I was just cleaning up my favorites sites on Internet Explorer. I have not updated my links section on this blog in awhile. I use these favorites for both my work as a fire department PIO and as a marketing and public relations professional for a national not for profit organization.  Over the weekend I will hopefully add some of these new sites to my links page.

I present to you the most often visited PR sites that I rely on for information.

Some of the sites I list have not been updated as frequently as I would like to see, or the content is many years old, yet they still contain valuable resources, lessons to be learned, additional links to other sites and tips. There are many other sites I visit that are listed in this blogs links sections.

PRSA Web Site

I am a member of the Public Relations Society of America and find their site to be a great resource for everything PR.

PRNewswire
A release clearinghouse.

Businesswire.com
A clearinghouse of corporate releases.

PR and Marketing Network

PitchEngine.com
Allows you to get media PR pitches via RSS instead of traditional e-mail or voicemail.

The Publicity Hound
An e-zine with free PR advice.

WebSite-Watcher
A clipping-type tool that automatically looks for changes on web pages, any page at any level), as often as you like (every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, etc.) and then highlights precisely where on the page changes occur. Results are delivered via the tool or via e-mail.

TrackEngine.com
A clipping-type tool similar to WebSite-Watcher.

WhatsNextOnline.com
A bi-weekly newsletter on Internet marketing and PR.

Media Industry News

Press Access
Free PR resources, and the site also tracks moves of reporters and editors to new newspapers, trade and business publications.

Ragan Communications Interactive Public Relations
A great online PR newsletter that features a free online forum.

MediaSource
This site provides headline and feature news, allows users to get online press kits for a variety of companies, to contact industry experts, obtain press releases and provides news on trends and new products.

Best Practices in Public Relations
From the Strategic Public Relations Center at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, this document outlines best practices for public relations practitioners.

WritingWithClarity.com
An excellent site from Ken O’Quinn, a former news journalist turned writing coach/consultant.

HelpaReporterOut.com
A free subscription site that allows reporters to submit a query looking for sources. Simply enter your query into a form, and it will get posted on the site’s next e-mailing. Queries are sent out three a day to a list of more than 18,000 global sources. If a source has knowledge of a specific query, that source can just e-mail the reporter directly. Note that PR people are kicked off the list for off-topic pitching.

Newswise.com
Press releases and expert referrals in several academic areas.

iPR Newsletter
A good online media relations site for news and trends.

Ereleases.com
Writes and faxes press releases to more than 10,000 journalists.

Press Release Network
Tips and tools for circulating press releases. Listing of top releases and newsletters.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability News, Press Releases, Feeds, Events

24-7 Press Release Newswire
Press release newswire distribution and rss syndication service with dissemination to opt in journalists, online media, freelance writers, newspapers and more. Offers daily top news, and free journalist registration to receive daily headlines by email.

Competitor-Analysis.com

Information Advisor

News Bios
This is a Denver-based pay site, but it’s a great resource. Bios of 3,500 influential journalists.

MediaSource.com
A press release posting system.

Online Press Release Factory
A press release posting system.

ClickPress
A free press release distribution service which is crawled and aggregated by all the main web-based news search operations, including Google and MSN.

PR Newswire Press Room
A journalist-only site that has an archive of news releases and photos, expert sources through ProfNet, multimedia, a directory of company contacts and more.

Center for Media and Democracy
Combats misleading PR practices.

Kirk Hallahan’s PR Links
Hundreds of useful resources from Colorado State University. The site has not been updated in a few years but there are still many helpful links to sites that are active.

Public Relations Online Resources and Organizations
Dozens of helpful links from ImpulseResearch.com.

Internet Press Guild: Care and Feeding of Journalists
Tips on the care and feeding of journalists.

Monday Morning Media Minute
PR tips and trends. Also available as an e-update.

FrugalMarketing.com
This site offers dozens of articles on press releases and other marketing strategies, always focusing on low costs and high return.

PR Talent
An excellent job-hunting site. Includes job alerts, RSS feed, forum page and job-hunting tips.

National PR Network
Resources for business, arts, and travel, as well as on how to have fun cheaply, sustainable business practices and a page of peace resources. More than 500 articles.

EditorsWeb.org
A daily service, which gathers links to governmental and congressional press releases, is used by hundreds of editors and reporters.

About.com PR/Advertising Page
Links to dozens of helpful industry sites.

The NewsMarket
Provides free broadcast-standard video and multimedia content from corporations, government agencies and non-profits. Journalists can search, preview and request video and other content on demand, online, via digital download or can choose to receive tape-by-mail.

PRFirms.org: Council of Public Relations Firms
Resources galore, including job-hunting materials.

The NewsMarket, Inc.
A journalist’s resource for B-roll, this site provides thousands of images free to television newsrooms. Users can preview video, read press materials and order video clips online. Delivery options include digital file transfer via FTP, whereby the material moves from TNM’s server to the user’s server; satellite feeds via APTN or tape delivery can also be requested. There is no cost to news professionals. The NewsMarket’s primary service is providing broadcasters with video from the world’s leading companies and organizations; news stories and archived stock shots from a large and growing range of sources. Particularly helpful to business and medical-health reporters.

MarketingSherpa

Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association

Creativebusiness.com
Site offers forms as base for interviewing a prospective client. All are in pdf and cover everything from an assignment questionnaire to pricing to how to prepare a marketing plan. Free too.

Online Public Relations
The site offers lots of links, including links to research sites, career resources and public affairs resources.

ContentBiz Newsletter
It goes out weekly to about 10,000 publishing industry execs.

Institute for PR

Council of Public Relations Firms

DigitalWork.com
Affordable press release distribution.

PR News
A newsletter on pr and marketing.

