Salve,
Am Samstag, 28. Februar 2004 18:13 schrieb Jimmy Wales:
Andrew Lih wrote:
One of the most standard outlets for press releases is PR Newswire. It costs some money to put it on there, but we can investigate the cost and see if it's worth it.
I once paid $1200 for a press release about Nupedia that ended up being basically a waste of money.
The wikipeida is a little bit caotic and unpland what article is written next. I started a try on the German mailinglist to think more about a strategie and culture for PR, especialy that as many Wikipedianers become skilled and "multipliers" as possible.
You can`t by PR, a NGO must live PR.
In Germany we hat a TV success on Wednesday and at last two another TV reoprs about Wikipedia will be followed. In short, good PR is the question of a good mix in several medias - only TV reprorts are like a flash in the pan - it could be only one supporting leg, we (in Germany) need to go one with something rich in content like an info-flyer. TV is only form image, not for informations.
Editorial staff will get >> 100 press releases every day and every NGO or companie will cry "we are the best", "we are special".... and to buy professional service will not help to win one journalist to be interrested in the story wikipedia. Mass press releases will serve only information that all other newspapers will also get, copy&past will not make his work special. I agree the beginnig is hard, when nobody knows Wikipedia, why should a newspaper write about it?
Some short ideas about a good PR mix - do use
-TV -Radio (weltweit/bundesweit/überreional/lokal - öffendlich - privat) -daily Newspaper -weekly Newspaper -magazin -expert newspaper -expert magazin -book -study -reoort (e.g. Minister of Education) -online-magazin -webpage -webportale (Yahoo) -newsgroups -internet forum (Heise, Slashdot...) -placard -poster -flyer -sticker -T-shirt, Wikipedia-coffee-cup -personal recommendation -letter -info evening -lecture (at conference,fair)
Of course, as Wikipedia gets bigger and has name recognition already, a press release can be more powerful.
But it also depents on personal realation ships to Journalist and growing PR skills of every aktive Wikipedianer.
-Try to call Newspapers/TV/Radio-stations personal, -try to speak with one journalist who would care about the topic Wikipedia -prepare such a call, with good arguments about Wikipedia -read the newspapers and look for similar topics and try to get in contact with these Journalist -Go in praxis to talk about wikipedia, at your university, in your town.... - reflect your takls - share bad experiances with other wikipedianers and ideas how to make it better next time.
This field is quite complex and this is only a short draft of my ideas and only a quick respond to this topic (excuse my draft-english *g*)
It should be only a "stimulation" to see PR more integrated, more than just a press release and to start thinking about a PR strategy.
My request for: Robert Michel wrote:
-We need good a tutorial "HowTo ask effective for the use of pictures with the condition of the GNU-FDL" -well written examples for letters to potential contributors -and a culture to celebrate every successfuly "acquisition".
is only a part of a common cultur/skills to make good PR. This HowTo has to be written in the context of a PR strategie.
Some very populare, succsessful NGOs could be examples for PR-work: e.g. Greenpeace & Amnesty International.
Greetings with a new personal slogan: "Wikipedia - gemeinsam werden wir besser" "Wikipedia - together we will become better"
rob
PS: Beside of en,de,ja,hk we should take care about smaller languages projects to support them in making good PR for their projects.