Getting media exposure means putting yourself out there. It might be chatting live on the air with a radio talk show host, taping an appearance for TV, coming up with posts for social media, or being interviewed by a print journalist.

The first couple times can make you apprehensive, but trust me, that disappears quickly. You realize the interviewers tend to ask the same questions, so there are few surprises. You figure out your best sound bites and the responses that get a nice chuckle, and you polish those up.

But, there are still those first couple of interviews to get through.  To address this problem with my clients, I have them coached by my staff beforehand.  As many of us have had careers in the media we know what to expect and, more important, what the interviewer expects.

When it comes to coaching clients for print interviews, that job goes to our Creative Director and Writer, Penny Carnathan, who has worked as an editor and reporter at major daily newspapers for more than 30 years.

Having logged thousands of interviews, Penny knows what makes a great one great.  And, by the same token, what makes an interview a flop.  I asked her to share her five best tips for not bombing your first time out – and for making sure at least some of what you say gets published.

Here’s what she gave me.

• Do NOT try to pitch, sell or promote your book, product or business: Yes, it may be the reason you’re granting interviews, but if you want to sell something, you should buy an ad. The journalists are looking for you, as someone with a particular expertise, to provide content for their readers. That may be adding another voice to a story with multiple viewpoints.  Or it may even be sharing your  story – how you reinvented yourself after being laid off, or how you managed to write a novel while raising 13 kids. Either way, the goal of the journalist is to write an article that’s useful, informative and/or entertaining. Your goal is to get media exposure: your name and the source of your expertise in front of thousands, perhaps millions, of eyes.

• Try to speak clearly and at a moderate pace: Whether the reporter is taking notes with a pen or a computer, it will be difficult for him or her to keep up if you get excited and start talking very quickly. Not only might he miss some of the brilliant things you have to say, he may (gulp!) make an error that becomes a misquote in the story. Speak at a conversational speed, and if you really want to be a big help, offer to spell any less-than-obvious names you toss out. A good reporter will double-check the spelling, but you’ll save her time by giving her a starting point.

• You don’t have to answer immediately, and you don’t have to answer every question: Most of us would be hard put to respond off the top of our heads to, “What was the most pivotal moment of your life?” If you can’t, don’t. Ask the reporter to give you some time to think about it. By the same token, if you don’t feel qualified to answer a question, it’s far better to be honest about that than to take a stab at a response that makes you sound, um, unqualified. Remember, you’re in control. No one will think less of you if you politely decline a question for which you have no answer!

• Take your own notes before the interview: You likely have a good idea of what the reporter is writing about – and if you don’t it’s perfectly acceptable to ask what the gist of the story is. That gives you time to prepare relevant comments. If they’re looking for tips, list a few on paper in case you draw a blank. That will also help you plan ahead so you can speak concisely and get to the point quickly. Personal anecdotes always add color and interest to a story. Think about whether you’ve got a good short one (short is appreciated!) that will illustrate your point.

• Be prepared to email a high-resolution photo of yourself: Print publications cannot use the low-resolution photos that look so sharp online; the files are too small to reproduce at any decent size on paper. Most require an image that’s 300 dpi (dots per inch). Keep one of yourself at the ready to send via email, if the reporter asks, as soon as the interview is over. Not having it – or not knowing what a high-resolution photo is – could mean a missed opportunity to get your name, book title and face in front of a big audience.

Sound easy? You’re right, it is. So relax and enjoy your interview. Before you know it, a Google search of your name will produce dozens of publications quoting you and mentioning your book, product or business.  That may lead to even more requests, all of which builds your profile and your audience.

• Massive layoffs have changed the way newspapers do business; they’re now even more short-handed and time-crunched than ever.
• Newspapers need quick-turnaround content to help fill pages.
• How to position and pitch yourself to editors, so you can be featured in the news.

Back in October, I was a beneficiary of the sadness sweeping newspapers across the country — more than 20,000 layoffs since 2008 (and that’s a conservative estimate).

Here in Tampa-St. Petersburg, one of our two major dailies, The Tampa Tribune, laid off about 30 veteran reporters and editors in June, in a desperate effort to balance its books. It didn’t work. The paper laid off 165 more employees just last week.

