Media Plan: Do lots of research on your industry's pertinent magazines, television shows, online publications, and blogs. Next, start to follow them. What types of stories do they cover? Who are the writers? Contact information?

This should be an ongoing process.

Hooks: A hook is a theme for a story. It's the nugget that catches the writer. And, it should be only a couple sentences. Actually, if it's too long, it will probably be ignored by the writer.

An example: In the early days for Salesforce.com, the main hook was that the company was doing something very different in enterprise software. That is, the software was delivered via the internet. Also, the interface was extremely simple and there were no huge upfront costs.

It certainly caught the eye of writers and as a result, Salesforce.com got lots of buzz.

Pitching: You don't need a PR person to pitch a writer. For the most part, the writer doesn't care. Rather, he or she just wants an opportunity to write a good story.

Again, when you pitch a story, it is important to keep the message quick. You should also personalize it. You might say something like: "I know you cover cloud computing and we have something that is unique in the industry ..."

Some helpful resources: There are several good books on PR, such as 6 Steps to Free Publicity and PR on a Budget. Although, it is tempting to get the latest titles on such things like social media and so on. While it's good to know about these things, it is still important to get a good foundation on the basics.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.