comedy marketing

5 Ways To Mess With The Media And Attract New Fans

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Why bother begging the media to pay attention to you, when you can trick them into doing so?

Recently, there’s been a boom in stunts by comedians that are designed specifically to manipulate the media to their own advantage and it’s becoming almost an art form in its own right.

Here’s a breakdown of some recent high profile examples and an explanation of how you can learn from what these comedians have done and create your own media stunt to gain attention for yourself, even if it’s just within your own local community.

1. Work With A “Celebrity”

The most recent example of media manipulation is the stunt Funny or Die pulled off with Dennis Quaid. In case you haven’t seen it, Funny or Die shot a video with Quaid throwing a temper tantrum on the set, but “leaked” a snippet of the video online at first without any apparent connection to Funny or Die.

Predictably, the media jumped on it, creating a wave of stories about Quaid’s tirade. Then, a few days later when Funny or Die released their actual video, they incorporated all the media coverage and revealed that it was all an elaborate prank. Those same media outlets then had to follow up with another wave of stories explaining that the now-infamous Quaid video was actually an FOD stunt.

You can see what happened here:

Essentially, Funny or Die figured out a way to get a wave of media coverage (two waves, actually) around a comedy video that otherwise would have probably just been like any other celebrity video they released.

But you don’t need access to a celebrity like Dennis Quaid to apply this strategy to your own creation. The underlying principle can work for you as well.

For example, on a local level you can reach out to a person or organization who is known within your own community and do something similar with them. For example, maybe a local politician, restaurant owner, or college athlete would be willing to participate in a clever video concept you develop.

You could then bake into your concept the idea of anonymously “leaking” a portion of the video online before releasing the full version and a reveal of the stunt later.

Obviously, you have to be smart about how you do it and it requires good concept and execution, but that’s always true of anything that works. The point is, this is a model that can be adapted and scaled down to incorporate any person or place that is known within the community of people you’re trying to reach.

2. Do Your Research

It’s amazing how quickly John Oliver’s HBO series has become must-see viewing. His extended takes on particular subjects each week wind up featured all across the Internet, despite rarely incorporating any celebrities and consisting mostly of him just sitting behind a desk and dissecting a particular topic.

But some of his best segments have been his takedowns of organizations like this one about the Miss America pageant:

 

While the bit is fueled by smart writing, it’s also built on a foundation of research that anybody could have done – including things as simple as noticing typos on the organization’s website.

This is something that’s easy for comedians at all levels to replicate if they’re willing to put in the time to research a particular topic. Nothing’s stopping you from choosing a target – either on a national or local level – and digging in to find some interesting tidbits about it that you can exploit in your comedy.

If you think about it, there’s no shortage of potential targets you could research and likely find out some interesting facts about – and most importantly, all of these would likely be of interest to people in your area that you want to know you exist.

For example, you could explore what actually goes on at your local DMV, or you could research the social media activities of a local school’s faculty, or you could look into the backgrounds of your local TV news anchors.

The possibilities are endless and so are the opportunities because if you dig up some interesting stuff, that’s going to be compelling to not only a local audience but likely your local media as well. If you do the work most of them aren’t willing to do, you can also reap the benefits.

3. Do The Unexpected

In addition to messing with the media as an outsider, there’s a whole other batch of opportunities at your disposal if you’re invited to appear on a media outlet.

If you get interviewed by a publication or get to appear on a radio or TV show, you’ll get more out of the experience by doing something unexpected. Something that will get you noticed and remembered. You don’t want to appear as just another comedian on these shows, you want to stand out.

A perfect example of somebody that does this is TJ Miller. His outrageous morning TV show appearances have become semi-legendary, and each one not only gets him noticed in whatever town he’s visiting, but also spreads throughout the Internet getting him even more attention.

They’ve become so notable that even Conan O’Brien talked to him about them here:

While you don’t necessarily have to do what Miller does, you should look for ways that you can do media-worthy things the next time you appear in a media outlet.

4. Pull A Prank

There’s no shortage of prank videos on YouTube and we’re increasingly seeing them work their way into TV comedy as well. Certainly, the Jackass guys built an empire on the back of pranks (at least in part), but Jimmy Kimmel has recently cornered the market on prank videos.

But in addition to the prank videos he’s done that he’s involved with or appears in on camera, he’s also pulled some stunts where it wasn’t obvious that he was involved at first.

