For those things that we want the media to publicize, this strategy will not work. It seems to me we are talking about two different things. One is more of a "where can I find Mickaboo this weekend?" events calendar; the other are true press releases, which are done when you want things spread wide & far. Reporters/editors will not think to be checking the Mickaboo website every day, week, or, most likely, year. We need to offer to them items that they like (positive reinforcement) and that may help them sell papers (whether made of paper or published on the web). Thus, I recommend sorting the contacts (for example, there's a column in the Marin IJ which is called "Three things to do today!" and it lists various local things I can go to that might interest me. We might send our 'events calendar' materials to the person who organizes that column. They won't publish everything we send, but, if we don't send it, we can be sure none of our events will be published. Then the "real" reporter contacts need to be informed each time something notable happens. For example, Mickaboo Partners With Petco! Who Knew? is a press release they may run, and if it's not too busy a news day, we might get better placement. But that means connecting, personally, with reporters on a fairly regular basis. Occasionally an event may warrant a reporter's coverage, but probably not, unless there's a bigger "hook." p On Sep 7, 2010, at 10:08 PM, Vincent J. Hrovat wrote:
Patti, this question is mainly for you but if somebody else has input that'll be great. I am not a PR or media person, so forgive me if this sounds naïve. I am wondering, if Mickaboo does “press release” type documents, whether we really need to distribute each of them to media sources for publication, or can we can simply post them on our web page for reference.
Here’s my train of thought: when I want to know about a company – as a possible employer, possible investment, whatever – I go to their web site and poke around. One of the places that I always look is in their list of press releases. I don’t know or care what papers actually ran those stories, and I don’t look for them in the mass media publications. I get them directly off of the principle company’s web page. That is what I am thinking of for Mickaboo as well: a separate (simple!) section of our web page where we can post these press releases, along with links to mainstream media articles about Mickaboo, and maybe keep them available for 2-3 years. That would give us a distinct, low-impact place to keep this sort of information.
Just because we post something out in such a "press-release" area, do we necessarily have to forward it to media as well? I am thinking that not all mainstream media is going to care each time that we do a Fall Furry Friends Flurry (or whatever) shelter event, but that we might still want to put together a press-release type of document regarding the event for organizational self-documentation and as a hedge against people who claim that we don’t work with shelters.
Thoughts?
--VH
-----Original Message----- From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Patricia Blau Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 9:17 AM To: Mickaboo media advisor team Subject: Re: [Media-advisors] Checking in . . . .
Hi all, I'm happy to help with press releases. We do need actual news to \