Thanks to the popularity of social media and blogging, I think public relations often gets overlooked by small business people. It’s too bad, because well-written press releases that contain valuable information and are distributed via the appropriate channel can go a long way in spreading the word about your business. The argument that you don’t have time to write and distribute one more thing is a cop-out, because you don’t. Just re-publish stuff you’ve already written about on your blog, in your newsletter, and on the polls/surveys/research you’ve conducted.
The best part of public relations these days is the proliferation of online distribution services happy to do the work for you so your press release doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Just match your press release to the appropriate outlet listed below, and you’re good to go.
Significant Findings
You’ll want to distribute any huge news via Newswise. They specialize in knowledge-based news content and are the go-to news source for journalists and media professionals. The press releases they distribute include research results, feature pitches, and breaking news. If your biotech company discovered the cure for cancer, this is where you’d announce it. And you will want to limit what you submit to this site anyway; at $500 a pop, it isn’t cheap.
General
Press releases that are of a more general nature—a new product release or service offering, a change in leadership, significant new clients, success stories—would be distributed through PR Newswire. They have a really broad reach and deliver press releases to the print and broadcast newsrooms, journalists, bloggers, financial portals, social media networks, Web sites, content syndicators and search engines. They charge $100-300 per press release.
Viral
If you’d like your press release to go viral—and really, who wouldn’t?—send your valuable, content-packed release to WiredPRNews. Even though a lot of companies like to say their service is unique, theirs really is. They use SEO to make press releases more visible to search engines, making it more likely that your press release is read and shared by a lot of people. And they only charge around $25/press release.
Social Media
Press releases that include a multi-media component—photos, videos, MP3 audio—are more likely to make it onto the social media circuit. Distribute those via Marketwire, which specializes in multi-media press releases and even offers a monitoring service so you can track the effectiveness of your release. Pricing varies depending on the services you choose to use.
Photo courtesy of Crittz/Flickr.
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