How do I get more publicity for my sport or exercise business?

I'm just back in from a day where I've had two rounds of a job interview, and managed to squeeze in a radio interview for the BCC World Service in between!

Between my own site and my iStadia profile, I now get a lot of enquiries from the media. What do I mean by a lot? Well, it depends on what's happening, but most weeks I have some kind of contact, even if it is just for a quick comment. This week I've been quoted in The Times, been on BBC World Service, and have had an invitation from BBC Scotland to do something tomorrow. The irony is that I'm not really looking for publicity as a sport psychologist right now, but it is good fun to do it when I can. Sometimes, they will also pay (though not a lot).

The point is, I get these requests because I am easy to find. If I were more serious about marketing my sport psychology business, I would make sure that they mentioned my site (or my company, if I had one). I don't really exploit them to their full potential, but maybe you could.

I'm easy to find because of my activity, not just on iStadia (though for obvious reasons it's where I focus my activity, but on other networking and bookmarking sites too. So, when people search for a sport psychologist, they often find me - either my own site or my iStadia profile. Sometimes, like this week, one media appearance creates others, because journalists read other newspapers and will then search for a specific person.

One other person I know that does quite a bit of media work is Amanda Owens. I can tell when she's done something, because Google analytics tells me that a lot of people have visitors have found her profile by searching for her name (normally, people would search for other search key words).

If you want publicity you have to go and get it. But you don't necessarily need to engage PR agents or seek out journalists. You just need to put yourself out there and iStadia is a great mechanism for that (by blogging, writing articles, and using the forums/clubs) . I have to say, too, that since we created different levels of membership, my visibility has gone up further, because my PremiumPlus membership gives me additional tools to help me - such as a personalised profile title (good for searches), profile summary (good for getting people to click on your link from search engines), and links to all of my latest posts from my profile (because I've very active, the "spiders" come back to my profile more regularly to get updates).

So, if you want publicity, you might want to consider upgrading. But even if you don't, being more active on iStadia will help. If you have upgraded, and aren't using it to it's advantage (it isn't just media enquiries that you'll get) then what are you waiting for?

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P.S. I'll be directing more media requests to the Media exchange club on iStadia (or to people in my network) so be sure to join. I'll also advise people so search the business finder (perhaps it should be the professional finder), so check your personal settings and make sure you are listed (no extra cost).

Rob Robson
iStadia - Networking for Sport & Exercise Community