The main takeaway with great PR is that it positions your business as an expert. Nowadays, doing offline PR is different from online PR. We’ve got an old belief that it’s just a text document. But we’re now on the 20th century. It’s simply all about integration.
You should avoid making separate “silos” within your different marketing platforms. Create consistency in your message and integration within your different platforms.
It’s important first to identify your target market and niche. Give pure value to your market by considering some things that they can apply in their life or business.
But do not sell or pitch your PR. Don’t put any affiliate links. Just give them something that they can relate and use or can help them.
The reason you want to get a PR publicity is that it positions you as an expert to the media as well as to your target audience. They’re not going to know that you exist if you don’t let them know.
5 Online PR News tips to give you mass media exposure
1. Cover the 5 W’s in your first paragraph
A lot of times people just scan your copy and if they find it interesting and compelling they will talk about it. If they have to dig through a page and a half to figure out the point of your press release, they will get frustrated and oftentimes just ignore it.
Apart from covering the Who, What, When, Where, and Why, you’ve to make sure that you have a straightforward headline. This is not a time to get creative and treat it like a direct marketing piece. This has to be news-worthy and factual.
2. Don’t write it like an ad or marketing piece
Make everything very straightforward. Don’t put hype comments such as, “This program will make you a million dollars a month.” Even if it can, don’t put hyped copy in there. Keep it factual and straight to the point.
3. Integrate and deploy through online PR sites
There are trusted PR sites online. What you do is you upload press release to a PR site and integrate it with different multimedia platforms such as embeding Youtube video. A Twitter and Facebook stream can also be embedded. Instead of having text only web copy, you’ll have an interactive page with video, Twitter and Facebook.
Once you upload your PR copy, it’s gonna walk you step by step. OnlinePRnews.com and PRweb.com are examples of popular PR sites that bring the most visibility using social media, seo, and multimedia platforms.
4. Create your own media list
Make a list of media outlets that you may want to send your PR to. Do follow up phone calls and emails if necessary. Make sure they got your press release, answer questions they have, explain why it’s really great for your target audience and why it’s news-worthy.
5. Share to all social media outlets
Once you get your PR written and its deployed online, share it to all your social media outlets. Shrink the copy or post it on your website or use it as a blog post.
It’s okay to occasionally promote yourself on your blog but don’t do it all the time. Also make sure that you get the links to the article or videos that you get quoted in. Put those on your website to position yourself in your industry and build credibility.