Here’s an article detailing some of those anonymous stunts that Kimmel has pulled over the past few years. Each time, he wound up getting more attention from the media after revealing he was behind the prank than he would have if he had just been open about it in the first place.

While Kimmel has a nightly national audience that he can use to make those reveals, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something similar. If you can manage to pull off the illusion of a video that catches on, you then have the opportunity to follow up and reveal that you were the mastermind behind the stunt.

Again, any media that picks up on the initial viral video thinking it’s real is likely to share it with their audience again when it’s revealed it was a stunt – and in the process you’ll get credit and attention for it. Another potential benefit of masterminding pranks like this is that it might also create new opportunities for you – like writing for a show like Kimmel’s perhaps.

It shows that you’re capable of creating compelling content even if you’re not necessarily the one performing it.

5. Team Up

Did you see the recent story about how Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig were secretly developing a parody of a Lifetime movie with a plan to just air the movie on Lifetime at some point without ever promoting it?

The idea was to create a surreal (and kind of brilliant) stunt that certainly would have surprised people and attracted a lot of attention in the media, but unfortunately news about the project leaked and they decided to scrap it.

While it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to partner with a TV network to pull something off on that scale, you can look for companies or media outlets you can team up with to do something similar on a smaller level. Remember, just about every company has marketing needs and is looking for creative ways to get people’s attention. Use that to your advantage and see if you can find an interesting partner to team up with to create something that will give both of you attention.

Another example of this is what happened with Nathan Fielder’s Dumb Starbucks stunt on his show Nathan For You. You can see him talk about it here:

But there’s lots of ways you can scale this down and try similar media-attracting stunts in simple ways.

For example, if you write roast jokes you could approach a bar and offer to work as a bartender who roasts patrons while serving them drinks on a particular night. It could become a gimmick that gets them (and you) some attention and could make for an interesting story for local media to cover.

Or you could approach an Uber driver and offer to go along with him on all of his rides and perform free comedy for the passengers. Again, it’s a silly stunt, but the kind of thing that you could easily see local (or national) journalists writing about and getting attention for you and the driver.

The point isn’t that you necessarily try any of the specific examples in this article, but rather to make you aware that there’s a lot of interesting stunts you can probably create that will get you a lot more media attention than just sending a reporter your press kit.

READ THIS NEXT: 5 Social Media Shifts That Will Impact Comedians

11 Concepts That Will Help You Gain Fans

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There’s a lot of different ways to build a following online and use social platforms to attract new fans, but there are certain concepts that are universal and will help you succeed no matter what kind of content you’re producing and which platforms you’re focused on.

Here’s a breakdown of 10 general philosophies and guidelines that will help you get the results you want from the time you spend creating content and promoting yourself online.

1. Content Is Marketing

I talk a lot about the value of creating “content” and when I do I’m referring to content in the broadest form – that includes blog posts, videos, pictures, tweets, status updates, podcasts, standup material, etc.

But that value is not just limited to your own original content – I’m a big believer in the value or curating content as well. Here’s a post about curating that’s worth checking out.

The reason I’m such a believer in the importance of content creation is because it’s free marketing for you and your career.

Every single piece of content you create brings with it an opportunity for you to get found.

Each piece of content can be found through Google searches, can be shared and passed around by people on social media, and can introduce you to new fans at literally no cost. It’s an extremely powerful tool.

Plus, you can use content to target the exact audience you want to reach. For example, if you think parents, or sports fans, or fans of a certain comedian are likely to enjoy your work, then you can create content that is going to attract and appeal to those people and introduce them to your world.

But the thing to remember is that the more content you create, the more opportunities you have to attract fans.

2. Engagement Matters

As important as content is, engaging with your fans (and potential fans) may be even more important. Your content is the hook that draws people into your world, and your engagement with those people is the way you turn them into actual fans and get them to stick around.

One of the biggest misconceptions about social media (especially Twitter and Facebook) is that they’re mediums you primarily use to promote yourself and your stuff. That’s not true, but that’s what most comics do and why most comics don’t get any real results from social media.

Think about your own experience as a follower of somebody else on social media – I’m guessing you hate people who only promote themselves and you feel a genuine connection to people who interact with you and care about you, even if you’ve never met them face-to-face before.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms work best when you use them to engage with people. They’re connection tools, not promotional tools.

You want to use social tools to talk with people as opposed to talking at people. That’s a subtle, but important difference.

