Writing press releases

A guide to promoting your business onlineby writing effective press releases

The modern press release• Once limited scope: local media outlets only

• As news consumption shifted online, so have press releases

• Now a major player in getting your business discovered online

•New products or services

•New hires, promotions

•New partnerships

•Sharing survey results

•Winning an award

What makes good news

Keys to a good release•Headline

•Summary

•Dateline and Lead

•Body

•Boilerplate and Contact Info

•Grab readers’ attention

•Identify yourself

•Write in active voice

•Make it interesting and factual

•Limit jargon and clichés

What to do

•Stay objective

•Pick an angle

•Illustrate the solution

•Tell the truth, but not the whole truth

•Proofread

What to do (cont.)

•Hype

•Promotional language

•Grammatical, spelling errors

•Speaking directly to readers (I, you, we)

•ALL CAPITAL LETTERS for emphasis

what to avoid

• PR Newswire

• PRWeb

• iReach

• PRLog

• http://mashable.com/2007/10/19/press-releases/

Where to post your news