By James D’Ambrosio
Amongst nonprofit professionals, it’s well-known that smaller agencies often lack resources for public relations staff. In my experience, I’ve seen PR tasks added to the responsibilities of another employee, contracted out to a PR agency (paid or pro-bono), or handled by an intern/volunteer. If you’re in this situation, there’s free resources out there to help spread word of your good deeds: press release distribution services and a nonprofit program I recently discovered.
A REVIEW OF FREE PRESS RELEASE DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Brian Scott, a public relations professional with 10+ years experience, recently completed an in-depth analysis of free news release distribution services, discussing findings on HubPages, a revenue-generating social content community for writers and one of the 50 most visited Web sites in the U.S. A strong proponent of free services, he evaluated them in-depth using seven criteria: 1) attracts moderate/high daily traffic to site; 2) a good Google Page rank; 3) large number of Web sites linking to it; 4) permitting “Do-Follow” links in releases; 5) disseminating releases via RSS feeds and social media; 6) growing backlinks to company Web site; and 7) boosts ranking in search-engine results.
Some of his top selections for 2013:
♦ www.newsvine.com ♦ www.prlog.org ♦ www.i-newswire.com
♦ www.free-pressrelease.com ♦ www.sbwire.com ♦ www.openpr.com
♦ www.pitchengine.com ♦ www.newswiretoday.com ♦ www.myprgenie.com
♦ www.1888pressrelease.com ♦ www.beforeitsnews.com ♦ www.onlineprnews.com
A FREE PROGRAM FOR NONPROFITS
In addition, sbwire.com (listed above), offers SBWIRE FOR NONPROFITS, providing free services in addition to news distribution: A) Hosted News Room Pro, providing media and site visitors detailed information about your agency — news, background and history — plus an online image/multimedia library option; B) SBWire for Groups Pro, allowing groups of organizations to create a centralized newsroom; and C) SBWire Connect, a social networking system.
Note: Only a limited number of nonprofits are accepted for membership, and political organizations are not eligible. Applying is simple: submit a brief online application and receive notification by e-mail regarding a decision on acceptance.
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QUESTIONS TO READERS:
A) Have you used any of the services listed above?
B) If so, which has been the most helpful?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Cost-Effective Public Relations, Free Nonprofit PR Tools, Free Press Release Distribution Services, Free Press Release Distribution Services Nonprofit, Nonprofit Public Relations, Nonprofit Public Relations Assistance, Nonprofit Public Relations Resources, Press Release Distribution Services | 25 Comments »
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