PR insight & tidbits (7)

Tips on writing a press release.

If you intend to write your own release, you should be aware of various conventions relating to the structure and content. Press releases traditionally take the SOLAADS format, with information appearing in the following order: subject, organisation, location, advantages, applications, details, source.

Always compose your release using an 'inverted pyramid' structure, with the most important information appearing first. That way, if a journalist stops reading after the first or second paragraph, he/she has already gleaned the vital facts.

The headline must be succinct and snappy. Never use the past tense - e.g. XYZ Company Launches New Gizmo is appropriate, while XYZ Company Has Launched New Gizmo makes your announcement sound as if it's old news. If necessary, use a sub heading to include supporting details - e.g.: Roll Up for the Fun of the Fare (main), New Restaurant Opens in London W1 on 31 March [sub].

The first paragraph should encapsulate all the main facts and it must include the name of your company and whatever product/service/event you're announcing. E.g. "XYZ company, a Manchester based provider of support services to the catering industry, has won the 2002 Chamber of Commerce Award for Industry. The Award recognises XYZ's commitment to quality standards..." Or: "ABC, a London based developer of software for schools, is launching a new CD-ROM, GrassHoppers 2, that helps children learn about the lifespan of these fascinating creatures..."

Subsequent paragraphs should provide supporting information in a descending hierarchy of importance (remember the inverted pyramid!). Relate the most exciting and newsworthy aspects/applications of your product/service first.

You may wish to include a comment from a senior person at your company (ideally a senior manager, chairman or CEO), which journalists can use as a quote to support their news story. Avoid inane quotes that start with phrases such as "we are delighted" or "we are proud to announce", and try to introduce a pertinent element that hasn't been mentioned in the rest of the release. However, don't include too much quoted material, as this can fragment an announcement.

Present the press release objectively and always write in the third person - remove "I", "you", "we" and "us" and replace them with "it", "he/she" and "they". "The company" is always singular, so be sure to use "it" rather than "they" (e.g. XYZ Company is progressing with the initiative it has started" not "the initiative they have started").

Acronyms and abbreviations should be avoided. If used, spell them out in the first instance - e.g. electronic point of sale (EPOS) - and then introduce them in the abbreviated form thereafter (EPOS). Simple, concise language is preferable to long, protracted, "flowery" language.

Never use claims such as "the world's no. 1 service", "our product is totally unique" (unless it's true and you can back it up with published research!) and avoid puffery such as "our fantastic new product" and "our magnificent new service". Don't rely on a barrage of industry jargon and buzzwords, such as "the cost-effective, leading edge, one-stop-shop solution to meet all your business needs". This sort of language is both meaningless and disliked by journalists.

And make sure you include:

Notes to Editors: Background information on your company - when it was launched, where it's headquartered, any particular accolades or achievements, its main areas of activity, etc. - and any additional information not provided in the body of the release.

Contact details: The name, address, telephone/fax number and email address of your appointed contact person, which should appear at the bottom of the release so journalists can contact you easily if they require further information. You should also state whether you have photos available, as these shouldn't be attached to a release.

Of course there is now the Social Media press release, we will look at it in the next session of "PR insight & Tidbits" as well as the key portals for online distribution.

If you have any questions we, at MPiRe, will be delighted to help you.

The Facebook Gold Account

Some people say it is scam, some people say it is great….this is the new Facebook Gold account. Do you have one yet?

A group of people created a group called the "Facebook Gold" members group which promises of a special status on Facebook if you joined the group. Well, it doesn’t promise anything in writing but leaves you to figure things out, but first you got to join the group and do a few things.

Before joining the group this is what it asks you to do:

1) Drag and drop the Facebook® Gold™ logo (yes, the one on the left) onto your desktop. Upload it as your new profile picture – and you’re away!

2) Copy and paste the following into your status:

Official BETA tester of Facebook® Gold™ account.

3) Copy and paste the following comments on your friend’s…

If you look at the group members, you’ll find that all of them have the same logo and the same status. This created curiosity among people and many of them joined Facebook Gold without really having a reason.

Some people say that the advantage is that you get a few more features, and you don't have look at ads all the time but there has been no official statement from Mark Zuckerburg on this unannounced release so watch out, it might be harmless or just a joke, but if it asked you to download stuff I wouldn’t do it. Something worth to point out is that the fonts used are different from Facebook standard fonts.

