Step 1

Know what’s newsworthy. Remember that just because an issue is important to you, a journalist or news outlet might not be as interested. Try to find a way to make your cause relevant based on what you see that news outlet covering.

Example: If your movement is fighting for women's rights in your country, and you know that a certain journalist has been covering the recent women's rights movement in Saudi Arabia, you can pitch that journalist with a story that links your cause to that of Saudi women.

Step 2

Have a concise, value driven message. You want a clear message that even a journalist not versed in your cause can understand. For example:

Saudi #women2drive wants equal driving rights for men and women!

We are Rio de Paz we want to rid the Brazilian government of corruption!

If you are pitching the journalist to cover an event, remember to keep the pitch brief-- journalists get many pitches every day.  For example:

We are holding a protest in front of Parliament to demand equal rights for minority groups in our country.

We have a Facebook group of over 10,000 people and we have 8,000 Twitter followers. We expect 15,000 to be in attendance.

Once you’ve crafted your message, making sure that it is clear and concise, be certain that it answers these questions for the journalist: “Why is this newsworthy? Would my audience care?”

Step 3

Understand a Journalist’s Coverage Area & Audience. Determine which demographic — and therefore, which publication — would be interested in your movement or cause. Then research which journalists at that publication cover the vertical in which your cause or its news would fall. For example:

If it is an issue that pertains only to your city, start with local media outlets.

If it is an issue that pertains to women, research which journalists in your region are covering women's issues.

If you are protesting against a company or corporation, find out which journalists have covered that company in the past.

For the sake of originality, try to stay away from the cliché first sentence of, “I read your recent post called ‘XYZ,’ and I think you’d be interested in my cause.” If you can’t think of a compelling format, go with something like, “I noticed you’ve covered women's rights issues quite a bit at Publication X, and I think you’d be interested in learning about how my cause is advocating for women's voting rights in our country.” Be sure to differentiate your cause from ones that the journalist has already covered, however.

Step 4

Don't send mass pitches. Send original emails to each journalist, even if you only tweak them a little bit. Or, pitch on Twitter! This is a great way to send a short, concise pitch to a journalist. You can either do this by starting a message @xxxx (if the first character in the Tweet is @ only users following both you and the person you are tagging will see the message) or send them a DM if they are already following you.

Step 5

You really don't need a press release. Just send custom emails to the news outlets you'd like to cover your event or movement. It’s fine to cut and paste your information but be sure to avoid mistakes and double check when copying and pasting the same email! Make sure you get the journalist's name and publication right every time!

Step 6

Have useful assets available. Do you have photos from a previous event, a video that talks about what you do, a one pager with a small amount of text and some images? Have these on hand to send quickly to a reporter who shows interest in writing about you. Need some help creating a video to represent your message? Check out How to Create and Harness Video for Social Change.

(This is a video create by the Can You Solve This Campaign for Iranian Students Rights)

Step 7

Offer Up Unique Data. When pitching, include data and numbers that support your ideas when possible. In fact, an interesting study, infographic or other data sometimes warrants its own pitch. If your cause or movement has an impressive number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers share those! Has a video demonstrating a human rights abuse been seen on YouTube 10,000 times? Share that! Any stats about how people are suffering due to whatever issue you are protesting against, etc.

Step 8

Craft and maintain relationships. Follow journalists on Twitter to keep up with what type of stories they are working on. You can use tools like Muckrack, Journalist Tweets, Listorious, or WeFollow to find journalists on Twitter. Once you've found them, don't just follow -- interact! When they post questions on their Twitter feed, answer! Try to cultivate relationships so when you have a story to pitch, they'll be more likely to listen.