DIY Online PR Tips: How-to Write and Syndicate Your Own Press Releases

Part One of a Three Part Series

 There are more articles out there than we care to count on the death of the online press release. This series will give you some DIY ideas to get you started writing and syndicating your own press releases. This is an important skill to develop as you can use press releases to promote your company in Google News, industry publications that pick up your release after syndication and on social networks (by tweeting out the links to your releases). In this first post, we’ll discuss a few ideas on how to select a news angle. Next time, we’ll look at the best newswire for return on your syndication spend, and in part 3, we’ll talk about optimizing your releases for search engine visibility.

Some might say, “Why bother with writing press releases? Just break news on your blog.” We don’t disagree with that stance. Our view is it doesn’t have to be ‘an either or’ scenario. Why not learn how to get the most from online press releases and add them to your marketing mix? While we are always ready to help you with writing and syndication of press releases, perhaps your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a consultant at this time. Maybe you prefer doing it yourself. Writing and syndicating press releases is something you can do on your own, and we’re happy to provide you with some of the finer points you can put into practice for yourself today.

Check out these tips to get your online PR campaigns started

        Now more than ever, it is critical to identify a newsworthy angle for your release. Editors at the newswires are especially vigilant against even the hint of spam or sales pitches. Save yourself a lot of time by creating a release that is highly newsworthy, and avoid the frustration of rejection. Look for these news angles when creating a release:

a.     Did you hire a new staff member? Promote a team member?

b.     Did you create a new product or service?

c.     Did you win an award? Assist a non-profit with their fundraising

d.     What about content that you’ve created? Did you write a white paper or conduct a study?

In other words, the short formula for selecting a news angle is:

Tell the world something new, important and definite.

What is it about, why is it newsworthy; when and where did it happen and who was involved?

If you sell radios, then that won’t fly — many other companies sell radios. If you sell radios that are the first of their kind to operate underwater at tremendous depths; or if you sell radios that allow you to send the audio stream over Twitter, or that offer some other unique capability, then you have a potential news story. You could really have a story if you enjoy an exclusive relationship with the radio’s creator and conduct classes on how to operate the radio, etc.

        Speaking of classes …Anytime you offer a specialized training course or class, this is a natural PR opportunity. Non-profits often conduct training courses and other events; and if you are a non-profit, don’t forget to get your press release syndicated at least a week in advance of your function. Here’s a good example:

             http://www.ngwa.org/Media-Center/press/2012/Pages/2012-02-06-course-178.aspx

Check back on the blog later this week. We’ll post Part 2 in this series. In this upcoming post we’ll discuss the online newswire we think gives you the best return on your syndication investment.