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How have you engaged journalists to cover your product?
Hi all - I just launched a new digital fitness product, Solon (solonfit.com), with the end goal of creating greater equity in the digital fitness space. Solon is a completely free platform that aggregates the best follow-along videos from the web and shares them with users in a thoughtful, fitness-focused product.
I am interested in learning some successful tactics that folks in this community have used in order to engage journalists and have them cover your company/product. Any advice/feedback on how to navigate this world would be greatly appreciated!
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Tatiana Kukova, PhD
It is quite tricky to engage journalists to cover your story. First of all, chose suitable outlets for your fitness-focused product. "How," you may ask. Search for articles that cover fitness apps. Secondly, meet-ups can help as many founders get access to journalists through their network. Thirdly, journalists love referrals, and many will only communicate with start-ups they know and their network of friends. Fourthly, chose a niche newspaper or magazine. Prestigious magazines will require similar stories to what they have there, so pay attention (this point can also be extended to all types of media).
In the digital age, it is becoming harder and harder (not easier, mind you) to get in touch with the "right" journalists, so be extra careful about the language you are using for your product. "Creating greater equity in the digital fitness space" is a great start. Diversity and inclusion are paramount, and I can't agree with you more on that. Journalists will spot it, too.
Finally, you may try to get in touch with a PR agency. This is a controversial subject, but they have more access to various outlets, especially if you have none.
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I think you have to actually reach them and tell them why your product can make their reader exciting. Another option would be pay them to write for you.
@aleksandra_vovchenko - maybe I need to start with a different question: How have you engaged other product hunters to answer your question? 😂
@aleksandra_vovchenko @jamsili @jeff_zhang5 https://publicizeads.com/ is a best platform to promote your products. Try this its free.
Hi @nazeem_abbas I checked out the website and doesn't really seem to have many opportunities at all and the about us page still has dummy text in there.. So not sure what this is?
Great tips here. Would also add that you should probably triple (or more) the lead time you think it’ll take to get organic PR. Unless you have a really hot product (in which case the press will find you!) or get really lucky... it’s a slog, and it takes a lot of effort to get out in front of it. In my most recent company, we had to chase articles for months before the right kinds of journalists started either having some awareness of us (because I reached out after the LAST relevant article they wrote a few months ago) or because when researching we caught them with ads.
In non-COVID times a great way to get some press was always to speak at conferences—often if you had a good hook you could always do a talk, meet a writer, have a drink, and get some love... I’m sure there’s a virtual equivalent these days, but I haven’t found it :(.
Start the process by building a rapport with journalist even before you contemplate launching your product. You can do that by searching for journalists who've already written about your topic or industry.
HARO or Help a Reporter Out is a good starting point https://www.helpareporter.com/.
