Should you send a press release?

The million dollar question in PR is "Should I send a press release?" And it could cost you a million dollars if you keep sending them. The problem, however, is that I hear all the time, "I sent out a press release but I didn't get any press coverage."

Once upon a time, the press release was PR gold. It was the only way journalists got information or story ideas. Now, press releases are sent out about anything and everything and it's become too noisy for journalists to weed through them.

We live in a digital world where information is readily available so they don't "need" the press release like they used to.

Journalists don't have to wait for a story to hit their desk, they can find it online.

The other benefit of the world we live in now is that we can find any journalist's contact information online and pitch them directly.

Here is a 90-second video I did a few years ago on how to find journalists and nothing has changed:

And, since we're on Linkedin, watch this 90-second video specifically on finding journalists on Linkedin:

Journalists are also very active on Twitter and many of them find their stories and experts there. I have a client who followed her favorite reporter on Twitter and when he made an urgent request for an expert, she tweeted back and was on the 4:00 news. This works!

You can see why I feel very strongly that you do not need to pay a service $500-$1000 to distribute a press release to get you noticed by the media. In fact, when done strategically, you can land in the media repeatedly and never have to pay a dime. You just need to learn the process of consistently pitching the media newsworthy stories and make sure you're sending it to the right journalist.

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Christina Daves ?is a PR Strategist and the Founder of PR for Anyone?. She helps products, services, and brands gain visibility, credibility, and authority through media. She is the best-selling author of two books on the topic, has personally appeared in over 1,000 media outlets, and together with her clients has over 1 billion views and over $100 million in sales from free publicity.

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