In today’s economy, your dollar needs to go further and your tactics need to work better. News releases are an important part of this challenge. But with all the talk about social media releases, search engine optimization, blogger outreach and shrinking newsrooms — whew, this list could get exhausting — it sometimes seems like public relations people are being pulled in too many directions and that press releases are less relevant. In reality, well executed news releases are more effective than ever, spreading both further and wider than ever before.
In addition to the traditional media, your release can now move across the Web on social media sites and search engines and land directly in front of journalists, bloggers and even consumers. So how can you effectively reach these three target audiences with a single release? Here are a few tips:
- E-mail it! Journalists prefer to receive news releases via e-mail. Like the rest of us, they organize their lives in their inbox, so reach them where they work. (I would advise you to target wisely, but you already know that.)
- Fill it! Journalists have less time to do more work and bloggers are driven to create loads of content with virtually no lead time. Make it easy for them to cover your story quickly and efficiently by including all the info they might need to craft a blog or article. Include links (But no attachments! No one likes an e-mail that clogs up their inbox.) to images, backgrounders, bios, rules and regulations, contacts, video and audio, etc. Since Web content is now in high demand, make sure you add embed codes that recipients can grab and load on their own sites; and consider being adventurous by adding creative Web content when appropriate.
Continue reading " Efficient and Effective News Releases for Today’s Economy: 5 Tips, 3 Audiences "
