The good news about online publicity is that it’s interactive. Blogs often have feedback mechanisms, and readers or viewers can send links with comments to friends. The bad news is that it’s immediate. Those feedback mechanisms might include negative comments, and the viral nature of some messages spreads bad news as quickly as good news. Marketing expert Marcia Yudkin believes fears about blog backlash or other negative feedback shouldn’t concern most businesses. Sometimes, even negative publicity can generate positive results.
“If someone finds out about a new product and posts a scathing review, people will read that and want to find out more,” she says. “They may not believe it’s that bad and click through and find out it’s not.” She recalls one situation where a politician attributed unethical behavior to advice from her book. The attribution was actually a misrepresentation of the content in her book. She decided to ignore it and the situation ended up increasing sales of her book on Amazon.com.
As more consumers and businesses go to the internet for news, product information and other research, you should be actively developing online media relations campaigns, as Jeff Wilkinson, founder of Simply Sublime Foods, found out when his product won raves on the blog www.hungry-girl.com. He says that one post “sent to 150,000 subscribers did more for me than years of knocking on doors.”
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Online PR Prep
When you start readying your materials to pitch online, consider these tips.
Shorter is better. Marketing expert Marcia Yudkin says writing short-form is better than long. “A good rule of thumb is online articles should be 300 to 700 words,” she says. “You get more mileage from many shorter articles than from a few longer articles.”
Informal is ok. Sarah Greene, founder of upscale clothing boutique Brass Heart, keeps her communiqués, especially to bloggers, brief, informal and superspecific. Don’t try to get away with passing off fluff for real news. “Bloggers are usually very up on what they’re writing about,” Greene says. “You have to be specific, include facts and interesting information, and keep it personalized, so they know that you know what you’re talking about.”
Being there is half the battle. Yudkin finds that many offline media are finding stories and subjects online, so your efforts to score space on blogs and through search-optimized news releases can result in more mainstream media finding out about you.
Tips and Tools
For more help on scoring publicity online, experts Marcia Yudkin and Steve O’Keefe recommend these tools.
Gwen Moran is co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans.
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