How to Write a Press Release When There’s No News

At this time of year, a lot of businesses make a new start. A move to a new premises. A new product range. Or a new business, full stop. Plenty of fodder for media outlets. But what if nothing new is happening? You may feel nothing is happening in your business that is worthy of a press release. Finding newsworthy angles is a particular problem for service businesses, who don’t have anything tangible to show for your efforts.

But the good news for those in service businesses is that you do have a source of news – yourself. Your opinions. Your insights. And your expertise. You can’t have new things happening all the time, so media outlets frequently fill their slots with opinions from experts. And you can take advantage of that trend.

Here’s How

Be Upbeat About the Economy: That’s what Positive Economist Susan Hayes is doing. She’s been featured on the Sunday Business Post and on RTE’s The Business, because she wants to turn the tide of doom and gloom pouring out of the media. If you genuinely feel there’s a glimmer of hope for us, don’t be afraid to light the way with a press release outlining your views.

Awareness of Trends: If you know what makes people buy certain products, or developments are happening in your industry which will have a broader ripple effect, you can put yourself forward as an expert. You can show how customers can benefit from these trends and achieve real value for money.

Offer Business Advice: The world of business can be a minefield, so you could put together an article or blog post that guides people through the minefield. This is what John Jordan of Next Chapter Marketing Consultancy does. His blogs on low-cost marketing solutions for small businesses have featured on www.bizstartup.ie.

So where can you go with your ideas.

Radio Business Programmes: The bulk of business and current affairs programmes on radio are now taken up with opinion, with people sharing their expertise and predicting trends. You can avail of these trends by contacting the producers of programmes like The Business and Newstalk Breakfast with your ideas. Ringing them ensures a prompter answer, but be sure not to do it too close to programme time, as you want to ensure they’re receptive. Be chatty and enthusiastic when you’re talking to them and they’ll see you as radio-friendly.

Newspaper Articles: Slots like Business Brain in the Irish Independent offer a platform for business people to share their expertise. If you send in press releases to newspapers, they’ll see you as a good candidate for a quote in an article about business practise. If you want to write an article, don’t send in the whole article. Send a summary instead, highlighting what you think is newsworthy about your idea.

Online Outlets: If you’re not sure where your press release, you could find an online press outlet. www.irishpressreleases.ie, www.bizstartup.ie and www.irishmediastore.com are all free. Bizstartup is read by business people, while Irish Press Releases and Mediastore are used by journalists to source news.

Feel free to share your own stories of getting press coverage as a service business with me and my readers.

 

 

 

 

A Writerly Year

As this will be my last post for 2010, I thought I would share my year’s highlights, lessons learned and hopes for the future. This is a time of year when people reflect on where they are, so I think this post is timely.

So here are my writerly highlights

Creative Writing

• Finishing my novel and being in a position to send it out to agents
• Delivering creative writing classes in schools
• Delivering my first-ever creative writing workshops for adults.

WriteWords

• Fruitful collaborations with Samantha Clooney of The Virtual Office and John Jordan of Next Chapter.
• Proofreading the bestselling book Blow it Up Ref! for Brian Kennedy
• Helping Vince Doherty of Adikat, a mobile-phone marketing company, to secure media coverage twice in the Sunday Business Post, in the Irish Examiner and on 4FM.
• Securing local media coverage for Karen Frampton of Frampton Career Solutions, Peter Jones of Foot Solutions and Claudio Cavaliere of Espresso.
• Helping John O’Connor of Red Oak Tax Refunds get a 25% increase in the hit rate to his landing page.
• A successful marketing campaign targeting wedding businesses.

Journalism

• Continued articles in Irish Medical Times and Irish Skipper
• A new column with the Munster Express, in association with Home Instead Senior Care.

Lessons Learned

• There is no substitute for hard work
• My work for businesses is at its most effective when combined with the work of other professionals who have similar skills.
• Other people have different ways of learning, so it is important to be flexible to accommodate those
• To take a more methodical approach to my work and pay more attention to detail.
• Persist, persist, persist in securing media coverage.
• It’s okay sometimes to fake it until you make it.

Hopes for 2011

• To expand the number of creative writing classes I offer, in schools and to adults.
• To find a publisher for my novel.
• To further my existing collaborations and to build new ones, particularly with Bryan Corden of Hedgehog Video Productions, who plan to launch in January.
• Conrad Howard of Market Lane Restaurant in Cork has approached me to write a blog for his restaurant. When his new website has been fully revamped, I will ensure that his blog will win many followers.
• To continue delivering service in style to my WriteWords customers, my editors and my creative writing students.

Feel free to share your own highlights for 2010 and hopes for 2011.

Despite the downturn, this has been a year of growth for me. For those of you who found 2010 tough, you have my deepest sympathy and here’s hoping 2011 is a better year for all of us. Meantime, I would like to thank all my customers and students for their custom throughout the year and to wish them a Merry Christmas.

 

The Media and the Arts

It’s Culture Night tonight. For anyone who’s going to an event, enjoy. You certainly can’t have missed the coverage, as the media has been giving it a generous splash. Morning Ireland devoted seven or eight minutes to it this morning – a hefty slice of coverage for a flagship current affairs show.

Amid all the grim gurning of the economy, the media is spreading small rays of sunshine with its coverage of the arts. Hardly a week goes by without a writer or musician appearing on a mainstream daytime programme. Given that the media is still largely word-based, writers of all disciplines tend to be better-represented than the rest. Emma Donoghue’s shortlisting for the Booker merited a story on the Six-One News.

