As a career coach, the media needs you. You are an expert in several areas: job search, interviewing, work place trends, career change, salary negotiation, and so much more. Reporters need your expertise for their articles. How can you help them find you? The first place a reporter looks for a quotable source is on the Internet. How easy can you be found there?

When the phone rings, treat a reporter’s request with a sense of urgency - she is probably on deadline and needs to act fast. Most will let you have at least a few minutes to gather your thoughts before calling them back. If you respond to a reporter’s email, keep your comments in short bullet point statements - these will end up as quotes in the article.

Some basic tips for working with the meida:

1. Remember that nothing you say is "off the record," even if you ask for and are granted that privilege.
2. Don’t offer comments on topics outside your knowledge realm. Just say you don’t know.
3. Send the reporter a "thank you" after the interview - this gives them your correct contact information, as well as something tangible for them to remember you by for the next time they need help.
4. Ask for a copy of the article when it is published, or at least an email with the online link to it.

Make friends with the media and you’ll create some of your most important marketing relationships that will keep working for you many times over.