Utah Public Relations Agency, Utah PR, Online PR, PR For Small Business, Utah Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing

If you are still relying on press releases to get you media attention you are doing it the old way. Press releases these days serve two purposes 1) To simply give the media factual information about an event or some news about you 2) To increase your SEO online. It rarely is the only thing to get you covered in the news these days and often gets thrown out by reporters. So how do you use them properly to get you the coverage you need?

Good, complicated question. You must use a press release as part of your media arsenal, but not as your only weapon. Your arsenal should actually include:

* A Press release - One quick, simple page of facts and an attention grabbing paragraph that is actually worthy of news coverage. (This should be crafted to the specific news outlet you are sending it to.)

* Twitter messages (Not on Twitter yet? Get on there, this is the future of news dissemination) - Twitter is the place to tell your followers what you are up to - and a good PR person will have an army of reporters as followers to spread the news for you.

* Facebook - Gain friends and fans and then send out messages about what you are up to, events you are holding, friends you’d like to have, specials, sales, whatever. You don’t need the media to cover you when you’ve got a target audience of devoted fans here.

* Online wires - The future of news is online, online, online. You should send your press release online - especially if you plan on establishing yourself on a national or international level. Watch out, though wire services can get very expensive. Most of the ones who say they are free aren’t really. But also keep in mind that you get what you pay for here. Having a good PR person can help you navigate this area better and save you money in the long run.

* Blogs, Vlogs and other citizen journalist sites - Find places your target audience goes, blogs with high traffic volume that hits the people that tend to buy from you. Get these writers to write about you with a simple email. Bloggers tend to not respond very well to formal press releases so introduce yourself, make comments and become their friend. It may also help if you throw them a couple bucks in advertising. Not everyone recommends this but it may make it easier to get them to mention you.

* Online publications - like I said before and cannot mention enough, the future of news is all online. Even 80% of the current broadcast news force gets their news mainly from online sources. Sending an email announcement to the online editors will definitely help your chances of coverage with them and traditional media, too.

Need help with some creative messaging, writing a press release, planning an event or putting together a good pr campaign? Just call 801-864-1830

Squidoo - Building something called a “lens” (basically just a webpage for an article or helpful document about something you’ve written up) and then linking that to other places people can find you online and including a link to your site can really help your Google rank

Docstoc.com - Great site full of helpful business document templates like cash flow and the start your own venture test…if you ever feel a need to use that sort of stuff…oh and if you have a cool doc you’d like to share it seems you can share it with the world there. Sharing your own docs and including a link back to your site or blog will increase your visibility in the search engines. Neat-o, bandito!

Blogging and participating on other blogs - something that can take some time and I don’t even do enough of, but if you do it you can really increase your fan base. I try to blog on a regular basis and link to words people are most likely to search for on my site. This, I can attest, does raise your search engine visibility rank.

Technorati - listing your blog or site on here and then pinging them to let them know every time you’ve updated helps them recognize your activity and rank you higher

DMOZ - This is the mother of all search engine optimization. It is basically a collective group that categorizes your site, reviews it and then gives it the thumbs up for all other search engines. Google, Yahoo and pretty much all other search engines out there look to this site for approval of their listed sites.

Google - This is the number one search engine in all the world. You’ll obviously want to list your site here. Not doing at least that would be foolish. Tip: even if you haven’t listed yet, do a Google search with the name or phrase of your website. This will let the super computers at Google (or the wizard behind the curtain or whomever handles all this) know that at least someone is searching for your site. They’ll start to send the search spiders to include you…but remember to also manually list yourself.

Article submission sites such as Blognews, greatarticlesubmitter.com and Ezinearticles.com are all great for submitting your stuff. Include a link back to your site to increase your rank and visibility.

The more places you are on the web the easier it will be to stay in people’s minds, especially other bloggers and journalists looking for a good story.

*By the way, a site to help you check your rank is Alexa. Download the toolbar there to see where you rank and compare yourself to the competition.

“Women are launching businesses at twice the rate of men, and they are doing it primarily for lifestyle reasons–they want more freedom, flexibility, and creativity in their lives.”
- Victoria Colligan for Ladies Who Launch

There’s some amazing go-getter women out there these days, all with dreams and the capabilities to fulfill them. All it takes is trust in yourself and the belief that if you work toward those dreams you will succeed. I know this has happened for me and my business. It is scary to step out and do something on your own, but I’m here and so are many, many other successful women to help you and hold your hand when and if you need us to. Do something, one thing, make it a goal to fulfill your own dreams and create the life and run the business you want. Commit to believe in your own abilities today. Be your own Big Star.

CNN execs believe their news is so instrumental and influential it deserves its own wire service. They dropped a multi-million age-old contract with Reuters last year and are now turning themselves into their own special wire. Execs have asked newspaper editors across the country in Hawtlanta this Dec 1st to convince them of these beliefs. Two things to keep in mind 1) Newspapers are dying. Haven’t heard that one yet? Check newspaper death watch 2)CNN execs are surely aware of this, right? I mean news and all things related to it are their business…so why are they targeting newspapers? Who knows. But what this means to people trying to get their news out is that, even though newspapers are losing readership and fast, a good many of them are gaining that online. If this new wire service can someday splash your news on to the front of the NYTimes then thumbs up to CNN.

I attended a brand marketing conference, Brand Evolution, yesterday here in Salt Lake City. It was put on by Twelve Horses and sponsored by UtahPulse.com. Two things: the first speaker and Starbucks maverick brander, Stanely Hainsworth, has some crazy big hair.

He says he is his own brand and this is what brands him. He’s right. You can’t miss him. But it’s not pretty.

The second thing I got from this conference is the importance of the story. The story brands you. It tells consumers who you are on the surface, helps them relate to you emotionally and internalizes what your mission is and gives you direction. Both Hainsworth and the second speaker, Mike Bonifer (author of Game Changers) said you can change things and bring back your core through the message of your story. I have to agree. That is powerful stuff.

1. Have a web presence. Everything is online these days. If you aren’t
online you don’t exist.
2. Network, network, network. Tell everyone you can about who you are.
Don’t be shy about it. This is your livelyhood and you believe in what you
sell.
3. Network online. We have the best social networking tools these days.
Get yourself on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In and make friends. Build
your fan base and invite them to your store, your event, to buy your book
or whatever it is you are marketing.
4. Make sure you have a good publicist in your corner. They will give you
great advice on marketing, crisis situations and how to get your word out
there the right way.
5. Make it a goal to get in the top ranks on Goole News. Over 80% of
journalists say they check Google News at least once a week for story
ideas.
6. Learn how to write a solid press release or get a good press release
writer to write one up for you. Then take that press release and put it
online with a link to your website. Don’t know how to start writing one? Here’s our handy guide: How to write a press release
7. Get others (friends, neighbors who blog, other businesses) to link to
your site to increase your SEO (search engine optimization). This will
give you a ton of exposure in online search engines. Every link counts.
Every publication counts. Let as many people as you can know about who
you are and what you do and pretty soon they’ll be saying “Oh, ya, I’ve
heard of you”.

I was on KJZZ this morning on the Home Team. I wish I had the clip, but that is not up yet. I’ll let y’all see it when I get the DVD. The show went great. I talked about women starting their own businesses. This is so much more common these days. I encourage any of you reading this to start something you’ve been thinking about for a while. I know times are tough and we do live in a scary economy. But that is exactly why you should start your own business. Big bussinesses are failing. It’s scary! Be the master of your own destiny and start to follow your dreams today. If you want I can even dirct you to a few good business planners and some great resources (only in the Utah area, sorry). If not in Utah, I’m still happy to give you as much advice as you need to make a wise decision. Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Europe has six mountains higher than the Matterhorn. Name one of them.

I was recently interviewed about public relations by Phil Davis, CEO of Authors on the Net. This is a great resource for authors wanting to get their book published. Phil takes authors step-by-step through the process and has a very good track record of success.

Click here to check out the audio and posting of the interview: Publicity for Authors