The 2012 Olympics were certainly packed with thrills and chills! American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 18th gold medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian in any sport. American gymnast Gabby Douglas is the first African-American gymnast to win a gold medal in the all around competition. My favorite was South African runner Oscar Pistorius, who ran the 400 meters in 45.44 seconds while wearing two prosthetic legs!

The Olympics are an example of how you can leverage world events to get attention for your business or organization. Do you own or manage a swim club or work for the local Y? You can send out a press release on how your organization can be the starting point for a future Michael Phelps. Do you work for a company that makes prostheses? If so, you could send out a press release that explains how advances in the study of human kinesiology (the science of human movement) and prosthetics has lead to someone like Oscar Pistorius being able to compete with able bodied athletes.

Even if your area of expertise isn’t thrilling and chilling, you can still approach the press. For example, if you are a sport psychologist, you can go to the press about the downside of winning. (i.e. “I got a gold medal, now what?”) If you are a doctor, you can go to the press about injuries common to athletes – Olympians and high school athletes alike, and how they can be treated.
Observing trends is in your industry is a crucial step to help you obtain press coverage – and you don’t have to wait for the Olympics to roll around. You can position yourself as an expert and comment on seasonal topics, such as Back to School or the December holidays, or comment on events like weddings or vacations. You don’t have to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or re-invent the wheel. You just need to find a hook or an angle that you can use to position yourself as an expert in your field and relate it to something current in the news. Who knows, you may just get a news story out of it without having to get wet, run 400 meters or do a flip on a balance beam!