Why I Don’t Send Press Releases to Journalists…At Least, Not Directly
When was the last time a customer learned about your business on TV or in a newspaper or even on the radio – other than in paid advertising? Chances are these days, that if you’re featured in a news story, you’re either in trouble, or, if you’re lucky, perhaps you’re part of a larger story that involves other companies or organizations.
If you’re like me, and your customers come from all over the United States and beyond, getting your company in the local media doesn’t mean much to your bottom line. For me, getting in the local media ranks almost last on my list - right above working for free. Keep in mind, this isn’t true for everyone, and in an upcoming post, I’ll touch on a few ideas that will get you in local media.
But for now, let’s talk about global media exposure in today’s digital age. And, of course, whenever we talk about communication and media in the digital age, one name invariably comes up - Google.
If your business is to succeed in today’s digital world, you must use Google (and other search engines as well) as a major tool in your online public relations campaign. And it must be a high priority to build your brand through constant communication that produces online media coverage that Google will find when someone goes looking for you kind of business. Fortunately, this is much easier than it sounds. Today, we’ll focus solely one using press releases and free distribution sites to get your news out to those using Google to find your business.
First of all, you must have news. Do you have a new product? New Service? New Location? New employee? Find what your news is and put it in a press release. I highly suggest using a social media release format – search engines pick up on the links and keywords in this type of release and find your website easier – which means people using search engines find your site more easily. If you need an example of a social media release click here or here.
Then, submit your release to sites that accept and publish releases for free – like www.prlog.org. There are many others, and I’ll save those for an upcoming post.
Submission sites like prlog.org post your press release or social media release, search engine crawlers come by and see what your content is about, and then index your content in the search engine based on keywords, phrases and other criteria the crawler picked up.
I told you it was easy. Did I mention it was free?
And even more good news is that journalists are using Google to find information, contacts, and angles for their stories. If they Google “non-profit appeals” to find information on a story they’re working on, chances are good that the journalist will contact people in the first page of results. The same holds true for customers. If a non-profit in Butte, Montana is looking for someone to write an appeal letter for donations and does a Google search for “non-profit appeals” chances are good that they’ll contact the people on the first page.
In upcoming posts, I’ll talk to you about other sites that accept releases for free as well as PR tactics that are cost-effective and require very little time and even less money. And trust me, it’s time and money well invested.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
While you make some good points in the article, I think you ignore a few critical elements of a good media relations pitch. Search engines, blogs and other new or social media channels should not be viewed as replacements for traditional media. You’re right that very few businesses care about local news coverage. However, they do care about national or international trade media coverage. A brakepad manufacturer is going to be better served through a well written and researched article in Automotive News than a hit on Google.
Those articles are still acheived through good old fashioned media relations - building a relationship with the editor at AN, learning what is important to his readers (and, by extension, the industry), and then pitching hard news or feature-style stories that interest those readers.
PR pros that ignore the basics of media pitching in lieue of relying only on Web based communication are not doing their jobs. Those that counsel clients to do so are doing them a disservice.
So, yes, news releases should be sent to journalists. The key is sending to the right journalists, rather than mass distributing to huge lists. That has little more value than posting Google.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Thank you. I appreciate your comments.
You are right about the problem of relying 100% on web-based communication. And, I don’t profess that NEVER sending press releases to journalists or developing a relationship with journalists is the way to go. Many journalists, in my experience are savvy enough and reclusive enough to find their sources on the web, on their terms, without being bothered by account executives and the like.
But, traditional PR will most likely always have a place in the world. And, for the smaller companies who don’t, or can’t, spend a lot of money on PR, I will say that distributing releases via the web is the best ‘first step’ in a campaign. Beyond that, it is important to develop relationships with local media, and yes, PR firms are often the best choice if the money for that is available.
As for mass distributing to a huge list having little more value than posting to Google, I respectfully disagree. Every release I distribute in this way gives me three things:
1. A lovely spike in traffic to my website
2. Qualified leads about my services
3. Better search engine ranking so that when people DO look for a copywriter using Google…they find me.
One last note, a brake pad manufacturer is a B2B…they sell to the distributors and retailers of the world. My clients are (90%) in the B2C arena. Suggesting traditional media for the brake pad manufacturer makes perfect sense because I don’t see some product sourcing specialist at Wal-Mart doing a Google search to find out where they’ll buy brake pads from next quarter. Like you said, they pick up Automotive News.
In college, (I took PR in college) I was always taught to ask “Who is my audience? And, what do they want?”
I’ve changed that over time into “Who is my audience? And, how do they find me?”
Jason