Sunday, May 29, 2011

Make Heads Turn ...

This being the first blog, we thought of making it a light read for you. Something that we all know or have heard about and yet we tend to get fidgety when it comes to the nuances of handling it. Let’s talk about the Press Releases.


If the name itself made you yawn twice, let us assure you that it is not going to be one of those descriptive literary escapades but a simple article that would, in all probabilities, incite reactions like “Is it?” or  at most “Really?…I didn’t know that!”

Well, to begin with, press release is nothing but an official announcement or account of any event good enough to be picked up by the media and made into news.  One of the core weapons in the communications ‘silo’ of public relations professionals, releases are written with an eye on the basic do’s and don’ts. A standard format is followed so that the newsworthiness of the release is highlighted and in turn catches maximum eyeballs in the media circuits. The antiques of this exercise can be traced back to the time of the 1906 Atlantic City train wreck when a gentleman by the name of Ivy Lee issued the first press release to journalists about the incident. Of course over these many years, news release has added different contours to itself but nevertheless, it has stayed true to its ulterior purpose – making the right headlines.

If we take a look at the times when electronic media was unheard of, media basically had a single dimension which was Print. Public relations then used to be a professional aspiration wherein mostly veteran PR people were bestowed with the task of making news out of their stories. Releases were specifically formatted with only the relevant information tucked in.

However, the PR landscape has transformed significantly in recent years. Today, the buzzwords that are ruling the roost are online media and social media. The dependence on the conventional media to make announcements is taking a leaner turn while greater emphasis is laid on creating press statements that seek out their customers directly besides online news distribution firms and bloggers. The best thing about it is that your press release automatically becomes web content, thereby having a cleaner and easier shot at making news! Distributing news through online media also offers value adds like SEM (search engine marketing).

Technological evolution has made the task of press release writing a lot smarter. It is no more only about heading and plain data but also about keywords and links. Integrating key words, phrases and embedded links optimize the visibility factor of releases and up their rank in traditional search engines such as Google or Bing. Adding photos can make an ordinary press release stand out from the crowd, especially if you are advertising a new product or service.  Try and include audio clips of interviews, podcast excerpts, or quotes featured in the press release. Videos of product reviews, demonstrations, or interviews are brilliant additions to a press release. Integrate a ‘share’ and ‘like’ options so that people can use social media to like, bookmark or share your release. The result - your news spread even further and faster!

Well, as we come to the end of this blog and having shared the knick-knacks of press releases above, here’s something as Food for Thought. Better technologies and multiple avenues, good as they sound, also subtly imply that now you’ve got to present something of real value to your target market because… as David Ogilvy had once said -

The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife.