3 KEY WAYS TO GET PR by author and award-winning entrepreneur Paula Wynne

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Published on Friday, 06 January 2012 10:52

Last Updated on 06 January 2012

Monica Costa

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Free publicity, either at a local or national level, is the perfect way to promote your business and drive traffic to your website. The media look for news stories not marketing messages from a company, so it is vitally important for you to create a news story and make sure it is newsworthy. In this article I will show start ups and small business owners how to get free publicity with three key PR tools: Press Releases, Free Publicity, Media Expert. Paula will be speaking at our Social Media Magic event on 8th March 2012.

As I explain in my book, Pimp My Site, your PR toolkit consists of distribution techniques for ensuring your release lands under the right editor’s nose. In the book I go into greater detail about photo calls, media interviews, press kits and which media databases to use. But first, let’s start with the first PR tool – a press release. This is a key tool in getting your story, PR angle or publicity event in front of a journalist or editor.

PRESS RELEASE

What is a press release? A press release is a notice or story sent to the media with the aim of attracting their interest and gaining valuable editorial space in their publication. Your press release should be well-written before you submit it to the media. Take a look at this template: http://ihubbub.com/press-release-template
This set of articles will help guide you with a Press Release example template and show you the necessary steps to prepare your press release. Before you get started on writing your press release, take a few minutes or more to think about what you want to achieve.

Here are some things to consider with this Press Release preparation checklist, when you start up your own home business. Look at these tips to be sure your story is newsworthy and you can submit your news to iHubbub for free to get promoted to the media.

FREE PUBLICITY

Find ways to get your business or book or business profile free publicity. As a publicist for your site, your key responsibility is to construct publicity campaigns for your product or service. Download my eBook, which has more than 30 low cost or free publicity angles for your site: www.ihubbub.com/ebooks.

MEDIA EXPERT

Another effective PR Tool is being a media expert. The Media are constantly on the hunt for anyone who can help, give advice and supply expert knowledge on specialist subjects. They need a wide spectrum of experts from qualified professional, experts in the medical field, business personalities, financial advisors, business entrepreneurs, consultants, musicians, entertainers, actors, writers and authors. For examples of the kind of experts I am referring to, see www.ihubbub.com/experts.

More than likely you have something good to offer with lots of valuable information and knowledge between your ears that you may not consider as expertise. You will have the opportunity to gain media coverage for you and your business – you may get national media exposure which will cost you nothing other than time. While building news stories for your business or website, you will increase credibility and boost your PR campaigns.

MEDIA REQUESTS

Bring the media right into your inbox when journalists request specific information and ask for people like you and I to provide material for their articles. Each enquiry is potential media coverage and will help to generate publicity and raise the profile of your business. Check out chapter 11 in my book and take a peek at www.ihubbub.com/get-media to see the kind of information journalists and editors ask for every day.

Summary

I hope these three key areas have inspired you to go out there and become a magnet to the media! If you show your passion and energy for what you do, whether it is a product or service, the media will be buzzing around you to find out more.

And with them comes droves of traffic, clients and customers. If this short article has you all motivated to get free publicity for your business, take a look at Pimp My Site to see how PR, featured in chapter 10 and 11 works perfectly together with SEO and using keywords, Metadata and On Page Optimisation to bring traffic to your site.

Enjoy finding free publicity for your site!

Paula Wynne Biog:

Award-winning entrepreneur of social networking site, iHubbub, and author of ‘Create A Successful Website’ and Pimp My Site, Paula Wynne offers practical advice to succeed online.

Pimp My Site – The DIY Guide to SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media and Online PR
By Paula Wynne

Published by Capstone, December 2011 – Paperback Original, £12.99 – Available in e-book

Pimp My Site is a highly visual guide to show small businesses how to market themselves online through optimisation, search marketing, promotion, and social media.

The global recession has sent tens of millions scrambling for alternative employment opportunities, and a great many of them have taken the leap into becoming their own bosses. As a result there is a crying need among small business startups, entrepreneurs, and independents working on a shoestring for expert guidance on marketing themselves and their businesses online.

Pimp My Site fills that void. It is a complete, do-it-yourself toolkit structured as a fourteen-day course. Rather than fry readers’ circuits with a lot of jargon-heavy technical descriptions, Paula Wynne, a successful publicist, marketer and award-winning online entrepreneur, takes a show-and-tell approach. Her step-by-step descriptions are concise and in plain English, and each step is illustrated with vivid screenshots and illustrations, making the coverage eminently digestible, even for complete novices. From keywords and YouTube to search marketing and optimization, Pimp My Site offers much for beginners and advanced users alike.

• Notable experts describe, in their own words, quick, easy techniques for driving traffic to your site and achieving online success

• An excellent do-it-yourself resource for complete beginners as well as experienced users looking to plug a few holes in their online marketing know-how

• Provides practical coverage of all important trends and technologies, including optimization, search marketing, social media, YouTube, keywords, email marketing, and more.

Paula Wynne is now an award-winning online entrepreneur, women’s ambassador, speaker and author. She is co-founder of Remote Employment, a specialist job board dedicated to remote and home working, and the organiser of the Remote Worker Awards, in association with BT. Paula is also the organizer of the unique and popular Remote Worker Awards and is a SEEDA Women’s Enterprise Ambassador. www.paulawynne.com

Paula is currently developing a new portal for the home business community – iHubbub, where she plans to create the largest database of global home workers and home based businesses as well as virtual contractors and freelance consultants who work from home. Paula is the author of Creating a Successful Website.