Two,Tools,Spread,the,Word,for, marketing Two Tools to Spread the Word for Your Good Cause
Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t
Pop quiz: What are the top two news outlets on the Internet today?Well, according to the web traffic monitoring service Comscore, theyare Yahoo! News and Google News. Traditional news sites like CNN.comand various New York Times properties come in a distant third -- andlower.That's right -- the top two news sites on the Internetdon't employ a single reporter. They simply collect stories and pressreleases from around the Internet and make it easy to scan or searchthem. That's a sign of how much the news media is changing.And if you want to raise environmental awareness, advance gay rights,challenge racism, or promote any other good cause, then you've got toadapt to the new rules of the news media. The old way of usingPR to raise environmental awareness or promote some other cause was tomake a list of reporters who covered your issue. Then, when you had ahot story, you'd write a press release, send it to the list, and thencall them to make sure they received it. But that's not good enoughanymore. Here's why: Newspapers and TV news operations aredownsizing. The reporters who are left are younger, less experienced,and spread thinner than in the "good old days." Meanwhile, blogs,e-mail newsletters, online magazines, and other niche publications aremultiplying so fast that nobody can keep track of them all. Putthese two trends together, and here's what you get -- not enough bigfish and way too many small fish to work with a simple list ofreporters. Here are two tools that you can use to promote your cause tothousands of journalists, instead of just a handful:PressRelease Distribution Service. Using these services is a goodway to offer your news to thousands ofblogs, email newsletters, and small outlets, which can add up to a lotof attention. You paste your press release into a form, and they putyour story directly into Google News and Yahoo! News, so it's out therewhether any reporter writes about it or not. There are dozens of these services. Some are free. Some are cheap. Andsome are expensive. Try two free ones to get the hang of it: www.pr.com or www.prlog.com.Theseservices all promise to send your press release into newsrooms aroundthe world, and maybe they do. But if you want to see your story in someparticular newspaper or magazine, you should still send it directly toa reporter at that newspaper or magazine -- and follow up with a phonecall. That's where the next type of service comes in.PressRelease Database Service. These services track whichreporters cover what issues at what media outlet and compile theinformation in a database. You can search for reporters by location,outlets, or topics, and then pull up their phone numbers or send emailsright out of the system. The established services include Bacon's and Vocus, and the upstart MyPRGenie is challenging them on price. Don'texpect miracles here -- layoffs are sweeping through the news industry,and it's hard for these services to get it 100% right. But it would beeven harder for you to keep track of those comings and goings yourself.To sum it up, the news media is going high tech. If you want toraise environmental awareness or promote some other good cause, you'vegot to go high tech, too. Good luck!
Two,Tools,Spread,the,Word,for,