Five Reasons Why You Need The Media

By Sharon Sim-Krause

“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent,” said Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist author who lived in the 1800s. More than 200 years later, this statement still rings true. Organizations must find ways to communicate and convince your target publics of the worth of your missions, services and products – or compromise success.

Here are Five Reasons Why You Need The Media:

1) Reach Your Target Publics

The media has the uncanny ability to reach thousands and millions of the right people in an amazingly short time. The company/individual who knows how to reach the media has mastered one thing – the ability to leverage the media for mutual benefit.

2) Influence The Influencers

When you influence the media, you influence the “influencers.” The nature of the media’s job is to make sense of the myriad of situations, issues, services and products they come across, report on them, and inevitably influence the audiences they reach.

3) Reach Decision Makers

How many times have you read a positive movie or product review and decided right then and there that you had to see/have it? Now imagine if you can harness that power, develop the right messages and engage in a focused, concerted way of reaching the media. What kind of “multiplier” effect will it generate? And if sustained over time, how will it contribute to your success?

4) Exposure!

The media loves all things new, novel and different. If you have a new organization, a new program/service/product, or something new to say – talk to them. You help them by sharing your news. You in turn help raise your own public awareness and credibility.

5) Become A Trailblazer

The media loves to be the first to report on the latest new trend, be it the iPad’s launch and its implications on the publishing world, the latest Spring fashions or healthcare reform. If you know how to be the first to communicate a trend, demonstrate how you or your organization is leading this trend, you’ve just hit the jackpot… well, almost.

Never underestimate the media. They can make you famous, infamous, or worse, non-existent!

About the Author Sharon Sim-Krause is president of PR consultancy Sim-Krause Consulting, a writer, coach, and inspiration agent. She is formerly EVP at GolinHarris, a top 10 PR firm. She can be reached at [email protected] and through her blog Shot of Inspiration.