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Tanya Stesen asked:




So you’ve been in business now for a few months (maybe even years) and your small business is blossoming. Then one day a potential client or advertiser asks for one of your Media Kits. Media Kit? Uhhh… sure, I’ll get that to you a.s.a.p. Only to end up frantically searching the net at 2am for any idea of what the heck is supposed to be in your “Media Kit”.

A Media Kit, also called a press packet, is simply a collection of information that typically includes a letter to the recipient, brochures, testimonials, reviews and a business card. A media kit is a sampling of key information about you and your company, what you do and why they should care.

A media kit is purely information and should always be prepared ahead of time! You never know when you will meet a prospective client or advertiser and having a professional media kit to put in their hands on the spot will insure they remember your business.

Your media kit doesn’t have to be expensive, fancy or elaborate but it does need to portray a clean, crisp and professional image. First impressions count, especially in business. A basic media kit should include, at the very least, a well written proofread cover letter, a brochure, a press release, business cards and information about your companies history and your mission.

Your media kit should be housed in a high quality, professional presentation folder which can be found at your local office supply chain. Folders with diecuts for a business card are ideal for media kits. A simple label with your company information or logo can be applied to the front to further personalize your media kit.

If you have a newsletter or if you have written articles relevant to your business you may want to include those as well. Other optional inclusions could include a listing of your products, calendar of upcoming events, professional black and white photographs or an invitation to your next event.

Last but not least – Follow Up. Follow up calls can be made 3-4 days after the media kit has been mailed out. If possible make sure all media and advertising contacts receive an updated media kit each quarter with new articles, press releases and information of course.

M Vroom asked:




Mobile catering refers to selling food out of some type of mobile vehicle, either a truck or van in most occasions. It is similar to regular catering since the food is brought directly to the customers, but is served directly out the vehicle rather than inside a building. Mobile catering is popular in many urban locations where it is convenient to grab food on the run, and it is a great business opportunity for those looking to get into the food business.

A mobile food truck is a great investment for anyone interested in getting into the food business, since it doesn’t require one to buy or lease an entire restaurant. Instead, individuals can sell their homemade goods right out of a moving vehicle, and can travel to popular locations where they know they can make a profit.

An ice cream van is similar to a mobile food truck, since they were invented in order to distribute ice cream to people walking on the street. A mobile food truck or van is designed similar to an ice cream van, since it has a large window that makes it easy to converse with customers. The inside of the van is completely different though, since ice cream vans are full of freezers in order to keep the ice cream cold.

A mobile food truck is almost like a small and portable kitchen, since it contains many of the same components as a regular kitchen. It can contain places to heat up food, a fridge and freezer for storage, a sink for washing up, and even a drink fountain for dispensing colas. They also contain locations for storage and even shelves for displaying products, and a counter top for a cash register and storage for dishes and cups. They come in a number of different variations, and the purchaser can decide which components they need based on the menu they plan on selling.

Mobile kitchens can either be purchased as a mobile food truck or van, or as a trailer that can hook directly onto the back of a vehicle. Either way, it makes it possible to move the food business to different locations, in order to find popular locations where people are likely to be hungry. Although a mobile food truck owner may have to travel to several locations when they first start off, they usually find the most popular locations and travel to them at the same time every day.

A mobile food truck or kitchen is a great purchase for anyone getting into the food business, especially since not many have time to sit in a restaurant for a meal anymore. It is a convenient way to sell food and appeal to a wide variety of customers, and it doesn’t require a huge initial investment like a restaurant would. They usually only require one or two people to operate, and can pay for themselves in no time. A mobile food truck and kitchen is a great investment for anyone interested in the food business, and can even transform into a family partnership if it gains enough popularity.

Jim Hart asked:




If you are thinking about initiating a public relations/media communications effort it makes sense to understand the media markets to help formulate a communications strategy. In this article we will discuss the major media markets and practical considerations associated with a low budget communications plan.

