The document discusses how to write an effective press release to get media coverage. It notes that 70-100% of stories come from press releases and journalists are often "churnalists" who copy and paste from releases. The document provides tips on targeting a specific audience, structuring a release around the most important facts, and distributing it to relevant publications. The overall message is that an accurate, well-targeted press release can generate publicity with little effort.
My Communication Skills instructor, Mrs. Rumessa Naqvi, gave us a lecture on how to give a presentation that is really knocks the audience out, "IN ALL THE GOOD WAYS". I noted all the points down and made this powerpoint file for the best of us all. Have a look! Boost utilitarianism.
Conversion Day 2015 - Usability Best Practices - Johan VerhaegenHuman Interface Group
Surely you've attended them: all those design meetings full of high-temperature discussions about product pages, search queries and checkout flows. Everybody has their own opinion and preference, everyone refers to another big name with: “Let's do it like they do, surely they've got it right”. More often than not it ends up in a chaotic mishmash.
It doesn't have to be that way. By creating a design vision specifically tailored to your website or mobile app, you will enter your future design meetings with much more confidence and efficiency. And armored with an up-to-date selection of e-commerce usability best practices, you will be ready to design like a pro.
In this talk you will learn:
- How to create a design vision, tailored to your specific goals.
- Which usability best practices are relevant to improve your conversion rates.
Designing for Customer needs: A UX PerspectiveRichard O'Brien
A brief 20 min talk I gave to the Head Start meetup (@HeadStartAus), introducing some Lean techniques to help them consider the customer throughout the product & biz development process.
My Communication Skills instructor, Mrs. Rumessa Naqvi, gave us a lecture on how to give a presentation that is really knocks the audience out, "IN ALL THE GOOD WAYS". I noted all the points down and made this powerpoint file for the best of us all. Have a look! Boost utilitarianism.
Conversion Day 2015 - Usability Best Practices - Johan VerhaegenHuman Interface Group
Surely you've attended them: all those design meetings full of high-temperature discussions about product pages, search queries and checkout flows. Everybody has their own opinion and preference, everyone refers to another big name with: “Let's do it like they do, surely they've got it right”. More often than not it ends up in a chaotic mishmash.
It doesn't have to be that way. By creating a design vision specifically tailored to your website or mobile app, you will enter your future design meetings with much more confidence and efficiency. And armored with an up-to-date selection of e-commerce usability best practices, you will be ready to design like a pro.
In this talk you will learn:
- How to create a design vision, tailored to your specific goals.
- Which usability best practices are relevant to improve your conversion rates.
Designing for Customer needs: A UX PerspectiveRichard O'Brien
A brief 20 min talk I gave to the Head Start meetup (@HeadStartAus), introducing some Lean techniques to help them consider the customer throughout the product & biz development process.
Base material for our documentation course... and a primer for anyone wanting to do documentation for NGOs--from letters to proposals to reports, newsletters and books
Which Customers are You Building the Right Product For PCA9Paul Teich
This session is the opposite of Go-to-Market and Marketing Execution, which focus on "putting lipstick on the pig." We'll frame two ends of a product inception spectrum -- a) design a product that you'd want to buy and b) analyze a market to figure out what they're likely to buy -- and discuss the practical realities between the two.
A brief primer for designers looking to improve their writing, learn about the historic intertwining of art directors and copywriters, and gain some tips on how to work collaboratively when marrying art and copy to create great work.
Padua Communications presentation. We work in partnership with our clients to help them create a conversation with their target audiences. Key topics of presentation: What makes a good news story? (planning content); What is a press release?; How to sell in a story; 10 things you should know before dealing with the media.
Laura Oliver helps newsrooms and publishers think about how to grow and build engaged audiences for their journalism, how to incorporate and verify contributions from the audience and how to use social media as a tool for storytelling and audience development. She has recently worked for Conde Nast, New Statesman Media Group, the World Economic Forum, the Thomson Foundation and more.
Local Enterprise Office Louth "Communications Tools for SMEs" Karen Devine
A presentation made by Karen Devine of WhiteLight Consulting to the Louth Enterprise Week 2014 on the subject of "Communications Tools for SMEs" with a special emphasis on media relations.
Base material for our documentation course... and a primer for anyone wanting to do documentation for NGOs--from letters to proposals to reports, newsletters and books
Which Customers are You Building the Right Product For PCA9Paul Teich
This session is the opposite of Go-to-Market and Marketing Execution, which focus on "putting lipstick on the pig." We'll frame two ends of a product inception spectrum -- a) design a product that you'd want to buy and b) analyze a market to figure out what they're likely to buy -- and discuss the practical realities between the two.
