Thursday, May 19

Writing Press Release & Submitting it free on Newsmotto.com

Writing Press Releases - Part 1 : Headlines



A headline is text at the top of a press release, indicating the nature of the news below it. Headlines are written in bold and is much larger in size that the press release text. The general headlines conventions include using present tense and omitting "a" and "the" as well as forms of the verb "to be" in certain contexts.

The press release headline should be brief, clear and to the point. In case of press releases, generally it would have an announcement tone to describe the latest achievement of the company, the recent event of the company, product or service announcement, partnership announcement and so on. For example, "XYZ Company announces strategic partnership with ABC Company in India & Us".

The first word in the press release headline should be capitalized as should all proper nouns. Most headline words appear in lower-case letters. Do not capitalize every word.

You must include the company name in the headline for better visibility in search engines and for journalists and readers convinience.

Treat press release headline as the ultra-compact version of the entire press release content. But at the same time, keep it simple, clear and short.

The simplest method to arrive at the press release headline is to extract main points (highlights) and then the most important keywords from your press release. Now from these keywords, try to frame a logical & attractive statement. Using keywords will give you better visibility in search engines and it would be simpler for journalists and readers to get the idea of the press release content.




Press Release - Part 2 : Press Release Body / Copy




A press release is simply a written statement distributed to the media. It is a fundamental tool of PR work. Press release is a factual and a newsworthy statement.

The press release should be written as you want it to appear in a news story. The other word for press release in news release.

The press release content/copy should be compact. Avoid using very long sentences and paragraphs. Avoid repetition and over use of grammer and fancy language.

Press release must deal with actual facts - events, product, service, people, target, goals, plans, projects. Try to provide maximum use of these 'real' facts and contents.

The length of a press release should be atleast a page and maximum two or three pages.

The more newsworthy you make the press release copy, the chances of it being selected by a journalist or reporting increases.

Before writing a press release keep the audience in the mind, people who are likely to be interested in your news release.

A first paragraph or two three sentences must actually sum up the press release and the further content must elaborate it. In fast paced world neither journalists or other readers would read the entire press release if the start of the article doesn't generate interest.

A simple method for writing an effective press release. Make a list of following things :

1) What is the actual news ?
2) Why this THE NEWS ?
3) The people, products, items, dates and other things related with the news.
4) The purpose behind the news
5) Your company - the source of this news.

Now from the points gathered from this 5 steps, try to construct paragraphs and assemble them sequentially for example - The headline > the summary or introduction of the news > event or achievements > product > people > again the concluding summary > the company.

Reasearch the actual press releases on the web for getting the feel of the tone of a press release, the language, the structure and the format of a press release.




Press Release - Part 3 : About The Company



About the company - section is a short information about the company who has actually submitted the press release and about whom the news is all about.

When a journalist picks up your press release for a story, he/she would logically have to mention about the company too in the news article. Journalists can then put the company information from this section.

The title for this section should be - About XYZ_COMPANY

After the title, use paragraph or two to describe your company with 5/6 lines each. The text must desctibe your company, it's core business and the business policy. Many businesses already have a professionaly written brochures, presentations, business plans, etc. - that introductory text can be put up here.

At the end of this section you must point to your website. The link should be the exact & complete URL without any embedding so that, even if this page is printed, the link will be printed as it is. For example : http://www.your_company_website.com.

Companies which maintain a seperate media page on their websites must point to that URL here. A media page typically has contact information and press kit (PDFs and Logos)

After this section - you can provide some extra information links which support your press release or close the press release with the contact information.



Press Release Part 4 : Contact Information

If your press release is really newsworthy, journalists would surely like more information or would like to interview key people associated with it.

If you are comfortable with the idea of letting your key people being directly contacted by media, you can provide their contact details on the press release page itself. For example, in case of some innovation you can provide the contact information of your engineering or research team for the media.

Otherwise, you must provide the details of your MEDIA/PR department in the CONTACT section. If you do not have dedicated team for this function, you must appoint somebody who will act as a link between the media and your people.

The contact details must be limited and specific only to the current press release.

