Image: Flickr/kpmarek

With revenue down and marketing budgets tight, there’s never been a better time to generate some free publicity for your business. So, put your Public Relations hat on and get started promoting your products and services. Here are some tips and PR “best practices” to help get you started.

Share the news
The key to gaining exposure in the media is to share information about your company, products and services.  Don’t wait for the news release on your website to be discovered. You need to proactively reach out to media contacts with news and information about your business. This can be accomplished through the distribution of formal news releases, or with a simple phone call, email or “What I’m working on” post on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Be relevant
Relevancy will help you obtain media coverage. The more you can tie your activities to a major news story or emerging issue, the greater your opportunity for coverage. For example, in the Fall of 2007, I was able to generate incredible coverage for one client by tapping in to the media buzz surrounding the lead paint tainted toy crisis. My client was a gourmet grocery store, which may initially seem like an unlikely match given the nature of the crisis. But, by helping them host an event to provide free lead testing as a community service for concerned parents, I got them several pre-event interviews, as well as event coverage by three television stations, two newspapers and a local radio station, as well.  Not only did the event create a huge amount of media coverage, both pre and post-event, it also drove consumer traffic to their store and website.

Communicate and repeat
In any marketing activity, repetition is critical for success. Your submission may not get picked-up the first time, but don’t let that dissuade you. Keep trying. If they didn’t think your submission was interesting one day, they may on another. Circumstances change and so do attitudes in newsrooms. Keep sharing your updates. Eventually, your story will gain coverage.

Think big
Your story may or may not merit national television coverage, or a guest appearance on Oprah, but you need to allow the networks and producers to make that call. One thing is certain, you will never receive major media coverage if they don’t know about you. Spread your message far and wide.

Adhere to these PR “best practices” and you will generate substantial coverage for your business. I’m looking forward to reading about you in the news!

Tanya C. Bamford is the President of TCB Marketing LLC–a Marketing Services firm based in suburban Philadelphia, PA. Follow Tanya’s posts on Twitter @TCBMarketing.

At first glance, you may think twitter is a gathering place for lonely, bored people to tell total strangers what they’re doing at any given moment. Or you may see a business post a tweet with their link and think the whole social media thing is a big waste of your time. But hang out a while and start engaging with some of the people you follow, and you’ll see how beneficial it can be for your business.

For example, I follow Seth and I started responding to some of his tweets and reading the links he was posting, and now I’m writing a post on his blog. This type of networking helps him because it provides content for his blog that has a different perspective, and it helps me because now all his readers will learn who I am and what I do. Not only did engaging in conversation with Seth get me this gig, he’s also given me advice and sent me helpful articles that pertain to my consulting work.

I’ve also gotten advice about how to get more traffic to my blog from people on twitter that have years more experience than me. These are highly successful bloggers and business people, and they’re giving me this help and advice for free! That’s the thing about social media; it’s social so you start to build relationships and friendships and who wouldn’t want to help a friend be as successful as possible? Then of course, there’s the fact that you’re building brand recognition.

There are millions of people on twitter and other social media sites now. When you join these sites, all these people see who you are, what your business is and what products or services you provide. Companies spend billions of dollars a year for this type of exposure and you’re getting it for free, just by engaging in friendly conversations.

There is no doubt social media is here to stay, and I believe that twitter will grow even bigger and become even more important in 2009. If you own or operate any type of business, you’d be foolish not to join the rest of us meeting and networking online. But let’s hear what you think. Do you agree that social media is here to stay? Is twitter the best one out there right now, or do you prefer other social sites? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment, question or suggestion and let’s keep the conversation going.

Jennifer Larson is the owner of JBerry Marketing Consultants, and has spent the last three years promoting her clients online. If you would like to learn more, you can visit her blog at www.jberrymarketing.wordpress.com.