3. Be Personal. Be Informal. Be Available. Be Real.

Most comedians’ instinct is to position themselves as bigger and more successful than they are when they’re showcasing themselves on their website and social media channels. That’s a mistake.

Just be real.

People want to connect to other people and they want to relate to them – the more you’re willing to put yourself out there and be honest, the more people will connect to you. Real is always better than fake – in videos, in blog posts, on stage, in everything.

I also think it’s worth noting that this represents something of a generational shift. Back in the day, before technology like YouTube allowed literally everybody in the world to reach everybody else in the world, the average audience member assumed that the people who had broadcast power were better than them. They gave you the benefit of the doubt because they assumed if you were able to get to the point where you were given the chance to reach an audience, that you had some talent.

But now, when anybody can reach everybody, that has shifted and audiences are much more skeptical. Now, if they see you pretending to be bigger than you are, they resent it. You no longer have the benefit of the doubt.

But the flipside of that is that if you are real and allow fans to see you for where you’re really at in your career, those same people will rally behind you, support you, and want to help be a part of your journey to success. They will become invested in you.

A great example of this is the success of the YouTube musical group Karmin which I’ve written about here. You can learn a lot from how they broke on YouTube by being honest about where they were at in their career.

This idea also extends to your writing and your content. For example, your bio may be written in third person but is there anybody that actually believes you didn’t write it yourself? And, more importantly, does it really invite a would-be fan to connect with who you are or does it put them off because it makes it seem like you want them to know the “professional” you as opposed to the person that you are?

You want to make it easy for people to feel like they know you and can interact with you. Because the closer they feel to you, the more vested they become in your success.

On a side note, it’s fine to have a third-person “professional” bio that you may send to people who need it for their corporate gig brochures, etc. But, if you’re hoping to use your website to connect with fans then you want it to be as informal and friendly as possible.

4. The Quickest Path To Success Runs Through A Niche

It’s going to take time to build your fanbase even if you do everything right – that’s just something you need to understand going into it.

However, one way that you can give yourself a huge head start is to figure out a niche that you can appeal to.

Based on your material, life, interests, experience, and goals, you should try to figure out what kind of niche audience you might appeal to because it’s extremely hard to build a fanbase by just being another comic who is generally funny.

If you can focus on a niche – similar to the way Chris Hardwick has done with his Nerdist empire – you will find that all your marketing and content-related decisions become a whole lot easier.

When you have a niche that you’re targeting, you know exactly where to find potential fans because you can identify where else they gather – online or offline. It also allows people to rally around their shared interest in what you’re interested in, as opposed to solely trying to win them over with your jokes.

And of course, if they have a shared worldview to yours, they are more likely to enjoy your comedy in the first place.

There’s a couple other relevant articles about the importance of niche that you may want to check out including these lessons you can learn from Chris Hardwick and this guide to help you find your own niche.

5. Pay Attention To What You Engage With

One of the best ways to learn what works with people is to pay attention to what works when you’re the consumer. Start to think about what ads you click on, what websites catch your eye, what headlines get you to click, and what content you actually share with people.

When you start to think about what gets you to click something, or to take an action, you’ll be able to apply those same things to your own creations. It’s a great way to learn.

6. What People Share Is Not The Same As What They Click

You’ll create content for different purposes, but one broad thing to remember is that people share different kinds of content than they view. For example, porn sites get the most traffic on the web, but when was the last time somebody posted a link to a porn site on their Facebook wall?

People share things that are cute, funny, relatable, etc. But here’s another secret – people usually share things because it allows them to say something they want to say without actually saying it themselves.

People share things to show their support for a specific opinion or rallying cause. Sometimes, they will even share things they disagree with, just because sharing it gives them a chance to express their opinion about it. This is why strong viewpoints are always helpful in content.

This is something to keep in mind as you develop content – you want to use your expertise (in comedy and whatever else you may be knowledgable about) to express things that other people may believe but are not necessarily capable of saying as clearly (or in as entertaining a way) as you are.

7. Figure Out How To Provide Value

One of the most important overall questions for you to think about is how you can provide value to your fans. This goes beyond just being funny. Think about ways you can provide as much value as possible to your desired audience, whether it’s with your own content or not.

For example, on Connected Comedy I provide value to my audience by posting free articles with advice that can help them with their careers. On JoshSpector.com, I provide value to my readers by scouring the web to give them interesting videos to see and links to other cool stuff on the web. The “value” I provide is that I save them the time of having to look for cool stuff.

