By Susan Beauregard and Mitch Beauregard, Three Niece Farm Hampton, CT

Sending out press releases may seem intimidating, but here are some steps to follow to help take the mystery out of it. Step 1: Create both a media alert and a press release. A media alert is short and lists only the critical details of your event: what, where, when and your contact information. This allows the person at the media outlet to quickly know exactly what it is you’re promoting; when it is and how to contact you. The second document is a much longer press release. The press release is the opposite of the media alert. It’s designed to include detailed information about you, your event, your animals and your farm. It may seem counter intuitive to send such a long detailed document, but this allows the media outlet to craft a story about your farm and event by using the facts in the release. They may choose not to contact you for an interview due to publishing deadlines. In the press release you can also extend and offer for them to interview you, if that is something you’re comfortable with. Another important tip is to include some really cute pictures of your animals and your farm so that they can be used as well. Media Alert and Press Release templates are provided free of charge with your NEAOBA membership. To access the templates, simply log into the “Members” section of the website with your Openherd user name and password. The links will be listed on the right hand side of the page. Step 2: Go to http://www.usnpl.com/  This website is a “one stop shop” so to speak for media outlets.

You can search US Newspapers by state right on the home page. You can also search TV stations, Radio Stations, Colleges, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Start with newspapers by clicking on your state.

Step 3: Once you click on your state, you need to figure out which papers you want to send your press release to.  As a rule of thumb, our farm sends them to papers within a 100 mile radius. Once you identify the papers you’d like to send them to click on the newspaper name and the link will bring you to their website

Step 4: Once on the news paper’s website locate the “Contact Us” or a similarly named tab on their home page menu.

Step 5: This is where you may have to scroll down and do a little detective work to find which email address or fax number you should send the press release to. Each newspaper’s website is different so it may be obvious where to send submissions.

On the Register Citizen’s website, it’s not so obvious. I scrolled down and…

Found Esteban and Emily’s profiles with their email addresses. I would send the release to both of them.

For the Hartford Courant, it’s a little more obvious how to submit your press release.

Step 6: Send out your Media Alert, Press Release and pictures to the contacts you’ve gathered. It may seem like a lot of legwork initially, but if you keep a list of your news outlets and the submission information, the next time you need to send out your press releases it will be much easier. Another hint is to create the email, attach the documents and save it as a draft email. That way you can customize the salutation in the email with the contact’s name for that media outlet prior to sending it out. It’s a much more personal approach than putting all of the emails on as a BCC (blind copy). You’re more likely to get your event listed this way.

Step 7: At this point you just need to sit back and wait. Often you’ll never know which paper publishes your release unless you’re a subscriber. For Farm Days this past September we found out that the Hartford Courant published our press release when a friend cut the article out of the back of the Living section. We had visitors to our farm tell us that they saw the event in their newspaper and they were from Southern Massachusetts.

We’ve even had reporters just show up the day of the event, camera and pad in hand. We’ve been happy to show them around and give an interview. Some just take pictures and leave. We’ve gotten tremendous exposure from 4 different local publications on various events just because we’ve submitted press releases.

Don’t be intimidated by the press release and don’t limit yourself to just sending them out to newspapers. Local radio stations and public access channels are always looking for local public interest stories as content for their shows and upcoming calendar of events. There is a wealth of ways you can get your information out there that is free. You never know where it may lead!