The Power of Press Releases in Today’s AI-Driven Media Landscape With Mickie Kennedy

October 14, 2025

In this episode of The Same Day Podcast, Yoni Schmidt sits down with Mickie Kennedy, Founder of eReleases, to discuss the power of press releases in today’s AI-driven media landscape. They explore how to use PR to boost credibility, why earned media still matters, and how AI tools can support (but not replace) strong storytelling. Mickie also gives advice on creating quotes and campaigns that get journalists’ attention.

The Power of Press Releases in Today’s AI-Driven Media Landscape With Mickie Kennedy

Mickie Kennedy

Mickie Kennedy is the Founder of eReleases, the premier press release distribution platform that helps small businesses, entrepreneurs, and growing companies gain national media exposure without breaking the bank. Since launching eReleases in 1998, Mickie has helped thousands of clients get featured in major outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, and Good Morning America, with the company distributing over 10,000 press releases annually and saving customers up to 75% compared to traditional newswires.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • [02:13] Mickie Kennedy explains how AI can help and hurt your press release strategy
  • [04:20] How local trends can grab national media attention
  • [06:18] The secrets to writing headlines and quotes journalists love
  • [12:33] How press releases influence AI rankings and online authority
  • [19:10] Why consistent PR campaigns outperform one-off press releases
  • [34:31] How bold predictions and contrarian insights make you stand out

In this episode…

Press releases have long been a powerful way for businesses to share their stories, but in today’s fast-changing media landscape, are they still effective? With AI reshaping how information is consumed and ranked, can companies still rely on press releases to build authority and credibility?

According to Mickie Kennedy, a seasoned PR expert with decades of experience helping businesses get national media coverage, press releases remain a vital tool when done strategically. He explains that while most releases fail to generate earned media, combining strong data, powerful quotes, and timely angles dramatically increases success. He highlights how AI now gives press releases surprising visibility by prioritizing recency and credibility, while also allowing smaller businesses to appear alongside major outlets. The real key, Mickie stresses, is blending human creativity with AI’s efficiency to craft releases that stand out, build trust, and drive lasting growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments

  • “When it comes to PR, 97% of press releases that get issued to the media do not generate earned media.”
  • “AI is not great at distinguishing what’s a really newsworthy angle or hook. That’s where the human element is really needed.”
  • “If you have a contrarian viewpoint, saying that very powerfully will really stand out and make you look like someone with conviction.”
  • “Amazing quotes use active verbs, say something succinctly or distinctive, and can’t be paraphrased without losing their impact.”
  • “Anything you can say that’s very thoughtful or highlights industry blind spots can help you dominate the media conversation.”

Action Steps

  1. Leverage unique local data for press releases: Gather and analyze data specific to your market, such as trends in rent, property turnover, or consolidation among property management companies, and highlight these insights in your press releases.
  2. Create case studies showcasing transformations: Document and promote before-and-after stories, like successful property turnarounds or value creation for owners, supported by compelling quotes and financial outcomes.
  3. Use AI strategically in crafting press releases: Let AI help with writing and organizing your release, but be sure to determine the newsworthy angle and draft strong, authentic quotes yourself.
  4. Issue press releases consistently as part of a campaign: Develop a cadence of at least 6-8 releases over several months, each highlighting a different angle, data point, or newsworthy event.
  5. Offer thoughtful industry predictions and contrarian viewpoints: Proactively share industry forecasts, unique insights, or challenge prevailing narratives with well-supported opinions.

Sponsor for this episode…

Keyrenter Property Management:

This episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management.

Keyrenter Property Management is a full-service property management company that helps clients buy, renovate, and operate real estate assets.

The team helps clients build wealth while taking the headache out of property management.

That’s why, no matter what rental you have — single-family homes, condos, townhomes, or apartments — they can give you the management solutions you need. 
To learn more about their services, go to https://keyrenterpmc.com/ or send them an email at [email protected].

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:04

Welcome to The Same Day Podcast, where we discuss driving incremental business growth and other topics related to real estate, property management and entrepreneurship. Now to the show at hand.