There’s no one way to provide value to your fans, and you’ll likely come up with multiple ways to do it.

A great way to get started is to combine your ability to be funny with a certain expertise you may have. The way you do this will be different for everybody, but in general the more value you provide, the more you get in return and the easier it is to grow an audience.

8. What’s In It For Your Audience?

With everything you do, try to think about what’s in it for your audience first. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what you want them to do for you, but you’ll have more success if you think in terms of what you can do for them.

I had a conversation with a big-name headlining comic once and he was frustrated with having to post on social media all the time.

“It feels like I have to work for my fans,” he said. “Like I’m working for them!”

He was disgusted by that concept, but that’s exactly correct (and why he does a bad job at social media).

Your fans are your employer. Not the bookers, not the clubs, not the Hollywood execs, the fans. Because if you have enough fans…none of those other people matter.

9. Experiment Often

Because all of this is so personal, it will take you some time to experiment and find what works best for you. It’s important to understand that before you go into it, because too many people get frustrated quickly and give up.

Comics understand it could take 10+ years to get good on stage, but too often assume they’ll be social media experts after 10 minutes. They’re wrong.

By experimenting with different types of content and different ways to use social media, you’ll start to hone in on what works for you and see results.

Another thing about experimentation is to understand the best thing about failing online – when you fail, nobody really sees what you did anyway. Here’s a post that touches on that which is worth checking out.

10. Have A Goal

It’s very important to have a clear goal for what you’re hoping to get out of your activity online because that will ultimately influence everything you do.

For example, is the goal to attract new fans? Is the goal to attract new corporate gigs? Is the goal to create new properties/brands that can lead to new opportunities for books, TV, etc.?

Most likely you’ll want to do multiple of these things which is what will ultimately happen in success, but it’s worth thinking about what one goal is most important to you and letting that dictate your strategy.

11. Recognize The Opportunities You Have

If somebody would have approached comedians 20 years ago and offered them the opportunity to have their own TV show, radio show, or magazine with no cost, comics would have freaked out at what an amazing opportunity that is.

But that’s exactly the opportunity you have now and most comics are too lazy to actually take advantage of it.

Don’t get distracted by the “digital” aspects of all this. Just think about what you’d ultimately want to create and use these digital tools to reach the masses.

READ THIS NEXT: A Business Plan For Comedians

A Business Plan For Comedians

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In a recent episode of the Connected Comedy podcast, I said I felt comics could be helped by approaching their career as you would a startup company.

Chicago comedian Odinaka Ezeokoli asked in our Facebook group if I could elaborate on what I meant and what a startup business plan for a comedian would look like, so that’s what I’m going to do in this article.

Obviously, every comic has their own unique goals and a comedy career is different than launching a business, so the point isn’t to follow this word for word. But rather, it’s designed to give you a mindset that can help you sort through how grow your career.

Here’s a few basic elements of a startup business plan that I think can point you in the right direction with your career…

1. Figure Out Your Initial Investment

No business starts without some form of initial investment. That investment may not be financial (though some of it usually is), but in order to start anything you need to commit time, effort, resources, or money to the endeavor.

That seems obvious, but many comedians seem to think they should be able to build a comedy career without investing anything other than their time into it – and often times, not even much of that.

Almost every career or business requires a financial investment of some sort – whether it’s college, or hours as an unpaid intern, or attending a trade school, or even simply buying a computer or some type of equipment.

These are all “startup costs” you have to be willing to cover in order to succeed.

When you are building a comedy career you should think through what kind of initial investment you can commit to it – how much time and what kind of resources are you willing to invest in your success?

If the answer is “not much,” can you really expect to succeed?

2. Who’s On Your Board Of Directors?

A typical startup company will have a Board of Directors who help oversee the company. Even small companies that are founder-driven often have at least a couple people on the company’s “Board” – even if those people are just friends of the founder.

But in a startup environment, the members of the Board tend to be people that have something they can bring to the table to help the company succeed. That may include a financial investment in the company, but often times it’s just experience, advice, connections, or other resources that they can contribute to help the company.

I’m not suggesting you have a formal Board of Directors for your personal comedy career, but it is helpful to think about who you can get to be vested in your success. It might be a friend who produces a comedy show, another comedian who happens to own a camera and knows how to produce videos, a relative who understands social media marketing, or a more veteran comic who can mentor you.

