4 easy ways to find PR & Outreach opportunities

I hear a lot of SEOs talking about how Outreach has become so much more difficult over the past few years and that it’s so hard to build natural links now and I really don’t agree with this – yes, the tactics SEOs need to be using has changed but there are still masses of opportunities out there if you use the right tools and look in the right places. So, here are my top four ways to find quality, natural PR and Outreach opportunities:

1. #Journorequest

A wealth of opportunities can be found on Twitter if you know the right hashtags to look out for. #Journorequest is one of my personal favourites and has helped me to find some great opportunities, I always have this open on my Tweetdeck to look out for new opportunities.

Other hashtags to look out for are #PRrequest and #bloggerrequest. This means that all you have to do is monitor the hashtag and respond in a timely way and you’ve got instant coverage and potential links in your hands.

2. ResponseSource

ResonseSource is a paid-for service by DWPub which allows you to subscribe to various categories and then receive journalist and blogger requests straight to your inbox. This effectively takes half your job away again, as rather than trying to think of opportunities or stories yourself, you’re getting the opportunities delivered to you straight from the journalist or blogger, all you have to do is respond.

3. Live blogs

Live blogs are a great source of newsjacking opportunities, you’ll find that pretty much all national news sources will have a live blog for any major event e.g. the Budget announcement, World Cup etc.

Again, such an easy opportunity as all you have to do is line up a suitable expert and you’ve got a multitude of comment opportunities lined up. We keep a calendar of big events that have live blogs so that we can plan in advance for comment opportunities to ensure we have an expert on hand.

4. Fresh Web Explorer/Google News

A great way to find people already talking about either your campaign or a relevant topic is through the likes of Fresh Web Explorer or Google News. If you have a relevant quote/graphic/data from your client on a topic currently being covered in the news you can simply search by keywords in FWE or Google News to find who’s already covered it and approach them with your added-value content.

Aside from ResponseSource and FWE, all of the above are free ways in which to source quality opportunities and most importantly completely natural opportunities producing links that don’t just look natural but are natural.

So no more excuses please about how hard it is so source natural opportunities, it really is easy if you’re looking in the right places.