Driving Toward Promotion

You have a product. You want to sell it. You want to use PR to promote it.
So which type of media outlet is going to be the one to help you do this? Will radio save the day? Will television send sales through the roof? Will a blog drive record traffic to your site?
Well, wherever your target market is, that’s where you need to be. If they’re listening to talk radio shows that come on between 3 and 5 in the morning, you need to get on these shows. If the people interested in your product are reading the local paper, pitch the journalist who would be the one writing about your product. If most of your target market is frequenting a specific blog, then you guessed it — start developing a relationship with that blogger.
So you’ll have to research. Start in the social networking communities and find out what your potential clients are reading, watching and listening to. Everyone is sharing what they’re interested in these days. Get on Twitter and you’ll see “so and so is currently reading this” or visit social bookmarking sites like Digg! or Delicious, type in the keyword related to your product or expertise and see what comes up. You might be surprised where people are getting their information. You know, most media outlets have an online version too, which is great because it’s cross-promotional. Some people might not listen to NPR, but they visit NPR.org to find their information. Some might not watch their local news station, but will visit the station’s website to watch clips and so forth. You have to figure it out, though, if you want to use PR to successfully promote your product.
Think of it this way:
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Probably, but I can tell you this: if you land a media placement and your target market isn’t around to hear it, you just wasted your time. Just like the tree, your media placement probably made a sound, but not one that resonates and translates into sales.