Tag Archives: Press

PR 101: How to Secure Bake-Off Media Coverage!

T-shirts are a G-R-E-A-T PR collateral tool to create buzz and awareness around campus.

We are excited to announce that 80 schools are participating nationwide in this year’s Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off, from New York to Honolulu, and internationally in Australia too! (Crikey that’s great, thank you Aussies!)

Another key ingredient to making the bake sale fundraiser a success is getting the word out to local media. In addition to the school newspaper, zone in on the top 5 to 10 newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations in your city. A couple STF ladies have already seen some great media success! Kelsey Thorn at Skidmore scored some sweet media coverage, along with Tehrene Firman from the University of Northern Iowa, who got this great hit. Let’s keep ‘em coming!

What’s the best way to go about media outreach? Well, here are some tips to help create buzz around these tasty tie-dyed treats.

5 Tips on How to Secure Press Coverage

1. Add the sprinkles, make your pitch sparkle! Brainstorm on why your school’s bake-off has a cool factor. Is this the biggest fundraiser the school has ever done? Be sure to tweak the media alert template and include fun facts about your STF chapter. Editors sometimes like to run hi-resolution images with stories, so check the She’s the First website here for pictures of sponsored girls and other cool images that work well in articles too.
2. Hit up Twitter-friendly media outlets. See which of the top 5-10 media outlets or outlet journalists and media are active on Twitter. You can also contact local key influencers who aren’t media. Ask these contacts to retweet the event linking to your Facebook page our website for additional info.  For tweets, be sure to include the hashtag #STFcupcakes
3. Email the She’s the First media alert to local media. In this case, it’s best to reach out to the entertainment, lifestyle and food editors. If you’re unable to find the editor’s contact info online, give the outlet’s mainline desk a buzz. Once you’ve pulled together a media list of contacts, it’s always best to personalize the pitch and send information via email first, then follow-up via an email check in or phone call. Editors are normally on a tight deadline, so keep it short and sweet!
4. Submit event info to online calendar listings. Most newspapers and other media also have online calendar listings. You can email the calendar listings contact directly, or in most cases, submit info through online submission form. This is a quick and easy way to get the event deets out.
5. Write the article, then pitch the outlet. Instead of pitching story ideas, Alanna submitted her story to the Huffington Post and scored a fantastic article! For the journalism pros, step up the game and do the same–not only is it a great experience to test the waters as a contributing writer, aka “stringer,” but these hits are awesome clip examples when interviewing for internships and jobs.

But most importantly as always, have fun. Cheers!