The best way to get local press for a Fave Award is to send a short, personal note to a reporter in your area, with the press release from your winner's kit pasted in and a link to the full winners list at nextdoor.com/fave_awards_winners. Local reporters are always looking for stories about businesses their readers already know, and an award voted on by your neighbors is a timely reason to write about yours.
Your Winner's Kit includes social graphics, a digital sticker for your website and emails, and a press release template. Your physical sticker comes separately in the mail. Everything in the kit is free to use on your website, in press materials, and on social media. We ask that any announcement link to the winners list and, if you're posting on social, tag @Nextdoor and use #FaveAwards2026.
Start with the template, because it already has the facts right: what the award is, how winners were chosen and when voting took place (September 4 to September 30, 2026). Replace the bracketed fields with your business name, city and date, then add a quote from you. One or two sentences is plenty. The quotes reporters use are the ones that sound like a person, so say what it means to you that the people who live near your business were the ones who voted for you.
Look up your local newspaper, TV station, or community news site and find the reporter who covers small business or your community. If you can't tell who that is, check who wrote recent stories about other local businesses and send it to them. Many newspapers also take submissions through a form on their site, which works, too. Paste the press release into the body of your email, since reporters are far more likely to read it there than to open an attachment.
Your email can be four or five sentences. Say who you are, what you won, and what makes your business part of the neighborhood. A detail only a local would know does more than any adjective. Lead with the community and what the recognition means to you, and leave the announcement date out of the first line, because a story about neighbors choosing a business stays interesting well after the day the list went live.
A pitch might read like this: "Hi Dana, I own Harbor Street Bakery, and neighbors in Cedar Falls just voted us a 2026 Nextdoor Fave Award winner. We've been on the same corner for 18 years, and I'd be glad to talk about what it's like to be chosen by the people who walk past our door every morning. The full release is below."
Local newsrooms are small and inboxes fill quickly. If you haven't heard back after a few days, send one short follow-up email that includes the winners link. After that, move on to another outlet.
Put your sticker where customers will see it. Post the social graphics from your kit, tag @Nextdoor on instagram, TikTok, X, and Linkedin, and use #FaveAwards2026 so we can find and amplify your post. A thank-you to the neighbors who voted takes about two minutes and goes over well, especially with a photo of you holding the sticker.
Email press@nextdoor.com and someone on our communications team will get back to you.