Website-to-Park Public Relations Advice

[Ccron10]

Right now my fansite/website, which covers news for parks in Pennsylvania (but our fanbase has been mainly for Hersheypark lately), has been around for almost a year and a half. Right now we currently have 83 members, have been featured in our local newspaper, and somehow were given the puzzle to start Hershey's new viral marketing campaign.

With what has happened, I have a few questions about PR and what to expect.

 

My first question is, how can a website like mine be considered a member of the press?

 

Second, what are the do's and don'ts?

 

I know Robb, might be able to answer this, but if anyone else has experience in this department, don't hesitate to post it.

[AllenA07]

I can give a little bit of advice on this subject. When I was younger I actually ran two separate sites, Rollercoasterz.com and SFMMGuide.com. I had gained some notice from various parks, and several of them would send me their press releases and invite me to media events. The things that I can tell you is that it takes a lot of time before parks began to notice my site. To be honest I got lucky to some degree. When SFMM built X, Deja Vu, and Goliath Jr. they sent out a handful of season pass flyers that announced the new rides. The problem was that some of these flyers apparently went out early. I got one, scanned it, and posted it online, which broke the news on the three coasters. Within a few days of that the park got in touch with me and basically agreed that they would begin inviting me to things and including me as a member of the media as long as I didn't post things early like that again. That event got a lot of people to my site and very quickly other parks began to notice my site and include me in their events. So in my case frankly there was a little bit of luck involved.

 

If you're just starting a website don't expect that parks are going to take notice or care over night. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of work. I had run my sites for the better part of 2-3 years before a park even glanced in my direction. If I could give some advice, I think it would be much easier to focus on a single park, or even possibly a region rather than the industry as a whole. Good luck with it!

[robbalvey]

I would start by not asking another site, but ask the parks. If you want a direct answer on how to get on the parks PR invite lists, go to the source!

 

I can tell you that TPR didn't get on those lists until we were well established. Remember that this site was started in 1996 and I want to say it was probably around 2001 when we started getting invited to non-local park press events on our own accord.

 

So your recipe for success just may be one part persistence, one part patience, and one huge part "presence."

 

--Robb

[Sir Clinksalot]

Also, let them know that you are a representative of the site, have links to updates/articles that have to do with their parks and that show how many hits the articles/updates get. I also suggest letting them know that you aren't looking for any "freebies", that you already have a pass and are covering the park on your own (which points back to the previous updates).

 

Don't be annoying about it when you are contacting the park. If they say no that means no. I would wait another 8-12 months before requesting again. It's quite possible they may contact you before that, but being annoying about it isn't going to help.