For example, say you're a mom-and-pop chocolate maker. Business is good and you are about to open a second location and bring on five additional employees, including someone to deliver the sweet goods. While making chocolate may be a unique business, pitching the fact that you're expanding is a story likely to get rejected. After all, employing five more people is not exactly going to put a dent in the local unemployment rate.

But what if you use a hook. Say you pitch the same story leading up to Valentine's Day. Now, local media looking for an interesting Valentine's Day tale may take notice. Perhaps you suggest that a reporter or TV crew follow the actual delivery of chocolate. You can set up a story showing the timeline of how a piece of chocolate is made right up to the point it gets consumed.

To expand the story from one of local interest to a national story, take the same Valentine's Day hook and look for a national trend. For instance, perhaps the high price of gasoline is leading to an increase in the price of chocolate, resulting in lower sales. You can pitch the idea of how a small chocolate maker is growing at a difficult time. By using a hook, all of a sudden an idea once pitched unsuccessfully gets your business in the news. 

Remember, the reason you are being interviewed in the first place is because of your expertise. Failing to deliver will result in being bypassed for future interviews.

Here is an example of what not to do: Suppose you're a psychiatrist being interviewed about the potential violent side effects of a particular drug in the wake of a high-profile killing allegedly committed by a man on prescription drugs. If the reporter asks specifically about whether the accused murderer may have been driven to violence by the use of drugs, avoid saying, "I can't comment on that."

Refusing outright to comment will put you in a needlessly adversarial position. And the reporter will wonder why you're being interviewed if you cannot deliver the soundbite needed.

The better answer is, "I never evaluated the individual so I don't know what impact drugs may have had on him. But it's common for this drug to induce feelings of violence depending on the dosage ingested."

That answer protects the psychiatrist from analyzing someone (s)he knows nothing about and still allows the expert to come through with a soundbite. That's how you ensure future interviews.

• Prepare for the interview and ask the show's producers what questions are likely to be asked
• Come in well-rested and looking your best
• Apply make-up evenly
• Make sure the chord on your microphone is clipped neatly inside your jacket or hidden under a blouse
• Also make sure the wire attaching your IFB or earpiece is tucked behind you and out of view
• Look straight into the camera and avoid darting your eyes from side to side
• Listen carefully to the question
• Speak confidently, conversationally and concisely
• Bring energy and sound enthused
• Offer insight, analysis and opinion
• Avoid critiquing or complimenting the anchor
• Use the anchor's name at least once when beginning a sentence

• Keep your sentences short and crisp
• Avoid industry jargon that most people fail to understand
• Speak in a conversational tone
• Sound enthused
• Each sentence should contain only one thought
• If a reporter asks you the same question in a different way, it means (s)he is looking for a better soundbite on this particular line of questioning
• If you don't like the way you said something, clean it up and say it again
• Look at the reporter not the camera

Getting quoted by the Associated Press or Reuters is hitting the jackpot. A single quote may appear in dozens if not hundreds of publications and websites around the world. That's how you get your experts noticed and plastered all over Google.  

The bread-and-butter for generating publicity is to market key individuals as experts in a particular field. So when news breaks and reporters need an objective viewpoint or perspective, they will turn to you to provide a reliable expert.

This requires keeping track of daily news events and anticipating when a reporter might need your expertise.

Public relations practitioners and in-house communicators are fond of pointing out all the press releases they've produced on behalf of a firm or client. But if the press releases don't generate news coverage, what good are they?

Sure, they might turn up on Google, which is always welcome; and the higher-ups get to see their name in print. But that's getting away from your main goal, which is to generate publicity to enhance your reputation and help market your firm. That's what generating real news does.

If your news releases aren't generating news, it may be time to rethink your strategy. A more personalized approach of targeting individual reporters who cover your industry is far more apt to obtain results than blasting out news releases that largely go unread.