Their loss was my gain. Penny Carnathan, an award-winning reporter and features editor, is now our Creative Director/Writer. She brings to News and Experts not only her talents, but her insights on how newsrooms have changed in recent years. Just four months ago, she was the person on the other side fielding our press releases and story pitches. As the editor in charge of the Tribune’s Sunday features section, which included a books page and its food section, she decided which releases to pursue and which to ignore.

Penny says the many layoffs changed the way she and other editors do business — the Trib’s 2011 cuts were two of so many, she lost count. I say that means we have to change too.

I asked Penny to share in her own words what the changes mean and how we can leverage them. Here’s what she said:

With fewer reporters and lots of empty pages to fill, editors are doing more planning ahead to ensure they have content, for both their features and their “breaking news” pages. They no longer have the flexibility or manpower to jump on “dailies” that don’t involve a police officer being shot or a house burning down. Tempting as it might be, they likely can’t follow up on an “urgent” notice about today’s Make-a-Wish holiday shopping spree.

• Plan Ahead. If you want your event covered, let the newspaper know about it two to three weeks ahead of time.

• Help Out the Reporter. Provide local interview sources – local is a priority for local papers – so the reporter doesn’t have to spend time tracking down “real people” for the story. For instance, to pitch a story on a Special Olympics event, you would ideally line up a local athlete and parent who are ready and willing to be accessible to a reporter. Better yet, line up an athlete with a touching story. If you’re an author, get creative. Think about the businesses who can benefit from your strategies and get one on board.

• Make It for a Good Cause. If you’re hosting a special event, including book signings, find a way to make it charitable or a service to some greater good. Newspaper editors are more inclined to cover events if they benefit others. Again, take the reporter legwork out of the process by finding a beneficiary who can talk about what the event means to him or her.

• Pictures in a Snap.  Offering good quality, high-resolution images gives you another leg up; photojournalists are being laid off too.

Understanding the time and staffing crunches newspaper staffs face make you a respected and appreciated source of content.

One last note, Penny says it’s worth the time you take to research who does what at the publication you’re targeting. Newsrooms are reorganizing and that means they can be a bit chaotic. Stay on the phone until you find the person who knows for sure who should receive your information (often more than one person). The payoff is well worth all that time repeating your story over and over again.

There is no question that the activity of public relations is primarily a numbers game.

The predominant viewpoint is that a campaign that reaches a large audience is typically a successful campaign. But when you delve beyond the surface, you may be surprised to discover that there are still instances in which smaller can actually be better.

In radio, that is very much the case these days.

So much has changed in the world of talk radio, where the power of the station isn’t as relevant as it used to be, primarily because of three key elements: ratings, formats and the Internet.

Big radio stations in big markets are more and more being ruled by Arbitron ratings, which can now track audiences in increments of about 3 minutes. This phenomenon is making the days of 10- and 20-minute interviews in many major markets a thing of the past. They do still take place, but in fewer and fewer places. However, stations in smaller markets tend not to be as slavish to these format structures, enabling their hosts to conduct more substantive interviews.

As it stands now, in the bigger markets many shows schedule 5- to 7-minute interviews.  And, some are starting to do even shorter interviews, 3.5- to 5-minute interviews, which is the same format as the guest interview segments on TV. We’re seeing that more and more in the major markets.

That’s where smaller stations in smaller markets can be a great fit, because a small station with a smaller, but more loyal, audience can really deliver the goods. They can afford to have a guest on for 10, 20 and sometimes 30 minutes, and the audience will be more attentive and responsive listening to guests they like. In addition, while the majority of big-market stations and nationally syndicated shows have phased out listener call-in segments, many smaller market shows still have listeners calling in.  And that’s where a guest on a roll, who can grab the interest and attention of the listeners, can have a segment last way beyond the original length of the scheduled interview.

So, while the idea of appearing on shows on big stations in big markets still stands as a primary guideline in PR, there are places on the radio dial where big doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sometimes, there is nothing better than a small, dedicated audience who listens to a long-time, well-loved local broadcaster. If you ignore those opportunities, you could be missing out on some premium media interviews.