Yoni Schmidt 00:20

Hi there. Yoni Schmidt here hosting today’s episode of The Same Day Podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management. At Keyrenter Property Management, we help our investors and clients. Whether you have single family residential homes, condos, townhouses, apartments, buy, renovate and manage those assets, go to keyrenterpmc.com or email us at [email protected]. Some of our past guests include Monica Gilroy, an attorney that specializes in fair housing laws. Lindsay Davis, the CEO of Spartan Invest. Mark Miller, CEO of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors, and many more. Today I’m excited to welcome Mickie Kennedy, the Founder of eReleases, the premiere press release distribution platform designed for small businesses, entrepreneurs and growing companies that want national exposure without breaking the bank. Since launching in 1998, Mickie has helped thousands of businesses get featured in major outlets like The New York Times, Forbes, Good Morning America, and more. Armed with an MFA in creative writing and a sharp understanding of how media works, Mickie’s mission is to help businesses tell their story and reach a broader audience through the power of strategic PR. He’s an expert on how press releases can fuel growth, increase investor confidence, drive SEO, and humanize your brand all in today’s age of AI. Welcome to the show, Mickie, and thank you for being here.

Mickie Kennedy 01:52

Thanks for having me.

Yoni Schmidt 01:54

Well, I know it’s early. So I appreciate you hopping on so early here. but let’s just get started with the basics a little bit. What exactly is a press release today, and how has its role evolved in the age of digital media and artificial intelligence?

Mickie Kennedy 02:13

So a press release is just an announcement to the media. It’s usually written in the third person. You might have a quote where you write something in the first person, and it’s basically sort of announcing something that you feel is newsworthy, that you hope the media will turn into an article. And, you know, that is the goal of a press release, is to have it turned into earned media, where journalists transforms it. And, you know, there are other ways to to pitch the media.

Of course, there’s email pitches where you don’t have to write out entire press release. It’s just, here’s the meat of the of what we’re we have that’s going on that we believe is newsworthy. And that works extremely well with local media so that you don’t necessarily have to write entire press release. And I do think that AI is a great place to help you write, because AI is pretty good at writing and organizing and following a template. The areas that I caution people is, you know, don’t let AI choose what to write about. 

 When it comes to PR, 97% of press releases that get issued to the media do not generate earned media. And so AI has been trained on the bulk of press releases that are out there. And it will make the same mistake most people do is they’ll see the releases that your competitors do that don’t generate earned media, and it’ll write those and it’ll read well, but it’s very unlikely that that will generate earned media for you. So I say always approach AI as like knowing exactly what you want it to write about, going into it, what the subject is and how that subject is newsworthy, and then use it for the actual writing and organization and supporting that.

Yoni Schmidt 03:54

Yeah. So, you know, kind of taking what you just said and applying it to our industry and selfishly asking about, you know, the world of real estate and property management. You know, many of which are, you know, maybe local or regional. How could a press release help them, you know, on a national scale, garner attention and grow their authority within their markets? And why would they even want to do it?

Mickie Kennedy 04:20

So I think that, you know, getting local media is really great for, you know, property management companies and people in the real estate industry because it, it it, you know, makes you elevates you in the, in the community. And more people know about you and they see you in print and they feel like this person’s got it going on. You know, the type of things that work in local media can also play out in national media data numbers, things like that. You know, trends in one market could potentially be something that happens nationwide. So, you know, national media does pay attention to that, and even national publications and trade journals and things like that will report on things that are happening in local markets.

And so some of the areas that I think that where people can tap into being really newsworthy is getting some data around your market, in your community. There are a lot of tools for assembling data. There’s a lot of products that are out there. So, you know, what are, you know, sales looking like, what is, you know, time on the market looking like, you know, what is, you know, for property management companies, how many, you know, properties under management do does the average property management company in your area have. That could also be a sign of consolidation, where all of a sudden five years ago that number was like the average was like, you know, 47 properties under management. 

 And today it’s like 280. So it tells you there’s probably been consolidation. And the smaller property management companies have probably been either grown or more likely, acquired or partnered with others. And so those are the types of things that play really well locally and potentially, you know, could be a signal that the national media would want to say, hey, look what’s happening here. Is this a sign that’s happening elsewhere? 

 And you can sort of reinforce that nationally by having quotes in your press release where you’re putting the local numbers there, but then you make a statement where you feel like we’re beginning to see this all across. Let’s say this is a city in California, and we believe that this is going to move further east as many things in the real estate market do you know or have done in the past. And so that’s a way where you’ve sort of prepared the quote for a national media and to sort of get it out to a national market, you know, the types of things that, you know, potentially can be newsworthy with real estate. It varies. You know, just having a listing in and of itself is not newsworthy. 