The contact details must include:
(1) The Company's Offical Name
(2) Media Department's offical Name and Contact Person
(3) office Address
(4) Telephone & FAX Numbers with proper country/city codes and extension numbers
(5) Mobile Phone Number (optional)
(6) Timings of availability
(7) Email Addresses
(8) Website Address



For submitting your press release for free join http://www.newsmotto.com - a free press release publishing service. It also offers Press Release Feeds (XML/RSS) for a company, industry and country.

Newsmotto.com : What's your news, what's your motto ?

Alternate headlines :

1. Press Release Step by Step
2. How to write a press release?
3. How to submit press releases for free
4. What is a press release
5. Press Release explained and it's component

Friday, March 4

News Spamming or Flooding- The Google News

I dont know if it is intentional or not, but if you search Google News with keywords as 'india business' you get the search results only from one site. The reason is - 'that' site is using 'those' keywords in the news title. I hope it is unintentional - b'cos there are lots of smart small news sites who can hijack the news search engines and aggregator and defy the whole purpose of it. See : Google Search: india business.

The idea for using the category name in the title is strange not very common.

It has also helped in populating the searches for any word combination with india

A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies

Slashdot | A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies

Monday, February 28

Jef Raskin, Fater of Macintosh passes away

Macobserver :


Jef Raskin, Apple employee #31 and father of Macintosh, passed away peacefully Friday, February 26, 2005. He was 61.

A professor turned consultant, Mr. Raskin wrote the BASIC manual for the Apple II in 1976 and joined the company on January 3, 1978. Less than two years later, he gained approval from the board for the Macintosh project, despite strong opposition from Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. Mr. Raskin envisioned the Macintosh as a departure from computers of the time. Instead of forcing users to toil with slots and cables, he conceived an all-in-one enclosure. Mr. Raskin also originally wanted to sell the computer for just $500-$1,000, but when Mr. Jobs took over the project it soon ballooned from a research project to a full blown product development that would arrive in 1984 as both a savior to Apple's failed Lisa computer and a $5,000 system.

Feeling squeezed and unhappy by how much of the Macintosh project Mr. Jobs had taken over, Mr. Raskin tendered his resignation from Apple on March 1, 1982.

After his departure, Mr. Raskin founded Information Appliance Inc., where he created the Canon Cat in pursuit of his vision that a computer should be an easy-to-use tool. The device never took off, however.

Friday, February 25

Look ma I am on Slashdot

After rejecting my dozens of story submission, slashdot.org has finally accepted this interesting story : using air to recharge your cell phones which I had picked up from Rediff. To this interesting article I have recieved very funny, taunting & teasing responses and very few serious ones ;-).



Friday, February 18

COMMON.net business networking

PR Newswire:

COMMON.net has launched its online business networking application, defining an entirely new approach to the industry. Successful people are good at networking, and they use COMMON.net to turn their Rolodex(R) into a controlled-access intranet to share Contacts with their friends and other members. Members let the COMMON Ground(TM) they share with others connect them to the people they need to reach.

The application introduces novel features to the relationship capital management industry:

-- best mechanism for establishing trust between members in an online environment -- new industry standards for privacy, confidentiality and discretion
-- multi-directional reputation system
-- platform suitable for individuals as well as enterprise employees.....

Times Company to Buy About.com for $410 Million

Dot com are not do gones afterall : TheTimes Company to Buy About.com for $410 Million

Thursday, February 10

43Things.com

43things.com is a new entrant in social networking. I immediately fell in love with their idea, I wish I could come up with this idea. Just register within a sec, write your goal or task you want to do, the system will show you other users with similar goals and now you can network with each other depending on what you want to do and what are your goals.

Suppose you wanted to loose weight and submit it as your goal. 43things will prompt you all other users who share this goal. Now you can share tips, give advice, take advice, motivate each other or simply be friends. As simple as that.

Right from the list it seems to be more of social than business networking. But it can surely become a good tool for business networking also.

Wednesday, February 9

Mobile growth in India

India's mobile base has crossed 50 Million and is expected to cross 80 million by the end of this year. In terms of overall teledensity we have touched 8.5pc. This local boost in the telecom is now encouraging "made in india" handset production and very soon India will starting exporting the mobiles.

Saturday, February 5

Indian News Aggregator

IndusNeXus.com (beta) | Free Social & Business Networking | Community Blogging | India has started a new service of news aggregator :

Your Online News Paper : News Aggregated from various sources
Read Online : * India Business | * Indian Blogs | *Indian News Headlines