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| Do's and Don'ts in Press releases |
Good media coverage about major news within your industry or your organisation, can potentially raise the profile of your organization. Good media coverage can help to differentiate your business from the competition and hence the resulting sales. Once you have identified stories regarding major news within your industry or organization, you will want to make your own announcements. Follow these powerful guidelines to can increase your chances of getting the right press coverage.
You should ALWAYS..
- Produce your press release on headed paper with the standard company logo at the top and the words Media Information (or similar) printed clearly on it.
- Put the date on the press release.
- Put a contact name at the end of the release of someone who will be available for further comment and who also has good knowledge about the story. This will allow journalists to follow up and personalise their stories.
- Include your company's standard 'boilerplate' on all material sent to the press. A boilerplate is a description of the company and its activities presented in one or two paragraphs.
- Target your story – Since the basic idea behind good media coverage is selling your story, make sure you send the press release to the most appropriate journalists only. Sending press releases to journalists who have no interest in the subject will only reduce your chances of getting their attention for another occasion.
- Keep the release short and punchy . The first paragraph should include only two or three sentences each of a maximum of 15-20 words each, summarising the whole story with the add on details only coming later on the page. Try to keep the content of the releases to one page if possible, or two at the most.
- Keep a checklist to ensure that you have not left out any detail in the story. The simple checklist must comprise of the questions: Who, What, Where, When and How, which you must ask yourself to make sure that the press releases contains the answers to the same.
You should NEVER..
- Send out meaningless releases that have no news value. Doing so can run the risk of important stories being overlooked in the future as the journalist automatically spikes your releases.
- Phone up journalists to ask if they will be using your release. This will only serve to antagonise him or her and reduce your chances of getting published.
- Take it personally if a journalist doesn't cover your story.
- Become upset when a journalist phones for further comment. Remember that journalists are often cynical (it comes of hearing hype from our competition) and usually working to a deadline. Hence, by giving him/her valuable information you will be able to eventually change their attitude and win their respect.
- Talk 'off the record' – Since journalists are always competing with each other to get a scoop, remember that the only safe way to talk to journalists is to assume that everything you say may appear in print.
- Use inappropriate language – While making a press release, there are two important things to remember regarding the usage of language
- Never use jargon - Jargon gets in the way and may not be well understood.
- Never use strong language - Strong language looks terrible in print!
- Forget to get written approval from the third party (if any)- The consequences of failing to get written approval from any third party mentioned in your release such as customers, suppliers, etc., could be very unpleasant.
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