 Worthy. But you have a historical listing. You know, maybe there’s a property that was owned by, you know, a mayor 80 years ago and has a lot of historical ties to the community and roots. That is something that the local media would really find interesting if it’s someone of national significance. You know, when Betty White’s property sold a while back, that got national attention. 

 Those are also things that are suitable for getting out to the media. But, you know, there’s also just the stuff that, you know, I think that the local market, as well as your trade publications would find interesting, you know, like, you know, new team hires, team expansions, consolidation, you know, you’ve you’ve acquired or opened a new office. Those are the types of standard types of things that we see. And those can work really well. I always tell people to make sure you have a really engaging title or headline, and then also make sure your quote really sings, because that’s what I call a soft story. 

 And the media will use a soft story, but you know, the things that generally increase its likelihood is an amazing quote. And so if a journalist says, I have two articles here, you know, equally not very newsworthy, they know that if they write a good article for each, but one has an amazing quote, it’s going to make that article stand up even more. And when I say amazing quote, you know, what do I mean? You know, it could be like, you know, being creative, having a writing flourish, you know, you got a wordsmith, Smith on duty. But more likely than not, it just means using really active verbs, saying something very succinctly or distinctive. 

 If you have a a contrarian viewpoint, saying that very, you know, powerfully will really stand out and really make you look like, wow, this is someone who’s saying something with conviction counter to what a lot of people in the industry are saying. But, you know, even if it’s not contrarian, having those active verbs saying it very succinctly. If a journalist was to paraphrase that to just the average sentence, there’d be a loss for what you originally wrote or spoke in a quote. And that’s what we’re going for with an amazing quote.

Yoni Schmidt 09:09

Yeah. So you answer, you answer my question about what story is new in your experience. You know, what are some creative ways that property managers or brokers or real estate individuals and professionals can use for press releases, aside for or beyond just announcing new hires, new listings, potentially historical listings, merger acquisitions and openings of new offices in from from your I guess experience case studies.

Mickie Kennedy 09:40

So if you’re a property management company and you took maybe not a distressed property, but one tending towards that, and over a four year period you turned it around. All the properties are great there, all the appliances, everything has just been changed out and is is looking really on point. That makes an amazing case study because you can then talk about things that also have improved economically, because with a turnaround like that, the rents are probably considerably higher. Occupancy is probably really amazing. So these are all things that build a really great use case study.

And you know, having the maybe the property owner give a quote by saying, hey, we’ve always avoided what we felt was the high price of property management, but today we’re making 20% or 15% more money than we did before we handed this off. And the properties have never looked better. You know, the the the tenants have never complained less and been happier with the actual product that we have. And so it can really make a use case study a for property management. But also here’s a turnaround and having the right partner in that to sort of manage that a little bit, you know, that that can go a long ways. 

 And so I think things like that are the type of things that, you know, if you go back to the days of reality TV, those are the kind of things that people like to want to watch. I like to say, oh, turnarounds, you know, here’s changes and here’s here’s before and here’s after those play very well with with almost anyone. Everyone loves before and afters. So before and after images, before and after financials. All of those things can really build something that really stands out. 

 And, you know, your role in that really speaks to the value that you bring to being a property manager and things along those lines.

Yoni Schmidt 11:34

Yeah. Interesting. That’s a good point. Let’s talk a little bit about artificial intelligence, which is, you know, a big topic in today’s world. You know, where does AI fit into press releases in 2025.

Is it helping? Is it hurting? How can professionals take advantage of these tools without losing their human voice? And specifically, one thing that I heard is, you know, about press releases, building authority for individuals and businesses. And, you know, when when people are searching for, you know, companies and they’re trying to understand, okay, who in our industry, in our industry, for example, you know, they go into ChatGPT and they say, you know, who is the best property manager in whatever market, right? 

 And then there’s a bunch of there’s a list and typically a map. And then they go to Google and they do like their own verification. How does PR fit into this.

Mickie Kennedy 12:33

So it’s no secret that AI is using press releases as content. One of the things that AI looks for is recency and of course, credibility. And it is giving press releases a lot of credibility as if they are actual, you know, New York Times, you know, places like that. So and that’s a place where you control the content because you write the press releases, all of our releases that you releases go out through PR Newswire and ChatGPT specifically. And a lot of the other AIS do lean heavily on the business wires and PR news wires, which are the largest two news wires in the US.

