If you're thinking about pitching an expert to the media, stop immediately! Read this right now: You might be on the verge of making a huge mistake. In fact, you might be about to engage in one or more of the most annoying PR practices that journalists complain about constantly. This, of course, includes pitching "experts" who aren't really experts—and tenuously tying your expert to a news event. These pitches will never land ink or air, and could instantly land you on the "spam" list. Trust me, as an editor, I may have placed you on my own "spam" list if you've sent me pitches like that.

So before you get into trouble, and potentially ruin several media relationships, read about the right ways to pitch experts to top media.

The heart of the matter is that you have to pitch your expert's expertise—and that's it. You can't try to blatantly weasel your product or company into the pitch. You can suggest a few angles or directions, but the focus must be on the expertise. Also, keep it brief, respond as soon as news breaks—and make sure your expert can deliver. Immediately.

To get an idea of how it's done, read on as The Hoffman Agency's mass media director, Merredith Branscombe, explains how Hoffman scored nearly 500 million media impressions for their client, West Coast-based law firm Fenwick & West, when they pitched a Fenwick expert after the Department of Justice dismissed eight U.S. attorneys in 2007.

Classic PR challenge: PR response to breaking news. Branscombe can relate to many of the challenges you may face if you represent law firms or other clients or companies with experts seeking media visibility. Fenwick has hundreds of attorneys, and "our outreach for them is almost exclusively thought leadership," Branscombe says. "It's like having 385 different clients within one client."

The first step in managing that quantity of experts, she says, is finding the right spokespersons and their newsworthy expertise. "We have a good system dedicated to identifying newsworthy subject areas and the people who can talk about them," she says. "We take trips to visit the client and identify the best people. The trick is to seek out the people who are the most comfortable talking with the media and are the most passionate about the subject. They will always be the most credible sources—and journalists will enjoy talking to them."

For example: "With Internet privacy, Fenwick might have four or five lawyers who focus on that topic—but only one who's really responsive and good with the media."

One of Fenwick's unique practice areas focuses on the intersection of law and technology. This is an area that Hoffman keeps an eye on in terms of tracking the news because "it's one area public figures can have problems with," Branscombe says. "You'll often read about someone keeping the wrong email documents, or deleting the wrong documents—and they can get themselves into trouble."

Fenwick produces software that can "find that one smoking gun email within millions in a matter of hours," Branscombe says, and their leading expert on these kinds of matters is an attorney named Bob Brownstone. Branscombe and other Hoffman staffers had been in conversations for Brownstone for several weeks—before major relevant news broke.

The strategy: Respond immediately to the White House email faux pas with a concise expert pitch focusing on Brownstone's internet expertise. On April 12, 2007, a news event broke that was too good to pass up. Right after the Department of Justice dismissed eight U.S. attorneys, it turned out that a number of email exchanges between White House staffers leading up to the firings were "lost." During the controversy, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy had noted that email can never really get "lost," claiming, "I've got a teenage kid in my neighborhood that can go get 'em for them." Leahy also mentioned that saying an email got deleted is the equivalent of saying, "The dog ate my homework."

On that exact day, one of Branscombe's colleagues showed her the news of Leahy railing against congress. "I knew right away that it was something Fenwick specializes in," she says. "I called the client immediately to talk about it. I knew it was a touchy political issue, but after talking to the client, we figured out that it was definitely a credible area of expertise for Fenwick."

Branscombe jumped right on the news: "We quickly identified the top national and federal journalists covering the White House and pitched these select targets. We placed a heavy emphasis on the wires because of the news value of the topic itself—as well as the potential reach of wire services."

They began getting responses from journalists, but their dream hit, the Associated Press, seemed elusive. "The first two reporters we pitched at the AP were out. We did our homework and found substitutes who might be likely to cover this story. For example, I knew that Anick Jesdanun covered the Internet and that it might be something he could be interested in. I contacted him and didn't hear back that day."

