Building Your Online Media Kit

What goes in an online media kit? 

An effective online media kit can be one of the most valuable media and 
marketing tools you can create on your web site. It will help persuade even the most doubtful media that you are newsworthy and have what it takes to make their day. 

These go by a variety of names these days: press room, media center, press 
releases, press center, but whatever they are called, they are the place you tell media to go upon entering your web site. 

When you send out a news release to your media, many of them will click on 
your link and come to your site. They are on a mission. They are searching for the information they need to write a feature story of some sort or an interview. 
Your job is to make their visit fruitful and productive. 

You must not only validate any claims you’ve made regarding your book, 
services or products, but you must also make it easy for the media editor or producer to find facts sufficient for them to quickly satisfy their needs. 

When it comes to the Internet, the operative word to key in on is this one: “quick”. You must make it quick as a click to get what the editor needs. 
This may be facts, bio, pictures or interview questions. It can also be 200, 400, 600, 800, 1,000, 2,000 or 5,000 word articles. 

Everything must be ready to go. Click they get it. 

The goal is to make it attractive, easy to use, and ready to go for immediate media utilization. 

An online media kit should contain the following key elements in text form: 
News releases (most recent first) 
Biography (long and short) 
Company information and statistics (long & short) 
Fact sheets (various on different topics) 
Contact information (key person, and public relations people) 
Articles 
Interview questions and answers 
Pictures of the book, product or service. 
You create what you need to make the experience successful and enjoyable. 
So you can also place other persuasive and helpful things in the online media kit: 
Links to major media articles. 
Links to other reviews 
Lists of prior interviews conducted, where, when, with producer comments or 
testimonials 
Past events 
Planned and future events 
Powerpoint Presentations 
White papers 
Case studies 
Surveys, questionnaires, results 
Graphics 
Streaming video and Multimedia files 
All this information should be kept up to date and current. The Neopets web site actually has a link off it’s press center which goes to a web site which contains the Neopets Diary of new features: 
http://www.neopets
.com/newfeatures.phtml?arr=2004-05-03 
Cool. 
You should have text materials available in html, text, and in pdf file 
formats. You should indicate your willingness get the media what they 
need, in whatever format they need it, on demand. 

What this means is that over time you may actually end up growing a press 
center and organizing it by date, by topic or by initiative. The press center may end up having several press kits in it by the end of a year, depending on how many individual initiatives you get involved in. 

Remember the goal is persuasion, so content, and quality counts. 
You goal is to have enough information readily available to supply the media with at least five completely self-sufficient, stand alone articles or story angles. You do this to allow media choice, and also to demonstrate your adaptability and the diversity of your newsworthiness. 

Photography is worth special attention. Make sure you include both black and white and low and high resolution color photography. Low resolution can be 72 dpi. High resolution should be either 300 or 600 dpi. 
You can and should offer photography in a variety of sizes, and indicate that it can be either downloaded immediately, or delivered via e-mail as zipped jpegs (up to ten MB) upon request. 

The high resolution color photography in particular will attract the most 
attention to your book, (or product or service) if it tells a human interest story, highlights a local news angle, and provokes strong deep feelings or intense desire. 

Forget the boring straight headshot. Look at those MTV video's our kids are 
watching day in and out and realize that the sexy and provocative is what 
editors and producers are looking for. 

The human body in motion is a visual experience. For many it's a visual turn on. The photography can't be boring if it is to be successful. It must sizzle. Sure sex sells. But you don't have to go there if you don't want to. You can explore the visual aspects of a book, product or service in all sorts of professional or action oriented settings. 

In one of my questionnaires to the media, high-resolution color photography 
was most often cited as the sole distinguishing feature of a press kit or media kit. It was this that got the editors attention more than any other piece of offered information. If you make the file available online, make sure you have a crisp clear picture of it for the media to see. 

Add a one line Title, which describes the photograph. 
Then write and post a 50 to 100 word descriptive caption. Make the 
description have high interest and high impact. 

Photography in your online media kit is crucial. The photographs will 
often be the single factor that stimulates editor interest and drives them to make a decision to do a feature story. 

The story is built around the picture. With your book, you can select and 
offer photography that suggests or parallels what you would like to see in a feature story. You can actually create a feature story and provide the picture that complements the story. 

With a publicity plan you could identify five or six different story angles 
and shoot a photograph to go with each one. This then fulfills your goal of having a media press center, which contains at least five, detailed, different and complete, stand alone story angles. 

Now there is no doubt a huge range of photography one can create. Pick only the best. 

There is a variety of news angles one can propose which would all be 
complemented by some type of photograph. The photography must illustrate 
something an editor or reporter can write a story about. 
The rest of your media kit must provide the text details to flesh out the 
feature or story. 
The real goal will be to decide what media you want to be in, in order to sell books, and then figure out what combination of photography and feature story material will get you publicity. Each media publication will not respond the same to each photograph or news angle. 

Women's mags will want something different than sports mags. Health and 
fitness mags will want something different than men's health. One single picture will not fit all needs of all the media. 

You obviously want to avoid being caught in a situation where the response you evoke is "Seen one, seen 'em all." 

To be successful, you'll need to be distinctive. To be distinctive you should get on the phone and call the feature, lifestyle or photography editor of each and every magazine you want to be in. 

Ask them straight out key questions like: "What can I give to you that will 
allow you to write a feature story?" and find out what sort of photography 
will be most appreciated and most readily used. Then go and get it photographed and present it back to that editor. Write the letter that says: "In response to our conversation I went and had the enclosed pictures taken". Then send them the choices along with appropriate complimentary feature story material. 

Then add them to your online press kit. Make it available to everyone else. You'll be surprised and pleased when other media use the same materials over and over again. 

Each of online media kit’s listed below has some excellent design elements, 
and illustrate a range of sophistication and cost. 
Stan and Sandra Posner Drive I-95 
http://www.mascon.net/z3_press_room.htm
O’Reilly Publications Press Center 
http://press.oreilly.com/index.html
Parenting Press 
http://www.parentingpress.com/media.html
Net Lingo Press 
http://www.netlingo.com/press.cfm
AT & T Online Media Center 
http://www.att.com/presskit/
Mothers Against Drunk Driving 
http://www.madd.org/news/
American Women Road and Travel Magazine 
http://www.roadandtravel.com/company/caldwellpresskit/courtn
ey_caldwell%20press%20kit.htm 
Susun Weed’s Press Kit 
http://www.susunweed.com
/A_press-kit_plus-more.htm 
Get in the habit of using search engines and surfing the web. When you find a link to a press room or online media center click on it. Study it. 
Search on the words: 
Online media kit 
online press kit 
press center 
media center 
couple these search words with learning words such as: 
tips 
article 
tactics 
strategy 
guide 
You'll find plenty of articles by experts and web sites with free advice and information. 

Heck, some of the stuff may be so good you find yourself buying a book by a 
self-published author! 

You may find that some of the best materials available by a company are 
organized for easy use in the press center. It will likely also be the best place for you to find the right contact information to get you in the door at the company. So a company's media center is often the best place to go to when you need to identify and get a hold of the right people to do business. 

Regards all,