Give producers and reporters that warm fuzzy feeling

I know why reporters and producers can’t stand people trying to get on their shows and in their publications. They are SO annoying! I remember the cartoon character Charlie Brown saying, “I love humanity, it’s people I can’t stand.” That’s the way I feel at this moment.

I was kind of shocked at some of the responses I received from people responding to my queries for upcoming columns I’m working on for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

People didn’t pay attention to what I asked for and one even admitted that he wasn’t answering my need. This is called answering “off topic” and can get you instantly banned from services like http://www.helpareporter.com which was one of the free services I used to post my query or request.

The other thing that struck me was the discrepancy between people’s responses and their websites. I sometimes had a favorable response to someone’s initial email and then was mortified by their website and vice versa. Sometimes their thoughtfulness intrigued me, but their website photo repelled me. Other times while their credentials impressed me, their schlocky nature of their approach full of typos and truncated sentences put me off. The opposite was true as well.

One well-heeled professional, who had a client list of famous and prestigious people, told me exactly how he wanted his byline in the piece I was writing to appear. While I recommend that you always ask to be listed by how you prefer, it came off as glib and bossy, not to mention premature.

I talk a lot about that everything that you do, say, are and think from your words to your website need to be in alignment™, and my experience asking for experts deepened my conviction about the importance of being completely congruent.

Go here to find out how to give producers and reporters that warm fuzzy feeling that makes them want to pick up the phone and call you instead of your competitor and avoid giving them agita (Italian word for indigestion).