As bloggers, we spend a lot (a lot) of time online–which makes sense as that’s where so much of our work takes place. Unfortunately, that makes it easy to forget about talking about your online life with people in real life, but doing so is absolutely essential to growing your readership. While social media has made it easier than ever to connect with people on the web, there’s still nothing like a little face-to-face interaction.

Here are a few suggestions for getting out and making contacts:

1. Hand out business cards

They make you seem more professional and help serve as a tangible reminder of who you are and what you do. Someone compliments your outfit? Hand them a card and introduce yourself! People are much more likely to check out your blog if they’ve met you in person.

2. Cover events

Check your local calendar listing and see if there’s an event you’d like to cover. If you email the event organizers beforehand to let them know you’ll be there, there’s a good chance they’ll offer to let you hang out behind the scenes.
Note: Showing up with a camera and a notepad pretty much guarantees a certain amount of credibility–people will think you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Introduce yourself to these people.

Be sure to email a link to your coverage to the event organizer, and follow up with any connections you make.

3. Send promotional postcards

Again, these serve as a tangible reminder of your site. As a plus, you don’t actually have to be present to distribute postcards–leave them in your favorite coffee shops and bookstores, and mail them (yes, snail mail with stamps and such) to editors, journalists, boutique owners, designers, galleries, photographers–whomever you think would be interested in your site.

4. Participate in craft shows and street fairs

This is especially useful if you sell stuff–clothing, accessories, jewelry, crafts, even if you offer services. Summer and the holidays are prime time for street fairs and craft shows, so check show listing sites, gather your merchandise or develop a demonstration of your services, and sign up! Be sure to take plenty of business cards to pass out to prospective customers.

5. Join a blogging group

Blogging is pretty widespread, and if you live in a reasonably-sized city, there’s likely a group of bloggers that meet to share tips and advice and generally hang out. If there isn’t one in your area, see if you can find a few local bloggers and start one. Search the blogrolls of a local food/relationship/mommy blogger and see who you can connect with. You could also try searching for Tweetups (somebody’s bound to blog) and local social media groups on Google or LinkedIn.

Bonus: If your group grows large enough and happens to include a few people with connections, there’s a good chance you could receive media coverage!

Now get out there, shake some hands, and kiss some babies!

In Part I of How to Write a Media Release, we talked about the basic format for writing press releases and different types of media to include. Now, let’s talk about what to actually do with what you’ve created.

A few options

Once you’ve written your release and created accompanying audio, video, or imagery to go with it, you need to make it public! There are a few ways to do this:

• Send it directly to people or publications you think would be interested in your news

• Submit it to a press release distribution site

• Post it online for increased Google juice

Send it!

If you know who you’re trying to reach with your news, the most effective way to distribute your media release is directly, usually via email. Send an email to specific writers and editors at blogs and publications that regularly cover your area of interest.

A few tips:

Include a good description in the email subject line.

You may want to include the “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:” with a brief description of your news so the receiver knows that you’re sending a press release without having to open the email.

Include the release in the body of the email

Don’t send the release as an attachment as most people don’t have time to open documents. It’s also best to include a short, personable introduction and a brief reason for sending the release in the email. For example:

Hello NAME,

I hope you are doing well!

YOUR NAME/COMPANY, a popular fashion blog(ger) in CITY, is proud to announce YOUR NEWS. It’s a great PRODUCT/SERVICE that FEATURE, BENEFIT, BENEFIT [include 3-4 features your product/service includes and the way in which those features help your target audience] .

See press release below.

I would love to speak to you about this exciting new PRODUCT/SERVICE since you are an integral part of the NICHE industry.

Please feel free to contact me at PHONE NUMBER or EMAIL if you would like more information.

Best,

YOUR NAME

–Start media release text–

Don’t send email blasts

It’s unprofessional to send the same blanket message to every single person you’ve ever contacted. It looks careless, and we all know how annoying it is to receive irrelevant emails…so don’t send them, either.

Follow-up

If someone does contact you, get back to them in a timely manner. They’re doing you a favor, so be professional and stay on top of it.

Submit it!

Another way to spread the word about your news is to submit your release to media release submission sites. These sites accept submissions across different industries, and may serve as a place for journalists in need of story angles to search for news. There are a number of paid services, but we like free stuff around here. A few reliable sites include:

PR.com You have to register, but this site distributes releases to several online news sites and allows visitors to subscribe to RSS feeds for new releases.

PitchEngine is a social media press release builder and allows for easy integration of images, video, and audio alongside your text release.

PR Log Lets you include HTML links in your media release, as well as an SEO dedicated webpage and PDF version of the release.

Free-Press-Release.com The site looks like Digg, and the most-read releases that are part of paid plan rise to the top of the site.

iNewswire Free submission service that requires registration

Online PR News You get one live URL within the release, and there’s no expiration date.

A note on submission vs distribution:
Submission sites basically allow you to build Google rank by posting your content on several different outposts, and help people find your news by including it in an aggregator.

Distribution includes publishing the release to multiple syndication channels, pushing releases to subscribed editors and journalists, and more traditional wire services like Associated Press and Reuters.

Post it!

If you have a blog or are part of another online community, why not post your release there, too? Your readers and fellow community members (if the community allows it–check the guidelines first) might be interested in using your product or service, interviewing you about your news, or pointing you towards their cousin who happens to be an editor at Vogue. You never know, right?

In the last issue of Style Sample, Alicia of Instant Vintage shows us how to set up an online shop step by step. Setup is relatively simple, but once you have your store up and running, you have to get out there and promote it! Here are some easy and (mostly) free ideas:

1. Put a link to your shop in your email signature, blog comments, and forum and message board signatures.

2. Create a Facebook fan page for your shop or line. Post pictures of customers wearing your products, links to articles about your shop, and info about how you create your merchandise.

3. Create a behind-the-scenes video like this one about The Brush Factory. Post it on YouTube, Metacafe, MySpace, blip.tv, Vimeo,  and others using an all-in-one video posting service like tubemogul.com.

4. Use descriptive keywords in your item description so people searching can find it easily. Instead of “vintage dress”, try “red cotton vintage sundress size 6.”

5. Post classifieds on free sites like Craigslist and Kijiji.

6. Send email newsletters announcing a new line or collection. If you have a small list (under 500 subscribers), try a free service like MailChimp.

7. Promote offline, too! You can get inexpensive business cards from Moo.com or OvernightPrints and hand them out to friends, family, and potential customers.

8. Participate in area craft fairs or trunk shows. Hand out those cards!

9. If you’re interested in selling offline, create postcards to mail to businesses and publications who might be interested in selling or writing about your products. Be sure to do your research when preparing your pitch.

10. Write press releases when something big happens–a new collection comes out, you snag an investor, or you’re carried at a new store. Submit your release to writers who would be interested in your story and online newswire services like iNewswire and PRLog.

11. Join an ad network–as an advertiser.

Besides blogging, how do you promote your store?