Have you ever noticed that some brokers or agents seem to get more
than their share of free publicity?
What makes them so special? It's a mystery to their peers, as these
pundits are usually not the biggest, nor the most profitable, or the
best professionals in any other quantifiable terms. Yet they get all
the attention.
What these people have simply learned to do are work at getting
noticed and meeting the needs of reporters.
If you want to become a pundit, here's what you need to learn to
do:
- Get familiar with news publications
- Learn reporters' needs
- Become the information source
The first thing you need to do is to make a list of the media where
you would like to be featured.
Be bold and creative. Real estate is big business, affecting 20
percent of the gross national product, and it is one of the leading
economic indicators, along with job data and consumer confidence
indexes. What you have to say is important, so don't limit yourself to
your local paper. Include local business journals, and the bureaus of
national
publications that cover economic news in your list of contacts.
You can find them all online on the search engines.
Next, find and catalog all the reporters that work for those
publications and do stories on real estate and the local economy. Most
publications will have a columnists' list. But, you still need to read the
publication and identify which ones cover the real estate beat.
Read the reporters' columns, so you can get a feel for their
personal writing style. Some writers like to give opinions, others
don't.
Now you are ready to prepare your resume and contact information.
If you are representing a brokerage, then the contact person needs to
be the highest ranking officer possible, preferably not a PR person.
Most reporters prefer to quote decision makers.
That brings us to meeting the reporters' needs. Reporters are
always on deadline so anything you can do to save them time and effort
will be appreciated. Provide your e-mail address, cell phone number
and pager number for quick access. Reporters won't abuse the privilege
of having these contact tools, but if they have them, they will be
more tempted to use your company or you in a story simply because you
are easy to reach.
Reporters are also constantly looking for fresh story ideas and new
information. You can be helpful by offering ideas and topics of
interest. Become the information source. Offer new perspectives and
data that you come across in the industry that might not be so readily
available to outsiders. If the NAR has come out with a new report,
make it available to your favorite reporter. If your MLS has just done
the monthly DOMs and solds, make the market conditions available with
a comment or one from your president. This is information you are
paying real estate organizations for and it should benefit you.
However, don't expect to be the focus of the story simply because
you gave the reporter an update. Be patient. You will get included in
a story sooner or later.
Finally, follow-up. Call and ask the reporter if the information
was helpful, or could the reporter use something else?
There's a reason why you want to do this one-on-one. If you send out a
general release, it will likely be treated as a promotional piece.
But, if you take the time to call, and offer exclusives, you could get
more results.
What you want to do is build a relationship with the media one
reporter at a time. Remember, the news media needs information, so you
are just as valuable to them as their ability to give you publicity is
to you.
Related Articles:
Write
a Column and Become a Pillar of Real Estate
Help
the Media Help You
How
Builders Can Put A Credible Spin On Their News
AGENTS: Newsletter
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