Entries For: November 2006
2006-11-28
Creating a Press Release - Part 3
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We covered general structure and content in my last post, so let’s talk language and news vs. opinions now:
6. Keep acronyms, industry-specific terms and highly technical language to a minimum. The media doesn’t have the time (or inclination) to be an expert in every single subject. While you don’t want to pander or assume the lowest common denominator, you must use clear, illustrative, professional, plain speak vocabulary. And, if you don’t have a copy of the Associated Press Stylebook – get one!
7. While language should be clear and professional, feel free to use the appropriate tone and color for your particular sector and/or target audience. If you are writing about something whimsical and light – such as a feel-good charity event and carnival to benefit kids – have some fun with it. (Don’t get too cute however!). But, if you’re writing about something like the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and increasing numbers of orphaned children, a more somber tone is obviously apropos.
8. And while we’re on the topic of language, try not to use useless filler words that can’t really be proven or don’t truly differentiate your organization from others, such as “market-leading,” “innovative,” “ground-breaking,” “special,” “unique” and other such vague terms. While you may think they describe your organization and sound really cool, they’re just “yawner” words for the media, who will pass right by. Use words that actually describe what you’re doing and why you’re unique instead.
9. A press release is generally a place for statements of fact, not opinions (unless you are an advocacy organization expounding your views and seeking to incite a following… Even still, opinion should always be used cautiously, as you can easily turn off more people than you intrigue). Try to keep your announcement to facts, figures, events and well-researched data points. And, if you are using third-party data or other secondary information, be sure to fact check carefully – and get appropriate permissions to reprint – before including it.
10. Quotes by executives and strategic partners, while nice to have, almost never get printed by the media, so if you’re going to use these, put them towards the end of your release. The most common reasons for utilizing a quote are to be able to say something you can’t necessarily say as news fact in the body of the release (“This is our greatest product release ever!”) or to enhance your credibility with a third-party quote of appreciation or endorsement (“Partnering with xyx organization is the best move we’ve made, as they truly industry leaders.”)
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
6. Keep acronyms, industry-specific terms and highly technical language to a minimum. The media doesn’t have the time (or inclination) to be an expert in every single subject. While you don’t want to pander or assume the lowest common denominator, you must use clear, illustrative, professional, plain speak vocabulary. And, if you don’t have a copy of the Associated Press Stylebook – get one!
7. While language should be clear and professional, feel free to use the appropriate tone and color for your particular sector and/or target audience. If you are writing about something whimsical and light – such as a feel-good charity event and carnival to benefit kids – have some fun with it. (Don’t get too cute however!). But, if you’re writing about something like the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and increasing numbers of orphaned children, a more somber tone is obviously apropos.
8. And while we’re on the topic of language, try not to use useless filler words that can’t really be proven or don’t truly differentiate your organization from others, such as “market-leading,” “innovative,” “ground-breaking,” “special,” “unique” and other such vague terms. While you may think they describe your organization and sound really cool, they’re just “yawner” words for the media, who will pass right by. Use words that actually describe what you’re doing and why you’re unique instead.
9. A press release is generally a place for statements of fact, not opinions (unless you are an advocacy organization expounding your views and seeking to incite a following… Even still, opinion should always be used cautiously, as you can easily turn off more people than you intrigue). Try to keep your announcement to facts, figures, events and well-researched data points. And, if you are using third-party data or other secondary information, be sure to fact check carefully – and get appropriate permissions to reprint – before including it.
10. Quotes by executives and strategic partners, while nice to have, almost never get printed by the media, so if you’re going to use these, put them towards the end of your release. The most common reasons for utilizing a quote are to be able to say something you can’t necessarily say as news fact in the body of the release (“This is our greatest product release ever!”) or to enhance your credibility with a third-party quote of appreciation or endorsement (“Partnering with xyx organization is the best move we’ve made, as they truly industry leaders.”)
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
2006-11-21
Creating a Press Release - Part 2
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Do’s and Don’ts for Writing Great Press Releases
Writing a press release should be a relatively easy exercise once you’ve determined the specifics of what you’re announcing and clearly identified what you hope to achieve from making the announcement. Here are 15 tips to get you rolling:
1. Before writing, create a list and/or an outline of your key messages and the most important data points. Winnow this down as much as possible to the most crucial bits of data. Leave out everything that isn’t entirely necessary and/or adds little real weight to the announcement. And no matter how tempting, don’t try to announce too many things at once. You’ll just muddy the waters and confuse the media.