Hoffman waited, but nothing significant came of it. Then, the next morning, "at 8 o'clock I got a note from Jesdanun saying he wanted to talk to someone immediately," Branscombe says. "It was really early in California, but I was able to get in touch with Bob within the hour." However: "By then, Jesdanun had gone dark and I was afraid we lost the opportunity."

Branscombe stayed on Jesdanun. "I was able to get back in touch with him by about 9:40 and got a commitment from him to talk with Bob."

From there, it was a very quick media training session: "Bob knows this area very well, and our media preparation was very concise because we didn't have a lot of time. Bob got on the phone with Nick about 20 minutes after getting the initial commitment. By 10:30, they had talked, and I followed up with Nick around 11. By 12:40, the AP story had hit the wire."

The key to success: "Responsiveness—especially when dealing with West Coast versus East Coast opportunities. With breaking news, timing is always the biggest challenge."

The results: Hundreds of millions of media impressions—and new business leads. The AP story was picked up by 149 news outlets around the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Yahoo! Finance. Additional stories appeared in
BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal and more, totaling 500 million media impressions and landing new business for Fenwick.

"We saw it as a newsworthy issue that dovetailed with our client's expertise," Branscombe says. "It got amazing syndication with crazy reach—and it was amazing taking a regional law firm and landing them on the national media pages."

Secrets for success: Read on as Branscombe offers more tips and explains why this campaign won Gold in Campaigns Under $1,000 at the 2008 Bulldog Awards for Excellence in Media Relations & Publicity:

1. Tie to topical and newsy trends naturally and organically. "Always be on the lookout for the intersection between what your client can speak about and the news the industry wants to write about," she says. "For example, everything's about the economy right now. Maybe your product isn't directly related to the news, but there's one aspect that can ride the news wave. Keep an eye out for these situations and offer your client as an expert. But keep the pitch short and offer the expertise itself. Keep it to about three paragraphs or less, because a reporter will only have a minute or two to look at it. And get the words 'breaking news' and 'expert' in the subject line." One additional note on this: "You have to be responsive—and make sure you have a backup spokesperson so you have that flexibility."

2. Be a resource: Play down sales and hype—and amp up expertise. "The main thing is that you can't sound like you're offering a product at all," she stresses. "It's about connecting the dots between a breaking news item and your client's expertise. There can't be any sales involved. You have to offer actual, thoughtful help to the reporter. Many PR people start their pitches out the right way by offering the expertise, but then they can't help themselves, and they start segueing into the product or company. You have to remember that you're pitching the expertise—not the product. You can even offer a story angle or theme, especially if it's counterintuitive. But the focus cannot be on the product or company."

For example: "In this case, even though Fenwick makes the products and tools to help 'un-eat' the homework, our pitch focused on their expertise. It was about three paragraphs long, offered the credentials and told the reporter he could talk to Bob without PR even getting in the way. The reporter cannot feel like you're trying to put one over on him or her." 

Keep in mind: "The best case scenario is to go to a reporter with whom you already have an existing relationship with, as they're more likely to hear you out."

3. Transform yourself into a 21st century newshound. "Stay on top of the news by subscribing to blogs, alerts and social media networks like Twitter," she says. "It can seem a little like playing the game whack-a-mole sometimes—but it pays off. I read CNN, WSJ.com, the AP, Reuters and a bunch of eclectic and very specific feeds coming into my Yahoo news account. I also check on blogs covering my clients' industries, like Gizmodo."

Another key tool, she says, is the social media network and micro-blogging tool, Twitter, which allows you to post very short blogs and "follow" other users as they post: "On Twitter, I follow the journalists and people who are influential to me and then see who they follow. If someone isn't posting anything worthwhile, I stop following them. I also set up searches to see if anyone posts about my clients, or if anyone's mad at them."

WINNER'S PROFILE: The Hoffman Agency is an independent PR firm focused on the technology sector with global capabilities. Formed in 1987, the Agency has worked with companies across the technology continuum, including Texas Instruments, Intel, Philips, Sony, BEA Systems, Amazon, Plantronics and Dolby, to name a few. Their global reach spans 12 offices across the United States, Asia Pacific and Europe.