A brief primer for designers looking to improve their writing, learn about the historic intertwining of art directors and copywriters, and gain some tips on how to work collaboratively when marrying art and copy to create great work.
Padua Communications presentation. We work in partnership with our clients to help them create a conversation with their target audiences. Key topics of presentation: What makes a good news story? (planning content); What is a press release?; How to sell in a story; 10 things you should know before dealing with the media.
Laura Oliver helps newsrooms and publishers think about how to grow and build engaged audiences for their journalism, how to incorporate and verify contributions from the audience and how to use social media as a tool for storytelling and audience development. She has recently worked for Conde Nast, New Statesman Media Group, the World Economic Forum, the Thomson Foundation and more.
Local Enterprise Office Louth "Communications Tools for SMEs" Karen Devine
A presentation made by Karen Devine of WhiteLight Consulting to the Louth Enterprise Week 2014 on the subject of "Communications Tools for SMEs" with a special emphasis on media relations.
BEN Autumn Workshop December 2012 - Hitting the Headlines
1. Hitting the headlines:
how to get effective, accurate
press coverage for your company
Bristol, 6 December 2012
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
2. Agenda
• Introduction (5 min)
• Why are press releases so important? (10 min)
• What makes a good press release? (20 min)
• Exercise – writing a press release (60 min)
• Distributing a press release (10 min)
• Conclusions (5 min)
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
3. Where do journalists get their stories?
• 70% - 100% of stories in consumer and trade press
originate from press releases
• Other sources include:
- other publications
- conferences
- reviewed journals
- gossip, anonymous tip-offs
- competitor magazines
• Journalists often create their own news
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
4. Newsflash
Journalists are lazy
Many journalists have become “churnalists”
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
5. Churnalism:
the art of spreading news by simply
copy-and-pasting a press release
Get your press release right and you
can get your message out in a very
efficient way
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
9. The story:
Researchers at Cambridge
University are working on a project
that aims to put RFID tags on every
product in a supermarket
What sorts of readers would
be interested in this story?
How would the press release/
story be different in each case?
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
10. Target readerships
• Supermarket manager, warehouse managers, logistics
companies (“Know where everything is instantly”)
• Consumers, children (“No more queuing at the checkout”;
“What is an RFID tag?”)
• Human rights interest groups, politicians, police, consumers
(“The human rights issues”)
• RF engineers, software engineers, researchers (“This is how
it works”)
• Product and packaging manufacturers (“How to integrate an
RFID chip into your product”)
• Bar code scanner manufacturers (“RFID is coming”)
• Other University of Cambridge researchers (“This is what
we are doing”)
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
11. Once you have decided your target
readership…
• …you know what that reader is interested in and you
know what the most important points are
• … you know what vocabulary to use and how to pitch
the level of information you use
Now you need to convince the editor that
his/her readers will be interested
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
12. Structure of a news story
or press release
Punchy clear headline
Most important fact
Next important fact
Background blurb and quotes
Unimportant facts to fill
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
13. A press release should….
• …be targeted at a specific audience
• …tell the editor what has happened (or is about to
happen), who did it and why it is important
• …also tell the editor when, where and how it
happened
• …not be longer than two pages of A4
• …have a photograph with it
• …contain contact details (for the press and the
reader, if these are different)
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
14. Something needs to have happened
• Not “this is our product”, but “Company A has
launched product X” or “At Exhibition X company A
will be exhibiting product B”
• Not “our product is fab”, but “Customer X has
bought product Y because it does something no
other product does”
• Not “We are focussed on providing quality products
and first class service to our customers”, but “100th
customer in Asia”
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
15. Writing a press release
When writing a press release, ask yourself:
• What is the one main point I need to get across?
What has happened?
• Why is my product/technology/service better
than what other companies are doing?
• What were the challenges we faced and how did
we overcome them?
• Why has this happened now?
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
16. Distributing a press release
• Identify target publications and send the press
release directly to them
• Ask a consultant or media company (eg
Marketwire) to build a list for you
• Use a web-based repository where journalists
come and find stories (eg PR Newswire,
Businesswire, Free Press release, PRWeb Direct,
1888Press release, Eurekalert, Alphagalileo)
• Get a PR company to write and/or distribute the
press release for you
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
17. Summary
• A press release is the best way of getting
attention from the press
• Target your press release at a specific audience
• Get your press release right and the publicity will
generate itself
• A press release is not an advert. Something needs
to have happened
• An accurate, complete press release will ensure
journalists do not make mistakes
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12
18. Thank you!
Nadya Anscombe
Freelance science and technology journalist
mail@nadya-anscombe.com
www.nadya-anscombe.com
0797 079 3127
Nadya Anscombe BEN workshop 6/12/12