2. Keep your press release to no more than two pages; less if possible.
3. Your headline should be brief and attention grabbing and tell exactly what is being announced and by who. A subhead can add further detail to a headline if needed.
4. The typical structure of a press release is a lead paragraph that explains the announcement in brief (see below), followed by 4-5 additional paragraphs that describe key facets of the announcement in more detail. Be sure to include your URL and phone number/email address for a media contact person within you organization.
5. Your first paragraph should answer everything someone needs to know about your announcement (in PR 101 speak, this would be your “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” elements). Most journalists, if they make it beyond the headline as they’re scrolling the newswires, will only have time to quickly scan the lead paragraph. If you don’t hook them there, you probably won’t hook them at all.
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
Writing a press release should be a relatively easy exercise once you’ve determined the specifics of what you’re announcing and clearly identified what you hope to achieve from making the announcement. Here are 15 tips to get you rolling:
1. Before writing, create a list and/or an outline of your key messages and the most important data points. Winnow this down as much as possible to the most crucial bits of data. Leave out everything that isn’t entirely necessary and/or adds little real weight to the announcement. And no matter how tempting, don’t try to announce too many things at once. You’ll just muddy the waters and confuse the media.
2. Keep your press release to no more than two pages; less if possible.
3. Your headline should be brief and attention grabbing and tell exactly what is being announced and by who. A subhead can add further detail to a headline if needed.
4. The typical structure of a press release is a lead paragraph that explains the announcement in brief (see below), followed by 4-5 additional paragraphs that describe key facets of the announcement in more detail. Be sure to include your URL and phone number/email address for a media contact person within you organization.
5. Your first paragraph should answer everything someone needs to know about your announcement (in PR 101 speak, this would be your “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” elements). Most journalists, if they make it beyond the headline as they’re scrolling the newswires, will only have time to quickly scan the lead paragraph. If you don’t hook them there, you probably won’t hook them at all.
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
2006-11-14
Creating a Press Release - Part 1
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Creating a Press Release that Doesn’t End up as Hamster Cage Liner
Before we talk about how to write a great press release, it’s just as important to discuss why you’d want to issue a press release (and equally important, why not). In the most general terms, a press release is a communications tool used to share important news to the media. Note here that I mention “news.” This means, yes, you should actually have news – and news that someone else beside yourself and your board of directors will actually care about. This might seem obvious, but all too many for-profit and non-profit organizations send out flurries of press releases that contain no useful content whatsoever. Then, instead of getting noticed and written about in the media, they are ignored, or worse – they annoy or anger their intended media outlets.
In today’s information-saturated world, the media’s historically fast-paced job has become even more insane. Your average reporter has to sift through hundreds of media packets, press releases, newswires, blog sites, websites, podcasts, news conferences and any number of other “information inputs” each day. Then they have to figure out what is really news (and what is umm, crap) and cover that news.
So as a social entrepreneur, your job is to make it easy for them to understand why your news is truly news, why their readers will care about it, and then help the journalist write about it by giving them all they need to draft a story in one brief, concise, impactful document: Your press release.
So that said, let’s look at when you might consider issuing a press release. Here are a few ideas for topics you might want to announce:
Now, in reality, using these loose guidelines above, you could probably justify issuing a news release for just about every major activity of your organization. DON’T!
Ask yourself first:
Once you’re clear on why you’re writing, who you’re writing for and what you hope to get out of it – get writing! We’ll talk about what to include and how to structure an effective press release next time.
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
Before we talk about how to write a great press release, it’s just as important to discuss why you’d want to issue a press release (and equally important, why not). In the most general terms, a press release is a communications tool used to share important news to the media. Note here that I mention “news.” This means, yes, you should actually have news – and news that someone else beside yourself and your board of directors will actually care about. This might seem obvious, but all too many for-profit and non-profit organizations send out flurries of press releases that contain no useful content whatsoever. Then, instead of getting noticed and written about in the media, they are ignored, or worse – they annoy or anger their intended media outlets.
