New Ways To Get Publicity For Your Company
By B.L. Ochman
Today, people have a remarkable number of choices about where
to get their news and information. For your message to be heard,
you need to know what they are, where they are and how to
influence them.
While the Internet has radically changed the way we
communicate, one constant remains: no business can succeed
until people know it exists. Being able to gain press and
public exposure for your company, products or services can
still make the difference between success and failure.
Online and traditional media still provide very important
outlets for company news - but they're no longer the only
outlet, or necessarily the best one. And the traditional
press release isn't the way to reach them.
Communication Free-For-All
In the past, editors were the gatekeepers between company news
and the public, filtering news from innuendo and rumor. Now
communication is a free-for-all where you can sail right past
the gatekeeper and address your publics directly and seamlessly.
Find the right strategy for your story and buzz will follow.
Without the right approach, all the press releases, flossy press
kits, press conferences and speeches in the world mean squat.
Getting your message heard through the noise online and off
requires seeing PR from a new perspective. The new PR - which
I call Reality PR (TM) -- means understanding how people use the
Internet to gather and disseminate information about companies
and their products.
Your communication objective in these new mediums is to
establish credibility, create awareness of your existence, and
make potential customers want to take a look at your site. And
along the way, you're likely to be picked up by traditional
journalists' radar.
Broad Reach Through E-Zines And Newsletters
While magazines online and off are suffering a huge drop in
advertising or closing their doors, scores of online newsletters
are going strong, and many have circulations in the hundreds of
thousands. Many take article submissions. Self-serving trumpetry
will be summarily rejected by all publishers. However, your
short bio at the end of a valuable article allows you to promote
your business.
Speaking as a newsletter publisher, I can tell you that the
vast majority of submissions I get are on inappropriate topics
and sent by people who clearly have never read my newsletter.
As with any other type of promotion, you must do your homework
and personalize your inquiries.
Directories of e-zines and online newsletters include:
Ezine-Universe which lists nearly 8,000
e-zines and newsletters
Marketing-Seek, which allows you to list
your articles on their site so publishers can select them.
Brave New Outlets
Unique to the Internet are content-community hybrids where
millions of people each day get together to learn from,
educate, or help eachother through the exchange of information,
gossip and news covering niche fields. These include:
About.com, a network consisting of over 700
Guide sites neatly organized into 36 channels. The sites cover more than 50,000 subjects
with over 1 million links to Internet resources and a huge archive of original content. Topics
range from pregnancy to cars, palm pilots to painting, weight loss to video game strategies.
Guides at about.com and other communities are in constant need
of sources and are more likely to listen to you than, say, a
reporter for Fortune. And since many about.com guides reach
millions of people, your inclusion here can be far-reaching.
Wz.com, a network of experts and enthusiasts
who provide information in newsletters that can be read in 45 seconds. Subjects range from
gourmet cooking on a budget to how to build Web Site traffic and sales, and
some have circulations of half a million.
You can apply to become a wz-ard with your own newsletter on a
topic in which you have expertise. If you're not willing to
make the commitment to a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter, you
can become a source to those who publish newsletters.
Smallbusiness.com is a
knowledge-sharing community that helps small businesses make better decisions through
the free exchange of advice on a wide range of issues and products. Members rate the
quality of advice offered by other members and those who most actively help others are highlighted.
You can upload articles you have written on a given category. Blatant self-promotion will be ignored
or flamed. If you provide truly useful information and are willing to answer questions about it, you are
quite likely to attract new customers.
Usenet newsgroups are another brave new outlet. If you are willing to forgo the marketing
prattle and provide helpful information you can become a respected member of a given
community. You can find a searchable directory of Usenet
groups at Google. Among well-known
online communities are:
The Well a members-only international cluster of
electronic villages on the Internet, which people join for a $10 - $15 a month fee. Subjects
range from jazz to Java, and each "conference" has a distinct style and its own loyal participants.
Membership includes unlimited participation in hundreds of conferences, with an optional WELL homepage.
CIX a not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for the
exchange of ideas, information, and experimental projects among suppliers of Internet services.
Tabletalk discussion communities created when
Salon was launched and now a subscription service, many of which focus on particular
products or services.
While they might not appreciate unsolicited announcements, responding to inquiries in a
related group would certainly be permissible.
These communities often maintain FAQ files (Frequently Asked
Questions) and could welcome an informative section on your
firm or its products - although marketing rhetoric would be
poorly received. Formulaic releases are a waste of time with
these non-traditional outlets. Tailor your participation to
the highly segmented, but fiercely loyal audiences and you can
reach the heart of new media opportunity.
About The Author
B.L. Ochman
is an Internet and Outernet marketing consultant, speaker and journalist.
Her acclaimed new report, Secrets of Effective
Press Release Distribution will show you how to stop wasting money on press releases.
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