We Earn Media

Do you ever email the same contact monthly or even weekly and wonder if it’s ever just, too much? Have you ever wondered if it’s ok to ask for interview questions in advance? Has a “Dear PR people” tweet from a journalist ever made you wince? If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, then this is the episode for you! We’re going “old school cool” with our roots and analyzing a winning pitch to start. With some new tips we hadn’t heard, you’ll want to tune in and add to your own, personalized ‘best practices’ library.

In this episode, you’ll learn best practices for…

Our guest is:

Whether you’re a freelancer, agency owner, or employee, there will come a time in your career when you may need to make the case for another party to pay you more money. Especially in today’s economic climate, the question begs: “How do I know if it’s appropriate to re-negotiate my pay and how do I go about it in a strategic way?” Frankly, this is not your typical, “know your worth” discussion. Rather, our guest today, whose passion is helping professionals earn more by building sustainably run businesses, will share the nuances and considerations that go into negotiating your rate.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to…

Our guest is:

We all know that relationship-building outside of the inbox is important. In theory, we should be interacting with our contacts via social on a regular basis. For some, this is the best part of the job. For others, the worst part.  Our guest today is a follow publicist whose passion is building rapport outside of the inbox.  She shares real psychological theories that demonstrate why being intentional with your online presence and putting in the work to be seen by journalists, might be the tie-breaker that earns you the only ‘yes’ a journalist sends out that day.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

Our guest is:

Whether you have charts or commentary to complement the story you're pitching, our guest today has insights on how to bring your story asset game to the next level. We start with a data report with embeddable charts that Britt pitched our guest. These charts are what caught their eye and incentivized them to write the story. (Go Britt, for a successful pitch!) A special note regarding this episode: we recorded this during Hurricane Ian (11/28/2022) in Florida, where both Jackie and our guest reside. So, keep in mind there are some minor technical difficulties. We persisted, Jackie and our guest survived the storm, and we were able to wrap up at a later date. Nonetheless, please enjoy this episode. :) 

In this episode, you'll learn...

Our guest today is...

What do 2,000 digital PR pieces created by 11 agencies and in-house teams tell us about campaign success? Our guest shares her findings of this exact analysis with us. From this, you'll walk away with a greater understanding of what performance looks like across the board, and how your own work might fit into this landscape.

In this episode you'll learn:

Our guest is... 

Hannah Smith, Director of Worderist-- a company that offers consultancy, coaching, training & support to help develop and grow Creative, Production, and PR teams, improve processes and deliver results. Smith is an award-winning creative who's been deep in the trenches of content and PR for more than 15 years. 

PSST...

Her dataset is publicly available, if you want to nerd out. :) 

We have a friend of the show, Casey Bond, back for more HARO and general press query tips. You may remember Casey from our “To Catch a Fake Financial Expert,” episode, where she uncovers a fake expert on HARO. Well, despite her large exposé, spammers have not learned their lessons. In fact, Casey shares the growing number of transgressions she’s spotting in her inbox these days. Even if your HARO game is on-point, you’ll still want to brush up on these latest tips to avoid future blunders.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to…

Our guest is:

Remember our newsletter episode with Neal Freyman of Morning Brew? Well, we have the publicist he gives a shoutout to as our guest for today's episode! Not only does she represent Malcolm Gladwell, but she specializes as a publicist of authors, academics, and thought leaders with “big ideas” and thoughts to share with the world. Sometimes these clients are well-known. Sometimes they are not. How do her strategies and challenges differ depending on the level of “fame” of whom she is representing? Tune in to find out!

In this episode, you'll learn...

Our guest is...

Nicole Morano, Publicity Director at Pushkin Industries, the audio company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg. She works closely with journalists and thought-leaders such as Michael Lewis, Jill Lepore, and Dr. Laurie Santos. Before her role at Pushkin, Morano worked for almost a decade as a publicist in the book publishing industry at Penguin Random House. She lives in Brooklyn where she tries valiantly to keep her house plants alive.

We analyze a pitch for a social app that received a humble amount of funding, but captivated our guest to cover the story for TechCrunch. From it, you’ll learn about how authenticity can shine through in your brand. Amanda offers her unique perspective as a full-time contractor for TechCrunch with experience as a freelance journalist. You’ll receive tips on pitch etiquette, emails, and a reminder that who you reach out to is just as important as what you’re pitching. We also have a special bonus resource of Amanda’s Google Doc, so check it out here: What I Cover & How to Pitch Me - Amanda Silberling.

In this episode you’ll learn…

How to catch a journalist’s attention in your pitch!

Stories we talked about:

Flox, an app to help friend groups meet each other, is wooing college students in NYC

In this episode, we chat with Amanda Milligan about creating newsworthy content. Several of our previous guests have stressed the importance of following the news. Today, we’ll discuss how we can use it to create relevant content for your audience that earns future links. Not only will you get some tips from our guest, but you’ll also hear from Britt and Jackie on resources that have given them ideas for content. You’ll walk away with solid insights on helping your brand build authority and generate press.

In this episode you’ll learn…

How to contextualize the news to fit your brand, no matter what your industry is!

Tools and additional resources to help you brainstorm content ideas

How you can create evergreen content out of the news

Our guest is...

Amanda Milligan is the Head of Marketing at Stacker Studio, a data journalism newswire that partners with brands to create and distribute content to their high-authority publisher network, building brand awareness and earning links for their clients. With a degree in journalism and a decade in content marketing, she’s spent her career helping brands harness the intersection of content and SEO. Her expertise has been published in Entrepreneur, Forbes, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, Moz, The Next Web, and more, and she’s spoken at industry-leading events, including SMX, MozCon, BrightonSEO, and Pubcon.

In this episode, we analyze a Vogue piece that stemmed from a different story idea entirely. From it, we learn how to nail down strategic pitching and story ideation, how to pivot when a reporter calls for it, and all the details that go into getting your client “Vogue-ready.” And, after our conversation today, you’ll walk away with newfound confidence, knowing how to stick out, not just in an accomplished freelance reporter’s email inbox, but also on their social feed!

In this episode you’ll learn…

What makes a piece “Vogue-ready” (or ‘Bustle-ready;’ ‘NY Times-ready; etc.!)

Our guest is...

Mekita Rivas is a freelance journalist and creative consultant based in Washington, D.C. She is currently a contributing editor at Cosmopolitan and a senior contributing fashion editor at Bustle. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, and others. She primarily covers culture, style, and politics through the lens of gender, race, and ethnicity.

Stories we talked about: