Media Friendly Online Newsrooms Components and Best Practices

•New Product Give It Nine Lives
New Product? Give It Nine Lives   by Marcia YudkinThe closeness between the words new and news provides a telling clue to how easy it can be to get media coverage for something that's new. By definition, the media are in the business of covering what's fresh, what's unprecedented and what has just happened. Follow a few simple steps and publicity can make your product launch a significant success.First, carefully and honestly define specific markets for your product. Media that target those...

•Media Publicity Tips For Artists Top 10 Ways For Artists to Get Into the News
If you’re uncomfortable tooting your own horn to the public, media coverage is a perfect alternative for you. Understand that journalists, editors and producers need stories to perform their job and fill up space on the air, in print or on their sites. Hand them a promising story idea and they do the rest of the work singing your praises to the world! Here now are the easiest, most relevant 10 ways for artists – sculptors, painters, photographers, craftspeople, cartoonists and performance...

•Giveaways That Gratify You Too
   by Marcia YudkinYours free! It's a rare head that doesn't turn at that news. By offering freebies that zero in on the interests and desires of your target market, you can take advantage of this powerful psychological appeal to grow your business. And by choosing giveaways with news value for your audience, you can easily enlist the aid of the media in spreading the word about your offering to prospective customers. Here's how.Great giveaway strategy begins with a wise choice of your free...

•How to Successfully Pitch a Reporter to Get Interviewed and Obtain Media Coverage
When I was up against a book deadline and needed a couple of people to interview who had achieved business results from podcasting, I put out a call through a service called Help a Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com). This free service functions very much like paid reporter lead services such as Profnet or Travel Publicity Leads. Generally media people put out such calls either when they need interview leads extremely soon (like a deadline in two days) or when they have rather unusual...

•Tantalizing Headlines Do s and Don ts
   by Marcia YudkinPut yourself in the position of a newspaper or magazine editor scanning the newswires and the day's email and faxes for relevant content. How would you rate the following headlines, actually found on the Internet:New Slaves in AmericaHP Wheels Out Year-long Tour Bringing Digital Adventure Directly to ConsumersLittle Kids Re-introduces Sqwish Ball Adding Shimmer to the Sqwish!>From the editor's perspective, all three of these headlines stink, because they do not make...

•Four Tactics For Drumming Up Business During a Recession
Recession? Hah! That’s the attitude you’ll have when you know how to bring new customers in, despite all your competitors wailing about being dead in the water. People and companies have not completely stopped spending. They’re just much more selective and risk-averse in what they buy. If you use these four smart recession-fighting strategies, you’ll emerge from the recession just fine. Four Recession-Be-Darned Marketing Tactics 1. Have a risk-free introductory offer. For example,...

•Search Marketing Strategy How and Why to Dominate Google News
Search engine marketing efforts usually focus on improving the extent to which a site shows up in Google searches. However, there are distinct methods and advantages to showing up in Google News searches (http://news.google.com). Show up there, and you're in the elite company of stories from famous-name news organizations worldwide. Google News aggregates headlines, leads and stories from thousands of legitimate news organizations around the world – and luckily for publicity seekers, it...

•Jargon Handle with Care
by Marcia YudkinWhen I reviewed business Web sites for the Webby Awards earlier this year,one of the most common and annoying obstacles I ran across was jargon -insider language that got in the way of understanding what the businessbehind the site actually did for its clients. The same barrier detractsfrom the effectiveness of many press releases.Troublesome jargon comes in at least three varieties: buzzwords, or trendyphrases used by people who consider themselves on the cutting edge of...

•Creating a Reputation
   by Marcia YudkinWant to shorten the sales cycle for your professional services? Want pre-sold prospects who need fewer or no face-to-face meetings before hiring you? Create a reputation. Recently a room full of consultants agreed that you had to meet with potential clients at least twice -- better, three times -- before winning the business. Then how do you get business outside the area? someone asked. The consensus: Forget it.Yet I've been hired by companies in Australia and elsewhere...

•Tips are Perennially Tempting
   by Marcia YudkinTechies love them. Young and old technology haters love them. Most importantly, editors love them. Tips -- neatly packaged, numbered nuggets of advice -- are always appealing to those whose job it is to fill up publications with entertaining and illuminating information. They can therefore represent a lucrative route to publicity for you or your organization.The content of tips that earn you media coverage doesn't have to be original, exclusive or startling. You can offer up...