SOLAADS

How to do your own PR

PR is all about reputation management and how your "public" sees you. Whatever level of competition you may be at, you will need to manage your own reputation and, if you are lucky enough, that of your sponsors. I hope, with a series of articles, to try help you all maximise your dealings with the media and with your sponsors. Of course, I know that many of you are old hands at all this stuff, but newcomers may not be so au fait with it all. For this article, we shall try to master the art of press releases.

When writing a release, about any subject, one of the very best formulae I have come across is from a PR guru called Frank Jefkins. His formula is thus:

SOLAADS

• S - Subject - of the story
• O - Organisation - the name of the company, firm organisation
• L - Location - where it is located, which may be different from the address for further information
• A - Advantages - of the policy, scheme, action, product, or service
• A - Application - to which the subject may be put
• D - Detail - of specification, prices and so on
• S - Source - of further information

Now, you won't be able to apply this formula to everything you write about, but it does help to focus your story.

Secondly, you MUST get everything you need to say succinctly in the first paragraph. Journalists get a rain forest of paper on their desks every day. They tend to scan the first paragraph to see what the news is and if they can't find it there, then the release will go in the bin! Also, if they want to use the story and are pushed for space, they will cut it from the bottom of the release up, so it's even more important to put the main points of your story in the first paragraph.

Try not to use too many superlatives - "fantastic", "great", "marvellous" - however great you thought you were. Let the journalists add any if they want to. Just concentrate on getting the facts you want across.

Finally, target your release to ensure it gets to the right person, when they want it. Spend a little time beforehand ringing around your chosen media and establishing; a) if they are interested, b) who is the right person to send it to, c) when would they like it i.e. such as by 7:00pm for a morning daily and d) how would they like it i.e. e-mail, post, fax, phone etc.