THE TOP-30 MEDIA MARKETS

As mentioned in (Part 1) of this series, there are 30 major cities in America known as the TOP-30 media markets. They are called major media markets because the population levels exceed over one million people across a wide demographic audience and they are:

Atlanta, GA

Milwaukee, WI

Baltimore, MD

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Boston, MA

New Orleans, LA Chicago, IL

New York, NY Cincinnati, OH

Philadelphia, PA Cleveland, OH

Phoenix, AZ Columbus, OH

Pittsburgh, PA Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

Portland, OR Denver, CO

Sacramento, CA

Detroit, MI

St. Louis, MO Houston/Galveston, TX

San Diego, CA Indianapolis, IN

San Francisco, CA Kansas City, NE

Seattle/Tacoma, WA Los Angeles, CA

Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL Miami, FL

Washington, DC

These media markets represent the biggest bang for the buck if you get booked for newspaper, radio or TV interviews because of the sheer volume of readers and radio and TV audiences. Each of these cities have at least one anchor newspaper organization located in them (The Boston Globe, The Columbus Dispatch and the Chicago Tribune, etc), for example, and even smaller newspapers can reap a substantial amount of response from a simple mention of your project. Do not underestimate any media in these cities or the surrounding areas within a 100-mile radius. If you are looking for big time coverage and major public awareness, these cities are they place to focus your time and resources.

SMALL CITIES

Smaller cities, those that do not appear in the list above, can still generate significant results in areas with populations ranging from about 250,000-750,000 people. While not considered a major media market, coverage by TV, radio and newspapers concurrently can create quite an impact on public awareness. Again, these cities should not be overlooked in the communications planning.

SMALL TOWNS

Small towns include population centers from about 25,000-100,000 people and many times only have a local newspaper organization, some local magazines and a few local radio stations. TV broadcasts are often received from neighboring cities and through cable.

TALKING TO THE MEDIA

Every city, no matter how small or how large, has a natural order within the media; Newspapers organizations are headed up by editors and specialty column writers and the electronic media (radio and TV) all have producers and hosts. When dealing with newspaper organizations you want to target your calls to the appropriate reporters covering your story idea. For example, if you were trying to promote a book on cars, then you would want to talk to the reporter covering the auto motive section, if your story deals with real estate, the real estate reporter, and so forth. In the electronic media (radio or TV), you can either do research at the library, or order a Bacon’s media directory or call the target stations directly with your story idea. Many times the receptionist can guide you to the appropriate producers of the shows most inclined to cover your story idea. A key is to make friends with the receptionist, who is your eyes and ears into the organization. One way to establish a dialog with the receptionist is to simply ask “can you help me” and then briefly describe your story idea and ask to speak to the best producer according to the receptionists opinion. The receptionists know who’s who in these organizations and can save you a TON of time.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. If a newspaper has never interviewed you, relax, it’s a breeze. Radio and TV is different though. Many times these are live and you will be exposing your self to a considerable audience. If the media event takes live calls this can be especially nerve racking if you have no experience. In order to be professional, you must know your topic. You must be an expert in your field. When you are on live radio or TV and they plan on taking live calls, it is comparable to sitting in the middle of a packed super bowl football field and having to answer questions from anybody in the bleachers and everybody will hear your answers. Not to much of a problem if you REALLY know your topic. If you don’t know an answer to a caller’s question, be honest and say you don’t know—tell them to leave their name and number with the station and you will call back with an answer. It provides a professional way to maintain your dignity.

2. For this reason, it makes sense to target your first phase of communications towards smaller towns and focus on small newspapers and small radio stations. This way, you will gain experience in smaller venues and, if you make a mistake, you will not destroy your credibility in a large media market.

3. Concentrate your efforts into one city at a time unless you think you can handle a national PR rollout. I suggest focusing your efforts and money into a city because you want to “spin” the media all at the same time. I mean, you want all your media events to happen in a concentrated manner so that newspapers, radio stations and maybe TV cover you all within a week or so. This way you get in and get out of a city and analyze what happened, both good and bad including results.

Getting media coverage is most often a matter of being honest with everybody you deal with. You will need a professional release (the next lesson in this series) to get people’s attention but beyond that, being friendly and honest is the key to success with media. As long as your topic is informative, controversial or sensational, getting media coverage is relatively easy to do. Stay tuned to these articles, they will be updated daily over the next five (5) days.

To your success! Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved

Thomas Murrell asked:




Media training is a ‘must do’ professional development program for any serious leader or manager.

Media interview training provides you with the skills to effectively deal with the media.

Media relations training, with a specific focus on media presentation training for television can be seriously nerve wracking for first timers.

Here’s why you should consider doing a media training course and some essential tips from our media skill training courses.

