The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

If you don’t want the media to cover you, then you can stop reading and go back to NOT growing your company. But if you’re still reading then you already know the importance of good public relations and what it can do to build a good reputation and create some positive buzz.

Part of good public relations is creating and fostering relationships with journalists in varying forms of media. But how do you do that? Well if you ask me, the best way to do it is by simply giving journalists what they want—a real story. And not just any story, a story that people might actually take the time to read.

So let me ask you this. Do you want to read a story profiling a startup—when it was launched, who founded it and how it’s going? I’m thinking it’s a negative on that one. Why? Because no one cares except for the people directly involved with the startup. That’s one of the hardest things for business owners to get through their heads. Just because you think it’s cool that you launched a new service on your Web site doesn’t mean that the New York Times is going to flock to your doorstep to get the scoop. Again, no one cares.

So what do journalists care about?

They care about the human interest side of things, particularly when it comes to small business. They care about quirks and trends; whatever is on people’s minds, because that is what piques readers’ interests.

A perfect example of this is Bag Borrow or Steal, a small Seattle accessories rental shop. This shop tied itself to the Sex and the City movie and landed on the Wall Street Journal’s Independent Street. Now that’s a story a journalist will get excited about.

Had Bag Borrow or Steal sent the Wall Street Journal a press release saying that its accessories are really neat and the shop is growing rapidly, then I doubt Wendy Bounds, the small business editor, would have given it much more than a glance.

So be innovative, bold and even a little quirky, because putting together an easily recyclable version of a press release will more likely cause a journalist to doze off than jump at the chance to cover you.