One way to share stories is through using publicity tactics such as media releases, articles and online industry sites.

What are your stories?

Every business has a story! It could be a new product you have released, what systems you put in place to manage increased demand, how to deal with the issues of the GFC, how you support local charities. If you think about it, you will find you have many stories. But how do you share them with the public?

Write a Media release

Media releases are a great way of distributing relevant and topical information to a group of potential clients and your peers. You can send them to targeted media including publications and upload them to online industry sites like Infolink.

A media release can contain information such as the work your business is doing, a new product release, the signing of a new contract or commenting on industry issues and trends.

The release must be newsworthy and cover the “who, what, where, why and when”. The main rule is that all releases have to be newsworthy. What makes items newsworthy differs greatly from one publication to the next or even from one section to the next. News is something new, up-to-the minute and of interest to the readers.

Write an article

Publishing articles is a fast and effective way to gain online exposure and are a great way to position you as an industry expert by providing topical, helpful information. If you upload them to online sites such as Infolink, they increase the chance of your company appearing in the first few search results on search engines such as Google.

Articles don’t have to be hard to write! Articles need be written in an objective, informative and entertaining manner. Try to avoid ‘sales’ style language, so write them impartially – i.e. from a neutral and/or 3rd person standpoint, without superlatives (‘best’, ‘fastest’, ‘cheapest’), or exaggerated statements (‘the largest tool range ever launched!’).

If you are planning on uploading them to take advantage of online exposure consider the keywords about your products and services. What do your customers type into search engines to find a business like yours? You should include these in the article, and the greater the density or repetition of a keyword, the greater its chance of ranking highly. Although the article does still need to make sense!

Top places to promote your stories

Once you have written your media release or article you can send them to your local paper or industry publication.

Finding the right journalists to send your media release to can be as simple as looking through the publications you want it to be published in. You should also think about the type of people you want reading about you and think about which media outlets your target audience get their information from.

Don’t forget that uploading them online gets your message to thousands of people and increases the traffic to your website. Upload them to online directory sites such as Hotfrog and Infolink which increases the chance of your company appearing in the first few search results on search engines such as Google.

About Infolink:
Infolink is one of Australia’s largest online directories for the architecture, building, construction and design sectors. Owned and operated by Catch, an online division of Reed Business Information Australia, Infolink provides a comprehensive central online source containing the latest product, company and industry news updates.