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Unreasonable Institute Co-Founder Tyler Hartung has gotten the Unreasonable Institute some amazing blog coverage from Business Week, from Inc Magazine, and from the Wall Street Journal (twice). We asked him to share how he did it. Here’s what he had to say!

When I was recently asked what I did to get bloggers of some major publications to write about the Unreasonable Institute I said what any good entrepreneur would say, “I don’t know…I just did it.”  After some reflection, I realized that there were about 8 things that helped me increase our chances of getting major media to care that I think can help you too.

1. Let Your Story Do the Work. In all honesty, when it comes to getting a major media source to write about your organization, its 10% about the effort you put in and 90% about the intrigue of the story itself – the key word here being story.  No matter how amazing you think your organization is, it in-and-of itself is not usually worth writing about. Major media are looking for an event or a major announcement that can tell an intriguing story. It is within that context that people will hear of your organization.

2. Pique instead of Press Release. In my novice opinion press releases are useless (ok, maybe that is a little harsh – sorry, I never took a journalism class). You can imagine that folks in media get constantly bombarded with page long press releases and don’t read the majority of them. You will be much more effective by piquing someone’s interest with a concise, intriguing email. If you can adequately do so, and of course include a call to action, then they are more likely to contact you at which time you can tell them so much more than a press release ever could. Steve Strauss of USA Today discusses this point in depth in a post called “The (Almost) Surefire Method for Getting Publicity for Your Business.”

3. Contact low hanging fruit. There are an endless supply of journalists and bloggers that you could contact, so work smart by finding and contacting “low hanging fruit.” That is, contact writers who have a published stories about your organization’s industry or about similar topics, thus showing they might have a genuine interest in your story. Unreasonable Institute Mentor Lindsay Clinton of Intellecap suggested I search for articles written about major organizations within our industry.  Another way is to have technology find these people for you by using some sort of an article/blog reader, like Google Reader or Google Alerts, that search for key words in newly published articles (my Google Alerts, for instance, send me emails with articles containing the words “social entrepreneur”).

4. Sleuth around for Contact Information. Considering the amount of organizations seeking media coverage, you can image that many folks in the media keep their contact information well-hidden.  Be creative in finding ways to contact writers.  I have done everything from finding their emails on their personal blogs and reaching them on Facebook to simply guessing an email address based on their organization’s name (note: this last one almost never worked!).

5. Be persistent. Some folks only cared what I had to say the second time I wrote them.

6. Play the numbers. Even if you contact 10 low hanging fruit, chances are maybe only one writer you contact will get back to you (and even that may not turn into an article). Now, if you contact 100 people….well, you can do the math.

7. Help them. Remember, their job is to get eyes on their articles. If they do write about you spread the word – its good for them and you!

8. And of course, always say thank you! Thanks to Steve of BusinessWeek, Donna of Inc. Magazine, and Ty and Durga of the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch and India Chief Mentor.

So What? Follow these 8 tips and you’re likely to dramatically improve your chances of getting major media coverage for your organization!