Anyone out there with more info?
 

Online Reputation & Media Monitoring

How do you keep track of any web content that mentions your name? Not just your personal name, but your executives, your company brands, and even your competition. Are you already doing that, or maybe thinking about it?

The truth is, the web has made it possible for individuals to freely share their thoughts about you, and without much accountability. You, as a company, should be made aware the moment your reputation is being discussed. Sure, you need to know about the attacks by your detractors, but you should also know when you're receiving praise too!

The internet has given a powerful voice to consumers, bloggers, forums, and even users of Twitter. So how do you arm yourself so that you'll never get caught by a surprise attack on your good name?

You might also want to know if your online advertising campaigns get the right exposure and ROI.

So how do you do that? There are of course free tools that help you monitor the blogosphere such as Google’s News Alerts and Technorati’s Watch Lists (for bloggers) but if you’re looking for something more serious, accurate, fast and more in-depth then you would need to rely on professional companies who can offer more integrated packages.

Here are my favourite 5; I’m sure there are many more but i know that these are great and even offer a free trial. Check them out and let me know.

- Viral Heat

- ListenLogic

- Radian6

- Scout Labs

- Sysomos



Have you heard or used any others? I'd like to know any feedback, thanks.

To blog or not to blog?

Does your organisation already have a web-presence with a corporate website? What are the goals for your organisation’s web presence? Is the main goal to get ‘Traffic’ and returning ‘traffic’, visitors and visitor loyalty. So how do you achieve those goals?

Maybe a blog? Integrating a blog into your corporate website or ‘connecting’ it to your corporate website can drive traffic onto it, helping you achieve your corporate web-goals.

Blogs have great potential not only to inform but also to challenge perceptions. They can be used to draw out different points of view, commentaries, personal experiences and even, support for your blog post. The blog as a tool empowers people and helps create change.

A blog allows you to bring information to your public much faster than a traditional website. And typical blog readers will check their favourite blogs several times a week. Not so for corporate websites.

Typically blogs offer an easy-to-update, easy-to-work-with contents management system (CMS). If I write an article and have some pictures and a video it will take me a few minutes to post on my blog while it would take me several hours before I can put them on a website.

Money - It can cost a lot to bring a corporate website online, especially if you want some fancy stuff. You buy the Contents Management System, hosting, a document repository system. You hire graphic designers, usability experts, make use cases, and have an army of highly paid developers working through the code. It will take you several months to bring your site online. And how often is the end result not really what you had in mind? How many compromises have you made along the way?

Ease of publishing - blogs integrate the Content Management and the document repository systems, and offer a wide range of themes or graphical designs. They can structure and restructure your information in many different ways. Blogs make it easy to integrate different functionalities through widgets and other bells and whistles. Adding, changing and repositioning blogs is made easy, using WYSIWYG editors.

Community focused - a blog and a ‘normal’ website have another major difference: blogs offer the ability to build a community, to interact with your readers. Through comments, out-of-the-box widgets, blog catalogs, social bookmarking sites, cross linking and cross posting,you get people to interact with you and each other.

But there is more to it. Blogs can also build a community within your own organisation. It gives the opportunity for your staff members to bring out their stories, and make them feel part of your organisation’s community. And your readers will love the field stories.

A sense of forgiveness and tolerance - blogs live in a different sphere than corporate websites. Anything published on a corporate site typically goes through a public relations department, and takes time for a webmaster to published. Errors are often taken seriously by those who publish and those who read. As blogs have grown out of the personal sphere, blogs have more an air of tolerance, of forgiveness. A text on a corporate site has to be perfect. A picture crystal-clear. Not so on blogs. And even less so on microblogs.

In-house blogs - not all blogs have to be for the general public. You can restrict access to your blogs to in-house use also, running on your intranet. Once again, it will give your staff the ability to bring out their stories, to build the sense of ‘belonging’. And if you are more serious about it all, it allows the sharing of information and experiences.

Are you ready to blog?

 

(Don't) Be Stupid!

Many of you must have seen the latest campaign by Diesel, the Italian design company best known for clothing aimed at the young adult market, particularly jeans.

According to Diesel "being stupid" is the new cool. Diesel is embracing Stupid and turning it into a positive. Stupid is the key to successful living; it’s about following your heart and not your head. Stupid is about passion, strange sex, wearing the wrong thing in the right place, swapping roles trying something new, failing, trying again – and failing better.