And so that’s a way where you get to craft the content and, you know, by issuing it, it’s a place that AI is as currently ranking stuff very highly as a result of that. I think it’s the more of the recency. And, you know, the authority may not be as strong as, say, a Wall Street Journal or New York Times, but the recency is hard to beat because if you’re doing a release on a regular basis, say, quarterly, you’re probably going to be up there a lot higher than competitors in the market who may have not been written about in the media for a year or something like that. And so that’s a way in which people are showing up there. I think another thing is, you know, with everyone leaning on AI to develop and write content, I don’t have a problem with it when it comes to press releases. 

 The press release isn’t designed to be the end product, it’s to actually have a journalist transform it. But the thing that, as I had mentioned before, is I find that AI is not great at distinguishing what’s a really newsworthy angle or hook. And so that’s the area that I feel the the human element is really needed. I also feel like the quote is another area that AI will give you a safe quote. You know, no one’s going to be fired from a quote with AI. 

 They used to say, no one’s ever fired for choosing AT&T as the phone company at the company, but they tend to pay 2 to 3 times what other carriers do, because it’s just a safe choice when it comes to press releases. You don’t want to save choice. So I would really go in there and work on, you know what, come to AI with the topic, come to AI playing with the quote. You can you can still lean on AI, but, you know, tell it the rules say I want a really powerful, strong quote active verb. Stand out. 

 Give me ten quotes on this topic and you know, maybe pick one and, you know, maybe massage it yourself or ask AI to to to sort of transform it. I always approach AI in a very time consuming way, and by time consuming, it’s like I spend up to 12 minutes to write a press release. With AI, most people just say, write a 600 word press release on this is my company and this is, you know, the topic and you’ll get a good press release. But good press releases are often aren’t enough. And so what I do is I will go to it and say, this is the topic I want you to write about. 

 This is my company. Do not write anything about. Don’t write a press release yet. Instead, give me a outline of how you would go about this press release, and then it’ll spit it out. Sometimes it will spit out a press release and I just ignore it and I go, I need an outline. 

 And then I get the outline and then I go, okay, give me ten headline versions for this press release. And then I look at that and I’m like, do any of these really stand out as an amazing headline? And if I’m not happy, I’ll say, hey, number four comes closest this one. Can you give me ten versions of that headline and again pay attention to I want it to be powerful. I want it to answer the who, what, when, where, how and why of this announcement. 

 As much as makes sense, you know, sometimes the the, the, the, the where and the whys aren’t necessary in the headline, but, you know, just sort of the tenets of journalism are sort of addressed there. And then I go, you know, give me three opening paragraphs for this headline that we’ve chosen in this topic. And, and then, you know, I look at that, you know, is the most important elements there in one of those headlines in those paragraphs. If so, pick that and say, okay, now let’s go to the second paragraph. And then say, you know, either that one or the third paragraph, you could say, you know, now write a third paragraph and include a quote by me. 

 Make sure it’s strong, active verbs and really stands out and has a lot of conviction. I want that quote to to be amazing. And then, you know, get 1 or 2 versions of that paragraph and then say, okay, give me just ten versions of the quote by itself. And then look at that, or any of those better than the quote that was in the paragraph, and then go write the next paragraph and then, you know, get to the final paragraph. Usually at the end of a press releases, there’s what they call the boilerplate, where it’s about the company. 

 And so, you know, those usually get recycled from press releases to the press release. If you have one, you can just insert it. If not, you can ask AI to write a boilerplate and then you’re done. And like I said, the longest I’ve ever taken is 12 minutes for one of these things. But the end result is a much stronger press release than if you just say, here’s my topic, write a 600 word press release on this. 

 It does it. It does it extremely fast. I like AI to slow down, like AI to give me options. I like to choose and pick and choose and put a little human choice in there and push back on AI. If I feel like I don’t really like something like, hey, this, this headline comes the closest, but I think it’s weak. 

 Give me, you know, five versions of that headline that are stronger. And so this approach, like I said, might cost you an extra ten minutes or so, but you’ll end up with a better product and a better press release. And when it comes to, you know, the statistics of press releases, it’s worth it to put a little more effort in there and to make sure that you’re really leading as newsworthy as possible and as strong as possible.

