Press Releases: An important part of Public Relations Strategies

Advertising is a very important part of a business no matter whether huge or small. Press releases are quite essential for creating and maintaining public relations. Press release and public relations, the two PR’s are often mistaken. PR actually corresponds to public relations not press release; however, press releases are one of the tools in PR. PR or public relations basically aim at informing the public about your business by the means of news stories and articles. It is one the best ways of advertising since the people are more likely to read news stories rather than an advertisement.                                         

                                                                              
The Three P’s                           

Press release, publicizing and public relation (PR) are all interrelated terms yet each one has its different function. Press releases are also known as news releases, the only difference is, a news release is not only intended for the media distribution but it is also for the general public.

Public relations (PR) thus refer to the communication of the business with the goal of creating a healthy image in front of the public. They are basically the strategies for the business to inform of their presence and work in a good way. It is the grounds for publicizing the goals and image of a business. The form of communication can be anything from articles, to blog posts, to letters and of course press releases.

Hence, a Public Relations Press Release generates publicity and at the same time develops good public relations.

Now, the next step is to be able gain maximum of the news coverage by sending it out as press release. The article or the stories about the business is likely to be published by various print Medias such as newspaper, magazines, online etc. A press release cannot just be printed, they should contain news, something that you want the public to know, some of the events for which a press release can be sent out are as follow:

•    Commencement of a new business,
•    Expansion of the business,
•    Shifting to a newer location,
•    Products or services launch,
•    Celebration of success or anniversary,
•    Getting big and important orders,
•    Funding a sports team or a band or anything else,
•    Raising certain concerns,
•    Special events, offers and much more                            

An ideal Public Relations News Release should have a striking headline which should be followed by the news or the story you want to bring in the knowledge of people. The information should be easily readable and hence the amount of space can be increased between the lines. At the end, contact details should be provided such as phone number and email address. This is because the editor may wish to contact for more information. As the press release is more of an article about something new in the business and hence should not be written as an advertisement. It should be brief and to the point just same as realistic news in the news papers. The story provided by you if published as it is or with fewer changes by the editors means that it is a good press release.

Making use of social media release for public relations - Part 1

After nearly 100 years of traditional press release, the social media release has arrived to open up dialogues in many new ways. These can be considered to be complementary, as traditional press release reaches the traditional media while the SMR reaches the social media. Ane Howard (annehowardpublicist.com), a social media strategist and a public relations veteran believes that “the difference between a PR and Social Media campaign is that social media is focused on strengthening the relationships that people have with a brand via a two-way interaction, and takes place on a daily and continuing basis.” Ane said to us that “a social media release with its strong digital components of image, video and rss feeds has an extended shelf life on the web through repeat viewing in various online communities that a traditional press release does not posses.”                     

It is the social media release that has made it so easy for people to share important information with others while also being able to add their own unique perspective to that text.

Also, the social search engines do not readily pick up the traditional press release. In fact, the SMR is an excellent way to get traffic to a company websites. Basically, it is just the basic press release that has been altered in order to become more suitable to the environment on the Internet. The goal of the social media release is also to provide concise information to media journalists in order to give them assistance in writing about your business. Besides, it offers various benefits to the online reader. Various keywords as well as links can be used in order to optimize the SMR and make it get more attention in the search rankings.

                        
Just like a traditional press release, even a social media release has a catchy headline. It focuses on a specific benefit of your product or service and is used to drive home several points that will be able to emphasize that benefit.

The social media release is used in public relations as it has links within its text that is used to direct people to your site. This is why SEO tactics such as keywords are to be used in it. In addition, it will also have your IM as well as VoIP contact information so that the end users are able to contact you easily. As compared to a traditional press release, it has multimedia links such as audio files besides embedded videos. Even though it is a new thing, people are coming up with innovative ways for using this in public relations.