Ready, Set, Grow! Harness the Power of PR to Grow Your Business

Too often, a business owner may think that because they are “just” a lawyer or an accountant, they don’t have anything truly interesting to say about their business. A lot of times they’re so into running the company’s day-to-day operations that they can’t see the interesting thing about it. Sometime it helps to have a different perspective to tell the businesses’ story.

Storytelling and using the power of public relations to tell that story were the central messages in ThinkBusiness’s April “Ready, Set, Grow!” event at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, Va.

The event’s moderator was Jen Sterling, president of Red Thinking. The panelists were Elizabeth Shea, president and CEO of SpeakerBox; Robert Deigh, principal, RDC Communication; and Pauline Lewis, CEO of oovoo design.

Here are just a few of the tips that our participants provided:

• Keep your messaging tight, focused and consistent. Practice your pitch! It can be surprisingly difficult to get your “elevator speech” down to 30 seconds or less.
• Every organization has good stories in it, but not all of them have to do with the focus of the business – the CEO may have an interesting hobby that could draw attention, for example.
• Check out sites like HelpAReporter.com (a site that matches reporters with sources).
• Look for opportunities to mingle in person with reporters. Some newspapers and local magazines host “meet our reporters” events that are worthwhile to attend. Make sure you’re available to take a reporter’s phone call – they are often on very tight deadlines.
• Establish a Twitter account, and follow reporters who focus on your subject area.
• Find publications that accept contributed articles and contact those publications with your pitch.
• Establishing a business page on Facebook, a blog about issues central to your business, and accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter can help with your outreach efforts to both the media and the public.

ThinkBusiness Media hosts periodic “Ready, Set, Grow!” breakfast panel events. For information about upcoming events, watch for announcements in the events section of our website.

Thanks to our April platinum-level event sponsors: Administaff, The Meltzer Group and Access National Bank. Special thanks to Falcon Print and Copy and Reston Limousine.

Post a Comment