Lastly, it’s critical to understand how effective the Internet has become in extending the audience reach of stations and markets, both big and small. Today, in order for any radio station to be competitive, they have to have a strong Internet presence and simulcast their shows online.  As well, today most hosts are blogging to build and maintain their audience numbers, and when they have a good show, they’ll create a podcast of it.  Hosts are not only promoting your appearance on their show, but if you’re a good guest, they promote it through all their social networks, their blogs and podcasts.

Why does all this matter? Because the whole reason you do radio is for the quality of communication. This is why many people still prefer picking up their phone and calling someone instead of emailing them or texting them. It’s why we still have face-to-face meetings with our business associates and clients. It’s why we do conference calls. And it’s also why we call our relatives to wish them a happy birthday instead of just tweeting them. It’s about the quality of that communication. The sound of a human voice can communicate passion, intent, emotion and sincerity. Can you imagine what history would have been like if FDR had written his “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” speech as an op-ed in The Washington Post as opposed to having given it as a radio address? Could Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” have scared as many people if it was a short story instead of a radio play?

We do radio to provide a greater quality of communication to our audiences. So, you can play the numbers game if you wish, but if you do, you’ll miss the whole point of doing radio in the first place and the ghost of Marconi may well come and haunt you for it.

Sometimes the harshest truths are the most important ones.

In public relations, one of the most important truisms revolves around the primary question that the media asks itself as it evaluates the potential stories it may cover: Who really cares?

They ask that question not out of rudeness, but rather out of a genuine desire to serve their audiences. Now, as consumers of the media, we may argue some of their choices of stories (I’m completely mystified with the media’s fascination with the cast of the Jersey Shore, but that’s just me), but we have to remember that the media’s revenue comes from the size and scope of their audiences. If they believe their audience wants to hear about a particular person or story, you can be assured they’ll cover it.

For someone seeking to promote themselves or their business, this question the media asks themselves, “who really cares,” is absolutely paramount, because it reveals one of the most critical and common pitfalls in the PR business. That is, the idea that promoting yourself should be all about you.

The hard fact is that if the media doesn’t already know who you are, they really don’t care about you. They don’t care about your book, your Web site, your company, your product or just about anything you are selling. Of course, their advertising director would love to sell you time or space, but that’s advertising, not PR.

So the key question becomes, how do you get the media to care about you? The answer is you have to demonstrate to them that your expertise and your message will add value to the lives of their audiences.

Now, a lot of self-help authors will think that should be easy, but it’s not. It’s not so much about the fact that you may have helpful advice to offer, but rather that you have different and more insightful advice than the last person in your field who pitched them for an interview.

What’s more, it’s not just self-help folks who have something to offer. We actually have several clients who have written memoirs whose life experiences offer tremendous value to the media’s audiences. Several were survivors of domestic and child abuse, with one of them having been kidnapped by a family member. Their stories put them in the unique position of offering advice on how to recognize domestic abuse, how to prevent it and even how to make children safer from abduction by estranged parents and even strangers.
In those cases, we received a resounding response from the media to talk to those individuals.

Another one of our clients is Michael Uslan, the executive producer of the Batman franchise of films. His memoir detailed his decade-long battle to get Hollywood to take a serious Batman film, well, seriously. His message of perseverance in the face of ridiculous odds resonates with anyone who has ever had a dream they wanted to fulfill, so the media devoured – and is still devouring – his story.

In each of these cases, the media campaign wasn’t about a book or a product or a person – it was about what each of these people could offer the audience as a result of their experiences and expertise. Their advice, backed up by the power of success or the lessons of defeat, was what attracted the media. They didn’t have interviews or outreach that touted their books or their companies, and they certainly weren’t actively trying to sell people anything. They offered themselves as experts in their fields with something of value for the media’s audience. They didn’t sound like an infomercial pitching a product, nor did they sound like a celebrity on a late night talk show telling people to buy their book or watch their movie.

They offered something of themselves for the benefit of others, which is a great way to earn the trust of those media consumers. More than that, they weren’t trying to promote themselves. And here’s the irony that I love so much about the media – in actively not trying to promote themselves, they actually achieved a greater degree of self-promotion. People listened to them, came to like them and wound up becoming interested in what they had to sell, even though they weren’t actively trying to sell it.