Yoni Schmidt 18:39

Yeah. Wonderful. Tell us, I guess, a little bit about your company. And what’s the benefit of someone who you know wants to, I guess, work with a company like yours to issue press releases? Does it happen on a regular basis?

Is it, you know, ad hoc? Is it, you know, something that happens once a year? I mean, I’m I’m really not familiar with it, so. Sure. Educate me and our listeners about your company and what the what the cadence and process looks like.

Mickie Kennedy 19:10

Sure. So with eReleases, we’re a la carte. All of our releases go out nationally through PR Newswire. I mentioned them before. They’re the largest and oldest press releases of newswires in the US.

It’s basically a duopoly with Business Wire and PR Newswire making up the bulk of newswires. If you look at publicly traded companies or large corporations that are private, they will use one or the other, and that’s pretty much it. There is an exception for some publicly traded companies who really don’t want journalists looking too carefully at them, and they’re just wanting to meet SEC disclosure. They generally use globenewswire, but if you’re looking to get articles written about you and earned media, you have to be in either PR Newswire, Business Wire, PR Newswire and Business Wire are expensive, you know, being basically a duopoly. It’s very costly. 

 PR Newswire charges over $1,700 for a 600 word press release. But through us, all of our releases go out nationally, and it is going to probably save you about 75% going through E releases, then going directly there. That being said, you know, we we do 10,000 releases a year and our client base are small businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, authors, and these are people that release PR Newswire sales team has zero interest in talking with. My average customer spends less than 2000 a year. Their salespeople are targeting people willing to spend 30 to 40,000 plus a year. 

 And so that’s why we’re such a good partnership. And we’ve been able to leverage a good discount because these aren’t customers they would normally get, who would be willing to pay $1,700. And then secondly, also, these are also people who are, you know, taking, you know, an opportunity and they’re getting it out there to the media that normally wouldn’t be over a wire. And so they’re not losing these customers. These are just this is just what I call found money that’s brought to them. 

 And so that’s what makes our partnership really. And we have large companies come to us, and we’re able to redirect them directly to a contact at PRNewswire to hopefully help get them set up at the company. And so, yeah, that that’s pretty much it. I do tell people, if you’re going to consider PR one press release is is not a magic bullet. And so I see a lot of people who say, I’ve done a press release in the past and it didn’t work, so I just crossed it off our, our marketing list. 

 And that’s, you know, like saying I did a Google ad campaign, I got one click. It didn’t turn into a customer. And so I gave up on Google. Google ads. I didn’t change the ad copy. 

 I didn’t let it have more impressions. I didn’t change the landing page. I didn’t do any of those things. And when it comes to PR, it’s sort of the same thing. You know, you want to make sure that you are doing strategic, as newsworthy press releases as possible and that you’re changing the angles and the hooks and, you know, and that you’re doing a series of them. 

 I always tell people, judge PR by a PR campaign, do 6 to 8 releases, and the cadence is up to you. If you feel like you have milestones and things that are happening that once a month is good, that’s great. My average customer probably does them every other month or quarterly. Like once. You know, 4 or 5 a year is more average. 

 So it might take you over a year to get to 6 to 8 releases to give it a proper test. That being said, you know, I’ve mentioned doing strategic and newsworthy press releases. I actually have a free one hour video masterclass where I go through those types of releases, and it’s available for free to anyone. It’s a great place for somebody who’s looking at PR, or maybe they’ve tried 1 or 2 releases and they’re, you know, they’re open to it. It’s at eReleases. 

 And again, completely free. And what I do is I look at the 3% of press releases that do get picked up, and I found lots of patterns there. And these are patterns that can be adapted for most any company. One is, you know, doing a industry survey or taking data points that exist in your market and compiling those together and getting those out there. And I sort of walk through the easy way to do that because people are always like, oh, I don’t know enough people to do a survey. 

 And the thing is, there are trade associations, independent and small ones in every industry. Everybody knows about the big ones. They put on the big conferences and stuff like that. But there are a lot of other ones that are out there in the marketplace, and those are great places to partner with because nobody knows about them. And so there tend to be tend to be small 700 members to 1500 members seems to be the sweet spot for a lot of those smaller and independent trade associations. 

