SourceYourCity Makes it Easier for Start-Ups to Secure Local News Coverage
17th January 2012 · 1 Comment
A Nashville-based start-up that connects reporters with expert sources for local news stories recently launched in Austin as its second market.
SourceYourCity solves a duel pain for reporters seeking sources for their stories and start-ups seeking news coverage to help market their product or service.
On the media side, shrinking budgets and staff reductions have forced reporters to cover more with less. To help cope with these rising demands, SourceYourCity enables reporters to secure the most qualified local source in a fraction of the time. How Exactly Does It Work?
A source is simply the person being interviewed or quoted in a news story. When a request made by a local reporter for a relevant source (i.e. source request) is posted through the service, it triggers a real-time email notification to expert subscribers.
From there, they can respond directly to the reporter or share the request with an applicable network contact.While experts are eligible to see all source requests, reporters only see their own. What Does This Mean For Start-Ups? Start-ups want news coverage but don’t always know who to contact or where to start. If they successfully get past this barrier and try to build a relationship with an appropriate reporter, emails often go unreturned and calls ignored. Unless you have “hard news” to share (i.e. company launch, expansion or fundraising announcement), the attention of a reporter can be very difficult to secure.
Through SourceYourCity, local startups can keep a consistent pulse on the sourcing needs of local reporters. This benefits startup founders in three ways:
- Secure News Mentions: Users can offer their own expertise when an opportunity relevant to their industry or company is posted through the service, resulting in ongoing news mentions for their company or brand outside of traditional press release announcements.
- Build Media Relationships: By recommending relevant sources to the requesting reporter, users are able to build relationships through a value-added exchange versus a cold call or email.
- Strengthen Professional Network: Users can also leverage source-request emails as a new networking touch point by sharing with contacts in their personal or professional networks.
Notable competitors include Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and ProfNet. When asked how SourceYourCity differs from these national services, the founder, Neely Burks says, “It’s really all about relevancy. National services like HARO offer media the chance to cast an extremely wide net when sourcing their content. However, a single national pipeline also forces experts to review countless opportunities and media to cull through hundreds of responses—creating more work and inconsistent results for both users.
SourceYourCity offers more targeted communications. This is accomplished by delivering relevant opportunities to experts based on both topic and location, while giving reporters access to a targeted professional community that delivers better source referrals in a manageable volume.”
This January marks the one-year anniversary for SourceYourCity’s Nashville beta. In that time, approximately 700 local businesses have signed up to help vet the more than 160 local source requests that have published through the service. In Austin, SourceYourCity continues to gain traction to help meet the needs of local reporters as well as national media who seek to tap directly into the Texas market.
While free for all users in beta, PR subscribers will eventually help monetize the service. SourceYourCity will always maintain free access for expert users.
Burks notes that despite the rising importance of social media marketing, a company mention via a traditional media outlet still serves as the most valuable form of marketing exposure. “This is because unlike advertising, people trust what they read in the news as a third-party endorsement,” she says.
Through news mentions, exposure to the brand message occurs when the reader is already opted-into or values the information. For this reason, media relations should be a critical ingredient in the marketing recipe for any start-up.”
Tags: HARO, Media Relationships, News Mentions, SourceYourCity, Strengthen Professional Network
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