Iona Mimi

10 Essential Tips for Writing Press Releases

Ask yourself, "How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?"
Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a release.

Publicity Primer

Offer articles/photos/graphics/columns to publications on an exclusive or special basis.
Produce your own program, short feature (for cable stations, broadcast media: might also be used as a videobrochure, as program material for schools, clubs, youth groups, etc.)
Provide products as props for films, TV shows (financial consideration might be requested).

A Publicity Materials Checklist

News Releases (General distribution)

New product, services
Events sponsored (e.g. fundraisers, tours, open houses, seminars, rallies, awards programs, meal events)
Observances (anniversaries, etc.)
Facility openings, relocations, closings
Personnel changes
Distributor appointments, changes
Contracts, grants received, given Awards, honors or designations received, given Reports issued, research findings
Position statements
Gifts, contributions received (not-for-profits)

Feature Stories (Exclusive, special or general distribution)

Profiles (people, products, companies or causes)
Round-up, trend stories
Service features (”how to”)
Case studies
Signed, first-person experiences, reminiscences
Op-Ed pieces (signed articles)
Letters to the editor

Fact Sheets/Background materials

Key data at-a-glance
Glossaries
Directories (key contacts, office list locations, etc.)
Questions and answers
Suggested interview questions
Texts/excerpts of speeches, reports, books, articles

Photos and Captions (Black and white prints, color transparencies, color prints)

Action photos
Portraiture (mug/head and shoulder shots, candids)
Product portraiture, products in use
Architectural

Graphics

Logos
Graphs, charts
Illustrations

Audio-Visuals

Video news material (Video news story, b-roll video footage or still slides–accompanied by script, background)
Audio news material (Script, actualities, recorded story, or background sound–accompanied by script, background)
Public service announcements (script for announcer, slide to accompany a voice over, recorded audio, or video tape)

News Advisories

See also

How to Get the Press on Your Side
A Barebones Guide to Writing Successful Press Releases
Writing Press Releases: Tips and Techniques to Get Noticed

What next?

Drop it off at PRWeb, for example.

Tags

press+release
howto
publicity

The Great Escape from Voice Jail

I’m nominating Paul English for the Nobel Peace Prize, for his service to better the health of all Americans.

Singlehandedly, he has done more to reduce heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, every stress related illness, anger management issues, and just plain incivility. English has published his gift to humanity, The IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Cheat Sheet online and available to all, and has bequeathed sanity to humankind.

If you, like me, have found yourself about to pop a blood vessel as you spend ridiculous amounts of time working your way through automated Voice Purgatory, repeating your information two, three, and four times, only to never reach a person , or if you do, to reach someone who seems completely unaware that you have just spent the last 25 minutes repeating your information two, three, and four times, and asks you to repeat it all again, and who then tells you that, they cannot help you, you are in the wrong department, you must be transferred, and please hold, thank you for holding, even though they have given you no other option, and then you wait another interminable length of time, only to have to repeat your information YET AGAIN to another automated set of questions, and then to find, at the end of it all, that you are now speaking to someone in India, who you have trouble understanding because their accent is so thick, who has trouble understanding you, and who, they tell you, does not have the ability to solve your problem, and who says they will transfer you to the right area, which is THE SAME AREA THAT SENT YOU TO INDIA… if, like me, you have then found yourself thinking, “‘Going Postal’ should really now be known as ‘going IVR’” and thinking up new and imaginative ways to do so, one of which involves fastening the relevant company executives to a chair and making them negotiate their own systems for 36 hours straight, with no end in sight, while listening to an endless voiceloop saying “Thank you for holding. Your call is important to us.” ….

That IVR passes for “customer service” is an abomination, and displays nothing more than a company’s complete contempt for its customers. By conveniencing themselves, they are destroying their customer base.

Kudos to Mr. English for giving consumers a way to fight back.

Here’s that link again. I’ve both printed the page and saved it to my desktop.

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