Many companies spend hours developing their news release content but very little time thinking about distribution. It is not enough to post your news release to “the wire.” Today’s news release distribution opportunities are many. In fact, media is just one audience for your news and you should seek to get news directly into the hands of the people you want to reach.

Here are a few news release distribution best practices:

  1. Before sending out your news, share your release with your leadership team, your board, and key business partners.  For some news, you may want to share it with all employees. Generally this is done just before your release.
  2. For significant news, you may want to post your release to a news wire.  Business Wire and PR Newswire are the leaders, but NASDAQ now has a product which looks to provide meaningful competition. The national circuits at the wire services include a long list of media across the country.  However, we generally try to select more narrow circuits targeted by geography or industry.  For smaller releases or more limited budgets, search-engine enhanced news services such as Vocus’s  PRWeb or Business Wire’s EON (Enhanced Online News) are affordable.  We’ve seen a proliferation of online news services that call relentlessly offering their search-enhanced services at significant discounts to EON or PR Web’s online news services.  We’ve tried a few without good results.
  3. Email your news release to your media list of reporters familiar with your company or organization. Your list should include key reporters who cover your industry or provide local coverage of your company.  We find a well-maintained media list of reporters familiar with your company or industry to be the most effective avenue for getting news coverage.
  4. Share your news with clients and prospective clients.  With the proliferation of contact management systems like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, most companies have a list of key clients and influencers who will want to hear about your news.
  5. Post your release to your website.  With bigger news, make sure the headline is posted on the home page.
  6. Share a link to your release via social media. Post a link to LinkedIn. If your company maintains a Facebook page or has a Twitter handle, make sure the release gets posted on both.  One caveat for financial services firms is to be aware of the more restrictive regulatory rules on these types of communications.  The detailed disclosure involved when mentioning a mutual fund does not fit into Twitter’s 140 characters! For financial services providers, every social media posting will require compliance review.
  7. Consider secondary pitches related to your release.  For example, a news release announcing a newly recruited management team can be used to pitch broadcast interviews, profile articles or byline articles.
  8. Remind people of the release in your newsletters, blogs and eNews blasts.