First-Ever How-To Guide Gives Steps To Going Viral Through The Media

Online, December 18, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Be the News, the first how-to guide to approaching the media with a topical, newsworthy human interest story is getting rave reviews. In Be the News, author Lori Gertz tells how her family became the subject of a media frenzy after they went public to create awareness around the heartbreaking issue of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and mental illness.

Misunderstood by many of those who read about it in the media, she was vilified as a mother who heartlessly sent her 7-year-old adoptive daughter, who struggled with mental illness and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, to be raised by strangers. How did the media even find out? Gertz, a 26 year marketing veteran carefully outlined and planned her approach to the media after exhausting every other means of calling attention to the lack of resources for her daughter.

Says Gertz who undertook writing Be the News to help others take a stand on meaningful issues, "It takes many stories to cause a tipping point and effect change. I wanted to give people with an important story a thorough understanding of how to go viral and how to avoid the pitfalls of doing so at the same time."

Gertz weaves her story throughout the book uses examples from that personal experience to:
• Create a mission for their messaging
• Pitch a story
• Develop and deliver sound bites
• Align with topics of interest that are already in the news
• Avoid the pitfalls of tabloid journalism

"There are specific steps you must take in order to prepare your story for release. It is key that the reason for your story is not ego-centric but issue or story-centric and that you position the mission of your decision to speak out on-topic," writes Gertz.

Be the News: A Guide to Going Viral With Your Human Interest Story is on sale now at Amazon.com.
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About The Author-Lori Gertz

Lori Gertz was born and raised in Western Massachusetts. A writer since she was six, her love for proverbial ink on paper led her to a 14 year magazine publishing career followed by 15 more years running her own strategic marketing company. She is the author of several longstanding blogs, multiple published articles and is a national advocate for the awareness of Mental Illness and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.