If you’re a young startup, there’s little doubt that you’ll eventually need to get media exposure, one way or another. If you want to get noticed, and don’t have huge budgets for paid ad campaigns, then you need to know how to access and engage your target users through free media channels. Well we recently read an awesome, and actionable article on Forbes and since we at BuildaTeam.io are all about helping startups grow faster through unparalleled web and mobile development services, we felt it was only right to share the wealth. Below are some great tips for engaging through the different media channels:

Use Twitter….no seriously.

Our marketing guy always preached to us…”Make your own story”, so start there. Then find the fastest and most direct route to a journalist who will use it. Twitter has to be one of the quickest, easiest and most effective ways for an entrepreneur to find media opportunities. Just type #journorequest into the search box to uncover dozens of requests from journalists looking for help with stories on every business topic imaginable. You’ll be unlucky not to find at least one that relates to your business, so hit Reply, and tell them how you can help. Keyword there: HELP. Offer help, don’t just ask for help.

LinkedIn offers additional routes in. With a bit of research into the publications and business areas you are focusing on, you can track down the various journalists who cover them. Forget the rules about not sending requests to people you don’t know; busy journalists keep open house on social media

Be ready for the response…

If a journalist responds positively to your reach-out or Twitter reply, make sure you can deliver what you have promised them. Press releases are useful as background, but you’ll need to be available, sometimes at very short notice, to jump on a call to answer a few questions. Great images are a godsend to an editor, while a live website is essential, as they will want to check your business out.

Leverage the news

It isn’t just journalists who are always on the lookout for fresh angles on news stories to generate extra media mileage. Entrepreneurs can do it as well. Keep an eye on news within your own industry sector, and make yourself available via the channels outlined above, to provide insight for the relevant local, national and trade publications. Over time, you can become a ‘go to’ expert, and have journalists chasing you. And tune in to any opportunities to comment on broader issues, for example, how a cut in interest rates, or changes to employment legislation could affect small businesses.

But be ready to move fast – news travels like wildfire across social networks –  and work on building a list of good media contacts; journalists and bloggers who write in the media space where you want your business to be seen.

It’s also worth looking several weeks and months ahead and earmarking annual celebrations, Valentine’s day and Halloween, not to mention the countless National Days of and World Weeks of, such as Volunteers’ Week or Mens Health Week. You may be planning something interesting or unusual and definitely newsworthy, that that ties in with the event theme.

For example, Bring Your Pet To Work Day is celebrated by working pet owners everywhere, but maybe it happens every day in your business. Readers will want to know how and why. These events are also highlighted on journalists’ calendars well in advance, and they will welcome a quirky business case study, or industry expert to give their story an edge. These are valuable, easy to find opportunities that will make  your startup stand out, and get your story and your brand shared.

To read the entire article click here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alisoncoleman/2016/09/30/four-rules-of-media-engagement-for-startups/#5db31ff72ea8

Credit to Forbes, we love you!