If you go to the archives of any commercial television station and pull out footage from a news bulletin from the 1960s and view that footage with a stopwatch, you will find the average length of the quote (known as a sound bite or news grab) from the person being interviewed for the story is around 60 seconds.

If you watch commercial television tonight with your stopwatch at the ready, and measure each sound bite or news grab, the average length will be seven seconds.

This is why its being called McNuggett News! Its quick, slick, fast and tasty, but not very satisfying.

There are three reasons for this shortening of length.

1. Increased competition for our ever diminishing attention spans,

2. Increased choice, noise and clutter in our lives, and

3. The merging of information and entertainment dressed up as news.

So how do you get your message across about a complex, detailed issue through the media in seven seconds?

Well, you need to work out your key message and deliver it flawlessly as a media friendly quotable quote.

Remember, you have only one chance to get it right. The professional TV news crews I work with are constantly telling me about people who ring them after the interview and say “can you come back, I forgot to say this and that?”

Of course, the media are so time poor and deadline driven they never come back.

So you only have one opportunity to maximise your media moment.

How do you do this, especially for TV? Here are my Top 10 Tips:

1. Dress Well.

In the powerful visual medium of television you will be judged by your appearance. Clothing patterns and colours will contribute to the impact of your on camera interview. Avoid clothes with lots of designs or patterns. A dark jacket (blue, black, charcoal or navy) with a white shirt/blouse always looks good on camera. Take your cue from what TV newsreaders are wearing. Heed my mother’s advice: “it is better to pay the extra and buy one really good suit than have many of inferior quality.”

2. Warm Up Your Voice.

Tiger Woods wouldn’t go and play a championship round of golf without warming up. You, as a professional communicator and official spokesperson should never engage with the media without warming up your voice.

3. Speak With Increased Energy.

Speak at a higher volume, range, tone and pitch than you would normally. Imagine having a conversation with someone and speaking at a slightly more animated level than you would normally.

4. Anchor Your Feet and Slow Deliberate Movements.

The more you move around the more your body language will distract from your message. Doing interviews standing, even radio interviews, will change your whole physiology and give your more energy and authority. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and firmly anchored to the ground. It is hard to sound credible standing on one foot.

At the book launch of Understanding Influence For Leaders At All Levels, I learnt from co-author Des Guilfoyle that slow, fluid and deliberate movements will give you more referent power, charisma and personal magnetism.

TIP: Watch your interviews with the sound off to get a better idea of what your body language is doing in the interview.

5. Keep Calm.

Assertive, aggressive, even angry reporters will fire off questions at you quickly, like bullets spitting from a machinegun. Their speech patterns will be intense and fast. Do not get drawn into mirroring and matching these patterns. In these situations, take a breath and speak more slowly than the interviewer.

6. Memorise Your Three Key Points.

You must be able to deliver these flawlessly without reading notes. Firstly, write them down. Writing things down helps fix them in the mind and seeing them written down also helps. Then compose a visual picture of the actual words. Visually place them in the top left part of your brain. When remembering these points, look to the top left hand part of the brain and they will come to you instantly like magic.

In technical terms, brain experts have shown the left-side of the prefrontal cortex (just behind the forehead) experiences increased blood flow as new information enters our episodic memory. In fact, the brain’s thesaurus is dispersed in many separate parts of the left cerebral hemisphere (Source: The Odd Brain by Dr Stephen Juan, Harper Collins, 1998).

7. Never Say No Comment.

Journalists will believe ‘where there is smoke there is fire’. Say no comment, but back this up with a valid reason.

8. Drink Plenty Of Water.

Keep hydrated and avoid caffeine and milk prior to an interview. Milk gums up your saliva glands leading to a dry mouth. This manifests itself in the common nervous habit of licking dry lips.

9. Get In The Moment.

Elite athletes talk about and practice getting in the zone to achieve peak performance. You need to do the same.

Try this: Relax, close your eyes and take three deep breaths, focussing on clearing your mind. Then visualise a moment in the past where you felt very motivated and very confident. Capture this moment in your mind and anchor those feelings. Place this mental picture inside your right hand and clench making a fist. Cover this fist with your left hand. Repeat this process until you can instantly put yourself into a state of peak performance.

10. Review, Evaluate and Improve.

After each media interview always review:

What worked well?

What could be improved?

What will I work on for next time?