Does it feel as if it is getting harder and harder to make connections with the media? Is the competition for print space getting increasingly overwhelming? Have you often thought it would help to work with a formula for success to making more media connections?Public relations and marketing practices are vital to the formula for success of any company or organization. Reaching targeted publics and markets is vital to the success of public relations and marketing. With shrinking media outlets and more competition for news and event coverage, public relations and marketing professionals from all genres of business, all sizes of companies and types of organizations have to find ways to win print space and broadcast time. The T-Connector Formula introduced in Making the Media Connection Topic, Timing, Type of Media is the perfect formula for success in making media connections. The T-Connector Formula can be applied to traditional media connections such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television as well as the new media resources including social media, blogs and Internet-based news sites. to the right audience (topic) then making it relevant to the time of the year or current events and getting the news sent on deadline (timing) and selecting the right media resources such as local, regional or national newspapers (type of media) are the results produced by the T-Connector Formula. Whether you are new to public relations and marketing, a seasoned professional or are tasked with coordinating these functions, using the T-Connector Formula to evaluate all communications released by a company or organization can help produce quality promotional messages that get noticed and get published. Using the T-Connector Formula every time, all the time, will go a long way in helping public relations and marketing professionals in making those much sought after media connections.

MAKING THE MEDIA CONNECTION Topic Timing Type of Media

Using the T-Connector Formula for Marketing and Public RelationsBy Patricia Faulhaber

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Patricia Faulhaber
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-2504-2

Contents

CHAPTER ONE T-Connector Formula For Marketing And Public Relations.....................1CHAPTER TWO Marketing..................................................................13CHAPTER THREE Public Relations.........................................................21CHAPTER FOUR An Integrated Communications Plan.........................................31CHAPTER FIVE Topic: The Message!.......................................................35CHAPTER SIX Know The Audience When Developing The Topic................................51CHAPTER SEVEN Meet The Sample Companies................................................59CHAPTER EIGHT Topic And The Sample Companies...........................................67CHAPTER NINE Timing....................................................................77CHAPTER TEN Audience And Timing........................................................87CHAPTER ELEVEN Timing And The Sample Companies.........................................91CHAPTER TWELVE Type Of Media...........................................................95CHAPTER THIRTEEN More About The Internet Media.........................................107CHAPTER FOURTEEN More About Broadcast Media............................................113CHAPTER FIFTEEN Your Audience's Choice Of Media........................................117CHAPTER SIXTEEN Type Of Media And The Sample Companies.................................123CHAPTER SEVENTEEN So Let's Make The Connection.........................................129CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Making The Connection With The Sample Companies.......................137CHAPTER NINETEEN Keeping The Connection................................................143CHAPTER TWENTY Crossing The T-connection...............................................149CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Keeping T-connected To Your Audience................................155APPENDIX A..............................................................................159APPENDIX B..............................................................................161APPENDIX C..............................................................................164

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

T-CONNECTOR FORMULA FOR MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Topic, Timing, and Type of Media

"There are no gains without pains." Benjamin Franklin

Business, industry, social service, government, education, large and small, and everyone in between use some form of communications, be it in sales, marketing, or public relations. Zig Ziglar wrote in his book, Secrets of Closing the Sale, that anyone who uses effective persuasion is, in effect, in the business of sales, no matter whom you are or where you work.

To be effective in today's world of commerce, everyone must also be in the business of communications. There is a saying that grows ever more important in the current competitive business world: "Out of sight, out of mind, out of business."

To be seen or heard, you need to have an edge, or a plan, or a formula. The T-Connector Formula can help you successfully communicate with your company's or organization's publics.

WHAT IS THE T-CONNECTOR FORMULA?

There are three parts to the T-Connector Formula. Each part addresses one of the following issues:

1) Having the right topic or message 2) At the right time (and before deadline)

3) Communicating the message using the right type of media The T-Connector Formula shows a business owner, manager, department head, nonprofit organization director, or public relations or marketing professional how to get the right message to the right type of media in the proper time frame. Put these three elements together, as illustrated below, they make a T-connection.

WHY USE THE T-CONNECTOR FORMULA?

Face it, everyone communicating with marketing and public relations through the media is competing against each other for the same media time and space. Only a certain percentage will actually win the time and space they seek. Using a systematic, organized attempt with the T-Connector Formula can help put a company in the lead. Keep in mind the only way to guarantee print space or airtime is to buy it, as in paid advertising.

Professionally, I have over twenty years of experience in writing, public relations, sales, and marketing. I also have spent several years in sales management and have extensive experience in teaching and promoting adult education. I am also an avid reader. I have read hundreds of business-related books, including books on public relations and marketing.

What this book does is introduce you to the T-Connector Formula and shows you step-by-step how to use the formula effectively. The T-Connector Formula is a formula that first-time and long-time professionals can apply to the process of obtaining press time and space for their company or organization.

The main objectives of public relations and marketing are to promote, promote, and promote. You can do this by informing and persuading or buying advertising. No matter the medium, the T-Connector Formula provides an effective framework to get started on promoting, promoting, promoting.

MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS

What kind of professional background or training and education do the best public relations and marketing professionals have to make them most effective in promoting, promoting, and promoting? Many start out going to college as journalism majors. Others start with marketing or communications majors or training.

The ultimate public relations professional knows their way around both the journalism and marketing or promotion worlds.

Journalists oftentimes change careers and enter the public relations arena. Having an ex-journalist in a public relations department can certainly help get the company's news in to print. On the downside, journalists are not trained to market or promote.

Professionally trained marketers, on the other hand, often lack the experience or knowledge of how to get company news to the public, but they know how to interpret demographics and they know about focus groups and product, place, and price.

It can be a difficult task to find the professional that has both backgrounds. You more than likely will have a marketing person and a public relations person or separate departments.

If your company does have two separate departments, to achieve maximum promotion, try combining or integrating the marketing and public relations departments into one powerful promotional machine.

This works so well because of the similarities of the activities for marketing and public relations. Both require the following:

* Planning

* Preparing

* Evaluating

* Implementing

* Communicating effectively

This book examines the communications link and how to best utilize topic, timing, and type of media (the T-Connector Formula) to effectively promote (market) and inform, persuade, and build solid relationships (public relations).

In other words, whether you work in public relations or marketing, or you are wearing many...