And it’s not all warm, fuzzy stories either. The media weighed behind the petitioners in the campaign for the arts that was staged last year, when the arts sector faced massive cuts in the budgets. Writer Colm Toibin gave an extensive interview on Morning Ireland. Though it’s hard to quantify, the media may well have played a role in ensuring that the axe didn’t fall quite as heavily as it could have.

Why is the media giving so much acreage to the arts? Is it because of journalists’ frustrated dreams of artistic genius? It’s more likely to be because Ireland’s outpouring of artistic expression is the only good news story we have. And it can be turned into real economic gold. Artists have begun to capitalise on this trend and to recognise the importance of making themselves available in the media, which can only be good for sales.

But there is still more that the media can do. There are other art forms which deserve to be captured more frequently, like dance, street theatre and experimental music. And arts organisations are still experiencing a death by a thousand cuts. Coverage of this year’s National Day for the Arts came to no more than a whimper. The media needs to keep its foot on the pedal. After all, the arts is what makes us a society, a civilisation, rather than an economy.

If you are an artist, how do you feel the media treats artists? What do you feel the media can do to give more coverage to the arts?

Media and the Single Life

The new Sex and the City film comes out next week. I will watch it. I will enjoy it. But I will also feel a niggling sense of mourning, for how willing the four heroines ultimately were to surrender their single-but-fabulous image.

The trend for celebrating coupled-up bliss over the single life carries right across the media. There are the obvious culprits; articles and radio items advising single people on how to find love. But there are more subtle examples: travel articles aimed at families, columns about the trials of domestic life, news articles offering statistics on the quality of life of couples versus singles.

Celebrating Choices

While choosing not to marry or have children is still a minority choice, the minority that choose to take this path is growing and media coverage needs to reflect that. It does do this to a certain extent, but it corrals single people into special sections, one-off feature articles or segments in radio stations. But the voices of single people need to become integral to all media coverage.

There are various ways to weave the single life throughout the media. For example:

• Travel articles for the solo traveller
• More profiles of single people (ex. Miriam Meets on Radion 1)
• Practical pieces about socialising as a single person.
• Personal columns that offer a humorous birds-eye view of the single life.
• News articles revealing statistics about the benefits of single life.
• Products and services tailored to single people.
• Celebrations of the different types of single, men, women, gay or straight, permanently single or newly single.

Win-Win for Singles and Media

Giving single people a voice will help them feel more accepted and included in the media. As a result, they’ll be more likely to be loyal to a magazine, radio programme, TV programme or newspaper. Journalists will appreciate the opportunity to look at life from unusual angles and to include viewpoints that add richness to their coverage, They will derive satisfaction from knowing that their coverage is reaching out to new audiences.

Spin-Off for Business and Advertising

Creating media coverage that appeals to single people isn’t just aspiration. It can bring in revenue, for the media and for businesses. This is a powerful demographic; it is growing and it has a lot of disposable income. If you have a business with a product or service which appeals to this demographic, you can pitch it to the media, outlining its benefits for their audiences. The media itself will benefit because its coverage will help advertisers tap into a lucrative market.

What’s Your View?

This blog represents my own views as a single (as in not married) person who has chosen not to have children. If anyone can point me to examples of positive media coverage of the single life, I’d be happy to explore them.

Talk to Joe: The Power of Radio as a communications Tool

People responded to the recent death of top Irish broadcaster Gerry Ryan as they would to the death of a close friend. When you think about it, this is hardly surprising. He talked to them every morning, laughed with them, shared their pain, helped them find solutions to their problems. just as a good friend would. In turn, they laughed at his jokes, raged at him and praised him to the skies.

Intimate Medium

This is the power that radio has in our lives. More than any other medium, it is a constant companion to us as we go about our daily business. As I write, Morning Ireland presenters are delivering the latest news in calm, measured tones. What is it that makes radio so special? Relationships. Top broadcasters form a relationship with their listeners and communicate with them as if they were the only person in the room. The listeners return that loyalty by listening and contributing in large numbers.

Voice and Words

For a top broadcaster, their voice is their instrument. They know how to exploit its range to create a strong emotional impact. Depending on the story they’re discussing, they speed up, slow down, drop their voice to a whisper, or boom through the speakers. They are performers. On a technical level, a good broadcaster speaks at a pace and volume that ensures no word is lost. They can break a concept down to its simplest form, so it’s easy for listeners to understand.

The words a broadcaster uses are  different from those used by print or online journalists. They are every day words, the words of the street. Our words. The formal words used in print articles just don’t work on radio. They’re too bulky. Instead, broadcasters paint word pictures with simple, bold brush strokes, using slang to add colour.

Overcoming Nerves

A lot of people are a little afraid of radio, because they think of all the thousands of people listening. There is also the fear that they cannot undo what they have said. If you’re due to appear on radio, the best way to overcome those nerves is to remember that a radio interview is really a one to one conversation, with someone who’s drinking tea in their kitchen, driving the kids to school or working in an office. A good broadcaster will further ease your nerves, making you feel as if you’re just having a cosy chat. And your words will have an immediate impact on them that they wouldn’t have anywhere else.

Also, remember that the less you worry about how you will sound, the better you will sound. Time is usually tight on radio programmes, so it helps to get an indicator of the topics that will be covered in your interviewr to make sure you can get your message across in the shortest possible time. But if you try to plan every word you’ll say, you’ll end up sounding scripted. It’s important to be flexible, so you can handle any question that comes up. You’ve been invited onto the show because you know what you’re talking about. That passion and expertise will come across.

Direct Communication

But radio gives you a chance to talk to your audience in a direct way, as if you were sitting across from them. Next time you’ve got an event, a book or a business to promote, why not consider a radio station talkshow or businses programme? Radio is a valuable resource, just waiting to be tapped into.

By its nature, radio