 But I find that two thirds of the time when I approach them and say, hey, I have this link, SurveyMonkey link is usually what I give them. It’s a survey that I’m conducting. If you send this to your members, I’ll mention you in a press release going out nationally over PR Newswire in the coming weeks, and they know it’s a couple thousand dollars to send a press release over PR Newswire. And here they can get mentioned in it if they see that as an opportunity for them to get some media attention as well. And, you know, that’s you know, one of the things that I go into that anyone can adapt and do, but you can also take number from numbers from other things like trends in your community, sales. 

 You know, the I mentioned the average property management companies, you know, holdings as what what the amount of doors that they have and things like that. All of those can be metrics that you can put together that the media generally loves. Media generally loves numbers, but also they like a little bit of analysis with it. So once you have the numbers, you’re going to either lean on AI or or do the dance between yourself and AI to put some thoughtfulness in there. You don’t always have to agree with numbers like if you did a survey of, you know, your industry and found that, you know, 47% believe their business might be, you know, I guess at jeopardy because of AI, you could actually say, hey, I think that’s a bit alarmist, but I do think that those who don’t know how to use AI with their job are going to be at a huge disadvantage in the next few years. 

 And, you know, those are the types of thoughtful quotes that people generally like, where you put some analysis in it and didn’t agree with what the survey was saying, where For everybody’s like, wow, we’re panicking. We think our job is going to be replaced by AI in the next five years. And you’re like, slow down a little bit, but you know, you put your spin on it. I always tell people, focus on 1 or 2 of the questions from a survey, you know, build out a page on your website where you put all the questions and answers, and a good journalist will go there hunting for other stories, you know, like, hey, maybe they’re really aware of question seven, and they feel that could make a really great article. So those are really great things to have as well. 

 But there’s so many newsworthy ideas that are out there. If you just put a little bit of effort in it and you’re not doing the average release where you’re like, hey, we just added this member to our, our, our group or our property management company, where those tend to not get much pickup outside of like maybe the local newspaper and business newspaper or maybe at most a trade publication or something like that. So, you know, take your releases that you issue over wire, make them strategic as possible, and generally you’ll have some successes. And that being said, you know, if you follow my formula 6 to 8 releases, 2 or 3 of those will probably result in no earned media. That is very common. 

 You know, there are people who spend 40, $60,000 with a PR firm who does like ten, 12 releases, and none of them generate earned media. I think that is is ethically reprehensible, knowing what I know, because if you follow, you know, the strategic types of releases you’re going to have, probably at least half of them generate earned media. And in the case of the survey industry survey, I’ve never had that not generate at least four earned media articles. And on average, it’s usually 12 to 14 articles that results from that one survey. And yet these PR firms just spend people’s money and they don’t go the extra effort and put all this together and, you know, have them, you know, placed in this position of thought leadership by authoring a survey. 

 And yeah, it’s a little bit of work, but gosh, they’re charging outrageous amounts of money for that.

Yoni Schmidt 27:48

Yeah, I mean, that’s really interesting. We have a lot of data at our fingertips as property management companies, right? Rents and square footage and, you know, bedrooms, bathroom counts, days on market, you know, purchase price return on investment, you know, so putting together a survey I guess, and in some sort of data to back up a press releases, an interesting approach. So you’re saying it’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight.

You know, 6 to 8 press releases is what you’re looking at before you’re really going to start garnering some traction there. And of those 6 to 8, you know, 2 or 3 may not even some. What you’re saying is you’re calling it gain media, right?

Mickie Kennedy 28:35

Right. You won’t get. You may not get the earned media. You’ll probably still show up in AI searches with. So what you said in the press release will show up there.

You will get some syndication. So your release will be like on Yahoo Finance and stuff like that. But I always tell people who get really excited by that, that’s not the goal. We’re looking to get the actual articles written by journalists. And so even when you have non successes, there are things to get excited about because my clients love stuff like that. 

 Oh, we we’re showing up in, in an AI search where we, we talked about, you know the this recent award that we got where we were named the best this. And now when you do a search in AI, we we rank who’s the best for this. Well, they just won an award for best of this in Miami or wherever they’re located. And so that is a win. But I like the earned media. 

 I like when we get publications covering us, trade publications, local media, national media, that those are the wins and those are available. You just have to be a little bit strategic. And it is not as complicated as as you think it is. And so it is one of those things where for under probably $3,500, you can do 6 to 8 releases for releases. And, you know, lean on AI, take that master class that I talked about, and you could probably do circles around the PR firm that would have probably charged you 30 or $40,000 with just minimal effort and lean on AI and just put a little bit of thought into it and just be a little strategic.

