Press Release Distribution
It is important when contemplating how to distribute your press release to not only know how wide spread of an audience you are trying to reach, but also to know the different options for distributing your press release. There are many different options, the best of which depends largely upon whom you are trying to target.
An immediate option for getting your press release heard is to hold a press conference. If you are considering a press conference it is important to keep yourself well organized. With holding a press conference you are not only presenting your materials, but also yourself. You will want to be able to meet your audience in the eye and to speak confidently about your subject. Because of your need to appear so knowledgeable on the material you are presenting, you will need to know them well before hand. When holding a press conference you generally will not have a lot of time to prepare, because of this you will want to ask others to go over your material and give you quick feed back so you can present the material the best way possible.
Another option to distributing your press release is probably the oldest in the book and that would be snail mail. In this day and age snail mail is not usually preferable only because you could present your materials so much quicker through other avenues. Snail mail (or regular postal mail) can be the best option though if a photograph is needed to capture your story. It is perfectly acceptable to send a photograph, and to present it in it's optimal form, snail mail may be the best option.
Another option though is fax. You can send your release, whether company announcement, product announcement, or personal announcement, over fax and get it to your audience almost immediately. Typically in a business environment there will be a secretary or someone who is responsible for picking up the faxes and seeing that they get to the right person. In this case you can be confident that your press release will be seen quickly.
Another option is email. Email is a quick way to make a lot of enemies if you are sending a business or corporate announcement. Unless your material requires you to target just a few journalists, and you send it out to just those few. Email lists that can be purchased however may contain a lot of consumers who are interested in your product or business, but who generally give out their personal email and who don't want to hear from you the first time through that email. So be careful when using email as your primary source of press release distribution, it may be best to use only if your list is short and specific.
Another option is also the telephone. Again this option is best if you already have press release contacts and they know of you and your purpose already. If you have not talked with the specific paper, or journalist before, you may end up having to call several times before you actually get that person on the phone, and by then they are likely to be just annoyed enough to not want to talk to you. Use the phone option wisely.
The last option available for distributing your press release is simply to hire a "middle man". An agency who already has a list of contacts and persons who are interested and can distribute your press release quickly and appropriately. Hiring an agency can be expensive so it will probably only be worth the money to you if you send many press releases a year. If you do send many releases a year there are some great companies that have already worked well with the press for years who would probably be a good option for you.
There are many different options when distributing your press release. Before deciding on one specific option you will want to know how many people you are planning to target, and who those people are.
For more information on Press Release Distribution please go to:
http://www.publicrelationsideas.com/press_releases
http://101publicrelations.com/killer.html?s=prideas&c=killer_press_releases