Back to answering the media’s question of “Who really cares?” – the secret is to remember the one driving truth of life in the media. It’s not about you. It’s never about you. It’s always about the audience and what you can do for them.

With all the movies coming out in 3-D these days, I started thinking about how a good PR campaign also has its own 3-D elements. Well, really, there are four types of media outlets today – TV, radio, print (offline and online) and social media – so you really need a 4-D strategy (a point I am sure I will be arguing online at some point with a smart-aleck physicist who takes issue with my science).

In PR, unlike movies, 4-D is the only way to go. I mention this because people frequently ask me which of the four media outlets I think is better. I try to explain that each one is effective in its own right, however, as the media feeds off of itself, the most effective PR campaign will include using all elements in a strategy that leverages a 4-dimensional approach.

Here are some ways the different elements of a 4 dimensional PR campaign fit together, kind of like a marketing Rubik’s cube.

Print/Online – I put print and online in the same category because they both encompass written articles, and just about everything that appears in print is repurposed online, so written articles have a dual impact. Most importantly, every article or column that includes a mention of you, your book or your company will eventually appear online in such a way that they will turn up as a search engine result on Google and other news aggregators. For this reason, print/online interacts beautifully with just about every other media.

For instance, when your PR firm pitches you as a guest for TV and radio interviews, some of the more enterprising producers will Google you to see if you are a reputable person in your field. The more articles that pop up on Google or Yahoo that feature you as a source, the more likely they are to recognize you as a credible expert and want to schedule an interview.

In addition, your articles are great fodder for social networks. While you don’t want to be too commercial or promotional in your tweets and Facebook updates, there is no harm in tweeting a link to a news story that might be of interest to your friends and fellow networkers. If you’re featured in it, that’s just a bonus. Every time you get an article that pops up online, you can circulate the links on your social network and drive more views, which also drives your credibility with your peers.

Radio – for so many reasons, this is one of my all-time favorite mediums. One critical reason is that talk radio is a place where you can typically have a more in-depth conversation about your topic than other mediums allow. And now that the vast majority of stations are streaming live on the Internet, the promotional value is endless. For one thing, you can alert your social network followers as to when the interview will occur so they can hear it live. If they miss that exact day and time, most stations archive shows on their Web site, so people can listen whenever it’s more convenient. Before the Internet, shows just disappeared into the stratosphere after they were recorded.

Also, technology is such today that you can download a radio interview off the station’s site (or you can ask the producer to do it for you) to post on your own Web site and distribute to your social network followers.

Another added value is that stations record, podcast and distribute shows via their own social network connections, so this becomes another layer of promotion for you. In fact, just a few minutes ago, we found that an interview we scheduled for one of our clients on America’s Radio News Network (one of the fastest growing networks in the country) featured his interview on the front page of their Web site – an additional avenue of promotion for you.

At the end of the day, telling your social media followers when you’re featured in the news and on the air, makes you more credible to them and will help drive more followers to your social network and your Web site.

TV – TV, as with radio, used to be a fleeting experience, because once the interview aired, its influence was over. Now, many news stations will keep links to your interview active on their Web site for a short period of time after the interview took place. Of course, you always want to obtain a digital copy to post on your Web site, extending that appearance’s shelf life and also for the viewing of decision makers in other mediums who may be vetting you for potential coverage. Nothing screams credibility like an online video of you appearing on a TV show.

Today, some TV producers are even asking potential guests if they have a large social network following, because that makes them more attractive as guests. If you have 10,000 followers, your outreach to let them know about your appearance could drive bigger ratings for the show you’re on. The key thing is to get access to a digital copy and leave plenty of breadcrumbs in your online footprint for people to find them.

Social Media – While building your social media connections has its very own reward, it can also help drive readership, viewership and listenership to every piece of your PR campaign, helping to grow your numbers and brand you as an undisputed expert in your field.

So, when you approach PR, don’t view it as a flat, one-dimensional experience. Put on those 4-D glasses (if they don’t make them yet, they should), change your perspective and watch the results of your PR campaigns grow exponentially.