Yoni Schmidt 30:10

Yeah. And so eReleases, do you have the or do you develop the relationships locally with those, you know, journalists who will organically then pick up the story and write something about it, or is that something that you guide that business?

Mickie Kennedy 30:28

I did that 20 years ago. And the truth is today it’s the Still newswire that everyone is using. I started with a media database of journalists that I developed a relationship with and grew it, and what I found was my emails just didn’t result in pickup the way it used to. And it got worse and worse. And anybody who pitches by email knows the problem.

Media databases are now commonplace for 10,000 20,000 a year. People get access to a database and, you know, the responsible company will say, hey, we’re a golf club manufacturer, just 1400 golf journalists in here. Let’s send it to them. And then more likely than not, they’re like, we spent $10,000 on this. You issued a press release through the media database. 

 Nothing happened either, you know, do 30 or 40 versions of that press release and send to them, or hey, you do. Who likes to play golf? Bankers, financial analysts. And all of a sudden they’re emailing banking journalists and financial analysts, journalists who will never in their lifetime cover a golf club. And they’re getting these press releases. 

 So off targeted emails, destroyed email relationships. For the most part, I think the PR firms that are still doing very well are those that either have, you know, you know, talked to people and they pick up the phone and call them and often have to walk them through how to find their email in their inbox because their inboxes are crazy. The great thing about the newswire is when a journalist logs in, they have a customized feed so they can look at their industry feed. They can also, like I said, customize it so that it excludes certain keywords. So maybe they don’t cover certain markets or you know, there’s certain keywords that they just don’t want to see press releases from. 

 Or they want to pin releases to the top that mention certain keywords. And so the newswire is the complete opposite of what their inbox is like. And it’s made it so that the newswire is almost like if you’re not using PR Newswire or Business Wire with your press release, very few journalists are really going to get the opportunity to see it. There are other wires that people have probably heard of like Reuters, Associated Press, UPI, there’s several others. None of them issue press releases on behalf of clients. 

 Everything they issue is written by them. They accept press releases. They go to PR Newswire, they go to Business Wire, and they pull releases down and they write articles. So the way they get paid is, you know, the Baltimore Sun, it’s 530 in the Supreme Court, makes a decision and he wants to go to dinner. He’s like, oh, we’ll just pull the story off the Associated Press. 

 We know it’ll be a quality article. They’ll cover it, write it. And when we put it in the Baltimore Sun, it says AP at the top, and they just pay a licensing fee to the Associated Press. And so a lot of people get confused because there are ways to pay a small fee and have a release put basically in a subcategory of a subcategory of subcategory on the AP that no one will ever see. You know, it’s it’s like so there’s a lot of misinformation out there. 

 Basically, I tell people you want to make sure if you’re looking for earned media, that it’s going to one of the two big newswires doesn’t have to go to both of them. And for the money, you can’t get a national release out to your trade publications, your local media cheaper than through eReleases.

Yoni Schmidt 34:03

Got it. Nice. So, you know, for professionals that are listening to us today, what’s one simple, I guess, powerful press release idea that, you know, they could act on right now? Maybe professionals in the property management industry, you know, that might help boost their visibility or their business aside for the stuff maybe that we we we we mentioned earlier. Right.

Any thoughts ideas industry forecasts.

Mickie Kennedy 34:31

We’re heading towards the end of the year predictions for the new year. Things like that do extremely well. People love thoughtful predictions. You know, the I think the the ones that do the best are where 80% aren’t surprises but 20% are. So you might say for things that are kind of like, wow, that’s thoughtful and that makes sense.

But then one that just sort of pulls the rug out from under them, you know? So dig in deep, you know, be creative. You know, maybe play with AI or, you know, AI is really good at brainstorming and say, what are some things that are, you know, fringe, maybe conspiracies in our industry right now. Things that people would be really surprised about and then say, now, where would be some data that might support 1 or 2 of these fringe ideas? And then you know that you want to you you never want to be the crazy uncle out there making predictions and forecasts. 

 So you want to have a little bit of analysis when you’re challenged. Why do you think possibly that? And you’re like, I’m not saying that’s a slam dunk, but here are some indicators that this could be like worst case scenario or this could be in play. And if you can support it, people love it. And one of the things about the media is there’s a trend. 

