How to Get Featured on TV and More
Christina Nicholson is known as the Media Maven. Today, she shares her knowledge about traditional media, how you can use it to get publicity for your book, releasing your book at its most appropriate time, and some tips and strategies to get the most out of your publicity efforts.
What We Discuss with Christina Nicholson:
- What is traditional media and why it matters
- The power of earning your publicity
- How to reach out to the media
- Why you shouldn’t be overly promotional about your book
- Timeliness is critical in releasing a book
- Dropping hints about your book when doing interviews
- The power of leveraging new media to turn publicity into profit
- Earning publicity doesn’t make you a big star but you can be profitable
- Which social media bucket to go for and how to get started
- How to keep your momentum going – consistency is key!
[00:40] What is Traditional Media and Why It Matters
Christina refers to traditional media as “pre-Facebook”
When you apply for Instagram verification, they don’t care about your number of followers or if you have a podcast or a popular YouTube channel. Instead, they’re going to ask for media hits which are going to be on TV and magazines.
Traditional media holds this other kind of level of authority and credibility. It gives the perception that you are a true expert. If you can earn that publicity, it will set you apart from the rest of your competition.
Earning media is the quickest way to reach the most amount of people. You don’t have to make an excuse that you’re not good enough. It can happen!
[10:05] How to Release and Promote Your Book Effectively
Timeliness is key when creating your publicity. Then you would have to wash, rinse, and repeat every month. But be able to find new angles. They’re only going to share the same news for so many days. They’re going to need a new angle.
Look at this from a journalist’s perspective. You can’t just go out and talk about yourself. It’s not the media’s job to give you a free commercial. It’s their job to educate and entertain their audience.
Drop those little hints about your book during interviews. You have to do this before your book is even published.
The biggest mistake is when you’re overly promotional in your press releases. The second biggest mistake is not leveraging the new media to turn that publicity into profit.
[16:37] Leverage New Media to Turn Publicity Into Profit
Traditional media needs to be leveraged on the new media platforms that we have today. (blog, LinkedIn, etc.).
Tag the outlet and make one media hit last longer.
Consistently share your stuff and put that on the social media queue. Once every 2-3 months, they’re going to see something you earned 3-4 years ago.
[18:50] Which Social Media Platform to Target
Who is your audience and where are they? Which social media platform to target basically depends on where your audience is.
- LinkedIn is a business-to-business platform. This is where you can get big business owners and the directors of marketing.
- Instagram is more for the laidback, solopreneurs, I-want-to-build-my-influence kind of platform.
- Even when you don’t have an audience on Facebook, it’s just one of those platforms where you need to have a presence.
- Twitter is good for finding your traditional media journalists. It’s like a breaking news platform. That’s where you go to if you want to find out about something. LinkedIn is also good for this but Twitter is more immediate.
Pick a couple of platforms where you’re going to see publicity turn into profit as you’re getting in front of your people.
[22:30] Getting Started
Forget about your book. Unless you’re already a big brand, nobody cares you have a book. Instead, focus on your expertise.
Next is where to pitch. Where are your people? Go to they listen to.
Authors should be on the podcast. People who listen to podcasts are more invested in their business. Podcast listeners will turn into book buyers.
Traditional media-wise, get on NPR. People who listen to it love to learn and people who love to learn, love to read books.
Get to know who you’re pitching. And pitch these people one at a time.
Become a contributor for one of the publications. It’s good to have your own blog and be a guest on other blogs. There are so many outlets online that will take you blindly. But again, focus on the outlet where your target audience is. Look at the niched platforms instead of going to the big guys.
[34:10] Final Words of Wisdom
Take all of that media and consistently be sharing it on social media. What if people only found out about you today? Consistently be sharing that media.
Make sure you tag the outlet so they see you’re sharing it. Then they’re going to come back to you for more and you can be a regular on that media outlet.
This is how you get the media to come to you. Do this right and long enough and they’re going to come to you so you would no longer have to do the pitching.
Episode Resources:
Check out Christina Nicholson’s podcast, Become a Media Maven.
Sign up for her free three-day video media class, Pitch, Publicity, Profit.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you’ll get in those three days:
Day 1: Learn how to pitch the media.
Day 2: Learn how you can nail the publicity.
Day 3: Learn how to turn publicity into profit. Listen on: 