After 21 years in the PR business, it has become increasingly apparent to me that it’s time to drive a new milepost into the ground.

While the media has been specializing in reinventing itself every few business quarters, the business of marketing has been slowly evolving, trying to keep up with the changes. Regular readers of this column have seen some phrases making repeat appearances, such as social media, email blasts, online news outlets and other terms that refer to some of the technological advances that have hit modern marketing communications. As each of these new areas of outreach emerges, our tactics as PR strategists are changing with the times.

Well, those changes have become a full-fledged evolution into a completely new paradigm, so I think it’s time we go back to the basics and spell out the new fundamentals of the modern-day PR campaign.

But let’s not start off with where things are going, but rather, where we started. Public relations began as an activity in which PR professionals leveraged free media opportunities on TV, radio and print in order to reach consumer and business-to-business audiences on behalf of their clients. In the early days, there were just a few outlets that commanded the lion’s share of consumer and business eyeballs. However, in today’s world, the media literally envelopes us, influencing how we interact with people all over the globe on a daily basis. It’s not just the influence of TV, radio or our local daily newspapers. It comes to us via our computers, in our email, on our cell phones, on screens located at the gas pump and even where we pour our morning coffee at the corner convenience store.

The media now numbers literally tens of thousands of mass and specialty outlets across every communication channel at our disposal. Those who run the media have gone from being a very elite and small fraternity, to numbering in the hundreds of thousands just in North America alone. One no longer needs to work at a network or a newspaper to be part of the mainstream media. Many bloggers and online columnists influence the opinions of millions as independent enterprises working from wherever their laptops can get an Internet signal.

To understand how to manage a modern-day PR campaign, it’s important to know what elements make up the modern media. It’s no longer just TV, radio and print. It’s far more than that:

• Network TV – Despite the popularity of cable news networks, the traditional evening network newscasts from NBC, ABC and CBS still hold the vast majority of the viewing audience. In 2010, more than 23 million people watched the big three nightly newscasts, compared to about 4.5 million who watched the evening newscasts on CNN, Fox, HLN and MSNBC. They are the gold standard and getting featured on those networks – whether it be morning or evening broadcasts – is one of the toughest “gets” in the PR business.

• Cable News – While they command a lower aggregate audience, cable news has become the place where expert celebrities and news figures are born. Getting on the radar screen of the big networks can be very challenging without starting here. One example is NBC anchor Brian Williams, who was a White House correspondent who transformed into an anchor on MSNBC’s The News with Brian Williams back in 1996. Williams would later succeed Tom Brokaw as the network’s news anchor.

• Radio – Back when this newfangled technology called television first gained prominence, everyone in the industry swore radio would fade away and die. But it didn’t. When the Internet came into view, everyone said radio would fade away and die. But it didn’t. When satellite radio was created, everyone said terrestrial radio would fade away and die, but it didn’t. It may morph and change as the decades pass, but it’s still here, and people who want publicity need to know how to get on talk radio. That Marconi guy was definitely on to something.

• Print – Ever since Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” leaflets were published when our country was being founded, words on the printed page have commanded the attention of the masses and that influence isn’t going away. While you’ll read in a moment about the emergence of the Internet, you have to understand one thing. No matter how big online delivery becomes, the major print outlets will still have a role to play, because those are the organizations that break news. Print is the home of the mainstay of written journalism, the beat reporter. These are the people who know news is happening before anyone else, because they have relationships with newsmakers. When the government wants to leak a story to the press, they don’t go to The Huffington Post, they go to The New York Times or The Washington Post. These organizations still house the best journalists in the business and they are still the one place everyone wants to see their names in print.

• Online – More people get their news online today than in traditional print publications. I could flood you with statistics, but they would be meaningless against the backdrop of the current landscape that most people can see plenty well with their own two eyes. Coffee shops are populated by laptop, iPad and smartphone surfers. Millions of people get their daily news emailed to them every morning by a news outlet or aggregator. Others follow their friends’ Twitter updates to see what news is breaking right now. It used to be that newspaper reporters would sweat out the evening newscast, hoping they didn’t get beat on a news event that took place that day. Today, online news stories appear with a time stamp, so you know just how recently it was posted. It will likely be updated 20 times during the day before the evening newscast hits the air. Online news has not supplanted traditional print outlets with regard to the function of gathering the news, but it sure does deliver it faster and better, and to more people.