Having a virtual “Board” for yourself can be a great asset in helping you move your career forward.

3. Do Market Research

If you opened a pizza restaurant, the first thing you would do (hopefully) is research all the other local pizza places around you. You’d want to know the ins and outs of what they do, why they succeed (or not), and who their customers are.

It’s cheesy (no pun intended), but that kind of knowledge really is power.

But most comedians do very little market research. You don’t have to do formal market research of course, but you should get out there and learn as much as you can about what other comics in your area (and nationally) are doing to build their career. What’s working, what’s not, and where are the opportunities.

You should also extend that to research the industry – if you don’t know every single show that exists in your local area and who the people are that run those shows, then you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Do your homework – it will help.

4. Identify Your Customers

Another part of doing your research is to figure out who the audience is you’re hoping to reach. I’ve written a lot about finding your niche (and talked about it as well), but suffice it to say for now that it’s a huge help to have some idea who you are targeting with your comedy.

In addition to figuring out your niche and where those people can be found, you’ll also want to think about your overall goals and what you need in order to achieve them.

For example, if you’re interested in an acting or writing career, then your “customers” are more likely to be industry executives than general fans. But if you’re focused on a standup career, than growing a fanbase is more important than appealing to industry.

There’s no one way to build a career, but honing in on the customers you want will certainly help you get where you want to go faster.

5. Identify Your Competitive Advantage

If you launching a startup in a competitive field, you need to figure out what kind of advantage you have that will help you succeed. And comedy certainly is a business with plenty of competition.

As relates to your career, you want to think about what your competitive advantage could be – which typically means figuring out what is unique about you.

What makes you different, how do you stand out from the crowd, and what is it about your comedy voice that will grab and keep people’s attention. How will you get people to care?

In addition to that, consider what other competitive advantages you might have – what do you have access to that others may not? That could be resources, people, a location, expertise on a particular subject, or anything you have that most other comics may not.

Recognizing the advantages you have (as opposed to dwelling on your disadvantages) will help you figure out how to move things forward.

6. Reinvest In Your Business

You’ll notice most successful startup companies are quick to reinvest whatever profits they earn in order to grow their business. When they have initial success, they don’t celebrate and blow that revenue, they tend to reinvest it in things that help take their venture to the next level.

Essentially, they double down on their business and you’d be wise to do the same for your career.

As you start to have financial (or other) success, look for ways to reinvest in yourself.

Instead of blowing the money you earn from a big gig on something pointless, maybe use it to fund production of a web series, to build a better website, to pay for Facebook ads that will introduce you to new potential fans, or to cover costs of a tour that might lose money, but will get you in front of new audiences.

Think about how you can use success as a foundation for more success as opposed to trying to “cash out” as quickly as possible.

7. Know Your Exit Strategy

From the moment they launch, most startup companies have a plan of what type of business they’re trying to build and have an “exit strategy.”

For example, they might try to grow quickly and capture the attention of bigger investors who will acquire the company or they might dream of taking the company public. They might envision turning their business into a franchise and allowing other people to open versions of the business they’ve created, or they might set their sights on the business being a secondary revenue stream in addition to whatever else they’re doing with their life.

Put some thought into what your exit strategy will be. Are you hoping to build a “sustainable” business where you can support yourself through a direct relationship with a fanbase or are you more interested in getting “acquired” and hired as a writer or actor?

Knowing where you hope to end up from the beginning will help you get there. And so will a business plan…even if it’s just in your head.

READ THIS NEXT: What Does It Really Mean To Be In The Comedy Business?

4 Things You Can Learn From Social Media “Stars”

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I recently had the chance to work with some of the most talented (and popular) social media creators in the world and I want to share with you what I learned.

But first, a little backstory.

In my “day job” as the head of digital media for The Academy, I had the opportunity to put together a pretty unique stunt called the Oscars Creators as part of this year’s social campaign for the show. It was an initiative through which we invited seven talented social media artists from different platforms including Vine, Instagram, and Tumblr to come to Hollywood and share their perspective on all the Oscars activity.

It turned out to be a great program, and you can see some of the highlights here:

But it also gave me an opportunity to learn from these talented creators, see how they work, how they’ve built massive followings on social media, and learn how they created opportunities for themselves. While the Creators weren’t comedians (though some of their work is comedic) and each had different skill sets – filmmakers, photographers, artists, etc. – I noticed they all had some things in common that a lot of comics could learn from.

