Get Free Publicity: Tips From The Experts
Do you have a book, product, or website? Get the word out! The amount of free publicity you can get is endless. And in this post we’ll show you how to get it. We’ll explore free online and offline publicity options as well as easy ways to find and contact reporters and bloggers with an interest in what you do.
We’ll also share tips on how to make your project easier for journalists, how to craft a strong press release that gets results, plus guidelines on sending mailings that will actually be opened by busy editors.
Knowledgeable people share their expertise every day by blogging, tweeting, creating Facebook Pages and other social media outlets. It’s through these outlets that companies can become famous. The work isn’t hard and the results are worthwhile. Most just aren’t aware of this free source of publicity and so it goes undiscovered by the majority of companies.
The Internet has made good old-fashioned word of mouth free or nearly free publicity even more accessible to you at this point in time, thanks to social media. Use the following tips for your business or product and let us know how it works out for you.
Online Publicity
– Determine who your target market is. Are you targeting the masses or are you going niche? Try to find bloggers or news sites that cover topics related to your product.
-Find out if the people you want to interview have a way for others to contact them directly, or if they have a media kit. It’s most effective when it’s a multi-media kit showcasing your work in print, audio and video formats. This allows people who may not be able to afford your product to get a feel for what it will do for them, too.
– Use Google alerts (free service) to know when your company or products name is mentioned online. Add keywords like “best”, “favorite”, or “top” in your search query to get results for your product.
– Create a blog about yourself or your product/company. Blogging helps you connect with the masses and build a community around your product/company.
– Etsy is a great place to sell and build a business by showcasing your products. It works well if you want to remain an independent business owner or if you want to eventually use this site as an e-commerce site. Sign up here: http://www.etsy.com/
– Create a Twitter account and start tweeting. Make sure your tweets are informative, not just promotional. Don’t be afraid to tweet links to useful articles related to your industry.
– Create a fan page on Facebook. Connect with “friends” who are interested in your topic, or with those who may be potential customers, investors or partners. Instead of setting up a company page, use something like the “product showcase” theme when creating your fan page. This will give you more flexibility later if you want to change it into an ecommerce site later on. You can also set up a group or community page for discussion and interaction with people who have similar interests to yours.
– Create a Google advertising account (free service). Connect your Twitter, Facebook and/or blog account to this account to begin displaying ads related to your industry.
Offline Publicity
– Reach out to newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Interview with journalists and ask them for a quote about your product or service. You can use their resources for additional exposure after the first contact—by referring them to websites or blogs you think will be interested in the article. You could also pay an outside PR firm that offers media consulting services to help you with this process.
– Contact journalists at trade shows by attending their press conferences or informational booths and asking if they will use a short sound bite from you in a future article. Many of these big companies will agree to this for a nominal fee, especially if you are a trade show exhibitor.
– Contact radio and television stations to interview them about a product or service. They might give you an on-air interview, or they may just want a sound bite so they can use it in their next news story. You can either pay the station to use your audio on air, or you can go through an outside PR firm that offers media consulting services to help with this process.
– Contact local newspaper reporters and let them know of your upcoming event (trade show, fair, etc.) and ask if they will use a short sound bite from you in their paper. Newspapers are looking for sound bites to add interest to their articles, and you can help them out by providing a quote.
– Create a multi-media press kit with photos and videos of your products or services. Media kits can be distributed through the mail or through email. It’s best to have a website that you can direct reporters to, since they will want to include it in their article if they write about your company or product.
– Follow up with reporters when you know they are interested in what you did or are doing, but might not have gotten back to you yet. Tell them what you are doing, and ask for a quote about it.
– Write press releases and forward them to media contacts you have. This will help get the word out about your business, and the media contacts will be more likely to use it if they agree that it’s important enough to share.
There are a great many ways to use free publicity on the Internet as well as offline. By using a variety of these methods you can create a buzz, while also raising awareness of any product or service you choose.
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. Although this statement may be true, with different areas of the Internet providing easy access to publicity for companies and products, it’s worth much effort to have your horse at least try out the water!
For more information, contact Image Factory at info@imagefactory.org.uk or call 020 7122 8013 or 07880 123456. For ways to promote your business please visit http://www.imagefactory.
Conclusion
The Internet has made much easier than ever before to get free public relations and publicity for your business. So what are you waiting for? Get started now and see where it takes you!
Source: http://www.freebiz-info.co.uk/FreePR.