The title above is very ironic because in order to “get bloggers and reporters to notice you,” you need to remove your ego from the equation and begin thinking in terms of what they want, rather than what you want.

Understand Why the News Exists

The news exists to entertain and inform the public with compelling stories that often have an emotional angle. These are stories that when you hear them, you want to talk about them over dinner. They elicit some kind of emotional reaction, be it empathy, anger, wonder, or fear. Ultimately, they make the public return to the news provider for more compelling “news” of that nature. At the end of the day, the news blogger or reporter doesn’t care about your company. They care about getting a lot of eyeballs and chatter.

The majority of crowdfunding projects are not true “news” in the traditional sense – A new invention, a world event, etc. Unless you are famous or have a high significance in society, most people do not view what you are doing as “news.” Contrast that with Warren Buffet deciding to go on twitter. When a man seen as significant in society does something, no matter how mundane or ordinary, it is considered news. You could say the same thing about Kim Kardashian’s wedding plans.

If you do have a new invention and want to go with that angle – awesome! However, if you don’t, you need to find the emotional angle and the true story behind your project.

Include the Elements Of the Story In Your First Paragraph

Your first paragraph should include the who, what, when, where, how, and why. Many bloggers and journalists will only read the first one or two paragraphs of your pitch before deciding whether or not to finish reading the release. Publicity Insider gives a great example of a bad vs. good introductory paragraph.

Bad Press Release Lead

Recently on theplace4vitamins.com, an online store dedicated to selling the best herbal products, teenagers had the chance to say what they thought about weight loss and whether a society that pressures young people to be thin is a good thing or a bad thing.

Good Press Release Lead

America’s teenagers are angry at Hollywood for glamorizing ultra-thin bodies, and many girls say they feel too self-conscious about their bodies as a result of watching TV, movies and music videos. The findings are gleaned from more than six months of ongoing discussion and debate at the website theplace4vitamins.com. According to theplace4vitamins.com President John Smith, anger and resentment toward the Hollywood ultra-thin runs deep, particularly among teenage girls.

Be sure to use quotes from the company or customers to add meat to your press release and add a human element to the story.

Journalists Are Smart

Journalists are smart and can smell self-promotion, fluff, and BS a mile away. Something is not newsworthy because your company has great customer service, provides services or products at a cheap affordable price, or because your idea is “innovative” when it really is just a small expansion on a previous idea.

Really sit down and set some time aside to discover the elements of your idea and story that stand out and are noteworthy. Put yourself in the shoes of the journalist or blogger you will be pitching to and try to understand what makes them tick. How is this story similar to others they have written? What emotion is it meant to excite in the reader? Why will the reader talk about this story at dinner and shoot a copy of the article to their friends?

Track Your Views with Bitly or Owly

The only thing that’s worse than not making progress is not knowing whether or not your are making progress. Bloggers or reporters might not be picking up your story, but it’s important to be able to track and see if they are at least looking at it! You can use the free link tracking service Bitly (can be used in many social media management softwares like Buffer and TweetDeck) or Owly (connected to Hootsuite) to accomplish this.

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This article was written by Salvador Briggman