10 Tips for PR 2.0 and a Sexier Press Release

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This post was written in part for our sister traditional ad agency, Brandon Advertising's PR department. 

Blog programmer Jeff and I were talking about how to help them blog excellently and help their clients blog excellently, and thinking about the differences between traditional PR and web 2.0.   That's where this blog post started.

Then we just had a meeting with Brandon PR team there and the possibilities for Social Media Management and Online Reputation Management are pretty exciting (our combination of interactive savvy and their decades of PR expertise mean we can create a powerful new offering AND probably form Voltron), but PR people need succinct guidance as well as info for their clients.  That's what this post is for.

How does this fit with traditional PR?

It doesn't.  Press releases are boring and written to get the attention of old media.  The way to get the attention bloggers is to follow the 10 steps below.

Is there a press release for bloggers?

Blog posts themselves work like press releases for bloggers.  Bloggers typically don't read press releases.  They read popular news blogs like TechCrunch, which pick up things from a variety of news sources.  Most of this happens via RSS feeds. 

1. A blogger reads news from another blog's RSS feed, then
2. He/she blogs about it, and then
3. Their RSS feed communicates info about that new blog post to other bloggers.
   Click here or on the image for an illustration of the RSS feed process.

As more traditional journalists get into blogs and social media, they'll be reading the blog posts that get attention and make it into popular RSS feeds, so this is how you'll reach journalists online.

A 2.0 press release, or "social media release" follows the guidelines below.  There's no reason not to do both traditional and 2.0 press releases.  But know that a traditional press release alone isn't going to engage web visitors like a sexy blog post will.  ...cuz who doesn't like sexy?  Ok, maybe the pope.

10 Tips for Making Your Press Release 2.0 and Getting More Attention Online:

1. Use Multimedia. Text is boring.  A combo of images, video, audio, pdfs, etc. is much more titillating.  And PDFs are better than Word DOCs.
    
2. Link it!  Create internal links by linking from one blog post to another (that's what I just did with that PDF vs Doc link above).  Put keywords in the blog post title to get more relevant links from other blogs.  Put in social bookmarking tokens to facilitate viral message spread.
    
3. Make Lists.  Lists are easier to read, are more organized, and more useful to the reader.  This fabulous blog post includes a top 10 list.
    
4. Ask for and Respond to Comments.  If people don't comment, they don't care, and you didn't make an impact.  Try some controversy.  Or use the word sexy 20 times in your post.
    
5. Write Sexy Titles.  They get attention and increase curiosity- that's why I said "sexier" in this post's title.  Titles are arguably more important than your post... because without good, stimulating titles, no one will read your post.
    
6. Engage Multiple Contributors (real people).  This post would be even better if it was the opinion of 10 different bloggers.  This blog is written by multiple people.  Synergy, baby, synergy.
    
7. Personality.  Web 1.0 was boring and corporate.  Web 2.0 is real people with real, sometimes controversial opinions.  Without an opinion you can't make an impact, without emotions you're not human.  Talk to humans like a human if you want to make a connection.  That means not legislating the soul out of your releases with overly restrictive guidelines.  NOTE: you must possess, develop, or purchase a personality before you can successfully complete this step.
    
8. Be Useful.  What's the reader's take away?  Just ideas?  Not good enough.  Why should someone tell someone else about your release?  They're asking "WIIFM" (What's in it for me?) and they know if they forward it on to you, you better not be likely to go "What the heck is this?  Who cares?"  The value must be obvious.
    
9. Use Real Stories.  Ideas and principles alone are boring and don't engage most people .  Stories that illustrate principles, however, are powerful.  That's why preachers use them.  That why politicians use them.  That's why YOU should use them.
   
   
10. Write Good.  Yes, that was tongue in cheek.  Good writing does the work of communicating for the reader.  Bad writing makes the reader do the work of understanding.  That's lazy.  And that could be impossible if your writing really sucks.

All of the above needs to be interesting, shocking, surprising, fun, thoughtful, and personal.  That's why I use a sense of humor and choose surprising/shocking words.  Ok, go forth, release in a 2.0 manner, and form Voltron!