Personal Fitness Professional - November/December 2008 - (Page 13)

your company newsworthy. Find a topic of interest related to youth ﬁtness or sport training and oﬀer your take on the subject. For instance: Youth Obesity — what’s the real problem in our society, and how do we ﬁx it? Youth Sports Training — what’s the correct way to enhance the speed of a young athlete? Injuries in Sport — Why are so many young athletes getting injured, and how do we prevent this? Youth Fitness — why do so many youth ﬁtness programs fail in terms of compliance, and how can we correct this problem? ¸ Write about your feelings and thoughts related to topics like this. Do you have a unique take on the matter? Try to ﬁnd one. Media outlets don’t want to do the same story over and over again and are on the constant lookout for fresh thoughts on topics that the community at large is interested in. ¸ Your press release should be no longer than one page. You are essentially listing the highlights of your thoughts and not oﬀering every possible consideration you have on the topic. The press release will serve as an interesting and coercive outline that will compel a media director to call you for more details. It is critical to write the release using short paragraphs with proper grammar and without the use of “overstating.” Remember, this is not an advertisement — you Read the previous 2 articles about youth ﬁtness in our online Magazine Archives at www.ﬁt-pro.com. are sticking to the facts but writing them in a gripping or convincing way so that your story will be considered newsworthy. ¸ Establish a media list, and send your release to them via email or fax. Creating a media list is actually quite simple and will take you no time at all. For local media, simply go to the websites of newspapers as well as radio and television shows, and search for each media director’s name and email address or fax number. These are readily accessible — media types welcome press releases daily and, in fact, need them in order to ﬁnd interesting stories that the community will beneﬁt from hearing about. For more national or international media outlets, you can use the same procedure as I mentioned above, but be prepared to be ignored at ¸ Now sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. They will call, and you will get media exposure. Be sure to always make an announcement on your website, in your brochures as well as on your storefront once you’ve appeared in the news. That’s another appeal of this form of marketing — it can be used forever as a credibility establisher. Media exposure is by far and away the best form of marketing for your youth ﬁtness business. If you’re not doing it, you need to be! Brian Grasso is the Founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and has appeared on ABC News as well as in publications such as Newsweek, the New York Times, ESPN and the San Francisco Chronicle. Become a certiﬁed Youth Fitness Specialist or learn about the speciﬁc aspects of training children, youths and teens for free by visiting www.IYCA.org. ● ﬁrst. Making a national story is signiﬁcantly more diﬃcult than grabbing the attention of your local media. NOV-DEC2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 13 http://www.IYCA.org http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - November/December 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - November/December 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Your Scope of Practice Combating Youth Obesity Current Controversies The Balancing Act Product Profile Building a Base of Special Populations The Right State of Mind Mark Your Calendar The Equipment Dilemma Too Much To Do, Too Little Time Exercise Spotlight Holiday Gift Guide New on the Market Alyte Piedra

Personal Fitness Professional - November/December 2008

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