In today’s information-saturated world, the media’s historically fast-paced job has become even more insane. Your average reporter has to sift through hundreds of media packets, press releases, newswires, blog sites, websites, podcasts, news conferences and any number of other “information inputs” each day. Then they have to figure out what is really news (and what is umm, crap) and cover that news.
So as a social entrepreneur, your job is to make it easy for them to understand why your news is truly news, why their readers will care about it, and then help the journalist write about it by giving them all they need to draft a story in one brief, concise, impactful document: Your press release.
So that said, let’s look at when you might consider issuing a press release. Here are a few ideas for topics you might want to announce:
- Significant new strategic partnership or alliance
- New and/or notable major donor and/or grant received
- Upcoming special event that you are hosting or sponsoring
- Notable speaking engagements or conference participation
- Launch of a new product or service
- Significant additions to your staff (usually only VP and above)
- Major organizational milestones such as number of constituents served, development goals surpassed, awards received, etc.
- Significant structural change in your organization (such as mergers or acquisitions)
- To alert the media and constituents to key world events affecting your constituents (and what you are doing to help make their world a better place)
Now, in reality, using these loose guidelines above, you could probably justify issuing a news release for just about every major activity of your organization. DON’T!
Ask yourself first:
- Who really cares about this? Who should care about this?
- Where does my target audience get their information and news?
- Is there some other way I can/should tell this story to reach my audience?
- What journalists, bloggers or publications typically cover news of this sort?
- What story do I hope a journalist writes, based on this news?
- When was the last time I issued a press release?
- Do I have a plan for contacting journalists and arranging for interviews to discuss this announcement in more detail, or am I just throwing something over the wire?
- And yeah, is this REALLY news?
Once you’re clear on why you’re writing, who you’re writing for and what you hope to get out of it – get writing! We’ll talk about what to include and how to structure an effective press release next time.
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
2006-11-07
Public Relations – Spin Doesn’t Have to Be a Dirty Word
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There are probably as many definitions for public relations as there are flavors of ice cream…
To some, PR is all about spin and getting someone to believe something about an organization and its products or dealings. For others, PR is a constant cycle of writing and issuing a flurry of press releases (and ultimately hoping one will stick). Still others believe that PR is the art of schmoozing the media – be it magazines, newspapers, radio, talk shows, or what have you – in the hopes of getting your company’s name and/or story in print (and better yet, getting the angle and message you actually want printed).
In reality, these are all somewhat correct. At its simplest, PR is a communications activity focused on reaching out to the public in order to develop a positive perception of your organization and/or influence action towards your organization in a favorable manner (e.g. getting the public to donate to your cause, volunteer, buy your product or service, etc.).
Public relations can also be used to try to correct misinformation about your organization or to repair its image following a crisis.
So, perhaps most succinctly put, PR is about opinions and image.
Two of the main differentiators between public relations and other types of marketing are
Over the next few weeks we’ll cover a variety of topics including:
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
To some, PR is all about spin and getting someone to believe something about an organization and its products or dealings. For others, PR is a constant cycle of writing and issuing a flurry of press releases (and ultimately hoping one will stick). Still others believe that PR is the art of schmoozing the media – be it magazines, newspapers, radio, talk shows, or what have you – in the hopes of getting your company’s name and/or story in print (and better yet, getting the angle and message you actually want printed).
In reality, these are all somewhat correct. At its simplest, PR is a communications activity focused on reaching out to the public in order to develop a positive perception of your organization and/or influence action towards your organization in a favorable manner (e.g. getting the public to donate to your cause, volunteer, buy your product or service, etc.).
Public relations can also be used to try to correct misinformation about your organization or to repair its image following a crisis.
So, perhaps most succinctly put, PR is about opinions and image.
Two of the main differentiators between public relations and other types of marketing are
- (a) with PR you don’t pay to place your message (as you do in advertising)
- (b) as a result, you don’t truly have control over the message that is ultimately received by the public.
Over the next few weeks we’ll cover a variety of topics including:
- Why utilize PR for your social organization?
- Writing a great press release
- Smart media relations
- Public affairs and crisis management
- Exploring web-based technologies to increase your reach
- Other PR tools and tactics
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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications
