Reiki Roundup: Press releases

There haven't been many of the classic reporter-gets-a-Reiki-session stories out there lately, but there have been plenty of press releases. So this week, we do a roundup of those, which might provide some inspiration to professional Reiki practitioners and teachers who'd like to get the word out to potential clients and students without paying for advertising. Because a press release is part of public relations, i.e., free advertising.

Here in New York City, where I practice, sending out a press release wouldn't have the same impact as it would in a smaller city. There are millions of people here, so The New York Times and the Daily News don't publish articles announcing that a practitioner has just set up a new office or received an advanced training certificate. But the smaller the town, the more likely it is that the hometown newspaper might print not only your announcement, but your photo as well.

Sometimes the press release doesn't get published at all, but it catches the attention of an editor or reporter who uses it as the jumping-off point for a story. You may get a call from a reporter who wants to try a Reiki session -- you might even suggest that as an angle. Or you could announce an upcoming class or public talk with a press release.

These days press releases can make their way to publication the way this one did. It was posted as a reader-submitted blog item at a local New Jersey newspaper's web site, complete with headline: "Learn about Reiki and observe a demonstration."

Here's a practitioner in Caboolture, Queensland, Australia, who published her own announcement of upcoming classes on her local newspaper's web site.

Sometimes all you get is a paragraph in a community events listing. Sometimes that's enough.

Reiki practitioners will participate in this "art and performance event," and the San Francisco Chronicle article about it probably began as a press release.

In Camden, Maine, we find a press release written by a pro, and it shows.

Based on that sampling, we recommend that if you do send out a press release yourself, be sure to mention the city where you practice, and possible the state, province, or country as well, because sometimes it's difficult to identify where these community news web sites are located geographically.