Delroy A. Whyte-Hall established AcclaimPR.com in 2009 to help small business owners with public relations. In this course, he will explain what public relations is, how small businesses can generate news, how to write a news release, and where to distribute news releases. The course covers identifying news ideas from a business, the six elements of a news release including contact info, headline, date, lead paragraph and text, and finding appropriate media outlets to send releases to for coverage. The goal is to teach small business owners how to use cost-effective PR strategies to promote their company.

1. Delroy A. Whyte-Hall
ACCLAIMPR.COM
http://acclaimpr.com

2. I’m Delroy A. Whyte-Hall and I’ll be
your guide as you go through this
course. I’ve worked with many small
business owners since establishing
AcclaimPR.com in January 2009 , and
each of them have started out asking,
“What’s public relations?” You might be
asking the same question.
In this short course, I’ll answer that
question and give you a quick start to
using public relations to get the word
out about your company.
LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/whytehallcommunications

3.  Public Relations As A Marketing Strategy
 How Can My “Small Biz” Be News?
 How Do I Write A News Release?
 Sample News Releases
 Your Turn
 Where Do I Send My Release?

4. Simply put, public relations is a marketing strategy
that can propel your business forward faster than
even the best advertising.
The keys to getting good press are building
relationships with reporters and editors, sending
news, and consistently sending out messages –
building good public relations.
Do you read the newspaper or listen to the news?
Most of that news began as a news release as part
of a public relations strategy. Surprised?

5. Very Easy…
You’ve got lots of news to share
about your business, you just need
to have the right mindset to
discover it.
Ready?

6. 1. Take out a piece of paper and pen.
2. Write “My Business News Is…” at the top
of the page.
3. Take five minutes and brainstorm what’s
been happening in your business in the
last month. Just make a list as quickly as
you can.
Go ahead – I’ll wait…

7. So how did you do?
You should have been able to come up
with at least 25 items about your business.
Maybe a list to work from would help.
Here are
90-Plus Reasons To Issue A Kick Ass News Release
(https://www.box.net/shared/dtdtf1950c)

8. Compare your brainstormed list of the 90-Plus Ideas
for Writing a Kick Ass Press Release! PDF file.
.
Are there any similarities?
Do you see any items on that list that make you say,
“Oh yea, my business did that!”?
That’s how easy it is to come up with news release
ideas. Now set the list aside and we’ll move on to
what you will do with that list.

9. Writing a news release is pretty straight
forward.
Three things to remember
1. Your news release is not advertising.
2. You have about ten seconds to grab the
reader.
3. Your news release is not about you.

10. There are six basic elements that every press
release should have in terms of content and
appearance.
1. For Immediate Release
2. Contact Information
3. Headline
4. Date
5. Lead Paragraph
6. Text
7. Boilerplate

11. Okay, so let’s define each of those six elements
so you know what goes where.
Item #1: For Immediate Release
These words should appear in the upper left-
hand margin of your release. Some experts say
you should capitalize every letter. I’ve found
that’s not critical. If your release date should
be some date in the future, indicate for release
on that specific date.

12. Item #2: Contact Information
Skip a line or two after your release
statement and list the contact name and
title of the person who is the expert for
this release, plus your telephone number,
company name and an eMail address.

13. Item #3: Headline
Skip two lines after your contact information
and use boldface, underline or ALL CAPS type
for your headline. Your headline should be
informative, not full of hype.

14. Item #4: Date
The information identified in this
spot is the city your press release is
issued from and the date you are
sending our your release.

15. Item #5: Lead Paragraph
The first paragraph needs to grab the reader’s
attention and should contain the information relevant
to your message such as the 5W's (Who? What?
When? Where? Why?).
Sometimes you also need to add the How? Element.
The first 10 words of this paragraph will make the
difference between a news release that is read and
one that is thrown away.

16. Item #6: Text
This is the main body of your press release
where your message should fully develop.
Make it easy for the reporter to do his / her
job. Deal with the facts and avoid excessive
use of company lingo and fancy language.

17. Item #7: Boilerplate
The last paragraph should be company
boilerplate, a brief description of the company,
and any information you want people to know
about it, such as what type of business it is in,
what its annual sales are, where it is
headquartered, where branch offices are
located, number of employees, etc.

18. That’s it! Yes, it really is that easy.
If you’d like a printed template to work from, you
can download the News Release Template.
Click to Download Press Release Template

19. One of the best ways to learn is by studying other
news releases.
I place all of my news on my web site once it’s been
published.
You can hop on over there to take a look at some
samples.
It’s at IN THE NEWS
http://whytehallcommunications.webs.com/inthen
ews.htm

20. Let’s dissect the second release titled: Jamaican Publicist
Offers Free "Small Biz-Focused" Publicity eReport!
Here’s the first paragraph.
Every business needs publicity, but the small the small business owner needs it the most!
There is no better way to help jumpstart your business or supplement your company’s
ongoing advertising than doing a good job at public relations, and so, Delroy A. Whyte-
Hall, head of the new internet-based publicity-marketing consultancy Whyte-Hall
Communications (http://whytehallcommunications.webs.com), wants to make life a little
easier, publicity-wise, for the nation’s entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Before you go to the next slide, take a
piece of paper and identify what the five
Ws are in this first paragraph of this
release.

21. Here Are The Five W’s In This Release
1. Who? Small Business Owners
2. What? "Small Biz-Focused" Publicity eReport!
3. When? Now
4. Where? On the internet
5. Why? Need help jumpstarting their business or
supplement their company’s ongoing
advertising
How did you do?

22. See how easy that was?
That’s all you have to do. This news release
was picked up by both local
and national newspapers.
Yours can be too. Just follow the formula on
the Press Release Template and you’ll create
some winners. If you need more practice, feel
free to dissect the rest of the news release on
my web page.

23. Time to write your news release.
Take that brainstormed list of topics you
created a little while ago, pick one of the
topics, and using the Press Release
Template , write your news release.
Bingo! You’re done.

24. Well, that depends.
What you’ll need to do is identify those media
(newspapers, radios, TVs, Internet, Blogs, Newsletters,
Magazines, etc.) and reporters who write about your type
of news. It will take you a little leg work, but the time
spent will be worth it because you will be targeting your
release to the people who have the means to use it.
So spend some time finding that list of people and media
before you’re ready to send your first release. You can find
places on the internet by searching press release
distribution.

25. I hope this short course has been helpful to you.
Feel free to email me at whcomn@gmail.com
with any questions you have.
(I’d love to hear about your success too!)
You’re also invited to visit me at
ACCLAIMPR.COM
You are also invited to subscribe to my blog:
The Business Beast
You may also follow me on Twitter
(http://twitter.com/theprwriter) and Facebook
(http://facebook.com/whcomn)