ReadWriteWeb

It's an attention economy, and the good people at Jones-Dilworth have built a tool that will help you get some. Totem launches today, a free app that helps anyone build a great press page. Whether you're a giant company, a start-up, or even a solo act, you shouldn't have to think too hard about a press page. For that matter, neither should I.

A press page is a place for you to put all the info a reporter needs about you, your company, your product and your news. It's not the whole story; it's just the colorful details. But you'd be amazed at how hard it is to find that stuff sometimes. Jones-Dilworth has a wealth of experience, it has worked with reporters, and Totem reflects all the right priorities. If you want to make a good impression on the press, this is the way to go.

One of the things that I'm often asked by developers at conferences is "how do I get coverage for my project?" I had that conversation with several people at Monktoberfest, and thought it might make for a good talk at Monki Gras.

Specifically, the talk was for individual developers, small groups working on open source projects or startups (to a point). It's not meant for people looking to grab press coverage for a business, but for developers largely interested in finding more users and developers for their project.

We love the NBC cult-hit Parks & Recreation which features Rob Lowe as a hyper-healthy and super-enthusiastic city manager, so we're always a little concerned when we hear rumors that the show may get canceled.

So, against that backdrop we got a little suspicious when Lowe, just ahead of a Thursday appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show and the Saturday premiere of a Lifetime movie he's starring in, tweeted that Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was going to retire after missing the entire 2011 season.

It's no exaggeration to say that we each receive hundreds of pitches every week at ReadWriteWeb. Companies, through their PR and marketing folks, go to great lengths to get a little "free" press for their products. The problem is, most of them are doing it wrong. That probably includes your company, unfortunately. The good news is, it's really not that hard to get it right. Just ask Mike Maney.

Publix, a grocery chain based in Florida and typically found along the East Coast, seems to be doing something right with their new social strategy. According to the Tampa Tribune they were receiving 100 friends per minute at launch. That was only a few weeks ago and they're now pushing 18,000 fans and are already seeing considerable conversations on their page.

According to the Daily Beast, Facebook has hired public relations firm Burson-Marsteller to pitch negative stories about Google to media outlets.

The campaign was uncovered on May 3, when blogger Chris Soghoian posted emails he had received from BM's John Mercurio. "I wanted to gauge your interest in authoring an op-ed this week for a top-tier media outlet on an important issue that I know you're following closely," Mercurio wrote.

Here at ReadWriteWeb, like other major blogs, we get a ton of email tips everyday from entrepreneurs, PR companies and the general public suggesting story ideas and requesting product reviews.

Surprisingly, considering the size of our site and the pervasiveness of spam in general, most of these emails are quite interesting and useful. Some of them, however, appear to be blasted out to a list of seemingly random blogs with little forethought, or worse, a political screed written in all caps.

If there's one thing every entrepreneur realizes before launching a new venture, it's that one of the most important steps toward success is getting your name out there. If you're new to the startup game and don't have a reputation upon which to announce a new company, public relations (PR) is likely at the forefront of your mind as you build your startup. Most startups, however, are looking to penny-pinch in any way they can in order to bootstrap their businesses, so how can you get the word out on a budget? Here are a few tips.

Can a startup transform media relations? That's the question being asked by NewsBasis, a new site launched this week which aims to connect journalists with sources, or rather, PR agencies, companies, non-profits and consultants, to be specific.

However, the focus is primarily on connecting the PR industry with journalists who want to hear about their clients' products and services. This relationship, as it stands today, is strained. PR companies often adopt the "spray-and-pray" approach to getting their messages out - that is, mass emails to large distribution lists of which only a handful of recipients may be genuinely interested in the news.

Wouldn't it be better to connect those PR folks directly to the writers receptive to the news without annoying hundreds of others in the process?

Media relations starts with understanding the basics and finding the right leads. Next, you want to craft a powerful enough message that will make the media want to cover you.

You're not newsworthy if only you think the story idea is awesome. As someone managing media relations, you're subject to the needs and wants of journalists, who in turn are subject to the needs and wants of their readers; by proxy you're subject to the readers who'll be seeing your story.