Here’s a breakdown of what I learned and how you can apply it to your own career…

 1. Be Professional

Every one of the Creators acted like a true professional. They showed up on time, ready to do their work, and they were reliable. In order for the Creators program to work, we had to give them access to very exclusive stuff like rehearsals and show talent and they had to work within parameters that included tight time windows and restrictions on what could or could not be revealed to the public before the show.

But I quickly learned that each of these Creators was trustworthy and dependable – they took their opportunities seriously and were always very professional. Even though they were doing fun (and sometimes silly) stuff like photographing a turtle or waking up on the red carpet, they treated their work like it was important (and it was).

I have no doubt that their professionalism is one of the reasons they have all been so successful – I know it made me want to work with them again and recommend them to others. Too often, comics don’t act as professionals and it definitely holds a lot of them back from succeeding.

2. Value Your Community

Another thing I noticed among all of the Creators was the degree to which they valued their community of fellow social media creators. To my surprise, several of them already knew each other from crossing paths prior to this Oscars project and they were all interested in getting to know each other and finding ways to work together.

They inherently understood the value of being part of a creative community – from both an inspirational and promotional standpoint. They wanted to connect, collaborate, and to find ways to work with each other. They clearly understood the value of connecting with each other and the ways that a community can help all of its members.

This reminded me of what I see as one of the biggest missed opportunities in the comedy world – not enough comics take advantage of their comedy community. Whether it be the community in your city, your local club, or other comedians you connect with online, there are opportunities to help each other, learn from each other, and get closer to accomplishing your goals together.

Too often, comics approach their career as a lone wolf and that only makes things harder. These Creators clearly have the opposite approach and I have no doubt it’s helped them grow their followings.

3. Have A Vision

While each of the Creators we worked with had their own unique talent, I was impressed with how clearly each of them had a vision for what they wanted to do. They knew their own art and were able to articulate their talent and how they approach their work.

For example, if a photographer was interested mainly in shooting portraits, he would decline opportunities to shoot landscapes or other stuff. It wasn’t that he couldn’t shoot landscapes or even that he didn’t ever shoot landscapes, it was that he chose to focus on what he was really passionate about doing.

And not only did they have preferences and a vision, but they had a commitment to what they were doing – in some cases even down to little things that the average follower might not ever even notice. For example, one Creator had a set pattern for the images he would post on Instagram – insisting that the colors in one image lead to the colors of the next image.

They were not artists making random decisions, they were talented creatives who each had a specific process for how they liked to work and their own vision for what they wanted to accomplish with their creations.

In the comedy world, too often comedians don’t really have any vision for what they’re trying to do or what they want to say. They just want to make people laugh. That’s fine, but ultimately I think you will be helped by honing in on having a message you’re trying to convey and a process through which you hope to do that.

And it’s a reminder that just because you have the opportunity to do something, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best use of your skills for your ultimate goals. Choose wisely with how you spend your time.

4. Set A High Standard For Yourself

Each one of the Creators I dealt with set a high standard of quality for their work. They didn’t just post every little thing they made, they cared a lot about putting out work they were proud of.

Every photo or video they released had to live up to a quality standard that they had set for themselves. And if they made some stuff that didn’t turn out quite as good as they had hoped, they wouldn’t post it.

When it comes to comedians, I often see them setting low standards for what they post online and reserving their quality control only for things they deem to be more important like the stage. But every thing you put out into the world is representative of you and the level of your work so it’s worth taking that into account before you click publish.

I’m all for experimenting, and I don’t think you should be afraid to try new things, but at the same time you want to use social media to share work that you’re proud of and avoid falling into the trap of posting things just for the sake of posting them.

Just because you have the ability to publish whatever you want, doesn’t mean that you should.

READ THIS NEXT: 7 Reasons The Stuff You Post On Social Media Should Also Be On Your Website

How To Pitch Your Content To Other Websites

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I get asked all the time how best to approach other blogs and websites to get them to feature your newest video, blog post, or podcast episode.

There’s no one size fits all answer to that question, but there are definitely some strategies that can increase the chances other sites will share your stuff with their audiences. Here’s an overview of some things you’ll want to keep in mind and some tactics you can try…

You Have To Make Something Good

This should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway because it’s really the most important thing. If you don’t create something good in the first place, it doesn’t matter how many strategies you use because nobody is going to share something that’s not good with their audience.