Diesel explains the "Be Stupid" movement as a chance to be "liberated" from all those people who dismiss your originality. "Stupid is the liberating alternative to dry-as-dust cerebral (so called "smart") and it takes courage, loads!"

I don’t agree that being stupid is cool however I think the campaign is really smart. If you go to their Facebook page, you will also find out that they have been giving "Be Stupid" t-shirts in several cities where people queued up for hours and they also had the chance to be part of a super cool New Year’s Eve party. Isn't that a great way to create something for your customers and interact with them?

And what about the adverts below? Stupid or smart?

Are you going to "Be Stupid"?

If I had a company this is how I would use social media

I firmly believe that social media can assist in most areas of operations, sales, and marketing, and can streamline everything from the day-to-day affairs to long term implementation. Every part of the campaign would involve the public and potential customers.

"Collaboration" would be the key word, where recognising the passion of the consumers is the most important thing. This my ideal company would look at social media as the best way to get direct dialog with the fans and for the company to hear from those fans without filters. Hopefully to have this really unique dialogue that we normally wouldn’t have would be really beneficial and open our eyes up and i'm sure some of the business decisions would be solely based on customers feedback.

Of course, as we said before, the campaign would have to fit with the company's brand and custome profile, and would have to be planned and implemented by people with the right knowledge and skills and fit within the overall communication campaign.

Click on image to enlarge it.

Who is on the internet?....Everybody!!

A new study recently published by Pew Internet finds that teens and young adults are blogging less and using social networking sites more, with the prominent exception of Twitter.

This report brings together recent findings about internet and social media use among young adults by situating it within comparable data for adolescents and adults older than 30. All the most current data on teens is drawn from a survey conducted between June 26 and September 24, 2009 of 800 adolescents between ages 12 and 17. Most of the adult data are drawn from a survey conducted between August 18 and September 14, 2009 of 2,253 adults (age 18 and over).

Here’s a no-brainer: young adults use the web far more than older adults. In its study, Pew found that 93% of teens and young adults go online, compared to only 38% of adults over 65 years of age. It surprises us that 7% of 12-29 year olds still don’t browse the web, but some just don’t have or can’t afford access.

Among those teens going online, 63% say they go online at least once a day, with older teens more likely to go online than younger teens.

There is also some stats about moms; at home moms are more likely to be on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter than other moms, by more than 15%. So this should be good news for retailers, if you aren’t engaging customers through social media you could be missing the boat. Twitter, Facebook and blogs are becoming increasingly popular with moms as they search for coupons or deals and keep in touch with loved ones. As we said several times the web provides efficient, convenient ways for brands to stay in front of their most loyal shoppers and attract new ones.

And Facebooking moms are apparently open to marketer contact, but want marketers to take their wants into account. Many online moms are looking for coupons and discounts, so offering exclusive deals or even loyalty programs are an option. Moms also want some interaction, so brands entering the social sphere must not only have a social page but must update and interact through that page often.

Although studies have shown that moms are more likely to trust recommendations by friends, engaging moms with product information is one way to give moms the incentive to ask for product recommendations.

The Internet’s getting faster and more accessible. As computer prices drop and Internet access becomes more readily available, we will see these internet usage numbers continue to rise.

Full report can be found here:

ECOSIA, the eco friendly search engine

Last December a new search engine called Ecosia was launched (and i just found out now!). For the ones who have not heard of it here follow a few details about Ecosia which claims that users will save 2 square meters of rain forest every time they submit a search.

Ecosia is a search engine, backed by Yahoo!, Bing and WWF. The idea behind it is very simple; 80% of the revenue generated from the sponsored links will be used to save the Brazilian rainforest and battle global warming rather than going into the search engines’ pockets. (Some people say that it is a smart way of fighting Google’s hegemony).

Ecosia is a private company, with Yahoo! and Bing providing the search capability and WWF uses the income for its rainforest protection program. The company was founded by German entrepreneur Christian Kroll.

Ecosia estimates that the revenue from each search can help save two square meters of rainforest and with the average internet user making 1,000 searches a year then each Ecosia user can save 2,000 square meters of rainforest a year...it all sounds good.

It obviously has huge potential…and we can all help. Let me know your reviews.

Full details are in the video here.