10 things that you should be including in your press release
DESCRIPTION
10 useful items you must include in your next Press release. If you create and distribute news to the online media then there's a number of things you need to make sure and try to include in your PR to maximize exposure... the journalists will love you also! By Glenn Letham, co-founder, GISuser.com @gletham on Twitter - This article also appears online at http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/24641/28/TRANSCRIPT
10 Things That You Should Be Including In your Press Release
@gletham
1. A Catchy, short Title
@gletham
As hard as it is to believe, I see many PR releases come through with no title or simply with a subject “Press Release”. Use a catchy title with good SEO buzzwords and keep it short, about 120 characters max so it can be easily Tweeted
2. Link to Facebook Page
@gletham
No twitter account? You need to have one, plain and simple and make sure you list your twitter @name in your contact info... about 95% of companies fail to do this!
3. Link to Facebook Page
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500,000 million users a day, you’re company needs a FB page, be sure to provide a link to it - be sure to also post details of your press in your facebook page as well so your "fans" can share it!
4. Use Keywords
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At the end of your press release, provide a list of important keywords applicable to the release. This is great for added SEO
5. Related Images
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If you have a photo, screencap, or image that’s related to your news upload it to your website and provide a link to it – don’t simply drop it in the email with your PR as a ZIP file or large file attachment – if you have a video clip even better!
6. Link To A Web Friendly Version
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Link to the PR release on your corporate website (or on a newswire). Many online editors will appreciate a link to a simple, html format version of your PR. Is your PR not on your website? Sorry that's a Fail... and please don't use PDF
7. Link to a related YouTube Video
@gletham
Not using video yet? You should be and make sure to use youtube. Again this is valuable for sharing, youtube clips are fast and easy to embed and share, and best of all, a short video can tell the whole story. Keep the video under 3 minutes if possible - See also Vimeo
8. Use a valid reply to email
@gletham
Again hard to believe but if editors receive your PR and hit reply to your email and this brings up an email address like [email protected] they will likely hit the Delete key and ignore your news
9. A suggested Tweet
@gletham
Make is easy for others to share your news - again, at the end of your PR you might wish to provide a short, concise suggested Tweet that a person can quickly copy/paste – people will appreciate it.
10. An intro summary
@gletham
Not actually part of your PR, provide a paragraph that describes and/or summarizes your announcement. This is often very useful for a blogger or for an editor to use in some other way, perhaps in a facebook post, blog, or LinkedIn discussion post
Got Geo, GIS, or Geo Tech News?
@gletham
Feel free to send your PR to [email protected]
or Tweet details or a link to @gletham or
@gisuser
See Also 10 Reasons to send your GEO news to GISuser:
www.gisuser.com/10reasons.html