6. Find a publicist who guarantees their placements. An instant red flag is when you are promised certain results with no guarantee in place. Credible publicists can and do guarantee their placements. Accountable publicists who value your business track your results and only promise what they can and will deliver.

7. Work with publicists who are taking your entire campaign into consideration. A single placement on the wrong site or presented in the wrong way can destroy your potential placements for both online and traditional media. Be sure you are working with people who have your entire campaign goals in place and only pursue opportunities that will enhance those objectives and not hinder them. An experienced online publicist will know everything necessary to secure prominent ongoing positions for you including how to assess your website, how to increase your search engine rankings and how to format your content. Online PR involves all of these components. Only work with someone who has proven knowledge and experience in all of these areas. If your publicist can’t discuss anything beyond submitting an article, run for your life.

8. Choose an online publicist who provides stringent follow up. Once you paid for your content to be submitted, it is crucial to conduct proper follow up. If no follow up occurs to determine if the articles were placed, how and where they were used or whether the site would like more content from you, the submission is ultimately worthless and without value. Many so called “publicists” will be more than happy to arrange this for you. And beware, some of these individuals many appear to be very notable experts in the PR field. Do your diligence and decide if they are truly the best person for this form of campaign. Not everyone becomes a well known expert based on ethical business practices.

9. Credible publicists create partnerships between you and online editors. Your publicist should be creating a variety of content features and opportunities for you. They can match what you have to offer with the needs of the sites, creating new and original features for the site that you will fill. This will result in ongoing leads that will be sent to you from the editors on an ongoing basis as well as acceptance from the sites for new content you wish to contribute. A successful online outreach should result in many new opportunities well beyond the original presentation.

10. Avoid the “cookie-cutter” approach. A reputable publicist will customize their campaign objectives and their fees to your individual needs. All clients come to a promotional campaign with a wide variety of needs. While some approaches may work for several clients, beware of any publicist who is not willing to be flexible when it comes to the goals of the campaign, the time involved and the fees to be assessed. You, the client, should feel like this person has your very best interests at heart and that you can trust that they are just as invested in your results as you are. Your publicist is not someone you hire, it is someone who is invited to be part of your team and your success. Make that the most important component in your decision making process and you can’t lose.

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