Let’s face it: marketing can be boring. You want to advertise for your business, but you don’t want to do it in the usual way. The usual way has been done a million times, and no one’s going to pay attention to the millionth and first time. To solve this problem, we asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council^[1]—an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising entrepreneurs—a simple yet interesting question: What’s the most creative strategy you’ve ever used to get press for your company or product that other entrepreneurs can use? Their answers may surprise you.

1. Engaging on Twitter
Reporters will often times use Twitter to preview what stories they are working on — which is a great way to become part of the story. Follow reporters (not just tech reporters, but anyone you want press from), and then conversate when they ask for something on social media. Be helpful, and don’t always sell your company. Odds are you’ll quickly become part of the stories if you are helpful.
– Eric Koester, Zaarly^[2][3]

2. Making the Story Newsworthy
Make your story part of a bigger story. Tying your news or announcement to something that is already grabbing headlines and attracting readers will make journalists substantially more likely to cover it.
– Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics^[4][5]

3. Tattooing My Co-Founder
This may be an ill-advised strategy, but I’ll share it nonetheless. At SXSW 2013, I got us in The Wall Street Journal by making my co-founder get our logo tattooed on his back side. You can read about it here.
– Danny Boice, Speek^[6][7][8]

4. Making Our Company Relevant
We like to combine Internet marketing with things people can relate to. Here are two examples: 1) SEOVote2012.com. During the 2012 election, we made a site that compared candidates’ website stats — not just website traffic, but a lot of interesting metrics. 2) “The Best City in the World.” We got our hometown (Pittsburgh) to rank No. 1 on the Google search “The best city in the world.”
– Phil Laboon^[9], Eyeflow Internet Marketing