Bizsuccess

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
By Pattie Baker

Want to create some positive buzz for your company? Be ready for your moment in the limelight at any time by pulling together the information you’d want the media to have about your company.  This includes:

• A description of your business, with details as appropriate about your pricing, products, and services
• Some bio info on you and any other owners
• Any awards or credentials
• Any breaking news about your business, with the angle you’d want the media to take
• Any community outreach efforts in which your company participates that adds some “human flavor” and underscores your company values

If this sounds like a print brochure to you, don’t get stuck in “old think.”  You can do these components as a PDF brochure, along with video uploads to your website.  You can include a slide show of photos.  You can have a place for formal media releases.  You can let your best customers sing your praises in PDF testimonials or videos. And you can have an offline version of this whole shebang packaged up for any special in-person hand-off to select members of the media who, perhaps, target your industry in your city’s business publication or business section of the newspaper.

Not sure where to start?

• Take your existing brochure.  Turn it into a PDF.  No brochure?  Start with your Kudzu description and go from there.
• Upload it to your website in a special section you call something like “Media” or “Press updates.”
• Add breaking news as a press release.  Be generous with what you consider to be breaking news—the fact that you rep a new line of air conditioners, that you completed the latest training course in your industry, or that you just renovated your 100^th home all count.
• Brainstorm how you can make your media section come alive.  Add video, audio and photos as appropriate.  Add links to any media coverage you garner such as a mention of your business on the local news.  And don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
• Now, get the word out!  Develop a contact list of top media members in your city.  Shoot out your latest media release, along with the link to your online media kit.  Post about it on your blog, tweet on Twitter, mention it on Facebook and LinkedIn and make some noise.
• Keep at it.  The media may not pick up your information right away. Smart, cohesive messaging will eventually cut through clutter and will increase the possibility that, when your business is news-worthy, the media will be able to quickly and easily access accurate information.

No time for any of this?  This is a great intern project (look for a public relations or marketing communications major) or ongoing assignment for that master communicator you’ve hired as your office manager.  Wanna’ go pro?  Search Kudzu for communications professionals in your city.

Here is a public relations and marketing firm I found on Kudzu’s Atlanta site that seems to offer everything you could possibly need.  Here is a good example of a company’s media kits.