How to Write a Digital Press Release

Way, way back when I started my career in public relations, it was the time of the typed or the mailed or even the fax press release. It was the only way to get a news story in the media. Unless you had a very close relationship with a reporter or you picked up the phone, for the most part, people would rely on the press release. You would have the databases of all the media contacts you could buy, and yes, you had to buy them back then. And then you send out the release or fax it and voila, a news story. It gradually became more difficult to land a new story with a press release. So some PR types would have to get creative and some pros, not me, they would hand deliver press releases with cookies or balloons, you know, anything to stand out. Those were more of the publicity driven stories, not the newsy type stories. But people found that there had to be a way to stand out from all the noise and the clutter. But then along comes the Internet and with it a plethora of news outlets and noise that made the traditional press release almost obsolete. So question, do we still need press releases? Do public relations and public affairs types need to waste their time writing these templated releases that have never changed, it seems like in decades? The answer will be revealed in the podcast. And hint, if I said, no, we don't need the press release, then it would be an awfully short podcast. So what is a press release? Well, it's an official statement by an organization to let the media and the public know about a newsworthy event. It's also a statement used to answer questions in a crisis situation when it doesn't make sense to answer individual inquiries by the media. And many news agencies will pull quotes from press releases and use the text within their own story. So you want to make sure if you have those statements, they need to be accurate, they need to be correct, and they need to reflect precisely what the spokesperson is trying to say. In the case of smaller newspapers and some of these fluff pieces, the editors may even publish the entire press release as is a quality press release gives all of the important information, the who, what, when, where, why, and even how, and without it in many cases, and it gets tossed. Now, in the case of a statement, particularly in crisis scenarios or where there's an issue that an organization is dealing with, they may release a media statement. Media statement slightly different than a press release, because a media statement sounds just like it is. It's just a statement about an event. It doesn't cover all the W's and the h's you're not going to get the who, what, why, where and when and the how. You're just going to get who, who says what about the incident. Now, press releases not getting as much traction as they once did. How do you get yours noticed? Like I said earlier, back in the day, we would type up the press release, send it out, fax it out, and then eventually email it out to various reporters. And yes, you heard that right. There was mail and then it was faxes. Organizations also would receive physical printed clippings from news services that were charged with gathering any and all mentions of the organization and its leaders. So if you were like me, if you're a person, do you remember collecting press clippings? Ugh, what a horrible job. Someone actually got paid to go through all of the newspapers and magazines and cut out articles for specific organizations. I wonder what happened to all of those companies. Come to think of it, they obviously got bought up by someone. But talk about an antiquated piece of the news puzzle. Nowadays we don't even need to do that. It's as simple as a Google alert to get that information. But I digress. Let's talk about the key components that need to be a part of every press release in today's media and information driven world. First of all, you want to keep it simple and to the point. You are competing with much more than other press releases on a reporter's desk or in their inbox. You're also competing with deadlines, the inbox and their life. So the more compelling the headline, the more direct your approach, the more likely it is that the reporter will read and respond to your release. Writing an email subject line is not that much different if you're writing a press release compared to a marketing email. You want to grab their attention in the subject line. You don't want to use emojis in headlines or subject lines for press release. Now anyone that gets my emails, I send out emails once a week. And I like emojis. I think emojis is a language that plays well online. However, if I were ever writing a press release or a media statement, I would not use an emoji unless it was for some publicity driven type of campaign. But think about what it would look like on a reporter's mobile device. So save those emojis and the graphics for the body of the release. If you must use them, you want to use video and other multimedia. It works great on web copy and allows for an additional reach. Imagery, audio and video will also make the press release pop because that's exactly what the end user is looking for. Reporters nowadays, they just don't want the printed word. Newsrooms are stretched. They don't have the resources they once had. They don't have a ton of photographers on staff and videographers that can go out and capture and film a news event. But if you provide provide B roll for them, the background video, if you provide imagery, it's going to increase the likelihood that your story is going to run in the press release. Give them sound bites or tweetables that are easy to share on social media. What's a tweetable? It is a statement that can be tweeted 280 characters max in a tweet. So you want to make sure of all the quotes that are in your press release, make sure at least one of them. And if you can make it your money quote, like your number one quote is less than 280 characters and much shorter, so you can reference it and source it by the person who's making the quote even better. But in every single press release there should be at least one quote that can be tweeted. Because again, on Twitter, you've heard me say this a number of times on the podcast. That's where the press lives. Reporters live on Twitter. They're on it all day. That's how they get their stories. Public affairs people, spokespeople, anyone that's in the business of moving news. They are on Twitter. Use keywords that will get found so if you're submitting your press release to a media depository, it's more likely that reporters will find it. If a reporter is copying and pasting your release to their publication, the quality keywords make it easier for your readers to find the content online. What do I mean by a keyword? Those are those one word statements. Think about someone googling something or googling information. You want those keywords to match what people want or in the case of a press release, what a reporter wants. And don't forget the contact information. Every press release should have contact information available so reporters know who to reach out to if they have any questions. Remember, the contact person on a press release is not necessarily the same person as a spokesperson. In many cases it should be a different person altogether. It should be someone in the comms office. It should be someone who works in media that handles all the press requests. So if there is a follow up question, it could be the more arcane, mundane type of question. Hey, I need this photo. Your primary spokesperson isn't going to be the person that's going to handle that type of request. Now, some of the benefits to creating a 21st century press release allows the release to be more likely to get picked up by the media. Remember, it's not about just the words. It's about the imagery and the video and you delivering exactly what the media wants. Most broadcast outlets nowadays, newspaper, radio, television, they all have an online presence. And if something is online, it needs to pop. And the only way something can pop is if there is video or imagery to go with a story. Rarely do you just see a news story. That's word only. If you're in the business of sending out press releases or you have to write a press release, the good news is the format has not changed that much since press releases started years and years ago. The format's pretty much the same. However, now in the press release you want to have the multimedia elements and that is again as a reminder, video, imagery, any type of B roll, any type of interview that you want to put in there. Also add hyperlinks, hyperlink the press release where appropriate. If it's the name of a leader who is being quoted in the press release, you could have a link to their bio on the company website. You could even have a link to their LinkedIn page for them to get more information about that person. If you're referring to any event in your press release that happened in the past, or to a previous news story or blog post or or video, make sure you hyperlink it. It's a way that you are leaving digital breadcrumbs for the reporter to follow to make it easier to do the story. Every single press release needs to go out with some type of 21st century technology attached to it. So if you're in charge of the press release and writing the press release, or if you're a leader who has a communication staff working for you, make sure all of the press release as some sort of multimedia or hyperlink activity where reporters, the press, the public, anyone can get more information. After all, the technology is there for you to use. Why wouldn't you use it? The press release folks is not dead. Granted, a lot of reporters out there are finding their own news stories because of the Internet, because of social media and Reddit. And reporters are constantly looking online for news stories, are constantly looking online for news sources. But the press release is not dead. It is a valuable piece of content and a valuable tool for all communication and public relation folks to get their stories out. And again, it doesn't have to be the big news stories doesn't have to be a reaction to only negative news stories. You can put out as many press releases as you want. It's just the matter of the press picking it up and finding it. So make sure everything is there. Now, if you want more information on how to write a press release for the digital age, you can head over to my website, mollymcpherson.com scroll all the way down to the bottom and I have three cheat sheets there. The third one to the right is writing a press release for the digital age. Just click the button that says I want it and fill out the information and I will send it directly to your email. That's all for this week on the Confident Communications Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.