Don’t Use Expiring Downloads for Hi-Res Photos & Videos

We recently had a PR firm provide hi-res photos for us. They uploaded them especially for us. We followed the link a week later to download them only to find an expiration notice.

We still would like to cover those products. But, we have to go back and ask the PR firm to upload the files again. And we tend to get busy covering the thousands of other companies. Note that it is now 5 months later and the new products are being released for the next trade show. So, it’s best to make sure the files are available whenever the editor needs them. If so, we would have covered these products 5 months ago.

Keep files in the cloud until that PR campaign is over. You’re wasting your time and the editor’s if you have to load files each time an editor requests them.

If you’re doing this to save money because storage is expensive, find a new service. There are plenty with reasonable pricing. And, they will provide tracking and statistics on each file so you can report it to your client if you like. If you keep loading the files, the tracking will only be for that upload. So to figure total usage on a photo or campaign, you would have to manually keep a running total. That’s not using the power of the software.

Do Not Require Additional Approval
We recently had a major company grant us press credentials for their Press Center. But once you login, they also require you to get approval for everything you use from the Press Center each time you want to use it. And, it can only be used explicitly for that one approved editorial piece. On top of that, the permission to download the photos expires within a few days.

So, they are doing absolutely everything they can to make sure they don’t get coverage. Meanwhile, we’ve covered all of their competition, have taken them off of our list for coverage and have asked them to remove us from their press distribution list.