The scientific formula for free publicity
By Paul Green
Now bear with me on this one as it’s a work in progress.
I’ve put together a scientific formula you can apply to story ideas in your quest to get free publicity.
Don’t worry; I’m not talking about PhD quality research here. This is a bit of fun that took me ten minutes to make up.
But there’s a serious point behind it.
There are five aspects to a great story that journalists will look for when deciding which suggestions to pick up and which to bin.
Here’s the formula journalists follow (they don’t know they are following this formula. They just call it having a “news sense”):
(S+(T+E)xC)/P
How scary looking is that!
Here’s what my formula stands for:
S = Standoutability: How original and different your story is
T = Timing: Whether your story fits with the current news agenda. Can even mean it is in time for the current media deadline
E = Enhancing factors: Whether you can provide the things the media outlet wants when it wants them, such as a radio interview tomorrow morning, or quality photograph on email by 5pm
C = Credibility: Who are you and is what you are saying credible?
P = Powers of communication: Whether you can communicate your story idea to a journalist accurately and quickly
The formula dictates that the Standoutability of your story is made stronger or weaker by the Timing and Enhancing Factors you can offer.
Get the Timing wrong and your story is very weak. No-one wants a Valentine’s Day story in May.
The Enhancing Factors must be right too. No point pitching your story idea to a radio station if you’re not willing to do an interview to give them the audio they need.
The Timing and Enhancing Factors are enhanced by your Credibility.
If the journalist has heard of you or written about you before, you will have greater credibility (note – you can quickly build credibility with journalists by demonstrating what makes you an expert in your field. This can be as simple as inserting a sentence into press releases summing up your career achievements. Only a sentence though; this isn’t a CV).
Finally, all of these things – the Standoutability; Timing; Enhancing Factors and Credibility – will be diluted by your Powers of Communication.
Journalists are very busy people who allow themselves to be “sold to” many times throughout their day.
So when they hear a pitch they want to know the crux of the story quickly and efficiently, whether this is in writing (a press release or email) or on the phone.
You could have the best story in the world but if you can’t communicate it effectively, it’s not going to get you free publicity.
I’m going to develop this formula so please email me with your feedback and ideas… oh, and if you are expert at writing chemical formulas, a bit of help would be much appreciated!
