Press release writing

There is a new phenomenon in the social realm, called the social press release. This phenomenon utilizes social media as a channel for distributing press releases. An idea, which we must say, is contributing positively to the practice of press release writing. Also, one that has ceased the digital tide.

But as much as the digital channels have boosted our content distribution, it is a separate issue for the writer to ensure that his press release, is seen. People post all types of content in the millions per day on social networks. 

The question then becomes, how do we get our press release seen and read?

Consider this: On 22^nd February 2015, Charity Maina was raped and killed in Moi University. In a bid to quell, the heated outburst of the student body - the Vice Chancellor Prof. Richard Mibey issued a press release in the dailies the following day.

Now, according to readers, apparently, that release had many grammatical errors. A clear indication that someone in the administration was in a hurry to correct a great wrong. Guess where I picked this information? The social media. 

However,whether it achieved its intended purpose or not, is an issue at large. Suppose they didn't, what could they have done to gain traction?

As we know, in order to get our press releases ‘heard’ we need to use all media available. Statistics indicate that 26.5% of the African population use the internet. Consider this percentage and the inadequate infrastructures that we have. Factoring in that we are on the path to actual development, this number will soar. This is an indication for us to prepare ourselves to capitalize on this space.

With that in mind, here are 5 ways you can make your press release get traction online. 

  

Write Clear Headlines

It never gets old. In all writing, headlines are your ticket to a reader’s time. If it stands out, then you have increased your chances of getting your reader’s attention. If not then we have to work on this. On that note, your heading needs to be 22 characters or less.

The Length

A press release is a document that tells a synopsis of your company and or newsworthy information in the company. Answering the question of who, what, when, why, where & how of a topic. This 5W’s and 1H make the body of the release as airtight as possible. Keeping the release two pages or less or 600 words or less is a key ingredient. According to Elizabeth Hillmann of Discovery Education says, ‘The length of the press release should be under 600 words or no more than two pages to make it the most effective, and will aid in optimization.’ Solid advice.

Keywords

What are these? According to Corry Janssen, Technopedia, He says, ‘A keyword, in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), is a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. Keywords are intended to act as shortcuts that sum up an entire page.’ With that in mind, Elizabeth's advice that we need to use at least we use two or three keywords throughout your headline, subhead, and first paragraph to ensure consistency of messaging and increased chances of search results.

Rich Media

The saying that a picture is worth more than 1000 words never gets old. However, if we could go back, something worth adding is a great picture is worth so much more than 1000 words. In writing that press release, using high-quality media-pictures, infographics, and video can help your releases rise to the top in search.

Logo

In concluding our strategy of conquering the online space, always make it a habit of incorporating your company logo in all your releases. This makes it easier to find your release if someone searches for your company or brand name; the images will come up. 

Knowing how to make our press releases ‘heard’ is our daily objective. Leveraging the online space is a step towards making this objective a possibility. Try it out and let me hear from you.

Steve Osomba, Consulting Associate: Shares his views on Social Media

Actuate Digital (AD): Hello and thank you very much for taking the time to provide us with this interview Steve. We will jump right in.

AD: What is your perception of Social Media in organizations in as far as its contribution to communication, marketing and or PR?

SO: The advent of Social Media has really changed the way organizations, commercial and Not for Profit engage their audiences. The communication between organizations and audiences was not easy back then but today social media has transformed all that with real time interaction with the customers. The result is that the organizations have come ‘closer’ to their customers making the customer-business relationship much stronger and in effect strengthening their brand in the marketplace. 

AD: When using social media to push your organizational goals, in as far as communication, marketing or PR is concerned, what new 3 things have you learnt to date?

SO: These three new things are:

▪ There is power in data. The insights are very useful in determining the appropriate content/messages that will likely be more impactful. Therefore, it is not just about posting anything

▪ Social Media is just a part of bigger maze in the efforts of Communication, Marketing, and Public Relations. As much as it has made things simpler in terms of reaching out to the customers, we should not forget other mediums.

▪ Social Media is a low budget-advertising medium that has relatively higher success rates compared to other mediums in terms of ROI. This can work perfectly for SMEs that have limited marketing budget as they work their way up.

AD: What are the key secrets to a successful social media strategy?

SO: I think the key secrets in social media strategy include having impactful content that is shared consistently and responding to queries in a timely and satisfying way.

AD: From your experience, do you think Kenyan C-Suite executives are warming up to the whole digital communications trends (social media)? Why?

SO: Yes, I believe they are and the reason being that digital communications is the future of doing business. Any C-Suite executive who ignores the wave of digital communications risks being left behind. In any case, customers are looking to engage with the final decision makers because they want affirmative responses to their enquiries. Currently, those handling social media platforms for various organizations are not delivering on this and customers are increasingly becoming agitated. The time for being ‘too big to handle such’ has run out.

AD: Tell us how you manage to execute your social media functions?

