Getting media attention for your business is an incredible way to get great content that you can share with your audience, increase your credibility (if the media thinks you're an expert, so will other people!), and widen your reach and get more people knowing who you are.

This week's podcast is all about how to do that. I had the pleasure of not only interviewing Media and Communications consultant, Christy Laverty when we were both at the Blissdom Canada conference last week, but also rooming with her for a night and getting to know her in person!

We had a chance to record a chat about how you can get media attention for your business. During our chat she shared many great actionable tips that we can all take and use to get more media attention.

Here are some of the key take away points from this week's episode with Christy Laverty:

You don't need a PR company to be able to get media attention. In fact, many reporters and producers WANT to talk to the person the story is about and not a "professional".
Media is looking for story ideas so they welcome you sending ideas to them.
Make sure that you figure out what angle to pitch your story. You want to fit in with something that makes sense for the producer. They have no interest in running a story that turns out to be a commercial for your business - make it interesting for listeners first.
Add a different opinion or voice to an existing story. Media will talk about a topic a lot over the course of a couple of days, but they don't want it to always sound the same. Help them make it interesting.
Tell them how you want to be described when you're being introduced. This is your opportunity to include your website or a title you want to be known by.
Media relations is free, you probably couldn't afford to advertise to an audience of that size.

How do you find out what stories to talk about?

Set up Google Alerts or Check Yahoo News. Sign up for The Skimm, an email service that curates news headlines for you. Follow the headlines and then figure out how you can make yourself useful within those topics.

How to pitch?

No need for a news release. Send a personalized email. Propose a story idea and then ask when they have time to talk about it further. Know that a lot of producers and reporters have funny hours so you need to make yourself available to them based on their timelines.

Follow them on Twitter. Look and see who reporters and producers are following because they often follow each other.

Remember the value of relationships. By being helpful and available when needed, they will remember you when you ask them for something.

Go on a media binge/diet. Spend time listening, reading and watching the kinds of shows your audience would listen to, read and watch. Make sure you understand the kinds of stories they run and how your story fits with that before you make a pitch.