It's simple to believe that public relations are just about making a lot of the news you have or 'creating' news stories that will attract the press and media. When you can respond quickly and provide helpful comments then breaking news is a superb opportunity to boost your profile. Here are some handy tips to have you contemplating making the most of breaking news.

Monitor the news - it's important to keep track of the press and media for the stories that are being covered. It's unlikely that the week should go by without some sort of story appearing that one could contribute to. Breaking News That means being on the surface of the news and stories as they appear and develop throughout the day. It's not difficult to start to see the stories that are likely to get coverage over several days.

Act quickly - the main thing is to identify an account and then act on it. The quicker you are in contacting the relevant journalist with useful comments or material compared to more likely it is going to be that your efforts can pay off. The planet of press and media moves quickly which means you have to do the same. You'll also need to consider the deadlines that journalists will work too. The 24-hour news channels mean that there is now a whole lot more scope for providing expert comments on the back of a news story. They've air time to fill and is going to be grateful if you can make them do that. Also, don't forget that most of the stories that appear in the Sunday newspapers would be the week's stories in increased detail with an additional comment - that gives you a great opportunity.

Help to push on the story - make sure that what you contribute provides useful information, can consider the story from an alternative perspective, help to go the story on, etc. The audience wants to be informed and your job is to help achieve that. It's no good approaching a writer about a small business story by saying that you will be a small business coach - you need to be very specific, in relation to the story, about what you can contribute.

Make yourself available - if you want to raise your profile on the back of someone else's news then you need to place time aside to accomplish that. It may be disruptive because it's not planned. Before approaching any journalist be clear that you can contribute time to follow through. If you should be successful in your efforts, which could include visiting a facility, doing interviews, etc., and that takes time and effort. Before an interview, you may also wish to seek the services of a media trainer to assist you to prepare. This is a good idea especially if you haven't done much press and media work.

Build relationships - approaching journalists on the back of breaking news also gives you a great opportunity to build relationships with journalists covering your interest area. Learn the type of stories they're thinking about and whether you are able to make them with other accounts. Also, should you a great job then it offers you scope for keeping them to place you inside their 'little black book' of contacts for future stories - that's what you really need to achieve.

Become a professional - there are two methods to generate opportunities for comment and interviews on the back of news stories. One of the ways is to make contact with journalists. Another is for them to contact you. In an ideal world, you need to probably do both. You can find databases such as Expert Sources where you can list your details for a paid-for subscription. Journalists utilize it to locate experts to supply comments for the stories they're working on.

Commenting on the back of other people's news is a great way to build your profile and get exposure to key audiences. It can also be an essential way to build your profile while maintaining your costs down. When you can build a reputation for providing useful and insightful comments then you will quickly discover that journalists will come back to you time and again.