Listen up people. I’m only going to say this once. If you run a business – any kind of business – it is a key part of your job to know how to interact with the media. If you personally don’t have a clue, then you need to hire someone (like a public relations firm) that does.

At least once each day I am dumbfounded by how much people are hurting – yes, I said hurting – their own businesses due to their lack of media savvy. You may think that I’m being self-serving in telling you this and you’d be right. And you may think that I’m being harsh and again, sir, you are correct. But perhaps a heaping helping of harsh is just what you need to shape up.

Part of my shock is that the world of performance and affiliate marketing is all about promotion and marketing. So how could so many of you be so bad at promoting your own companies when it comes to dealing with the press?

Consider these examples and then tell me how smart, savvy and beneficial these tactics were to promoting the business of these respective companies.

Example #1: The Aggressor: A very small developer with what I hear is a cool performance marketing utility hounds me night and day hoping that I will write about the release of his new product, despite the fact that we don’t really cover news since we were publishing just every three months. There is email after email. Voicemails left at all hours of the day and night. There are attempts to corner me at conferences and tradeshows.

I calmly (maybe not so calmly after the fifth time) explain that our editorial calendar is set months in advance and that I can not cover this particular subject in the next issue, but that I will consider it in the future as, perhaps, part of a round up of such products or tools. This completely offends him. His fabulous, wonderful, mankind-saving product is not to be lumped in with other (read: far-inferior) products. He “demands” that I write a story just about his company.

Okay, I’m not sure about you but I don’t do well with people who make demands. Regardless of how wonderful his product may be, it’s unlikely that I’m going to go out of my way to write about it. If I decide to do a round up of similar products I’ll be sure to include his. But will it be the lead product in the story? Will I make sure to quote him in the article? Will I go out of my way to get a screen shot of his product? Not likely. Yes, journalists are supposed to be objective, but remember we are also human. It’s likely there 20 other people with cool products that want to be included, so why not work with the ones that are easier to deal with? Just like in affiliate marketing – it’s all about building relationships.

I’m betting that some of those companies in the story were represented by pleasant people that provided the correct information in a timely manner and didn’t try to dictate the editorial direction. Those are the people I will remember and likely call in the future when I’m working on another article where I need a quote from an intelligent online marketing executive on a particular subject.

Example #2: The Star: This person really doesn’t need me. I’m irrelevant to them. Don’t I realize that this executive works for XYZ Company? Everyone has heard of them. They have thousands of customers and a stock price that is soaring. They get coverage all the time in the big mainstream press – the NY Times the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek. I’m sure they use similar tactics to get a good table at a restaurant. The problem – I’m not your maitre’d.

This executive is only deeming to speak with me because it will help me and my little magazine they say. But they will only be in the story if they are the focus (again folks, get over this). If your company actually is a star others will tell me so. If you tell me then it’s PR or just plain old bragging. However, if other respected industry gurus or experts tell me how great your company or product is, then that is a compliment that holds much more weight.

Example #3: The Advertiser: You are an advertiser in Revenue Magazine. Don’t even get me started on this one. The steam is already starting to come out of me ears. The sales guys at Revenue hate when I say this, but I don’t care if you advertise with our magazine. They are now cringing. Advertising and editorial are two different things - Chinese wall; separation of church and state.

I am not more likely to write about you because you bought an ad. In fact, I’m so worried about the appearance of something “funny” going on that I make it point not to look at the ads in the magazine. I don’t want to know who spends money with our company. My job is to direct the editorial coverage and the fact you spent hard-earned dollars to advertise your company does not make you smarter, more quotable or worth talking to. What makes you worthy of being included in any article (in any publication) is that you are intelligent, you have a unique perspective, you are articulate and you have a lot of experience on the topic that I am writing about – that’s what I’m interested in - regardless of how (and with whom) you spend your advertising dollars.

Example #4: The Budding Writer: I want to write for your magazine. Well, that’s flattering, but unlikely. Our stories are written by professional journalists. That’s how these folks make their living - as writers and reporters. Don’t try and convince me that because you’ve spent the last six years doing affiliate marketing that you are more qualified to write an article than someone who has won business journalism awards and been published thousands of times in prestigious publications.

Being a marketer and a journalist are two different skills. That doesn’t mean they are mutually exclusive. There are plenty of online marketers that are good writers, but for the most part, it’s just not the same skill set.

And just a hint: pointing out minor grammatical errors on my part doesn’t make you an editor or writer and doesn’t endear you to me. Also, there is also so much more ego involved on the part of the non-professional journalist. Sorry, but not every one of your words is gold and I have deadline constraints on my end.

Our team of professional, veteran journalists is charged with contacting the appropriate experts, sources, gurus, industry watchers and researchers to get the information from all sides and perspectives. Then they synthesize that into a coherent and compelling story. There is no way you as the CEO of a search engine optimization firm are ever going to convince me that writing a story about the benefits of search engine optimization is not a conflict. We don’t want the industry biases, regardless of how many times you assure me that you can put them aside.

We like opinions and put them in our magazine in the form of opinion columns. They are labeled as such and those authors were selected because they have strong feelings on a variety of subjects or they are considered industry leaders with wisdom to impart. That’s a good thing. However, we can’t have a magazine that is all opinion.

So, if you are an expert at something, check your ego at the door. Rather than trying to get a byline in a publication, seek to be quoted in the story as an expert. That will help your reputation and that of your company. Here’s a little secret – journalists read what other journalists write. Good journalists do their homework. If one writer does a search and sees that you were quoted as an expert in story, they are likely to turn to you as an expert when they are writing a story on a similar topic. Not rocket science.

As I’m writing this I realize that I could go on forever. And while this is cathartic for me and hopefully helpful to you I will stop so that I can work on putting out the best possible issue for January. But, be warned, I have a feeling this is a topic I’m going to have to revisit.

Let me know what you think. lisap@revenuetoday.com