Photographer: Joanna Herr, www.herrphotography.com

Last week, I attended a WGN meeting in San Diego.  It was the first networking event I have been to in a long time that was super super fun.  If you have a change to attend a WGN event in your area (www.wgn-global.com), I definitely recommend it.  For those unfamiliar with the group (myself included up until recently), WGN started out as the "Womens Golf Network" and, as it grew, became the "Womens Global Network".  As part of WGN, they have a Young Professionals Group (YPG) to provide mentoring to women ages 21-30 (really great idea).  In addition, they do community outreach and partner with women business owners in other countries to help them grow their businesses.

This meeting was titled, "Communicating with the Media: how to maximize exposure and drive business."  They had a panel of women in print, radio, and tv to explain the differences between each medium and answer questions.  There were lots of great questions, such as, "Is it better to work with a professional pr/marketing company or contact the media on my own."  The response was interesting...
 
There are some firms that have good relationships with the media and others that don't.  The consensus was that, if you can do it on your own, you should try it.  You can pretty easily find contact information for editors of local media online and send them a story idea.  It doesn't have to be a finished article, just something interesting about you or your business.  It is all about developing a relationship - for example, sending "thank you" cards to editors or reporters when stories are published or asking for honest feedback when stories are not - that will, ultimately, bring you the most success when marketing your business.