• Social Media – This is the newest entry into the media, but it has proven time and again that it is not a fad, but rather one of the foundations of the modern media world. It is a place where people come together not to read the news, but to share and experience it. It is a virtual water cooler where people go to talk about what’s going on, share opinions and join forces to use that information for the purpose of changing the world around them. It is also a place in which someone engaging in a PR campaign can reach out and communicate directly with people, without having to go through an editor or an interviewer. They can act, react and interact with the very people who may one day be a customer or a client.

Twitter and Facebook can also fuel the other elements of the media. People can use social media to drive people toward traditional media coverage about them or they can use social media as a platform to comment about other trends in the news. It’s a two-way communication that has few restrictions and endless applications. It is also fraught with pitfalls, because the anarchy of social media can easily come back to bite someone who engages the audience without understanding the culture of that community. However, while it’s applications in PR are still being explored and developed, its reach is without question. If you are doing PR, and you’re not using social media, you’re sitting on a stool with one leg missing.

That’s the way it all shapes up. The modern-day media is far more complex than it was 30 years ago, but the opportunities are far more boundless than they ever were before. People can start at the bottom of the media food chain and work their way up the ladder, because today there are far more rungs on that ladder than there were decades ago. The media also moves faster than ever, because the competition for attention is far greater than in the days where your choices for news were between Walter Cronkite, Harry K. Smith and David Brinkley.

By now, everyone knows that social media is a key component to any marketing campaign. At least if you’ve been reading these newsletters you do. But aside from the obvious benefits of outreach and awareness, there is something else you can be doing with your social networking campaign that can supercharge all of your efforts: build an opt-in email list.

I know from my own experience that social media marketing has enabled me to increase my email list by thousands, with those on the list continuously receiving my newsletters that carry my advice, tips and message.

My newsletter helps my social media contacts remember me and what I do, not because I am actively selling and promoting myself. Like my social media strategy, I use these pieces to add value to the lives of the people on my list. My formula is simple – if some of you like what you read, when you have the need and the resources and are considering using a PR firm, you might consider my company. And that’s it. What’s more, I know it works, because I’ve used this formula to build a thriving 21-year-old business that has grown in double-digit percentages every year for the last four years, even in the face of a recession and tough economic times.

Adding value for my clients is the real reward I have enjoyed by combining my email and social media marketing efforts. So how can you do this? Let me share a few actions that we find are successful.

Join Targeted Groups and Post Valuable Content. Within your social networks, wisely choose groups to participate in that are active and include your audience. You should post good content that adds value to the members to demonstrate your professional expertise and drive people to your Web site. Take care to make your headlines short and interesting. Making the headline a question is an effective attention getter, or use words that contain phrases like “tips for” or “strategies for.” Be sure to post a paragraph-long teaser in the discussion body, telling people what helpful information you have to share and include a link to your Web site where they can read it in full. Close with a question for the reader or a statement soliciting feedback. When readers comment, your post will remain at the top where more people can see it.

• Make Sure Your Web Site is “Opt-in” Friendly. Make sure your opt-in form is prominent throughout your Web site, with a message telling visitors that when they sign up for your list, they will receive helpful information as opposed to junk mail. You can also include incentives to help encourage people to opt in. E-books work nicely.
• Invite Everyone—But Don’t Pester! Every time you get a friend request or a new follower, send a message introducing yourself and include an invitation (with the link to your site’s opt-in form) to sign up for the helpful information you send to your list of people. If the new connection does not immediately respond, don’t message them again with a repeat of your invitation. If they weren’t persuaded through the initial invitation, you’ll have plenty of chances to win them over as they continue to see the wealth of information you have to share.
• Be Direct—But Not Too Often. If you have a helpful and valuable incentive to offer, occasionally post updates inviting your friends and followers to go get it! Keep in mind you are treading a thin line with this type of post, so make sure they are infrequent and are mixed in with many posts that are completely non-promotional in nature. You don’t want to be considered “that guy” who’s just there to promote to people.
• Be Consistent in Your Social Networking! The key to making points 1 – 4 above really work is to stay active in your networks and groups. If you are only an occasional visitor, you might as well “stay home.” In order to reap the rewards of these strategies, post often and wisely, and pay attention to your group members.

