Hype Yourself. Lucy Werner

Images

       2.4 Biographies

       2.5 Guest posts

       2.6 Features

       2.7 Press releases

       Chapter 3: Starting your press office

       3.1 Journalist details

       3.2 Why help a journalist who isn’t directly related to your business?

       3.3 Where to look if you have a product and how to pitch

       3.4 Guest posts

       3.5 Podcasts

       3.6 Guest panellist

       3.7 Write for the national news

       3.8 Hosting your own event

       3.9 Feature pitch tips

       3.10 News desks

       3.11 Interviews and Q&As

       Chapter 4: The brain farts

       4.1 Newsjacking

       4.2 Picture stories

       4.3 Video stories

       4.4 Influencer engagement

       4.5 Research

       4.6 TV

       4.7 Radio

       4.8 Social media for PR

       4.9 Business book

       Any other business

       When to hire a PR agency or book some PR coaching

       Don’t believe the hype?

       Useful resources

       Key terms

       Recommended reading

       Acknowledgements

      DEDICATION

      For my sunshine Hadrien, who always hypes me and

      helps me to keep on hyping everyone else.

       FOREWORD

      Jim Cregan, co-founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee

      When we launched Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, we had large production runs of product with a relatively short shelf life, which meant we had to do everything in our power to get the word out to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

      And that meant becoming the ultimate company prostitute. We sold ourselves wherever we went. We would pull people over in the street to try our product, interrupt surfers returning from the waves, accountants legging it onto the tube and more, way way more.

      What I love most about PR is the actual meaning of the phrase: Public Relations. The relationship we have with the public and how we want to behave around them. It’s worth thinking about that. PR is so much more than just a black book and a hefty bill at The Ivy in return for a feature in a trade mag.

      Lucy really understood what we were and what we stood for, making it an honest joy to work with her, and she generated some awesome ‘hype’ for us. If you can’t have her working with you in person, this book is the next best thing – read it, then get out there and hype yourself!

       INTRODUCTION

      Welcome to Hype Yourself. My name is Lucy and I have over 15 years’ experience in communications, working both inhouse and for some of London’s top PR agencies. These days, I run a communications consultancy and training hub at www.thewern.com, for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I handle the PR and my partner does design and branding, so we are a one-stop shop to launch and grow new or independent companies.

      I was sick of working for brands that had no heart and wanted to work with businesses that I cared about and people I liked to give them affordable PR solutions. In the last five years, I’ve personally worked with over 100 entrepreneurs globally, but there are millions of founders who can’t afford basic PR costs or even realise the value, which is why I wanted to write this book.

      Publicity takes time and research but with consistency (and other than the cost of your time), you can transform your business for free. Unlike other PR book authors, I’m walking my own talk, continually learning and evolving my own craft so that I can pass this knowledge on to you. I’ve seen first-hand how transformative promoting myself has been for my own business as well as that of my clients.

      Hyping myself landed me a book deal, national newspaper coverage, paid-for speaking gigs, teaching opportunities, invitations to appear on podcasts and allowed me to increase my consultancy fees.

      But don’t just take my word for it, have a read through of the multiple expert tips, client examples and journalist hacks that I’ve collated to give you as many tangible takeaways as possible to promote your business.

       What is PR?

      PR is more than just telling your story to journalists. It is anything you do that is in the public eye and, I believe, is the best free tool that should be part of your marketing mix. Unlike advertising, where you are visible for as long as you pay to be, publicity has no shelf life.

      Any time you are responding in the public eye, you have an opportunity to hype yourself. This might look like:

      – Talking to new connections at an event

      – How you respond in a crisis

      – What you post on Instagram

      – How you launch a product

      – The tactics you use to drive email sign-ups

      – Your mechanics to encourage positive mentions and awareness around your business

      – Your company blog

      – An industry report or whitepaper

      – Speaking engagements.

      And a great publicist will work with you to help you strategically steer all of this as well as generate creative campaigns to get your message out there. They may