Why of course you would! Getting covered by the media (news site, blog, television, radio) can be great for your business. It exposes you to new audiences, helps with search engine optimization and provides content you can later use on your website and social media profiles.
Getting media coverage is, of course, quite difficult. Most business owners don’t know many journalists, and certainly don’t have the time to network with them and spend money on public relations.
Truth is, neither do journalists and bloggers. Anyone who writes for a living is swamped by content goals and deadlines. Talking to sources takes a large chunk of time, as does sourcing them. They are happy whenever they can save time during that process. That’s why some of them have come to us.
Knowing that the OwnerListens community is composed of owners who are progressive, care about their customers and savvy about using technology in their favor, journalists will sometimes ask us for a referral to a business owner or manager to interview for a story.
The requests can have quite specific criteria regarding firm size, location and industry. For example, a few days ago a reporter asked if we knew an environmentally friendly home services (e.g. carpet cleaner, plumber, exterminator) firm with less than 50 employees based in Texas, Arizona, Nevada or New Mexico.
We love to help our owner community so when a request like that comes in, we’ll look through our database and try to find a relevant business. Then we email the business for permission and connect them with the reporter once they agree. That’s a long, cumbersome process and it’s only getting harder as we add more businesses to the platform.
There has to be a better, more efficient way that will serve our owners and provide answers faster to journalists on a tight deadline. That’s why today we’re asking you to let us know ahead of time if you’d like to be included should a journalist approach us and your business fit their criteria. The faster we can make the match, the more likely the journalist is to use that business as a source.
To be included simply email us at [email protected] with the following info:
Business Name, Location (city,state), number of employees, primary business (e.g. book store), any notable comments. Notable comments could be things like Husband-Wife team, 2nd generation family business, ISO 9001, eco-friendly.
When a request that we think is relevant comes our way, we’ll suggest you to the journalist and make the connection, if desired. If we’re not sure whether you’re a fit for the criteria, we may email you to ask for more details.
Remember, you need to be an OwnerListens business to be considered, so claim your business if you haven’t already and let’s get you some publicity!