That’s how it all fits together. Social Media is not the next big “thing.” It’s now part of the foundation of a good marketing campaign, as intractable as advertising and public relations.

Best To Let the Media Determine That

In my role as the head of a PR firm, one of the most common misconceptions I see has to do with the superlatives people choose to describe themselves. Now, I’m not referring to how the media positions someone, but rather how someone seeking PR wants to refer to him or herself.

I once overheard my senior strategist, Tony Panaccio, having a conversation with a client about what their tagline should be. It went something like this:

Client: So, what should I call myself?

Tony: I’m not sure what you mean.

Client: Well, when I identify myself to the media.

Tony: Well, your name is Jim, right (not the actual name)?

Client: Yeah.

Tony: So, why don’t we stick with that? It’s short, concise and happens to be, you know, your name.

Client: That’s not what I meant. I was trying to think of something catchy.

Tony: Okay, how about “James?”

It went on like that for a bit, until Tony was able to explain to the client that it’s not kosher to try to “name” yourself to the media.

Taglines can work well for people who have their own radio or TV shows, but for those just breaking into the spotlight, it actually has the reverse effect than intended. The media is a cynical, somewhat sensitive league of professionals, not unlike Tony, actually. When they see a name they’ve never seen before with a tagline they’ve never seen before, it strikes them as odd and out of place. In fact, many will turn their noses up at those self-made designations.

We often get folks who want to attach all kinds of superlative descriptions of themselves in their bios like “genius,” “brilliant,” “guru.”  The point is that those in the media will come up with the nicknames and catchy taglines as they see fit, once they have come to understand that person’s experience is real. They are the ones who get to determine who the gurus are and not the prospective gurus themselves.

Further along those lines, some have tried to attach the terms “groundbreaking,” “innovative” and even “spectacular” to describe their products or their books. The problem is that the media feels they are the ones who will determine if someone or something fits those descriptions. When people are positioned that way as part of a pitch or an article, it can be offensive and it immediately raises the question as to the validity of that designation. That’s why using superlatives about yourself in order to establish your credibility, typically results in exactly the opposite effect.

That’s why I don’t call myself anything like “The PR Mechanic” or “The Marketing Maven,” as others in my industry call themselves. It’s not for me to make those calls. It’s up to you and the media to determine that I’m deserving of some kind of title to show my expertise.

In the meantime, feel free to call me Marsha. All my friends do and you’re far more likely to get my attention.

For the last month or so, what began as a small group of protestors on Wall Street has become a national phenomenon. Satellite protests have popped up all over the country and the media is abuzz with coverage and opinions about the movement.

Whether or not you agree with the protesters, the thing that’s interesting to me as a PR person is how the story has grown and where its initial push began. The way it has grown is just another proving ground for why the Internet has become such an important source of news and why people executing PR campaigns should sit up and take notice.

In the beginning, the story really existed only on the Internet, with blogs like The Huffington Post providing most of the coverage. Print outlets and wire services were unusually silent on the protests, with even the New York Times – whose offices are not far from the site of the protests – abstaining from covering the picketing.

But, as the Internet buzz grew, broadcast outlets like Fox News and MSNBC began to spend airtime on the protests, with their coverage growing in size and scope the day after the Occupy Wall Street’s new Web site published the loose-knit group’s political manifesto.

There are varying viewpoints on why some mainstream outlets chose not to cover the protests, and the arguments from both sides are politically charged and greatly divergent. Some say the influence of Wall Street kept the mainstream media from picking up on the story, as most major media outlets are public companies or owned by public companies traded on Wall Street. Others say that the initial protests weren’t news, because they involved so few people and their message wasn’t clear or coherent. My opinion is that most major news organizations are pressed for time, space and resources, and they make choices on what they will cover based on how significant they believe the story will be to their readers.

