Ed Note: This article was written by Push ROI’s Mason Pelt, and first published in Social Media Week on March 31, 2017 prior to the Adweek acquisition. Need some tools and tricks to promote your brand with PR? Here are some of the methods I’ve used to be more successful with PR strategy, execution, and results. 1. Direct Outreach Beats A Press Release If you’re after traditional media attention, you’ve probably considered publishing a press release. For branding, press releases offer value. But I’ve never seen significant media coverage result solely from a wire service. If you want coverage, nothing will beat personalized pitches to relevant journalists. Google news and tools like Muck Rack will help you find who’s interested in stories like yours. Once you have a list of people to contact. Send each person a short, to the point message explaining why your story is relevant to their audience. Check out this article how to get press for more detailed ways of finding and contacting journalists. 2. Use the tool, “Help A Reporter Out” Help A Reporter Out – HARO is a helpful free tool that reverses the pitching process. Instead of pitching a story to journalists; HARO gives you a list of journalists working on stories. As a writer, this tool makes my life easier. Instead of calling around for sources to quote, I send HARO a description of the source I need, and the request goes out to their email list. These topic sorted requests are sent three times a day. Example – A reporter…6 Tricks PR Professionals Use to Get Press