TWP – The key for you to be featured on the media

The people use to have worthy stories for releasing to the public more frequently than they believe. Mostly, the problem is that for many reasons they don’t reach the media and leave missing. That disappoints those people so much, who become to believe the journalism has no quite interest, although it really could be about ignoring a technique making those stories highly attractive to be released

Although having a contact could be your first response, the challenge is how becoming to be public not meeting anybody and not trusting so blind in the power of social media (they help but the chance to overcome is almost a gamble). In the oter hand, you could have the problem of a low, none budget for making a big media campaign that put you in the spotlight. That’s why I propose here a matrix you can consider for that effort begins to be successful.

Memorize this acronyme – TWP, that resumes the skills you must achieve: telling a story, writing a story, pitching a story.

Telling the story

Piura, Peru-based journalist Margarita Rosa Vega, one of my mentors, said during a meeting before scientists, that the best way to say what you are doing is to assume your audience is a 5-year-old boy or girl, so your two first challenges will be to catch their interest and to wonder them.

The first one is gotten by ordering all your data under two logic structures. First, the classic drama or 3-act play, that begins to set me up the basic data of your story, then it develops them, finally it drives them to an open or close end. Second, using what we call inverse pyramid  in journalism, that means putting the important, interesting in the beginning, letting the irrelevant, indifferent for the end.

The second one is gotten by playing the role of who is going to know your story and anticipating a questionnaire you are going to answer by using one of the two structures in the previous paragraph, but taking the ability to create them new questions those leave them hungry to know more. What’s next?  What comes up? How does that change my life?

Writing the story

Having clear the structure to tell the story and the datadose, the best you can do is to take your pencil or your keyboard and starting to write. I know this may be the most complicated part for many persons in case of not having the practice, but it’s precisely the practice  what you need to reach mastership.

Use simple sentences, those subject+verb+complement basic structure, then read what you have written as many times as it makes sense. Correct it as much as you can, then test it. If you don’t have a friend journalist who review it to you, send it to someone you don’t know a lot, who almost ignores what you do, and don’t ask if understood it (to say yes or no) but to say what understood in personal words.

If the answer matches or approaches muchly to the idea you want to spread, you’re pretty on your way. If it doesn’t match or get too away your idea, re-write and when you have a new version, send it to another person below the same criteria. You can also send it to me. I’ll leave you how to contact me down this entry.

Pitching the story

Once your written version had approved the test, have it ready and pay attention to its two first paragraphs. Then, start the adventure to contact the mass media for telling wwhat you are doing. But look, you don’t have to target random, look for the one most preferred by the people whom you are going to address, and the best way to know it is by asking them straight which one they prefer. Save their two first answers.

When you have defined the medium, enter its website, search its contact info, notice if its articles or stories are signed, maybe the author leaves a contact e-mail or social media account. If affirmative, ssend a message telling your story in brief. How is it achieved? Do you remember the two first paragraphs you should choose and memorize? So, here is when you are going to need them.

If the journalist manifests to be interested and replies you, attach the text you wrote in the step-2 exercise. If you have pictures or video links, include them. It’s bettet to use the Attach Files function instead of embedded data because there will be problems at the time we download them. Here is just when your social media are going to work: if you have released something and you got many favorable votes as well as good comments, it’s almost sure that the journalist will propose your story to the editors, and they approve the coverage. If you get to interest the editors, bonus point in your favor.

If you want more advise or need an intensive personal or remote training, you can write to my e-mail address, or contact me on my Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts.