Hometown Press Releases Make You a News Story

The O&P field is riding a wave of recent publicity, thanks to technological advancements in prosthetics, the return of Iraq veterans and the growing number of diabetic amputees. Due to these breaking stories, the media is more interested than ever in the professionals and products in O&P.

AOPA now offers a member benefit, called the hometown press release, to all members who are interested in having their name connected to O&P’s increasing visibility.

AOPA introduced this feature at the 2007 National Assembly through a standard press release form, to which attendees could add personalized information. AOPA sent completed forms to media outlets in the attendee’s hometown.

Assembly attendees could thus alert their local newspapers of their attendance and the continuing education credits they received. This provided their newspapers with a possible human interest story highlighting the attendees’ commitment to advancing their knowledge and the benefit that would bring to their patients.

Similar press releases were also made available for the AOPA Coding & Billing Seminar and the Documentation Seminar in Indianapolis in October.

Let those in your local community hear what you are doing for them!  Take advantage of AOPA’s new benefit. If you would like to forge relationships with the newspapers in your town, AOPA has a basic form to which you can add your name and credentials and take to local media outlets. If you prefer, you can e-mail the form back and have AOPA send out the release for you.

You don’t even need to send a press release for a specific event. If you’d like to get on the bandwagon for media advisories, more general notices that give story ideas to reporters, we can attach your name to ongoing O&P tie-ins like World Diabetes Day and Veterans Day.

For more information, or to obtain and customize your own hometown press release, contact Steven Rybicki at srybicki@AOPAnet.org or (571) 431-0835.