 A while back people called Newsjacking. It was like relevant for like three seconds where if something happened in your industry and it was sort of getting some momentum, you would join the conversation. Well, everyone does that now and so there’s no way to stand out. You know, there’s 1500 people competing for the same 40 articles that get written on it.

Yoni Schmidt 36:10

It’s I thought that’s what like X is for now or Twitter.

Mickie Kennedy 36:13

Exactly. Just just join the noise. But if you have a contrarian viewpoint on something, that’s where you can dominate, because the the media likes to be fair and balanced, despite what people say politically, they do like to show both sides of it, but many times they go to print with only one side because no one has raised their hand and said, hey, I want to be the person who says the contrarian viewpoint on this hot button issue. Then those 40 articles that get written, you stand the opportunity to be put in every single one of them, because you’re the only one that they they can put a quote in there and have something ready made to discuss it. And so, you know, that’s a great way to stand out.

You know, the predictions, the forecasts, but also are there contrarian viewpoints that you have on trending things. And if you get out there in front of it, you have a thoughtful, contrarian viewpoint that you can back up and not and seem professional. And, you know, also don’t alienate your customer base with any viewpoints. But if you if those opportunities arise, take advantage of them and get get your message out there.

Yoni Schmidt 37:16

Yeah. And so we’re saying that I’m going to ask you one final question as the expert here. Right. There’s a saying there’s no such thing as bad press. Is that true?

Mickie Kennedy 37:27

No, there’s a lot of bad press. There is. I mean, you only have to look at social media where people get dragged and companies get wrecked and, you know, bad things happen. I think what happens is.

Yoni Schmidt 37:39

If you’re the contrarian in the 40 articles, and then your prediction is blown up in, you know, because it’s all hot air, then don’t you look a little foolish?

Mickie Kennedy 37:48

I don’t think so. I think that 80% of your stuff was right on. You know, it was only the one French thing that made. But that one little French thing is the thing that stood out and is going to probably make people say, you won’t believe what this guy’s out there saying right now. And so I think that 80% of, you know, thoughtful things that aren’t surprises are going to ground you.

And and that one is going to make it seem okay. But again, you just want to make sure that it’s not something that is outlandish or make you seem silly. And you want it to be something that you can sort of back up with some little, you know, data points or observations that could lend to that. You know, there’s always people, you know, in the biggest bull markets, there are people saying, here are the signs that everything’s about to turn. And they get a lot of media attention because they’re out there. 

 Everybody’s saying everything’s on fire, and here are the contrarians. And so they get a lot of mileage out of it. And, you know, I think that they do stand to the likelihood that they’ll be dragged or things will go bad. Except, you know, I think I find that a lot of them, if you look at their quotes, they’ll immediately counter and say, I was wrong. And, you know, and and here is why I thought I was right. 

 And here is what actually happened. And they again, they’re putting thoughtful analysis in there. And people are like, okay, he had some valid concerns. But, you know, I think it’s it’s a way in which you can sort of meter yourself. You can’t always be the the person purpose of his crying wolf, though. 

 So you have to be, you know, careful about those types of things. But I do think that, you know, anything that you can say that’s either very thoughtful or in some cases you can bring up points and, and trends and possibilities that nobody in the media. Your media has talked about. And I call those industry blind spots where what you’re saying is probably true, but the media just hasn’t caught up yet to captured it. I’ve had that work really well for a lot of clients where they would go to a they said, I can’t wait to go to the conference because I’ve noticed this trend in my business and I’m wondering if other people have too. 

 And then they get there and they get the confirmation. Yeah, we’re seeing this. Our industry trade publications haven’t covered it. No one’s talking about it yet on social media. That is the point where you can issue a release, have some quotes about that type of thing, and dominate the media. 

 I’ve had one client who did that, and they were able to write six subsequent releases on that subject, and at the end of it, they got over 30 articles written on that industry. Wow.

Yoni Schmidt 40:28

Yeah. I mean, you have to really know your business well and astutely recognized those industry blind spots. So that’s interesting. I’ll start looking for those in our industry. Mickie, thank you so much for being here, educating me, our listeners, about releases, press releases, the importance of these, the fact that this is a process, you know, like SEO, nothing happens overnight and I truly appreciate it.

I was pretty interested in learning how all this plays in the world of AI, because I see the importance of press releases, especially in today’s age, because it builds credibility and authority. So thank you so much.

Mickie Kennedy 41:11

You’re very welcome.

Outro 41:15

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