1. Incorporate the most important information at the beginning – By doing this, you will be able to compel your audience to read the press release. As you incorporate information that is very significant, you should also make sure that you do so in a manner that is interesting. You can achieve this by mentioning ground breaking facts, making a bold first statement or by offering a hard hitting experience or life story that is relevant to the other parts of your release.
2. Write the release in the perspective of your audience – You can do this by assuming that you are one of the people that will read your press release. This will help you understand the pieces of information that may interest you and whether the content will be compelling and informative to the reader. By doing this, you will help your audience relate themselves well to your viewpoint.
3. Do not put in too many facts or promotional taglines to your release – It is essential to create a press release that respects the reader and you should therefore blend in your facts smoothly in an attractive and presentable manner. When describing certain products, it is better to use concise and simple messages.
4. Offer to donate to a worthy cause – Your press release can be very effective if you offered to donate to a certain worthy cause. The reason for this is that most people are happy to hear of companies or individuals who are helping others.  By offering to make donations, you can receive a lot of free promotion and boost your image.
5. Relate your services or products to a national or local news event – You can relate current national or local issues that are affecting people such as unemployment or energy crisis. If your service or product can be able to offer a solution in any way, you can be able to get publicity. For example, if you own a resume service that is very successful for a certain reason, you can phrase your press release in a manner that shows how it can be able to solve the unemployment crisis.
6. Incorporate seasonal events in your press release – Note that seasonal changes are always part of the news. For example, in the summer, you will find stories related to the best airline deals and safe vacation travel. When the year is ending, you will find coverage relating to New Year’s resolutions and what it takes to keep them. You can create an effective press release if your company is able to offer viable information that relates to seasonal events.
7. Follow the press release format strictly – Before going to the details of writing a perfect press release, you should know about the format. You can do this by visiting reputable news release submission sites and look at the suggested formats they provide. These formats will give you a good idea of how to follow the uniform format as you write your news release content.
8. Use an approach that is direct to the point – Since your press release will target a particular audience, you should ensure that the language you use continues to provoke readers. News that is written in a manner that is direct to the point is more visible than that of a descriptive press release, which is loosely written.
9. Mention quotes – As you write a press release, you can make it more effective by mentioning quotes of key people. These could include the words of the CEO to customers and those of experts in the products or services that you are providing.
10. Ensure that language quality is high – Since you are writing a press release that addresses many people, you should ensure that it does not contain any grammatical or spelling errors. The content you write should be interesting to read and should have proper flow that will ensure readers go through it without feeling bored.

Here are a few dos and don’ts:

Take baby steps and concentrate on one effective social media than trying to set up accounts in almost every network you know about. Building a strong social media network demands a lot of time and patience. If you try to grow numerous accounts, they’ll fizzle out sooner than you imagine. Furthermore, you will lose the interest for it.

Hence, take some time to research and identify that one social media network that perfectly suits your brand or business. When you take baby steps towards creating your network and making it stronger, you will enjoy and appreciate the little benefits derived from it.

You have a social media presence. Great! Now, tell it to the world by putting up a widget for your social network on your site. You will find a good fan following from your site or blog. Let your customers and casual visitors know that you are on Facebook or Twitter by adding a widget next to your content.

Keep a tab on what works and what doesn’t. Let’s say, you start by adding a widget for Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and more. After a month or so, you will know which button gets more impact and which doesn’t work for you at all. So, if Facebook and Twitter gets voted on the most then consider keeping them and drop the rest. A site littered with numerous buttons and widgets doesn’t give a nice look to it.

Try not to annoy your followers by bombarding them with offers, news, coupons and others. Don’t indulge so much into self promotion or else you will lose it. The rule of thumb is: don’t give shit, if you don’t want to take it. People follow you because they respect the brand and want to show their love for it. Try to be helpful and add some value to the network before asking people to check out your new blog, offers etc.

Remember, you cannot force people to follow you, when you offer something valuable and attractive; you will immediately gain admiration and followers. So, concentrate on adding value to the site and be an active member. Start by giving and then ask!

When I look back to elementary school and even beyond that, one thing that still holds true is, relationships matter. How you treat people and how you leave them feeling is something they will never forget. Treat them well they will remember you fondly, treat them bad and they will be sure to tell everyone that will listen. That translates directly into your business practice. In a time when person-to-person interaction is becoming less personal it is even more important to remember that customer service is imperative. Consumers these days want instant gratification. They want it faster and cheaper and will move on to the next website or online store if they can’t get what they need quickly. I am impressed by businesses that offer instant online chats or at least have someone answering the phone or responding within an hour to an email or Facebook post. Responding quickly not only shows you care but it also show your potential customer that you respect them and their valuable time.

An example of excellent customer service: Comcast (a cable and internet service provider) is fighting an uphill battle with a reputation of always being late or giving you a 5 hour window to wait for their service technician to hopefully arrive and fix your issue. Recently, they have started a social media push. Try typing in a negative message about a missed appointment or a late arrival by your technician and within minutes you will have a Facebook message asking about your problem and offering either a solution or a refund. With this kind of sincere response, they are gaining back some of the customers that swore them off for good.

Another example of excellent customer service: A friend was recently the victim of 2 home robberies at their residence within 3 days. They had purchased many of their home appliances online because they found better deals. A few of their items they purchased at their local Best Buy. After they were robbed of every single appliance they had in their home they were told that they would have to prove that they owned the items they claimed to be missing and provide dates of purchase and receipts. They went to their local Best Buy and were pleasantly surprised that not only did they have several customer service representatives trying to help them; they also were able to pull up every purchases they have ever made and print out receipts for them. My friend is now a loyal customer of Best Buy and says that paying a little bit more to purchase items in their local store is worth the excellent customer service he experienced.

The point: Invest in your customers. Care about what they need and respond in a timely manner. Make your customers happy and create brand loyalty.

- Jaimi W.

1)       Create a System to Deal with Negative publicity before it happens

It’s always important to prepare for the worst case scenario, especially when your brand reputation could be at stake.  Even for companies who outsource their media relations to a separate PR firm, it’s critical to create and maintain an emergency communications procedure that will enable you to contact media influences in your environment.  Any employees that deals directly with customers and clients should be given instructions pertaining to handling with media relations emergencies.  Always keep in contact with important media personnel in your industry by supplying a solid flow of company information prior to a PR downturn.  Building this relationship with relevant journalists, reporters, and bloggers will make it simpler to get your side of the story in front of the public through the most influential channels in the event of an outburst of negative media coverage.

2)       Respond Quickly to Negative Online Coverage

Never before have consumers been able to share so much information so easily.  It is critical to maintain a network of online keyword trackers that will notify you of mentions of your brand and business names, key company personnel, and your competitors.  By monitoring the flow of public opinion you can move on negative coverage almost immediately.  If the problem is more specific, such as a negative customer review left on a consumer complaint forum, immediately contact the customer and try to make the situation right from their perspective.  If you are notified of negative coverage on blogs and forums, proactively insert yourself into the conversation and respond.  This will show readers that your company is willing to go out of their way to satisfy customers.  Don’t try to censor people who are commenting negatively on you, which might exacerbate the problem.  But if the information being printed about your business is untrue or unfounded, usually administrators will remove the false information.

3)      Reverse SEO

Using reverse SEO can subdue negative coverage by pushing it off the front page of search engines.  The vast majority of searchers never go beyond the first page of a search, and the last thing you want is for complaints or negative press releases to pop up on the first page.  Search engines push highly-trafficked pages to the top of their lists, so it is imperative to deal with negative reports as soon as possible before their hit-rate gets too high.  It never hurts to post some positive testimonials from satisfied customers on your website either.

4)      Take immediate countermeasures and be proactive

Move quickly and proactively if an emergency occurs.  Don’t wait for disgruntled customers to contact you, send out a newsletter to customers explaining the situation and the steps your business is taking to rectify it.  Buying ad words can help you direct inquiries about the problem to your own website so your explanations are the first to reach the consumer.  For instance, BP bought ad words such as “Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill” to get their explanations and actions plans in front of the public.

-MT