Tanuu Blog

It doesn’t matter how cruel the reality programs get, there always seems to be an endless supply of people willing to humiliate themselves to get on television. There’s just something exciting about appearing in front of millions of people.

In fact, just knowing someone that’s going to be on TV or on the radio is exciting, so when you know you are going to be on the air, send an alert to your mailing list.

Send notes, e-mails, faxes - whatever it takes - so they know when they can catch you. You’ll be surprised at how many people tune in. After all, they now know a real celebrity!

Of course, most people will still miss it. It isn’t as easy to send a “reprint” of a TV or radio appearance, but it can be done. Get a video copy of your appearance. (Never ask the reporter (unless they offer), they have to get to work on their next story.)

Call the station the next day and see if you can get a copy. If not, call a media monitoring service in your area. Most cities have one. They tape every local TV and radio broadcast and can provide the video or audio you need.

Afterwards, send copies of any video or audio tapes (smart move: get them edited to 5 minutes length maximum) to your best prospects and referral sources.

Recently a longtime vendor sent me (and a thousand others, no doubt) an e-mail saying he’d be on 60 Minutes that weekend. I couldn’t watch that night but I sure was thrilled for him - and impressed. And he was top of mind for a good few days. Which is exactly what he wanted to happen when he sent me that e-mail.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

You won’t accomplish much if you call the gas company to ask about your cable bill. Make sure that when you call about your story that the reporter you are contacting is the right person.

Don’t call a business reporter who covers the pharmaceutical industry with ten tips on getting kids to take their medicine. Find the writer who handles parenting or consumer medical stories for that.

There is one exception to the previous tip: if you personally know a reporter, or you have a mutual friend, it’s fine to call that person even if you know they aren’t the right reporter. Just don’t expect them to do your story. Ask instead, “Which of your colleagues might be interested in a story on my kiddie-medicine tips for parents?”

Most sales handbooks tell you to try to make your pitch to the decision-maker. The decision maker in the media game is the editorbut resist the temptation to call them.

What works better is to try one, two, or more reporters until one gets interested. When they sell the story to the editor, it has far more power. Besides, if one reporter turns you down, you call the next. If the editor vetoes it, where do you turn?

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

Why is Decision Making Important?

This is the first in a series of short articles on decision making, as it may affect the progress, or otherwise, of your home based online business. The main purpose of the articles is to get you thinking, more than you might have done, about decisions that affect your business. It is not possible in short articles to cover what is really an endless subject, but I hope by the end of the series you will be more conscious of the decisions you make which may affect:

1.The profitability of your online business.

2.The scope for expansion.

3.Your efficiency.

4.The productive use of your time.

5.Your family.

6.Your enjoyment of working online.

plus many other aspects of working at home online, in your own business.

Why is decision making important? You only need to consider that for a moment to realize: that it is a dumb question. From the moment you wake, you are passing through a series of tens of thousands of little decisions. You are not very aware of most of them, they are routine, semi or sub-conscious decisions. Any one of those “little” decisions could have a major influence on the future path of your life.

For example, you are in a hurry and decide to cross the road at a certain point. A car comes hurtling around the corner, and knocks you into the air. Thankfully you are still alive after you land, but are taken to hospital and are there for a couple of weeks, at one point in Intensive Care. You are employed, but your employer is not sympathetic, will not pay you, and for a few days you lie there worrying about losing your job. You have no insurance, so how will you pay the bills?

Was crossing the road at that point, at that time, a bad decision? On the face of it, yes, it was stupid to say the least. But what if, in the two weeks in hospital, you fall in love with a nurse? Later, you marry and have several wonderful children? Was that still a bad decision, crossing the road then and there?

Not only did you meet your future spouse, the person in the next bed turned out to have some good business ideas they wanted to put into practice. You got chatting about them as your condition started to improve. The two of you found you saw eye to eye on lots of things, and it was clear that you would both benefit from the synergy of working together on a business project. The other person had the ideas and money in place, but needed you as a partner to take it forward. When you were both fit and well again, he subsidized you while the business was set up. It prospered, and within months you were earning 4 times your previous income. Was that still a bad decision, crossing the road then and there?

That is fiction, but is it unrealistic fiction? No. There are probably many thousands of very similar stories. And