I once heard a quote, “It's not what you know it's who you know” and it could not be more true than in the arena of online publicity. Online publicity is more a matter of building profitable relationships, than bombarding strangers with media releases.

To start building your medial relations for online publicity, begin by compiling a list of contacts. You will need to shorten the list that you have by compiling into multiple categories. These categories will be things like charitable donations, research and development, etc. There are places like Gebbie Press that have searchable databases that will allow you to get your list started.

Develop a simplistic but effective PR plan. This does not need to be complex and should consist of just a few things.

• Objective – Identify your goals and the overall accomplishments you wish to achieve for your business.

• Positioning -- Decide on how you want to be perceived by the audience you are targeting.

• Key Messages – Decide on the most important facts about your business and which ones you want to convey to your audience.

Know what you are talking about before you speak to PR professionals. If you know your goals and aims beforehand, you will be better prepared when you are speaking to those who know what they're doing in this field. Do not waste people's time. Make anything that you send to reporters, editors and publications newsworthy. Sending useless information to these people will get you listed but it will be on the short list and you will not want to be there. If you are sponsoring a charity ball or an event similar to that, don't bother the tech magazines with it. That is a fast one way trip the short list. You want to target your efforts for them to be most effective.

Establish relationships with key journalists. Sometimes getting one item printed is better than 10 of them trashed. In other words, one exclusive interview in print is better than sending that blast email and getting all of them deleted versus printed. Approach one or two good journalists with your idea for a story and make it worth their while offer them an exclusive everyone loves a good scope.

Send unique materials. Sometimes it is smart to send your media relations list something other than the standard release or media alert. Members of the media are inundated with run-of-the-mill stuff–from minor announcements to ho-hum news. Some media outlets get thousands of releases every day.

Take the time to follow up. Entrepreneurs new to publicity often overlook the fact that media relations is about building “relationships” with members of the media. It's not enough to blast materials to media outlets in the hope they'll gain attention. It's vital to tailor stories appropriately, send top-notch materials and then follow up by phone or e-mail.

The best thing that can happen in your follow-up call with a journalist is that you'll spark an interest in learning more about you, your company or its products and services. So be prepared to send a full media kit or any supporting materials the media outlet may require.