Sure, and I understand your confusion because there is a wee sprinkling of luck involved in the entire process. But as it happens, I had an entire sequence of seeing a lead, responding, talking to the reporter, and being quoted in a national publication all transpire today, so I can lead you through the process.
First off, two or three times a day, I see a set of leads via email sent from PRLEADS that match my own profile in Internet, business and parenting. In today's email I saw the following query:
I've blanked it out here, but I simply clicked on the email address of the reporter listed in the blurb and sent the following email message:
Subject: Impact of lawsuit on pop-up advertising
Hello! I saw your query on Profnet/PR Newswire and I think that I can offer you some help. Frankly, I'm glad to see Spitzer go after some of these advertising companies as I hear far too often from my community how going to the wrong Web site can be "a disaster" as dozens of popups take over the computer, spyware is installed, and even viruses are dropped onto a computer all because of a one-letter typo in a domain name or similar. Since many of the individual organizations being advertised are offshore (think gambling and porn) going after the ad networks and advertising technology firms makes a lot of sense to me, and since it's clear that these firms believe that there are no needed constraints, they have to be externally imposed.
The impact on the industry? Well, if companies are making a profit over polluting people's computers then I don't know that a loss in income for them is such a bad thing anyway...
Interested in us talking about this topic? Please email me back and/or call me at 303 555-1212 [Mountain]
Biographical sketch: Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Intuitive Life, focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymously named Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is a top-rated speaker, sought after conference and workshop facilitator and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.
With regards,
Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems: Online Strategies and Communications
A key idea here is that I have a relevant subject, so she could correctly file my email message in case she's working on more than one story, and that I actually presented my point of view in the message rather than sending some sort of teaser about "I have an interesting perspective, please call so we can talk" or similar.
Sure enough, about 45 minutes after I sent the message, she called me up (and, no, I didn't send her a 555 number :-) and we chatted for a few minutes, mostly just her asking if the quote I gave her was an "exclusive" or had already appeared on my weblog or in publication elsewhere - it hadn't - and how I'd like to be cited.
That's music to your ears when you're working to gain media visibility!
A few hours later, E-Commerce Times published Spitzer Sharpens Focus on Spyware, wherein I'm quoted:
All in all, a good result from spending 10 minutes on an email message and another 10-15 minutes on the phone with a reporter, I'd say.
The really good news is that you too can sign up for PR LEADS [1]: it's $99/month and for most business folk it's some of the best money they spend on becoming recognized as an expert in their industry.
I hope that this helps clarify how you can work with PRLEADS and use it to gain more visibility in your market space and build a brand around yourself or your company too.
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Dave - thanks for the very useful information on how to use PRLeads. I've often heard media-successful people say "you have to be quotable". You demonstrate that well in this post.