Given the fact the protests were small at first, I can absolutely see most national and business news outlets choosing not to bother with them, because back then it was a risky bet. To me, it’s not a question of politics, but rather a cost-benefit analysis. Do enough of our readers, listeners or viewers care enough about a few dozen people demonstrating on Wall Street that we need to spend time and resources covering that story? Moreover, if we do cover it when it’s that small, will we be seen as having a political agenda to our coverage? Since many print outlets tend to skew just a bit to the liberal side with their editorial pages, I believe there was a real sensitivity to the idea that these outlets would be criticized for helping a small group of people gain a national voice when they might not have deserved one.

So, what changed big media’s minds? The Internet coverage drew more eyeballs and helped bring more people to the protests. By the time big media turned around, their question was answered for them, because the Internet coverage was drawing people to the story and protests, growing the movement’s numbers and influence to such a point that the large outlets had no choice but to cover them.

For those of you who read these columns for advice on your own PR efforts, my point is this: The Internet is NOT the second-class citizen of the media. It changes minds, it influences people and it is becoming the place where major media looks for its next big stories.

I can’t emphasize strongly enough the value of online coverage in today’s world.

In some ways, it is more influential and in many cases, it leads to more traditional coverage down the road.

Since the early days of consumerism, there is one catchphrase that is still difficult to deny: you get what you pay for.

In the PR business, I’ve had experience – as have some of my clients – with the free or low-cost press release services that seem to have proliferated all over the Internet. In fact, if you Google press release services, you’ll find a wide variety of them. Moreover, a reasonable number of them can deliver on the promise of getting your press release picked up by a good number of Web sites with hits that will show up on your Google and search engine profile. And, once in a while, a release on these services may indeed garner the interest of one or two sizable news outlets.

However, the question you have to ask yourself is, “What does that really get me?”

My view is simple – good PR isn’t just about the numbers. That’s what advertising is about, and in advertising, nothing is free. You get what you pay for, so if you want a lot of eyeballs and impressions, you’d better have a big budget. In PR, however, numbers is only one part of the story. If it was just about the numbers, then why would anyone want to do PR? Where’s the added value?

PR delivers the one element advertising cannot – credibility. When a legitimate news outlet features you or your company in their pages or as a guest on their shows, it acts as a tacit endorsement of you. It’s third-party verification that boosts your brand, as well as your positioning as an expert in your field and a respected source of information. It makes you attractive as someone other people may want to engage in business, whether it’s to buy your product, buy your book or hire you as a consultant. So the next question is, “Do press release services deliver that value?”

First, let’s examine how it all works. Most of these press release services have content aggregation agreements with other search engine optimized Web sites that do little more than provide visitors with press releases. The vast majority of the placements garnered are not typically with highly respected news outlets. That’s not to say that on the odd occasion a press release service can’t deliver that kind of exposure, but rather, it’s not really set up to do so. You see, with most major media outlets, there is a level of follow – up and response necessary to bag the big hits. But, these services don’t provide a PR person to follow up with anyone. They simply take your press release and distribute it. That’s all.

Now, a PR professional would not only have the industry know-how to understand the needs of the media outlets who respond, but they would also write the press release in such a way as to cause a response in the first place. That’s something else the press release services don’t do – they generally don’t write the release for you. Some might offer that service, but it would cost a lot more than the standard distribution service, sometimes into the hundreds of dollars.

So when it comes down to it, these companies are not set up to serve the needs of the media.  They exist to serve the needs of clients who pay them to distribute their press release, in the hopes of getting some media coverage. If it does, that’s great. But if not, then all that’s been achieved is the placement of the press release on a variety of Web sites that, by and large, wouldn’t qualify as legitimate news media. (I define “legitimate media” as media that generates revenue from advertising.)

For someone who has little to spend, it’s not a bad start. And, it’s not that these services are deceptive in their practices. They’re not — they don’t promise more than what they deliver.

But, don’t confuse their actions with that of a real PR campaign.  A press release service is not comparable to engaging a professional public relations firm. PR is not about hits on a Google listing. It’s not about accumulating a lot of listings in search engines.  PR is about penetrating the din of the media to become well-known and well thought of as a company, a thought leader or individual with valuable information, products or services to offer the consumer.