SO: Currently, there are myriad social media platforms and it will be quite challenging to use all of them considering all the forms of resources. To this end, I strategically choose those that would work for my company. Therefore, I prepare weekly social media calendar that details the various posts that I would share on each platform. I consistently do this every week and up to this very moment, the results are nothing less than impressive.

''...the key secrets in social media strategy include having impactful content...''

Steve's Bio:

He is a holder of Bachelor of Science in Communication & Public Relations from Moi University and a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Marketing Management from Kenya Institute of Management (KIM). He is also a member of the Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK). He works with SMD Consulting Associate, a Strategy & Innovation Company as a Communication & Marketing Consultant. 

They say, if you lose money, you can always make more. However if you lose time, then you will never get it back. This makes time management a must have skill. And like all habits, it can be learned. 

For this reason, we should always be on the lookout for ways to better manage our time.

I came across this video about time management on entrepreneur.com and thought to share it with you. As we work on our time management skills, I hope these 10 steps help.

Cheers!

Social media optimization

I mean, you have your social media properties set up. Can’t you just continue posting content as per the schedule you set? Why the change of heart, yet you have made the bold first step?

Well, you have looked at your social media properties and noticed something, didn’t you? In comparison to other social media properties, you are not getting the traction you set out at the outset. Social media optimization (SMO) will help your corporation generate the publicity it has been working hard to get. Result, increased awareness.

So let us break down the 12 steps you need to take in order to optimize your social media properties aimed at boosting your social interaction and increase awareness. If you are ever having trouble, optimizing your social media properties, come back here and re-read this post to get a handle on the practice. Let us get started, shall we?

What are these 12 steps?

Start by defining your objectives and goals.

The decision to execute a social media program should not be treated casually. Similar to all other corporate programs, know exactly what it is that you want to achieve. Determine cues that will be used to measure progress.

As Lee Odden says, ‘Know your desired outcome at you start – for example, reputation, sales, influence, credibility, charity, traffic/page views.

Offer Value

Millions of social media programs exist in the social realm. But not all of them realize their set goals. Why? They fail to utilize this chance to share new knowledge with their audience. Do not make that mistake. Be there and be ready to share the most valuable content.

If apiece of content makes people seem smart, they are more likely to share it with their friends. And people like being the first to share information because it makes them seem cool and in the know – Mashable

Increase Linkability

To optimize a site for social media, we need to increase the linkability of the content. Adding a blog is a great step, however there are many other ways such as creating white papers and thought pieces, or even simply aggregating content that exists elsewhere into a useful format – Rohit Bhargava

Tag your content

Enable your content to reach a wider audience by using tags. A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an Internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). – Wikipedia. They help describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. 

Make your content easy to access

Our audience have limited time to spend. Capitalize on that. By using short links that drive users to the exact location of your content prevents them from getting bored.

Content that is easy to view through short links (PDFs, video files, and audio files); travels further and is more trackable in proving it is driving visitors ultimately to your site – Rohit Bhrargava

Use permalinks in blogs for keywords and sharing

When you blog, permalinks automatically capture keywords in the URL titles that search engine look for when the crawl your site; at the bottom of your blog, they make it easy for readers to copy and share – Barn Raisers
 

Be Rewarding

In social media, we cannot go at it alone. We need to formulate a strategy, to court influencers, who help push the brands agenda. Whenever, you come across the content of these influencers, share it. This will give you visibility.

Show Humility

You are on a journey. Once you make it to the top, remember all the people that made it possible. Always show respect.

Let Go Of an Idea and Let Others Own It

In the spirit of social media principles, the idea of Social Media Optimization is now out there and belongs to the marketing and PR community. I strongly believe the future definition of this emerging marketing practice will come from the group – Rohit Bhargava

Know Your Targeting

Going into social media blind is not wise. Prior to anything, determine beforehand whom you intend to communicate with. Once you determine the audience you can appeal to, stick to that demographic. Those who you cannot let them be.

Be Useful

Add outbound links to areas that could help others. Folks will link to your social site and tag is as helpful or the ‘ultimate’ guide in that space. As this adds up, it will become more and more relevant in search engine results – Jeremiah Owyang

Stay On Top Of Your Game

With all the technological advances, you need to stay up-to-date. Learn of any new tool sin the industry. Know what the social media channels are up to. Never let any new development pass you by. It could be the break you have been waiting for to reach a million page views.

Over to you now reader. Give it a go and let me know how it goes.

This post originally appeared here.

How are you fairing on in LinkedIn?

To those of us working to break a niche in the world of digital communications – marketing, we should be curious. On my part, my curiosity has led me to severally observe how businesses doing so well on the social sphere go about it. To essentially find out what makes them tick.

I do not stop there, as should you. I delve further to observe those that are not doing so well, and find out why. Yet the two companies under observation could be in the same industry, netting same amounts in revenue, have almost equal numbers of employees, why the huge difference?

While on my fact-finding mission, I came across a blog post by Krista Neher, of kristaneher.com. Her post, quite informative, helped me reach a conclusion rather quickly.

In her post which she states bluntly: ‘…While I do not have all of the answers, one thing has become clear: Most businesses that do not get results from social media do not do it right.’ It then became clear, that those using social media, yet fail to get the desired results owe those bad results to themselves.

To continue she lists, some of the aspects that these businesses fail in and as a result fail their social media program. I will categorize them for simplification:

Content Strategy

• The content is not strategic
• They have no strategy                                            
• The content is not very interesting
• The posts are not structured well
• The audience is not clearly defined

 Copywriting

• The headlines are mediocre
• They do not post consistently

Incorporating talented graphic designers

• The posts do not have great visuals  

Krista's advise is to go all in when it comes to social media. I agree.

Many a times we have seen poor images used on corporate social media sites, unprofessional graphics, unattractive headlines and so on. Feel free to use the list to iron out areas of weakness as you revamp your social media program.

Post consistently. Use the best images in your image library (you should have one of these). Ask your colleagues to chime in on your headlines, if it works, keep it. If not, re-write it. Depending on the feedback, adjust accordingly.

Corporations cannot afford to stay on the sidelines anymore. The social media games are on. And whoever dances his feet off, will take home the pot of gold. Taking part is becoming a must-do. With that in mind, deploy your resources fully towards your social media program and watch as the magic happens.

I would like to hear from you on this. Leave a comment.

To read the original blog post, click here.

Punctuation Essentials

We in communication marketing cannot escape putting pen to paper. Think of the numerous contents we have to write, aimed at appealing to our audience’s triggers to buy and or be our loyal customers. Words are our currency of trade.

In keeping with that, it bores our audience when we miss a comma. And or misuse punctuation marks in the course of relaying information. Since we all (I am keeping a copy for myself) fall victim to poor punctuation occasionally, Ragan’s PR daily have a download, which I think will come in handy when you sit down to craft that post, press releases, and or case study.

To receive your free download, click on the link. 

Social Communication

3 Steps To Becoming The Best Social Communicator

The world is moving at a steady pace. The advent of digital has revolutionised the way people do business. The way businesses do business. Digital has found its place of comfort in communication and marketing. Calling upon the need for business leaders/founders to socialize their businesses.

At the forefront of digital, we have the social web. According to PR daily, ‘In less than 10 years, social media has become communication professionals’ best friend and fickle foe. With relative ease, customers can be targeted, support can be organized, discussions can flourish, and grievances can be aired with ease.’

This creates the need for all of us in the discipline to hone our social communication skills. How do we deliver upon the promises of organizing support to customers having difficulty: contribute to discussions online and address customer grievances in real time? By learning how to be good social communicators.

To be one, you need to work on the following:

Creatively Respond To Positive Feedback

People like to be praised. It bolsters their self-esteem. The same is true of businesses in the social realm. Many a times, when all is said and done, we all expect good feedback. Especially when we have made the effort to reach out. It could be positive feedback, about your service delivery and or quality of products.

When it happens, take time to respond to that feedback. Bottom line:always respond. Be creative; mention the source in the post/comment. Acknowledge their contribution in pushing the brands equity a notch higher. Make them know that there contribution is valued.

Deal With Negative Feedback Quickly and Appropriately

This is what we fear most. Being put down. It happens to most of us during the course of our lives. In our personal lives, we are even allowed to take it personally. However, in a business set-up do not ever take this personally. Especially negative feedback.

Suppose, a customer posts a negative comment regarding your services: do not respond by telling him to go get the service elsewhere. As was the case with Kenya Power & Lighting Company (kplc) January 21st: during a total blackout in some counties. On one twitter handle, a user posted his frustration of staying in the dark. The social team at KPLC, response chose to respond by telling the user to try other lighting sources such as candles, lamps, etc. It was a nightmare, if no one noticed. Thanks to monopoly the user could not move. If there were other service providers, don’t you think the user could have jumped ship?

Instead, try something like promising to address the issue by either giving him a refund and or internally, find out what led to the negative feedback exactly. Give them assurance that something is being done to remedy and or rectify the situation to normalcy.

Remember, always be timely. A complaint responded to 3 days later would have done irreparable harm. Avoid this.

Make Social A Resource for Your Customers and Not Yourself

Go on the social web, with the intention to give, give and give some more. Make it you mission to give useful information to your audience, round the clock.

Post alert when you suspect the roads would flood. Notify users of the promotion going on and if possible give them a reward, such a coupon. Do not tire to give.

Offers, promotions, product launches, the whole shebang. By giving and giving some more, you increase your chances of not only getting deserving repeat customers but also, loyal customers who will go out of their own way to evangelize your product and or services.

Do you feel ready to go be the best social communicator on the social web? Give it a go and share your experience with me.