Being creative can be a challenge on the best of days. There are days when we seem to be full of brilliant ideas. They just flow like water from the tap. Then there are days when the faucet runs dry.
What do you do on those dry days?
You reach into your IDEA BANK thats what you do.
IDEA BANK you say? Not sure what that is? An IDEA BANK is a file that contains a whole list of ideas that are partially flushed out that you can pull out and touch up when you need them. An IDEA BANK is the fruit of your brainstorming labours.
If you want to connect with the media by sharing your stories then you need to have stories at the ready. You need stories that really connect with an audience. You need stories that are going to spark interest from producers and reporters. But where do these story ideas come from? They come from brainstorming sessions where you work to flush out possible story ideas.
You want to have dozens of story ideas in your IDEA BANK!
Here are 5 tips to help you fill up that IDEA BANK
1. BRAINSTORM – This sounds easier than it is. The best way to do this is to schedule the time to brainstorm like you would schedule a meeting with a client. It is important to sit down and actually set aside time to brainstorm ideas. I find these kinds of sessions work best when I go old school with a pen and paper. Sit down and think of all the possible stories or topics you could speak to the media about when it comes to your business, brand, service or expertise. How many ideas can you generate? Think outside the box. With each idea write down a few bullet points for each.
2. WATCH THE HEADLINES – Watch the television/radio/newspaper headlines and create a list of all the stories in the news you could add value to or add an opinion on. While the stories appear rooted in timeliness many news headlines tend to appear over and over as the months go by. So think about how many your expertise could be called upon for a particular story. Write them down!
3. HEALTH STUDIES – Health stories are very popular. These are stories that affect all of us and are great stories to add a human element to every show or publication. Health stories can be very personal. Just think about stories of ground breaking research that affect people battling cancer, ALS or MS for example. People care greatly about these kinds of stories because were are all impacted in some way. Collecting a file of links, clippings and articles on recent health studies can help you generate endless story ideas. For each relevant health study think about how you could speak to the story, what expertise or know-how could you draw on to add value to the story.
4. HOLIDAYS/NATIONAL DAYS – Did you know there is a National Donut Day? Yup! There is probably a national day for just about anything and everything you can think of. Just do a Google search and make a list of all the relevant days that are related to your business, brand or service and how you could speak about them.
5. SEASONS – There are endless story ideas surrounding the changing seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Every business, brand or service can find at least one story idea related to each of the seasons.
ACTION STEP
Here is your homework for today. To help get you started on creating your own IDEA BANK I want you to sit down, either at your computer or with a pen and paper, and come up with 3 story ideas for each of the five categories I listed above. So, you will come up with three story ideas from your brainstorming session, three ideas from the headlines, three health related stories, three story ideas from the National day calendar and finally three story ideas for the seasons. By the end of the exercise you should have 15 story ideas in your IDEA BANK. Flush them out a bit. Write down a few notes on how you would pitch the story to the media.
Now what…you say. You have an IDEA BANK so what?
Well, the next step is to flush out each of your ideas and work them into an editorial calendar. Not sure how to create an editorial calendar? Come back next week and I will share with you why you should use an editorial calendar, how to create one and what to put in your editorial calendar!
