Identify your news stories
It’s seven weeks until InfoSecurity Europe 2017, so now is the time to start focussing on your big story for the show. Capturing those ‘news’ gems and knowing what journalists want doesn’t have to be a headache – this is what you need to look for:
- ‘New’ product developments/services/technologies – when you write these up, it’s important to focus on a) how your customer benefits from your innovation or introduction b) how you have achieved this. This is not the place for a technical homily.
- Size matters. Look for large, unusual, or unexpected project wins that might make good headline stories – make sure you include one or two BIG, or unexpected stats.
- Don’t be modest. Be prepared to show off your knowledge with some thoughtful insights into emerging markets, industry challenges or surprising trends and if you have the data to back up your opinions, use it!
- Money talks. Ask your accounts department to remind you what invoices have been issued in the last quarter – every one of these is a possible customer story.
Third party involvement
There are three groups of people who may be able to help you be more visible at InfoSecurity Europe 2017. Customers, partners, and the press. Here’s how:
- Say please. Whenever you use customer information, it’s always wise to ask permission first. It’s polite and it offers you the opportunity to speak with your customer and remind them what a great job you did.
- Make it easy. Ask them if they would be happy to provide a verbal endorsement from you, ask them what they liked best about working with you and then offer to write it for them if they are short of time. Keep to the facts, make the quote intelligent and informative, not floral and pointless. Once written, make sure they are happy with your composition.
- Picture this. Start collating images which bring your story to life, see #5 about photography on my last blog. Ask customers, partners or brief your own photographer – just make sure you have at least two strong images.
- Be relevant. Make sure your press contact list is targeted, current and contains named contacts. Journalists’ biggest irritation is receiving press releases which have no relevance to the topic(s) they cover. It can appear rude and rather arrogant or just sloppy if you don’t do your research first.
- Be exclusive. Choose one or two magazine/websites that you consider influential amongst your target audience and offer them exclusives. Work hard to help them get to grips with your stories. Offer them subject matter experts to help them develop quality editorial.
If in doubt, give me a shout: follow me @Lorraine_Emmett
