Here are some tried and true tips for getting noticed.

Issue an innovative press release that is factual but amusing and gives the media an angle as to why they should cover your event.

Is your service or product tied in with a timely holiday? E.g., you are selling healthy tomato sauce and Valentine's Day is coming up, you could send out your sauces to the appropriate press with a recipe attached for a romantic evening for two!

Join a prestigious networking association and volunteer to do a "free" seminar on your expertise. In addition, invite your media contacts to watch you in your element.

Build your "buzz" factor. What makes you and/or your service stand out? Are you the underdog competing with the big boys or are you the fastest gunslinger In the west! Everyone has an angle. Use yours to the hilt.

Cultivate contacts. Any time you meet a press person take their card and they are no longer a stranger the next time you make your story pitch. "Hi, I'm Ellen. I met you at panty last week. 1 have a good story... ". Now, it's no longer a cold call.

Send out a tip street to different publications specifying your expertise.

What is your "C" Factor? Yes, the infamous celebrity affiliation. Whom do you know that shops at your store or uses your service? Let others find out and they will follow. Or ask your famous customer if they will give a testimonial on your services.

Identify a timely problem and offer your business as the solution

Write a letter to the editor on a topic that you know. There is free publicity if the article is published.

How to succeed in a media interview

Dealing with the media can be straightforward, and even pleasant, provided, of course, that you know how members of the media think and what they want.

To help you prepare for an interview, here are six key questions. Choose what you think the correct answers are.

These questions originally appeared in Nonprofit Management Strategies.

News is:
a. Important information
b. Information about your organization
c. Whatever the editor says it is
d. Information that is timely, unique and important to people in the area

When being interviewed:
a. You have several basic rights
b. You have no rights, the reporter makes the rules
c. You have the right to approve the article or story
d. You may redo the interview if you don't like it

No comment is:
a. Better than admitting guilt
b. A phrase best used in connection with litigation
c. A signal that you are covering up something
d. The best way to avoid answering a sensitive question

Errors appear in stories because:
a. The reporter doesn't allow you to review it
b. There is a multi-layered editing system that creates errors
c. Reporters aren't knowledgeable about your group
d. Reporters are human and make mistakes
e. You did not communicate effectively during the interview

What's the best time for an interview?
You have the option of deciding when a reporter should come to do a story for the 5:00 p.m. news. Should you choose:
a. 10:00 a. m.
b. b. 2:00 p. m.
c. c. 3:30 p. m.
d. d. Live at 5:00 p.m.

A media interview is:
a. An annoyance
b. A glorious opportunity
c. Asking for trouble
d. Only occasionally worth it

The correct answers are:
1. c. News is whatever the editor says it is

2. a. When being interviewed you have several basic rights. You do have the right to know what the interview will be about, and what the direction of the interview will be.

3. c. No comment is a signal that you are covering up something Any spokesman or organization that says nothing will be presumed guilty.

4. All of the above, although e is often the main source of errors

5. d. What's the best time for an interview? Live at 5:00 pm because you cant be edited.

6. b. A Media interview is a glorious

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