GET YOUR MEDIA COVERAGE TO DO DOUBLE DUTY

You did everything well and there's a neat pile of positive media clips on your desk. Time for a well earned break? Not quite.

Get your media efforts to do double duty by recycling good press coverage. It's another way to promote your cause because a reprinted newspaper or magazine article scores more credibility than any glossy brochure or corporate DVD.

But first:

• Never send a media release only to the media. Also fax or email it to people in your network. This alerts your supporters, prospects and clients to what you are doing and takes the guess work out of whether they will see, read or hear about you in the media.
  
  
• When you know that you'll be on radio or TV, email people beforehand so they can watch or hear the program.
  
  
• Use media alerts to remind people about an event coming up or the release of a report etc.

After you get good coverage, ask the publication that carried your story for permission to reprint or photocopy the article. Also ask to use the publication's title or masthead on the copy of the article. For example, see the Celebrity Sells book review from the News & Reviews section.

Then print off and recycle these copies:

• In your media kit.
  
  
• As handouts at conferences, seminars or trade shows.
  
  
• In proposals for potential clients or attach them to your CV when you are job hunting.
  
  
• As PDFs on your website and as articles in your next newsletter.
  
  
• As email attachments for supporters, colleagues, clients and friends.
  
  
• In letters to key people.
  
  
• On the office bulletin board.
  
  
• If you have scored success in a national or international publication, send a copy to your local media or a trade publication. It may just catch the eye of another reporter's who might do a follow-on story.

And of course if your coverage is really, really good, send it to your mother and frame it for your office wall.

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