Is Your Press Release OUT Yet? An Easy Way of Tracking Down Your Press Release Submissions & Publications

Congratulations! You've learned how to write, direct, and distribute your press release for maximum exposure in any medium you see fit. What comes next? Well, in order to see how effective your press release campaign has been, you have to monitor the market for your message.

Don't worry, you wont have to pull out your phone list and dial up every editor or staff member to whom you submitted the press release. There are two simple ways for you to oversee your campaign without resorting to bothering your contacts. After all, you may need them again in the very near future, so you want to stay on friendly terms.

The first way you can keep tabs on your news is to do it yourself. Watch every program, pick up every edition of each publication, and listen to the radio at all times. Not very feasible?

Maybe if you only have one or two outlets, but if you distributed your press release to more than one media contact, and even worse, more than one type of media, you have a problem if you intend to try to monitor all of those avenues single-handedly.

Your client will be checking with you shortly after you distribute the release to see what the results have been. If you want to keep working for them, you'll need to show how effective you've been in garnering their company or organization a piece of the media pie.

If you do have the luxury of only monitoring one target, you'll still have to work hard to make sure you catch any mention of your work in their publication. It might be easy to monitor a written publication, but if you sent your release to a radio or television station, its virtually impossible to listen 100% of the time.

Therefore, the best option you have in keeping track of your press release is to hire someone to do it for you. There are hundreds of services that do nothing but watch, listen, and read the media reports for any remote mention of your company or organization.

Yes, it costs money. But actually, its a nominal fee when you compare the cost of tuning in 24 hours a day, or worse, losing your client because you couldn't prove how beneficial you've been in obtaining press space for their needs.

Some clipping services specialize in local area coverage. For instance, caters to those who want to monitor Santa Barbara subscription-based media publications. They provide their clients with a mailed or faxed clipping packet every Monday and Thursday that contains all of the clips within your target subject matter. Their subjects include:

• City and/or County Government News

• Environmental News

• Marine News

• Oil & Gas News

• Water News

• Court and Crime News

• Education News

• Local political races

• Custom

Many cities around the country have a personalized clipping service (or more) at their disposal. The subject headings may change, but the point is, you have access to local clips regarding your information.

But what if your news reaches beyond the scope of your local clipping service? Well, there are options for everyone. And they're all as close as your personal computer.

clipping services

An important reason to use clipping services is because they provide you with any mention of your competitors. Having up-to-date information on your competition is paramount in any industry. You need to know if one of their products is about to be launched head-to-head against yours.

Clipping services provide a more thorough account of all of your media coverage than you could ever hope for. They keep a watch on newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet, Usenet, Trade Journals, and everything in between.

Paying for the privilege of having targeted news delivered to your in-box every morning, or several times a week, will pay off in the long run, because you'll reap the rewards immediately by seeing how effective your press release campaign was in garnering your client the attention and coverage they hired you to get them.

Another way you'll know if your campaign was successful is when the phone starts ringing off the hook. Reporters will be calling because they saw the information somewhere else, but now they want to do a story on your client or company.

Its a pleasure to form a working relationship with the media, once you master their methods of interaction and communication. It sometimes gets a bad rap, as editors and writers face off as opponents in the writing process.

But in reality, the two of you are working together to do one thing get your message out. You have news that needs to be heard. The editor has an audience that wants to hear some news. Work together to make it happen.

You do your part by developing the idea, the story, and the meaty details of the content. The editor will do his part by spicing it up in a way the public is used to seeing hell throw in a splashing headline to turn heads in the audience.

The media is not a one-way production company. They rely on you and your clients to provide them with the very news that sells their papers, and pays their salaries. Its not that they're seeking to deny your submission.

They'd like nothing better than to have a stack piled to the ceiling of news they could run with without revisions. But that's not the case, and so they suffer burnout when it comes times to review the onslaught of unsolicited news sitting staring them in the eye.

Take pity on your editor and cater to his ego and his mindset. Empathize with him when he growls at you for not following his guidelines. Don't argue with him about the policies of the paper. He has no time to change policies in mid-stream, he's just concerned with making it by his two o'clock deadline later that afternoon.

Use the Golden Rule when dealing with the hurried news personnel on the other end of the phone. No matter how they treat you when you call to verify a contact name, inquire about the stylebook, or ask a question they've already been asked 2,000 times that day, treat them with respect and kindness, and they will appreciate it and return the favour.

Your most important weapon against lessening your chances of being published is knowing your target.

• Know the facts.

• Know the people.

• Know their audience.

• Know when to submit.

• Know what to say, and how to say it.

• Know when not to say anything.

• Know ho to do it right, but know how to do it differently.

• Stand out, but be uniform at the same time.

• Know as much as you possibly can.

Never be intimidated by the prospect of developing and distributing a press release. The worst thing that ca happen is you don't get published. If that's the case, try your news from another angle.

Revisit your publication target and learn even more. Talk to others who have made it, and find out what tactics they use in communicating with the same media contacts. Network your skills, your availability, and your know-how.

Develop a credible reputation with your media, and you'll have your foot in the door to one of the most powerful communication tools mankind has ever seen. Once there, maximize your message, and keep in tune with the audience and the editors.