Press Access
Lots of media news and gossip. Folks moving within the industry, etc.

ARA Content
PRNewswire and Business Wire, but we specialize in feature articles. There are two ways we can be a resource. On the PR side, we distribute articles. On the editors side, editors use our articles to fill supplement and special sections and for filler copy. Articles are educational, informational, high-quality feature articles with very little commercialism.

MediaCampaign.org
A site for campaign stakeholders.

PRSA: Silver Anvil Award Case Studies
A resource for those interested in reviewing examples of “best practice” case studies as well as a resource center for entrants. Offerings include a Reading Room as well as a Power Point presentation prepared by members of the Honors & Awards Committee.

The Holmes Report
Several free PR resources (ideas, white papers, etc.)

Web Clip Art

PR Point
Contains lot of useful resource materials.

Deloitte Press Room
Several interesting studies by the consulting firm.

InternetWire.com

LeFile.com
This site comments on best practices of corporate (and government) Web sites using in-the-news events to prompt site reviews and commentary. The site includes a Homeland Security page.

The PR Place
Lots of links.

PR Professional Daily
An online newsletter devoted to the profession.

USA News Net
Press releases, corporate directory and more. Pay site.

MediaMavens.com
An Internet wire service for the media only. Publicity, celebrity marketing and mroe.

PressAccess.com’s Links to Publications and Broadcast Media

Press Access Free PR Links
Dozens of dynamite links.

InternetPRGuide
Public Relations Strategy and Tips for Internet professionals offers tips on press release writing, distribution and trade shows. Internet publicity pointers also cover dealing with the media and crisis management.

PR Web
A press release database, help writing press releases, help finding a PR firm, and more. Billed as “by PR professionals for PR professionals.

MediaRelations.com

Newstream
More wire-service content.

US Newswire

Media Training

News Broadcast Network

CyberAlert
Monitors Web traffic; offers news and news groups.

SpeakerNetNews.com
A weekly e-zine for professional speakers. A good way to promote PR seminars, books, etc.

Ezine Tips
A great online e-zine published on weekdays.

MediaPost.com
MediaPost provides an electronic directory of radio, TV and print media.

PromoteYourself.com
Sign up for several e-zines on promotions. Viz-Ability Marketing Tips is highly recommended.

ODwyerpr.com
Jack O’Dwyer Newsletter’s daily PR news. Jack, by the way, is retiring soon as editor.

URLwire.com
A news service just for site reviewers, portal guide editors, writers, and reporters who link to great web content.

TVEyes.com
Search software that tracks what’s being said on TV scripts.

Writing Releases
Great tips on the do’s and don’ts of writing a press release.

The Traditional Press Release is Dead
An article by strategist B.L. Ochman, an Internet and Outernet marketing and PR consultant, speaker, journalist and publisher of What’s Next Online marketing tactics newsletter.

Press Releases Are a Colossal Waste of Time
An article by strategist B.L. Ochman, an Internet and Outernet marketing and PR consultant, speaker, journalist and publisher of What’s Next Online marketing tactics newsletter.

The Measurement Standard
Product/service reviews of three media reputation indexes, as well as a detailed guide to measuring in cyberspace. There’s also a piece on “if you have six months to turn your PR around, what are the six things you need to do? — a month-by-month timetable. For the media there are the results of a recent survey of PR in the UK that indicates that PR’s reputation is at an all-time low.

WorldPressOnline
“Dedicated to online press relations for corporate communicators and trade press editors in the packaging industry. It’s a business-to-press site in which trade press editors, PR agencies and companies of the packaging industry can exchange information.”

eworldwire Press Release Distribution and Writing Service
With a full-time research department, this site claims its distribution databases are the most up-to-date in the industry.

PR Web
Press release distribution site.

Vocus Public Relations Software
Publishes free monthly white papers and plays host to free webinars on PR-themed topics.

MediaMap
Send a query to PR.

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Awhile back I came across a dozen tips for Google searches. The information has made my life easier as a PIO. Features I never knew existed such as Exclude Words, Specific Document Types and This OR That has helped me save valuable time when I need to refer to Google for a search.

12 Google Search Tips

1. Explicit Phrase:
   Let’s say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

Example: “internet marketing”

1. Exclude Words:
   Let’s say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the “-” sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

1. Site Specific Search:
   Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the “site:somesite.com” modifier.

Example: “internet marketing” site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

1. Similar Words and Synonyms:
   Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.

Example: “internet marketing” ~professional

1. Specific Document Types:
   If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”.  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

Example: “internet marketing” filetype:ppt

1. This OR That:
   By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note:  The OR has to be capitalized).

Example: internet marketing OR advertising

1. Phone Listing:
   Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note:  the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

1. Area Code Lookup:
   If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

Example: 617

1. Numeric Ranges:
   This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

Example: president 1940..1950

1. Stock (Ticker Symbol):
   Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

Example: GOOG

1. Calculator:
   The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

Example: 48512 * 1.02

1. Word Definitions:
   If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the “define:” command.

Example: define:plethora

Web Search Strategies in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

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Occasionally The Fire PIO will reach into his old hydrant bags of tricks to make life easier in various situations for my fellow PIO’s.

Here’s one that has allowed me for many years to breeze through a buff show or conference exhibition hall while my colleagues are stuck in heavy floor traffic.

1. Get to the show when it opens.
2. Join the massive crowd gathered to get in the second the doors open.
3. When the gates swing open head left not right! The natural tendency is for a crowd to head to the right.

So when the huddled masses head right and you head left it should be clear sailing for most of your journey. Eventually you will hit the crew that went right, head on, but by that time the crowd should be manageable since many visitors stop at booths, change their initial path etc.

 Anyone else have “wily” conference or show tips?

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