How You Can Get Some Serious Press For Your New Business

When starting your own business, you are often left with the responsibility of even being your own custodian, besides the CEO, CFO, IT department, and customer service representative. Sometimes, your several roles leave you little time to actually get press for yourself and your startup.

While it may seem like the last priority on your list, public relations efforts are essential to the prosperity of your business. By managing the communication between your business and the public, you can ensure success through a good public image, whether it’s with your customers, fans, media, investors, or other businesses.

Even if you don’t have the time, manpower, or funds to execute an extensive PR strategy, there are still ways to promote yourself and stay in a positive light in the public eye until you can hire a firm or a team to do these efforts for you. Until then, here are some tips and resources that can help you become your own publicist, and create traction with the media.

Start small with bloggers and local media

As a writer, I always scour local websites and blogs for the next big thing to write about, so getting attention from local media sources and bloggers is a great way to start garnering attention from your community, as well as national reporters and journalists. Start small with the people you know in your community and work your way onto some influential blogs. The attention is always good for your SEO, and puts you on the radar for potential national stories in the future.

Use social media to build relationships with national publications

While we all know that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In have been essential resources for expanding one’s customer base, and sometimes even business development, they can also be key tools in building relationships with people in the media.

Twitter is a great way to start the relationship. Follow your favorite publications, bloggers, and writers who are reporting about topics that pertain to your business and industry, and be sure to read their tweets often to find opportunities to engage with them. For the most part, writers prefer that you interact with them in a genuine way, rather than ambushing their already-overflowing inboxes with e-mails. You can typically find twitter handles on the publication’s websites and blogs, or try resources like Muck Rack, which connects you to journalists across all social media platforms.

Free and inexpensive media relations tools

If you want to distribute a media advisory or press release to a wide range of media sources, there are several online tools that are free or inexpensive to use that allow you to post your press release on the site, and answer inquiries from reporters looking for leads.

Source From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianalopez/2012/08/07/pr-101-essentials-for-entrepreneurs/