Anyone use a public relations firm? Do things like press releases, distribute them, create media kits, do product launches, etc?

Affinity have used www.independentmktg.com in the past.

For targeted press release distribution we used

www.urlwire.com (http://www.urlwire.com)

Did either of those bring results??

I think press releases have limited value. URLwire is a targetted approach - kind of a trusted feed to several hundred on-topic editors. The "junk mail" type releases I think have far less value.

The response can take time - magazines have a long leadtime to print. We got a lot of online news exposure for a few days - but again limited value. We just recently happened upon a write up in smartcomputing - there may have been others that we don't know about.

So, the results are dubious

I don't know what the results were for Affinity's PR company and I'm sure not all of it is measurable.

I do remember picking up the Press info pack for in a media center and it was very nice and professional. You need someone who has experience in putting those together and distribute them. Since I picked it up you could say that was a result for them.

As for Press Releases, it creates an awareness of the company and the objective would be to get the story written about by a journalist. We submit press releases and info packs to magazines frequently and have consequently been featured in them a few months later.

When magazine features are read by people it reinforces the brand and it could be what makes one company stand out from another and lead to more business eventually. It's very dificult to put a direct value to.