Blogger Resource: How to Use PR Newswire for Journalists Part 2

After walking through the 10 steps to customizing a fashion and style news feed on Friday, I’m back with part 2 on how to use PR Newswire for Journalists.

Today’s tips focus on using ProfNet to connect with brands and the PR Newswire Photo Archive to find free images you can use in blog posts.

A ProfNet opportunity is a request to review products or interview subject matter experts. When you log into http://media.prnewswire.com, click the “ProfNet Experts” tab at the top of the page. This will take you to the Create Opportunity form:

1)    In the “Opportunity subject” field, detail what you’re blogging about and looking for. Try to be as specific as possible.

2)    The “Nature of expertise you seek” field allows you to provide more information – be concise and follow the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when and why).

3)    Beneath your contact information, select what your “Deadline for responses” is.

4)    You can also narrow down the types of organizations and geographic regions your opportunity should be sent to:

5)   You can find more tips and an example of a  ProfNet opportunity on the blog Tales from the Nursery, and here are our guidelines for bloggers requesting products.

To download product and event photos, as well as graphics and logos from PR Newswire clients, click the “Photo/Logos” tab at the top of the page:

1)    Once the Photo Archive opens up in a separate tab or window, click “Login” in the top left corner. If it prompts you to re-login, use your PR Newswire for Journalists username and password.

2)    To search for fashion and style images, type “fashion” in the keyword field at the top-left of the page, which will provide you with thumbnails of recent images.  Clicking a thumbnail will take you to that image's page.

3)    Some images will have a download dropdown at the top-center of the page. You can also download the image by clicking the “View Larger Photo" link beneath the photo (see the below screenshot for both options).

4)    Any images from the PR Newswire Photo Archive can be used on your blog for free if credit is included. The photo credit is located within parenthesis at the end of the caption. For example, the photo credit in the below example is PRNewsFoto/Gap, Inc.

Hopefully, these walkthroughs have given you ideas on how to use PR Newswire for Journalists. You can find more PR Newswire blogging resources and info on our Blogs We Love badge at http://www.prnewswire.com/bloggers.

If you have any questions or would like me to create an account for your blog, email me at Media.Relations@prnewswire.com or register directly at http://media.prnewswire.

Blogger Resource: How to Use PR Newswire for Journalists Part 1

The MSB team is so excited to have Amanda from PR Newswire here to talk about how you can utilize this resource! A big thank you to Amanda for putting this together for us! There are 2 parts to this so enjoy part 1 today and part 2 on Monday! 

Hi, Midwest Style Bloggers! My name’s Amanda; I spend my evenings and weekends blogging over at Clue Into Cleveland and my days helping members of the media on PR Newswire for Journalists.

Don’t let the name PR Newswire for Journalists dissuade you, though. We welcome all members of the media.

As someone who’s found the site very helpful on my own blog, I’m thrilled to guest post today about how to make the most of PR Newswire for Journalists.

The site is free for all members of the media and can help you:

• Track fashion industry news as soon as it’s announced
• Connect with brands for upcoming blog post
• Find free photos to use on your blogs 

In this two-part series, I’ll show you how fashion and style bloggers can use each feature.  Then, if you’re interested, email me at Media.Relations@prnewswire.com, and I will set up your account. You can also register directly at here.

For part 1, I’m going to focus on PR Newswire for Journalists’ custom news feeds.

If you’re interested in news about fashion designers, cosmetic companies, Fashion Week, or style trends, you can customize a feed that will send you information when you want it.

Here’s how:

1)   When you register on PR Newswire for Journalists, log in and click the “My PR  Newswire” tab at the top of the page.

2)   If this is your first time creating a news profile, the page will look like the below screenshot. It will instruct you to enter the name of your profile and click Go.  For this example, I’ve entered “Fashion/Style” as the profile name.

3)   When you click Go, you’ll be taken to the Profile Criteria page. Here you’ll be able to narrow down the type of news you want to receive by typing in keyword phrases, focusing on particular industries and subjects, limiting your results to a specific geographic region or language, and more.

4)   Criteria groups (Keywords, Industries, Subjects, etc.) work together in an “and” relationship. If you select the “Fashion” industry and “New Products” subject, you will only receive new product announcements from the fashion industry. 

5)   Within each criteria group, you can make multiple selections which will work together in an “or” relationship. Selecting the “Fashion” and “Cosmetics” industries and the “Product Recalls” subject will send you product recall news from both the fashion and cosmetics industries.

6)   In the example below, I’ve selected a combination of industries and subjects that I found work well for style bloggers. These selections are only suggestions and can be mixed and matched in whatever way you prefer.

7)   In the Industries group, I highlighted “Cosmetics and Personal Care,” “Fashion,” “Jewelry,” and “Textiles” from the “Pick From” column on the left. After selecting an industry, I clicked the Add button in the center to move it to the “Current Selection” column on the right.

8)   Similarly, I selected “New Products/Services,” “Product Recalls”, “Surveys, Polls and Research” (a common category for trend reports), and “Women-related News” from the list of Subjects.

9)   If you only want to receive fashion news about the Midwest, scroll to the Geographical Relevance section beneath Subjects. As shown in the example below, you’ll select “North America” from the left-hand dropdown, the “Midwest” region from the center dropdown, states from the right-hand column if needed, and click Add.

10)  Once you save your search criteria, the last step is to click the blue “Modify email options” button at the top of the page. On the Email Options page, turn on emails by clicking “On”, then “Yes” next to your email address. Set up email digests by clicking “Headlines” for your delivery option, the custom schedule button, and selecting the days of the week and hours of the day you want to receive emails. The image below is set to email a digest on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings:

After a news feed is created, you’ll be able to view your news releases from the previous seven days on the My PR Newswire tab:

I hope this guide to customizing your Fashion and Style news feed was helpful. I’ll be back in part 2 with a few tips on how to use the Photo Archive to find free images and the ProfNet database to connect with brands.

Wanderlust - Midwest Edition

Have you been bit by the travel bug? Maybe it's this cold Midwest weather, but we're having a serious case of wanderlust!

 Lauren at La Petite Fashionista and Maya at Charmingly Styled are sharing their dream destinations on their blogs this week. Where are you daydreaming about traveling to?

Beachy Retreat:

Via Lauren

Parisian Chic:

via Maya