Getting quoted in the press can be a powerful marketing tool, especially press that prospects read. Even better, it’s free marketing. While the hard part is forming relationships with the right journalists and getting them to call you, once they do, you want to make sure your quote gets published. A media expert lays out some tips on how to make sure your quote does not end up on the cutting room floor:
• Think in Tweets (sound bites)
• Be colorful (even provocative?)
• Have a point of view (don’t speak in truisms)
• Repeat and rhyme
• Use understandable analogies
• Tell real-life stories
• Use metaphors
• Keep it fresh
The author provides examples for each tip. (Maybe she actually eats her own cooking.) Here are some other tips:
• Return calls immediately — but don’t jump out of a client meeting, of course (though that may depend on the client)
• Be careful — what you say can and will be used against you, and becomes part of your permanent Internet record
• Assume that you are on the record even if you think you are having a personal conversation — if you don’t want to be quoted, you need to specifically say you are speaking off the record
• Remember that media is the means, not the goal. Don’t let your ego rule.
A little known fact: Once you get quoted, you’re more likely to get calls from other journalists who read your quote.
