The magnificent power of the press release

One of the most powerful marketing tools to come around in a long time is the press release. A well-crafted press release can catapult a new product or service into high visibility. You want to get your message out, let the media decide what's newsworthy.

But herein lies an important point in this discussion: just because you have written a great press release, that does not mean it will go viral and be picked up by all major media outlets.

As any good marketer knows, in order for your press release to succeed, you need to promote it as aggressively as possible.

The way that I have found works best for me is to use a variety of methods to promote the release.

Posting it on your website is always a good idea, as people are bound to come across it while viewing your website. But don't just post it on one page of your site, post it on as many pages as possible. The more pages you post your press release on, the more traffic you will get.

I have also had excellent results with posting in social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Reddit since those sites have a wide variety of visitors and this allows my press release to be promoted to many different people very quickly.

You can also promote it on forums such as MarketingProfs where you will be able to get the necessary traffic to your release while improving the quality of hits your release will start receiving.

In addition to those methods, I have also had success using forums such as on point or community forum sites since these are large communities and most people who go to these places are looking for information and the guys at those websites really like this kind of stuff.

Another good way to promote your press release is through publicity e-mails. This doesn't work for everyone but it has worked for me and I haven't had any problems with it.

Follow-up with the media by sending them a short e-mail letting them know you have released your press release and asking if they would like to post it on their pages.

The more people who see your press release, the higher the chance that someone will pick up on it and share it with friends or post it to their own websites. And since there are so many computer users today, that's just a matter of social networking.

It's wise to remember not to just post the press release on your own website, keep in mind that this will only garner you a couple of hits. Instead, I suggest including a link to the press release on other websites that are relevant to your business as well since people are always looking for information themselves and if you can provide it along with sharing you'll have a much greater chance of having it picked up by someone who is in that niche market.

This is all there is to it. These are the things that have worked for me and I hope you find them useful as well. Good luck!

Title: How a press release can be used to get your product or service into the mainstream media. [ARTICLE END]

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Conclusion

Public relations professionals must be creative, persistent and constantly determined to make their message known in the marketplace. The article, "5 Tips for Effective Public Relations" is a short guide for the public relations industry. The tips include: 1) make it easy to say yes; 2) set traps; 3) act with certainty; 4) create a distraction; 5) use your language skills to your advantage.

If you are looking for a way to stand out from the crowd, then you must remember that creativity lies at the heart of effective public relations. The media will not be able make anything interesting out of another bland press release that is full of corporate jargon and typical company platitudes.