Making something good is a prerequisite – it’s not optional.

Now, assuming you’ve created something good, let’s move on to how you can approach websites to get them to share your stuff…

Go After The Right Audience

The first thing you need to do is identify the right targets. Think about what your content is about and which audiences are most likely to enjoy it, then find sites that cater to those audiences.

For example, if your video is about being a parent, then find popular parenting blogs. Or if your podcast is about life in Chicago, then reach out to local blogs about Chicago.

If you do a funny show about life in Chicago, don’t bother pitching it to a national comedy blog because the majority of their audience isn’t going to care about what’s happening in Chicago.

The more the audience of the websites you target matches the topic of your content, the more likely they will be to share your stuff.

Understand What’s Actually Best For You

It’s easy to get confused about what your actual goal is when you approach a website to share your newest creation. Most people tend to focus on that single piece of content and getting it featured on other sites – but that’s short term thinking.

You’re always better served thinking about the long term. In this case, that means what you really want is to develop a relationship with other sites that can last beyond just the single posting of that single piece of content.

There’s lots of different ways to build relationships and I’ll go into some of them later in this article, but for now just recognize that what ultimately will benefit you most is a relationship with these sites and not just a one-off favor.

Become A Part Of Their Community

Rather than just Googling some sites and blind-emailing them to ask that they share your stuff, you’ll be better served to become a part of their communities first.

Comment on their posts, share their articles on social media, interact with them on Twitter or Facebook – all BEFORE you ever actually pitch them your own content.

Doing this will get them familiar with you and who you are so that when you eventually reach out to them, they will already recognize you as a fan and active member of their community. They’ll be predisposed to think better of you and more likely to help you out.

The other benefit of this is that you wind up learning more about the sites you hope to pitch, you’ll understand their community, what kind of content they share and how best to position what you’ve created to fit their interests.

Offer To Help THEM Instead Of Asking Them To Help YOU

This may seem counterintuitive, but it works – and it’s also helpful for people who are uncomfortable promoting themselves.

Instead of emailing the people who run a website and asking them to share your new content, offer to create some content for them for free. You can let them know you’re a fan of their site and that you’d be willing to write some guest posts or make some videos for them if they’re interested.

Every website struggles to churn out content on a constant basis and many of them will be open to having somebody else contribute content for them (again, as long as it’s good).

And remember, what you’re really after is exposure to their audience – it shouldn’t matter whether the video you make lives on your YouTube channel or theirs, or whether the post you write lives on your website or theirs. As long as you get credit for it and a link where people can learn more about who you are, it’s valuable.

The other thing this does is start to form a relationship for you with the site which goes back to the initial goal of thinking bigger than just exposure for a single piece of content you created.

Offer To Give THEM Attention Instead Of Asking For Attention

Here’s another trick that almost always works. Instead of asking them to write about you and share your content, ask the people that run the website if you can interview them and tell your audience about them and their site.

No matter how small your own audience may be, just about anybody will be flattered that you want to interview them and will likely say yes.

Remember – they want attention for their creations every bit as much as you want attention for yours.

When they agree to be interviewed, this does a couple things. It starts a relationship for you with them that can potentially make them more likely to feature your content on their site down the road. And when you post the interview with them on your website or YouTube channel, they will most likely share a link to it with their audience.

So basically, you’ve managed to get them to drive their audience into your world without even having to ask them to.

The other great thing about this strategy is that you can easily scale it. For example, if you want a bunch of punk music blogs to tell their audiences about you then you could set up a series of Punk Music Blogger interviews and reach out to all those blogs to interview them.

It gives you an easy excuse to reach out and build relationships with all of them, with each then likely linking to your interview with them.

Ask Like A Real Person

Whether you choose to try any of the above strategies or just want to simply reach out and ask a site to share a single thing you’ve created, make sure that you ask like a regular person and not try to be overly formal.

Just email the person that runs the site, tell them you’re a fan of their site (which you should be since you hopefully have been reading it for a while before you reach out), explain who you are, and send them the content you think they (and, more importantly, their audience) will like.

Don’t try to make yourself sound like some kind of comedy superstar, don’t pretend to be a publicist, don’t act like your video is going viral when it isn’t, just be a regular person.

Or at least as close to a regular person as you’re capable of being.

And if they actually post it? Don’t forget to say thanks and share the link on all your social channels.

Good luck!

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