3. An "Interview" With You

So you've hooked them with a story, established your credibility, and now they want to do an interview with you.

The most logical step they can take now is to contact you & set up a meeting... But what if they don't have time?

What if their deadline's in an hour, or you're living in a different time zone, or show is due for taping in 2 days and they're not sure if you can still book a flight?

Then do next best thing, only made possible because of magic of internet: provide them with an instant "interview with you."

This "interview" can come in 3 different forms:

- A Q&A document file where you provide answers to most frequently asked questions about you and your company.

- A streaming video file showing you answering same questions, or

- An audio file containing basically same thing.

This way, any media person interested in your story will have no excuse NOT to feature or talk about you, because everything has been provided for in advance.

Aside from these "Top 3 Things" to include in your kit, you can also put in:

4. The general history of your company 5. Biographies of key staff members 6. Your brochure 7. Photographs of your people & products (all captioned) 8. Your business card 9. Interesting quotes / stories from relevant personnel 10. A calendar of future events 11. Downloadable product samples 12. And other downloadable (or at least deliverable by mail) promotional items.

* WHERE do you put your online press kit? -----------------------------------------

Because of Net's interconnectivity & flexibility, your online press kit can actually be created as a stand-alone URL with its own domain name, or you can link to it from your index page to within your main site, maybe with a special icon designed to attract attention of press.

* WHEN should you turn your site into a press kit? --------------------------------------------------

Although you can choose to revamp your site anytime & have a year-long accessible press kit online, you can also choose to make change in time for a specific event, like:

- When you're launching a new product.

- When you've published a new book.

- When you're lowering your prices, or when you're raising them.

- When you'll be appearing as a guest speaker or lecturer.

- When you'll be interviewed on television or radio.

- Or when you'll be participating in a press conference or trade show, and you only have a limited number of printed kits to go around.

* Finally, HOW do you maximize publicity potential of an ------------------------------------------------------------ online kit? -----------

As with everything else on web, simple act of building a kit doesn't automatically compel press to gravitate towards it.

In order to be effective, people should know about it first; here are a few strategies to make sure your kit reaches RIGHT people -- who will hopefully also give you RIGHT kind of publicity:

- Create CD copies of your online kit, package them with attractive labels & designs, then send them to press via postal mail.

You can also distribute these CDs in place of business cards... particularly if your clients are on brink of saying "yes."

- Update your press releases regularly to reflect a keen awareness of most current issues, then submit them to search engines for ranking & filing.

- Submit your press release to online press release services, remembering to provide a URL link to entire kit on your website.

- Finally, you can also make use of trade show opportunities to distribute flyers or small cards containing your press kit's URL.

Cheaper to print than a full color press kit, these cards will nevertheless point media towards right stories & information... stories & information about YOUR company & YOU.

© Tatiana Velitchkov

"BroadProspect (http://www.BroadProspect.com) is a place where professionals list their senior industry connections on an ANONYMOUS BASIS for FREE, and become an anonymous connection maker. Companies shop online for a specific industry relationship and communicate with ANONYMOUS connection maker. When connection maker is satisfied with information, he/she can establish a client - or goodwill - relationship with business entity."

This outfit understands that Internet is not merely an information highway but a learning network. They have developed a method to enable business people, not merely to gather information, but to learn about other businesses they would like to partner or otherwise work with.

I have no business relationship with BroadProject. I write about it because I think it may be of use to some of you.

To be successful on Net, look for ways to broaden your connections.