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by Mark
Coker
Dovetail Public
Relations
(Publicity Checklist - Continued)
Awards PR
Many publications offer a variety
of awards for innovative new
products, or the best products in
a review. In instances where the
editors (as opposed to the
readers) make the nominations, PR
can play a big role in having your
products considered. If the awards
are determined based on a reader
ballot, then be sure your PR team
contacts the publication far
enough in advance so that your
company or your products can be
listed on the ballot.
Columnist Campaigns
It's a tough job being a
columnist, who each week or each
month needs to come up with a
fresh opinion about an important
subject. Your PR team should
familiarize themselves with the
columnists who write for your top
target publications and offer
column ideas for which your
company can assist the columnist.
As a vendor of a cool product or
service, your executives often
possess insight into important
trends and issues that could serve
as great column topics.
Contributed Articles
Several publications publish
articles written by vendors. These
articles are a great vehicle to
further establish your executives,
your company and your ideas in the
marketplace. The most
credible contributed articles
don't even mention the vendor's
products. The one negative of
contributed articles is that they
tend to be extremely time
consuming to produce. If your
company doesn't have the talent or
the time to write the article
in-house, the PR team can contract
with a professional writer,
typically a freelance journalist.
Sample publications that accept
vendor contributed articles
include:
Computer
Technology Review
Customer Support Management
Network World
Editorial Calendaring
One of the most important ongoing
media relations activities is
editorial calendaring. Here, the
PR team works to gain inclusion
for your company in planned
editorial features and seeks to
position your executives as expert
sources of information. The
PR team attempts to position you
as a "one stop shop" for
expert technology trend insight
and opinion.
Your PR team should take an
aggressive, proactive approach to
editorial calendaring. The
PR team should work to make early
contact with the editors in
charge, and wherever possible,
help the editors define the topic
so that it plays into your areas
of strength. For example,
often a topic on the editorial
calendar will initially be
described in general terms such as
"networking," and the
publication will let the reporter
decide what area of networking to
focus on, such as routers or hubs.
If you're a router vendor, you'll
clearly want reach that reporter
early and make a case for why you
think they should focus on
routers.
The PR team can take editorial
calendaring to the next level by
actually working with the
publications to help them define
their editorial calendar schedules
for the following year. The
campaign should begin in the
September/October timeframe, and
will seek to suggest editorial
calendar subjects that will
benefit your company the following
year.
Editorial Onsite Visits
A key responsibility of PR is to
build valuable relationships with
the media. Whenever
possible, the PR team should
attempt to arrange for editors and
reporters to visit your offices.
Occasionally, the visit is
associated with a news
announcement. The PR team
should attempt to have your most
important reporters and analysts
visit at least once every year or
two.
Expert Sourcing
With expert sourcing, we seek to
attach ourselves to another story.
For example, if your company
produces anti-virus software and
there's a sudden outbreak of a new
computer virus, your PR team can
arrange for the media to speak
with your company's experts for
their perspective and insight.
Don't just limit your expert
sourcing outreach to print media
-- broadcast media are constantly
on the outlook for articulate
"talking heads" who are
experts in various fields.
Next page > 16
Press Release Ideas > Page 1,
2, 3,
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