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Press Releases: Promotional
Magnets
The big boys have been using press releases to their advantage
for years. All of the major companies have people dedicated to
handling media relations and one of the most important parts of
that job is overseeing the production and distribution of press
releases.
Unlike many of the marketing and PR strategies used by the
mega-corps that would never work for the little guy, press
releases are non-discriminatory. Whether you are operating a
one-person shop or running a Fortune 500 firm, you can get a
lot of mileage from a press release.
A press release is a document, distributed to media and news
sources, that provides information about an interesting or
newsworthy story/event. A press release is circulated in hopes
of convincing media outlets to run a story on the same
topic.
In other words, a press release is a glorified invitation to
give the sender free publicity.
If you like to put journalists on a pedestal and imagine all of
them as hard working, investigative bloodhounds finding their
own leads and stories, the idea of press release might bother
you a little.
Press releases are proof positive that media types are just as
lazy as the rest of us and appreciate it when someone else
hands them work.
So, what's involved in writing a press release? It isn't the
world's most complicated proposition, but one does need to
understand a few expectations and conventions to pull it off
effectively.
For instance, if it reads like an advertisement it won't get
any mileage. Yes, the media people on the other side of the FAX
transmission understand why you are supplying the release, but
they don't want you to rub their noses in it.
There has to be at least some semblance of actual news
worthiness about your material before anyone at the editorial
desk will give it a second thought.
Press releases must be written for the media, not for the
people who will eventually be reading the stories. This is an
incredibly common mistake for many novice release writers. They
assume that they should write the story the public wants to
hear.
Not so. The audience for a press release must be the
gatekeepers who'll decide if the public ever reads about your
topic. Custom-tailor your text to the media readers. If they
like it, they can perform the translation for public
consumption.
Press releases should be written as if they came from a
journalist. As a matter of convention, press releases are
usually written in the inverted pyramid style taught in all
basic journalism classes.
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