JetBlue Delivers Free Publicity for your Small Business
Small business marketing is a constant effort to identify low cost, high impact opportunities to build awareness and credibility for your small business.
And sometimes, opportunities come from the strangest places – like an angry flight attendant who literally jumped out of a plane while quitting his job.
By now you know the story – a JetBlue flight attendant got into it with a passenger, grabbed a beer, and then bailed out of the plane using the emergency slide that is usually reserved for water landings.
What you may not have seen is the long line of small business owners that have scored free publicity in the days following the incident.
The JetBlue story brought two topics to the forefront of news coverage in recent days – customer service, and quitting your job.
It’s a great example of a hot news item happening during a slow time of year (August). Invariably, reporters try to find a way to put a story together around it because everyone is talking about it around the water cooler.
Here are just a few examples:
- A CBS affiliate ran a story on workplace meltdowns, and how you can avoid one. An HR consultant who runs her own business was quoted in the story.
- The Globe and Mail newspaper covered the story, featuring comments from a business consultant and a writer.
The small business owners featured in theses stories on TV and in print scored significant free publicity for their small business, just by capitalizing on a hot news story and finding a way to be a part of it.
How did they do it? Probably one of two ways:
1 – they had an existing relationship with a reporter, so when the reporter needed a quick comment from a business person on this story, they got the call.
2 – they made a simple phone call to a local reporter with an angle in mind on this story. For example, the business consultant in the Globe story has a background in psychology and may have had a few thoughts on what drives someone to do something like this the she shared with the reporter.
It’s not always about press releases – there are many opportunities to help a reporter with a story and get free publicity in the process if you are on top of the news and constantly ask yourself “how can i fit into this story?”
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