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| 15 Additional Media Release Writing Guidelines to Improve Your Organization's Branding |
By:
Wes Upchurch |
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In another article, I described fifteen ways you could improve your media release. But I understand that, developing a press release can be overwhelming in the beginning, so I've come up with another fifteen tips for the small business owner.
With a little research and practice you will be able to write an effective piece. To start, just follow the guidelines shown here for writing and sending your press release.
1. Place News First – Because readers want news, you should always include the news before the source. So before you state who made the announcement, you should actually write the announcement. For example, a news story about a new tobacco study should describe the results of the study, before describing who conducted it.
2. Be Newsworthy – The entire point of a news release is to distribute news related to your business. So if your news release doesn’t contain news, you shouldn’t even bother sending it. If you submit news that isn’t truly newsworthy, the editors will just learn to ignore you.
3. Clear Headlines – Keep in mind that the reader should be able to catch the idea of your story from the headline alone. Focusing on the angle and idea of the story is more important than developing a ‘catchy’ slogan.
4. Target Your Media – You should always write for the media type your targeting, but the same goes for submitting your news release. For a reporter, there is nothing more annoying than getting flooded with articles that aren’t at all related to your publication. So get your release into the right hands.
5. Stay Relevant – Journalists want news that is relevant to their audience. Writing to meet the needs of the publication your submitting to greatly improves your odds of inclusion.
6. Build Credibility – Quotes from your company’s senior executives should do. News releases are taken a much more seriously when the boss’s name is on the line.
7. Condense The News – You should try to tell the entire story in the first paragraph. The rest of the release can contain more details. But it’s nice to know that if everything else is cut, you still got your main points across. Being “top heavy” is a good thing.
8. Demonstrate Positive Intentions – If space permits, allow an executive of your organization to inject some human interest to the story. These types of quotes can be used to demonstrate compassion, show good intentions, or simply transition a negative story back to a positive tone.
9. Deal With Facts – News articles should include factual information. Leave the opinions for the editorial column. It is ok, however, to include quotes that feature opinions.
10. Location Matters – You should define the location your press release originates from. Editors love to find a local angle on popular stories. And for certain industries, location matters.
11. Utilize Proper Attribution – If your press release includes information or quotes from other sources, it’s a good idea to attribute that information to the original source. This allows the journalist to verify the information, plus it provides credibility.
12. Be Prepared – Just because your press release has been sent, doesn’t mean you’re done crafting your message. Be ready to answer calls from journalists and prepare statements for them. Keep a log of the questions they ask, because there’s a good chance that another reporter is going to ask the same thing.
13. Relate to Popular Topics – One method that can earn you coverage is link your news, organization, or business to popular news. Many news stories do nothing more than explain how a particular industry is affected by something else that happened.
14. Show Professionalism – Using a professional layout and avoid sloppiness to indicating seriousness. Understanding and abiding by industry standards for writing press releases is a great start. For example, always write your press releases in the 3rd person and end your press releases with “-30-” or “XXX”.
15. Timely Release – For local events it is best to send your release to newspapers and television stations about 3 weeks before the event. For national magazines you will have to submit your event several months in advance.
By applying these guidelines for writing powerful media releases, you substantially increase the likelihood of your media release being used. If you want additional ways to improve your media release writing you should read the long list of ways to improve your media release writing.
About the Author:
This article was written by http://www.wesupchurch.com of PressDr.com, a leading http://www.pressdr.com. You can visit the PressDr Blog for even more http://www.pressdr.com/blog/media-release-writing/50-tips-for-press-release-writing.php. |
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