Going Solo

Hi there, Im Henriette Weber a social marketing and branding professional having my own company called Toothless Tiger, working out of Copenhagen, Denmark. I am writing here to offer you some advice on “how to include mainstream media in your PR and marketing”.

I got to write this blogpost on the Going Solo blog because Stephanie and I had a conversation in the back of a car during the shift08 conference in Lisbon, Portugal. I told her about my strategy for mainstream and so far I am working my way around it, and so far it works.

Now:

Journalists wont be knockin on your door or ringing you. You need to contact them. nothing new here. There’s one keyword to a succesful mainstream media presence: proactivity.

I have defined it in three steps

1. You figure out who you are

Or let me rephrase that – you figure out who you are towards your peers – your community. Both Micro and Macro community (meaning people who knows you very well and people who knows you less well personal and workwise). What do they think about you – is your thought about yourself the same as other people think ? or are you way off ?. Conduct a research and figure out where you’re at, or who you are to others.

2. you become who you are

Either you change the perception that people have of you, or you change – so you are real close to be in sync with the thoughts about you from your peers.

3. you find out who you want to be

Make a strategy for how you want to be in the future.

4. you market who you are

you use the two above steps to market who you are – inside out. Both who you feel you are, but also other peoples perception of you.

You do it proactively. Say no to things and interviews that is not in sync with step 3.

write letters, columns and debates. proactively within your subject – that makes your person stand out more.

that’s my first advice here – enjoy

Imran pointed me this morning to this article on Salon, titled What every freelancer should know, by Catherine Price. Cathering is a freelance writer, and the article is well worth the read (I could definitely take some of her advice right now).

I could never be happy in a traditional job. I hate fluorescent lights. I detest working in groups. While I can get interested in just about anything, nothing interests me enough for it to be a full-time career. Also — and, to me, this is no small thing — the smell of office carpet makes me existentially depressed.

So I became a freelancer — thus joining the growing armada of the self-employed who sit at the same cafe table every day and thrust their business cards in your face during casual conversation. For the most part, it is a satisfying existence, a life of freedom and flexibility and almost no personal connection to “the office.” Then there are days when the clock slips past noon, but I haven’t been outside, I haven’t spoken to another human being, and I start to wonder if I’m going to wake up one morning when I’m 70 and regret never having owned a pantsuit.

Read the rest while I go and swap my dressing-gown for proper clothes and have some breakfast.