If you’re an expert who can share advice, write a how-to article, create a quiz, take a poll or survey, dream up a clever holiday, offer a Q&A, or show someone how to do something, don’t forget the kids.
I don’t have children. But while at the local library last week, I paged through three magazines for parents, including Parents and Parenting, to see what kinds of publicity tips I could find. The exercise reminded me that experts in a wide variety of specialty areas should be pitching articles aimed not only at adults, but at children, or articles dealing with children.
Here’s what I found:
—Information from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation on whether your kids’ symptoms are allergies or a common cold. Doctors, health clinics and other health-related groups could pitch something like this.
—Tips on how to teach your children to save money. Couldn’t bankers, financial planners and stock brokers offer this kind of advice?
—Clever ways to get rid of kids’ clutter. I’ll bet any professional organizer or any store that sells storage containers could share tips on keeping a kid’s bedroom clean.
—Caring for kids’ hair. Specifically, curls, kinks and cowlicks. Many hairdressers, whose clients include children, would be able to share their best hair care tips for the little ones.
—I even found a feature called “Diaper Dramas: Everything you ever wanted to know about baby’s poop.” What a great story idea for pediatricians! (Wouldn’t you love to see the face of the journalist who was on the receiving end of that pitch?)
—How to prevent children from getting fat. Fitness centers, chefs, nutritionists and food scientists should be able to rattle off a dozen tips in no time.
—And, finally, The Publicity Hound’s favorite: How to raise a media-savvy kid. It offered tips on how parents can teach their small children to recognize the difference between paid ads and the actual TV shows. Couldn’t ad agency execs and PR people pitch a story like this?
TV reporter Shawne Duperon, who did two teleseminars with me called “116 WOW! Story Ideas from January through June” and “103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through September” says that stories about children play a prominent role when assignment editors decide what gets on the air and what doesn’t. They particularly like kids’ stories that tie into the four seasons of the years, and holidays and anniversaries.
What’s your area of expertise and how many ways can you spin it into a pitch for children?