Being a young professional, it is important to brand yourself as an informed source in your chosen field. I think this is important for a variety of reasons but one of the most important is to lend credibility to the work that you do. A way that top executives get this credibility is by hiring a PR person that will get them in front of the media or by subscribing to services that list sources that reporters are looking for as they write stories. Both of these options are probably out of the price range of most young professionals but I have found a great service at my favorite price, free.
Help a Reporter Out is the brainchild of Peter Shankman. Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. Help A Reporter (www.helpareporter.com) connects journalists with the sources they require using a social media platform. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is already over 14,000 members and growing, and has a growing stable of national journalists using the service on a daily basis.

If you are looking for an effective way to get your name or your organization's name out to a national audience, check out this option. Peter is a great guy that manages this service at no cost because he believes good Karma follows those that help each other out.