Press Releases - Good practise?

ironclaw

Hi Folks,

Currently drumming up a bit of interest in a piece of home grown technology I developed. I have a background in technology & IT myself and like many I hate SPAM. However I would like to get in touch with a few journalists, papers, websites etc to get some opinion and hopeful a little more interest.

Is there a general procedure or good practice for issuing press release? Or should I just send a press release to an individual writer / news desk in the hope it get picked up? I don't want to sound like a 'Look at me. Write about me. Please' type of request nor do I want free advertising!

Also on the off chance anyone here is writing about tech, I'd be delighted to have a chat!

Many thanks for any thoughts or insight!

Green Giant

You're well within your rights to send as many press releases as you wish. If you have a product that you're trying to get publicity for, you have every right to get in touch with a few editors, as they will always be open to content.

The best thing is to seek out a specific contact from a publication where one is given (i.e. if an editor's e-mail address is listed, send it there, otherwise it's fine to send to a more generic address).

When sending the press release, try to make it as relevant as possible to the publication you're contacting. In other words, if it's a local paper, your selling point is that a local person has devised a new homegrown technology. If it's a more subject-specific publication, hone in on the technical details of it.

You can sell your product to an editor without having to scream and shout for attention. A line such as 'I have an item I think you might be interested in, if so then my contact details are below if you wish to get in touch' is the right mixture of trying to sell yourself without being extremely pushy.

Hope that helps. Best of luck with it!

ironclaw

Green Giant wrote: »

You're well within your rights to send as many press releases as you wish. If you have a product that you're trying to get publicity for, you have every right to get in touch with a few editors, as they will always be open to content.

The best thing is to seek out a specific contact from a publication where one is given (i.e. if an editor's e-mail address is listed, send it there, otherwise it's fine to send to a more generic address).

When sending the press release, try to make it as relevant as possible to the publication you're contacting. In other words, if it's a local paper, your selling point is that a local person has devised a new homegrown technology. If it's a more subject-specific publication, hone in on the technical details of it.

You can sell your product to an editor without having to scream and shout for attention. A line such as 'I have an item I think you might be interested in, if so then my contact details are below if you wish to get in touch' is the right mixture of trying to sell yourself without being extremely pushy.

Hope that helps. Best of luck with it!

Great advice and definitively the line I was leaning towards. I have an excel sheet going of specific journalists and areas of the paper that might pick up the story. I just don't want to be spamming anyone!

Grolschevik

ironclaw wrote: »

Great advice and definitively the line I was leaning towards. I have an excel sheet going of specific journalists and areas of the paper that might pick up the story. I just don't want to be spamming anyone!

Some papers would barely be able to publish anything if they didn't get press releases on a daily basis!