Payoff: How my blog posts ended up in the New York Post and the Birmingham News

Thanks to consistent blogging and good content, I’ve seen my work mentioned on several media sites during the last couple of weeks. The result: more credibility as an expert and a blogger, free publicity and eventually, more clients.

• • •

The Samford Crimson, the student paper for Samford University in Birmingham, wrote about the former mayor’s federal trial in October. I covered the trial on Wade on Birmingham. From the Oct. 28 article:

Twitter has become a primary news source on the trial after Judge Scott Coogler allowed reporters to carry cell phones. The judge is allowing reporters to access the Internet on their phones and to tweet minute-to-minute updates on the trail as it proceeds.

Among the tweeters are Birmingham Weekly, The Birmingham News and citizen journalist and blogger Wade Kwon.

“Mostly we will be testing our new tools and toys like Coveritlive, Qik, Tweetie2 and iPhone,” the Birmingham Weekly staff said in a report on Oct. 18. “We’re going to cover this story 140 characters at a time. When opening statements begin, hang on to your butts.”

The Birmingham News designated a Twitter feed, @Langford_trial, to cover highlights of the prosecution and defense. In addition, Kwon created an automated feed, @LLtrial, with regurgitated media tweets from the trial.

I explained how to set up that automated feed in a post on the BBA site.

• • •

I also write about media news in the Birmingham market on Media of Birmingham. One story attracted quite a bit of attention from our audience, about layoffs at magazine publisher Southern Progress, part of the Time Inc. corporation.

The Birmingham News cited the story in its Nov. 5 story:

The mediaofbirmingham.com Web site, quoting unnamed sources, says “dozens” of jobs were cut this morning at the Homewood-based publishing company. The site said most of the cuts were in the accounting department and the editorial staff of Southern Living.

The New York Post also cited the story on Nov. 6:

Yesterday the Web site mediaofbirmingham.com reported that there were “dozens” of axings in the Birmingham, Ala., offices of Southern Progress, primarily at flagship Southern Living.

• • •

By writing about a high-profile trial, I was noticed for taking a different approach, using a Twitterbot to aggregate all the media coverage into one easy solution.

By writing about Southern Progress’ ups and downs, I built credibility and became the source for media news in the Birmingham market.

It took time and good content, but eventually, even the big media outlets take notice.

Want to learn more? Check out our class on
“Beginning Blogging for Business.”