrepreneur of a small business or a larger company?
Plenty.
If you are looking for media coverage for your business, you will have to provide a story which will generate enough interest for the journalist to cover.
That means having a blog which chat about certain business or social media trends happening in the industry and having stats to back up your story.
If you can provide value to your audience on a weekly basis with your blog, podcast, live video, etc., I honestly believe you will get the media attention you are searching for.
Now I mentioned “if” because most businesses still believe they can use social media to sell their products or services to a potential customers.
They are still sending media outlets press releases of how their business is so revolutionary that it deserves the coverage.
They believe if they can hire a public relations firm to help them get national attention, it will change their business forever.
The ship of press releases has sailed because of social media.
Remember what I said about journalist being on social media looking for news stories?
Social media is where businesses need to be because it is the new “media outlet.”
If you want to earn media coverage from organizations for your business, here are three steps to follow:
1. BE A GIVER
Do not go out and spam journalists with your products or services the minute they connect with you. Look for ways to provide value to them.
2. SHARE THEIR ARTICLES WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
When you share a journalist’s story with your audience, they will know they are doing something right in their reporting.
3. CHAT WITH THEM
You can actually have a conversation with a journalist on a daily basis via social media especially Twitter.
Most are consistently interacting with their fans to let them know they are paying attention
One journalist here in Houston is constantly sharing live video about stories she is working on for the local affiliate station of a major media company.
She also shares her love for the Houston Astros which I respect though I told her at one point I am a Chicago Cubs fan.
Hopefully, this article will inspire you to take action, build credibility on social media and in the long run become a reliable source for journalist around the world.
If you have any other advice to building trust with journalist, you can leave your comments below
Quality Is Much Better Than Quantity
By Cheval John
You know that you are great at a skill that can help your industry(social media, business, etc.) to thrive.
You put on your website of the skills and services you offer to gain potential customers.
Though you promote yourself until you turn blue, your hear crickets.
The prospective customers are hesistant to buy from you because they probably were tricked into buying from someone else with their self-promotion.
If you have a third party endorsement, there is a better chance of making a sale.
The third party endorsement is much more powerful because the message of your greatness is being told by someone else.
Third party endorsements can come from national or regional (traditional) media organizations in the form of television, radio or newspapers.
If you get in front of a national or regional media, you have achieved your ultimate endorsement of your business.
That is why sports professionals are getting a boat load of money to compete in their respective leagues because they are being covered on a daily basis by national, international or regional media.
And some collegiate athletes are getting their training in university sports because professional leagues are watching them compete on major media outlets.
In this day and age, everyone are considered media due to blogs (about 450 million), podcasts (250,000), live streaming shows on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, etc.
And each blogger, podcaster or live streamer will probably have some sort of lists of the top influencers in social media, technology, or even the best interior designer.
I definitely have put together lists here regarding to social media on many occasions.
Which leads me to chat about the recent blog post by Brand 24 on their “Top 100 Social Media Influencers”
That list featured the well known influencers in social media.
I believed that they earned the recognition for their hard work in social media.
However, one of the influencers on that list said “they” believed the influencers ahead of them had cheated to get there.
Cheating means buying followers.
I know for a fact that the majority of the people who are on the Brand 24 list have earned that recognition because I have seen them put in the hard work with sharing valuable content and interacting with their audience on a daily basis.
So I was thinking I should create my own list of those influencers who have earned their audience the correct way.
I was convinced by friends on social media that it would be a waste of time.
So I was going to write a post for today related to social media.
Until I saw an excellent article by Dr. Karen Freberg regarding Brand 24’s list.
Then on the first day of spring, the topic of true influencers came up in a meeting with a fellow entrepreneur at Toutsuite that made me realized I had to address this topic.
So I will tell you about what I believe about true influencers.
-People who buy followers don’t deserve to be regarded as authorities in any industry because it shows that they don’t truly understand the meaning of social media.
-Everyone are influencers whether they have 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000 or even 20,000 followers because they have an active audience.
To think more about it, an engaged audience is much better than a casual audience with millions of followers.
So if you cheating your way to gaining influence by buying followers, I would warn you that you are deceiving the masses and even robbing the brands of their money due to them wanting to work with you.
They will find out on their own that you are using deception to make a living and will warn their colleagues to stay away from you.
The true influencers who have put in the hard work consistently and correctly to build a loyal audience will overtime be rewarded for life.
In fact, they have already achieved their reward because they are doing the work they love and also understand that quality is much better than quantity.
Have anything to add to this blog post? You can leave your comment below
Growing Your Community Through E-Mail
By Cheval John
Today’s blog post is the beginning of a series on how you can grow a community for your business.
Having a community is highly important because you bring together like-minded people who will support each other.
Social media has amplified the opportunity for anyone to build a community.
At the end of the day, social media platforms is just rented land.
You could lose the audience you built over time due to the algorithm changes or the disappearance of the social platforms.
One of the ways to maintain the community you have built over time is with the old fashion e-mail list.
Your e-mail list is your very own real estate.
It allows you to build an audience over time.
Even if you end up losing followers due to the disappearance of the platforms, your e-mail list will help you maintain your audience due to consistency in providing value to them.
Here’s what not to do when building your e-mail list from social media.
1. DO NOT SEND AN AUTOMATED DIRECT MESSAGE
Just because someone followed you on social media does not give you the right to send automated direct messages to like their facebook page or subscribe to your website.
This gives off the impression you are only looking to sell to them and people hate being sold to.
2. COPY THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESS FROM GROUPS PAGES
This is very unprofessional because they did not give you permission to add them to your blog.
3. HAVE POP-UPS ON YOUR WEBSITE
This is annoying because a person will be reading your blog post and all of a sudden, they get out of rhythm due to the pop-up e-mails.
You might believe it is a quick way to capture the visitors to your site before they leave.
However, this tactic will damage your business because people know they will be spammed with pop-ups every time they visit your site.
You must focus on providing value to your audience which is solving their pain points consistently.
When you do this, your visitors will decide on their own you are worth listening too and eventually sign up for your e-mail list.
Do you have anything to add? You can leave your comments below
Share this: