The development of the Internet in recent years has largely changed the idea of how – and most importantly – for whom press releases are written. Today, the chain “PR-specialist – journalist – reader” has broken, and such a communication channel as the Internet allows you to find many ways to work in conjunction “PR-specialist – reader”, bypassing the intermediate link.
Contact with the audience can be carried out through several forms, including: press releases, blogs, forums, online events, etc. We will focus on press releases, because. they are the main tool for the work of a PR specialist in the Internet community.
What does a modern PR-specialist need to know to work in the network? How to make sure that the press release is seen by the end users? Everyone can answer these questions if they understand the following five rules for themselves.
These rules only apply to press release distribution that will be published online. In addition, it cannot be argued that all the techniques are exhausted by these rules, however, this list is enough to understand the basic principles of writing press releases for the Web.
Rule One
Don’t wait for “big” reasons to write press releases, find publication-worthy reasons in the daily life of the organization. Examples are the following events:
– holding an event/action/competition both by your institution and jointly with interested structures
– participation of the company / employee of the company in any event: conference, round table, section, etc.
– improvement/modernization of the product/service
– conclusion of a new contract
– publication of a document (annual report, development strategy)
– receiving an award
Rule Two
Write your press releases for end users, not for journalists, as is done when working with print media, television, radio. In the process of writing a press release, remember what “language” your reader speaks, what vocabulary is clear and understandable for him. Use the language of your consumer.
In addition, avoid bombast, which will only interfere with the perception of the information you want to convey. In addition, you should not explain all the subtleties and nuances of your product, the features of its production. This is of no interest to the reader. For the consumer, the most curious thing is how your company differs from others, and how you solve the specific problems of your customers/patients/colleagues. Keep this in mind when working on the material, composing the headings and the structure of the text.
Rule Three
When writing the text, use keywords (such words that the end user will search for by typing them in the search bar in such systems as Yandex, Rambler, Google, etc.).
The fact is that in search engines there are special robots that check all publications on the Internet for compliance with special criteria, one of which is the presence of keywords in the text. The more keywords in a press release, the more likely it is that the material will appear in the search results and be seen by your consumer. However, this does not mean at all that the text should overflow with keywords, not at all, it will be impossible to read it. Just try to insert keywords where it is appropriate and logical in meaning.
Rule Four
Create links to your website in your press release. Your press release will be published on a variety of sites, whose users will be able to read your material. In case they are interested in obtaining additional information, you create links to your Internet resource.
Rule Five
Publish a press release on your website and on special services that publish press releases.
Today, there are a large number of press release distribution services on the Internet that specialize in publishing and distributing press releases. By publishing text on such servers, you significantly expand your readership. In addition, the number of links to the site increases, which favorably affects the citation index (CI) of the site (CI – the index of the significance of the site or a separate page of the site for the search engine), as well as site traffic.
Some press release distribution services have built-in RSS feeds that can make your press release appear on many more websites, blogs, and personal pages.
Follow these rules and the effect of publishing press releases on the Internet will pleasantly surprise you. Good luck!
