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Case Study: A small web company gets national publicity.
The
media loves interesting stories. And one of the most interesting type of
story, to many readers, is a contest of some sort.
Anything that ranks the "Top Ten" or "Worst" or "Best" will be
interesting to a lot of people. We're all curious to see what's
considered the "best" of anything.
Think
about the entertainment world. There are the Oscars and the Emmys and
the Grammies. There's also Mr. Blackwell's "Best Dressed" list, and also
the "Worst Dressed" list. We all love to read about how things are
ranked. And the media loves it as well. So one of the easiest ways to
get some publicity is to run a contest that relates to your business,
and then let the media know about the results.
Here's a perfect example of how well this works. A small web
business called office2share.com got national publicity on the Yahoo!
news service by running a contest called "Office from Hell". After
reviewing many entries, office2share selected a winner and then
announced the name to the media. Here's a snippet of the story:
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Winner Named for 'Home Office From Hell'
NEW YORK - If you work from an office in your
home, you probably have a pretty good idea of the meaning of the word
"frustrating." Jason Welshonse does. He runs a computer support and
consulting firm and has just won a competition called the "Home Office
From Hell Contest."
And
here's the mention of the company at the end of the story:
The
contest was sponsored by offices2share.com, a Website that helps small
businesses find short-term, ready-to-use office space.
******************
That's
a lot of free publicity. And all because office2share took the
time to run their contest and then announce the winner to the media. You
can bet a lot of people went to office2share's website to see exactly
what they offered.
Notice something...the contest is an ongoing thing.
And every year they announce the winner to the media.
So how
can you run a contest?
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Think of how your products or services help
your clients.
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Think of the consequences of their *not* having
your products.
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Ask your clients to send in entries of how
awful their lives are without your products.
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Ask your clients for the most unusual use of
your products.
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Ask your clients for the "oldest" of your
products, such as "oldest furnace"
When
you create your contest, make sure it's generic enough to interest a
large number of people. For example, "Best Client of Mike's Real Estate"
won't get any coverage. But "'Best House Buying Tip' Contest Winner
Announced" just might.
So
take advantage of the news media's love for contests of any sort. Give
some thought as to how you can set up a contest and then announce the
winners to the media. You just might get covered in a story.
For
more ideas on how to get media coverage
quickly and easily,
click here.
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