Press releases need to be to the point

- As a journalist it should be easy to spot the good story. We receive around 25 press releases each day. Therefore it is important  that press releases are directed to the specific magazine and targeted to the specific audience. Design and length of the press release is not that important.. But the content needs to be relevant to the magazine otherwise the press release won’t be opened.

- The content needs to be as straight forward as possible, as it takes too much time to read an article with difficult sentences and you might end up taking too much of the journalists’ time. This may result in the journalist not reading anymore press releases from that specific sender in the future. Therefore it is important for the press release to seem direct and to the point.

Inbusiness faces restructuring to focus more on product-orientation- this is where the knowledge sharing between company and media becomes an important factor. Peter Hjorth is positive about this cooperation and believes that it can be intereseting and rewarding to receive press releases from companies in the future.

The menu Own Contacts is thought to be a supplement to the Press2go PRM database- making it possible to distribute press releases to your own stakeholders. If you have alot of personal contacts it may be easier to make use of the Import New Contacts. If you already have a list in Excel, Outlook or something similar, you are able to import these by using the function Import New Contacts. Here you can copy-paste directly into the field Excerpts from Excel or import them from a CSV-file through Import Contacts From File. Then you just have to Upload and make sure to match your columns with the correct space in Press2go PRM by using the drop down-function. Finally, you name the group and click Import.

We recommend that you organize your contacts in Excel before you upload them. First name in the first column, last name in the second column, e-mail info in the third column, etc.

Many companies have set up a press room on their website where journalists are able to read general information about them. To avoid having to do the same job twice all press releases are delivered in a feed, which easily can be set up-  press releases are then published automatically in the press room.

A link to the feed is placed in the Archive as an RSS-icon. Click the icon in order to get the feed to appear.

The address of the RSS-feed is sent to the person responsible for your website, who then integrates it on the company’s  website.

The RSS-feed can also be used as a subsciptions function, in order for journalists and other stakeholders can subscribe to your press info through the RSS-feed.

Automatic Subscription

You can also set up an automatic subscription for newsletters and press releases. Generate html-codes and apply them to the company’s own website- they will then function as an subscrption form for press releases and newsletters.

The code is generated by opening the Contact Group who you wish to create a subscription for, then the code can be copied and sent to the person who is technically responsible for your website.

For further information contact us on +45 33 21 21 22 or contact@press2go.com.

Important to build the relation between business and media
Press releases are very welcomed at ComON, but they have to be relevant to the media as well as contain contact information – this way the journalist has a much better chance at getting additional information about the story.
– The amount of press releases are getting bigger and bigger, which makes it much more difficult for a business to be noticed through a press release. This is why the relations between business and media is of such great importance. You have to make sure that the media has some kind of interest in publishing it. Be sure to target the right medias otherwise the story will disappear in the cheer amount of press releases that the medias receive.
– It is also a good idea to contact journalists who you suspect will have an interest in running the story. This is also a way of creating a relationship with the individual as well as making yourself more knowledgeable about which journalists are interested in specific areas.

Karim Pedersen notes that a press release should be written as short and as precise as possible. Also, a high degree of novelty is very important, this makes the story a lot more interesting for ComON.
– We take notice in what the subject line of the press release says. It is not interesting to us if a company sends out a press release regarding the launch of a new product – but if that new product contain a technological advancement we will of course be interested in the story.

Here you can find out more about ComON

One of the biggest challenges in working with CSR-communication is that the story which has to be told is complex and involves the involvement of many different parts. Each link in the value chain has its affect on the environment and surroundings – and having these affects mapped and documented right from the onset and till the product reaches the consumer is extremely comprehensive. Not to mention optimization as well as communicating it in an easily understandable way.

This is why as a company you have to organize your CSR-communication in order to make it suitable for documentation and stories from new parts of the value chain. It can also be necessary to think in sequences regarding gradually being able to develop an understanding within the audience for the CSR. Chapter by chapter you present the company’s activities in relation to social responsibility.

Anna Lise Mortensen has worked extensively with CSR-communication for almost 20 years. She started of at Brdr. Hartmann and later as Vice President at Novozymes as well as a part of various comitees and boards. Her first reactions to the challenges of good CSR-communication is: “Credibility and making complexity simple.” In this article Anna Lise tells about her experience with implementing a successful CSR-communication.

The company’s social responsibility is not only handled in the marketing department. Social responsibility should be implemented and living in all parts of the company – otherwise it is not believable.

How do you explain that your product is eco friendly? The story should include descriptions of the entire product chain, if done correctly, which is difficult to document, says Anna Lise. For example, even though the producer of a hairdryer optimizes his productivity and measure the improvements all the way down to a third decimal, his production only represents 5 % of the total environmental impact. The hairdryer consists of different parts from different subcontractors, who produce these parts in a long list of countries with more or less transparency in their production. Also, behind these producers of various components are several other actors, who represent the processing of the commodities and probably even more suppliers. And even when all these links are mapped and documented, then comes the retail part and consumer part. How much does shipping and shops contaminate, and how much electricity does a hairdryer use throughout its life? The latter often shows to be the most important part of the load, which the consumer determines – who is not even a part of the CSR-communication.

A good advice for companies to begin communication about their social responsibilities is to move some steps ahead. Start of by documenting and communicating that part of the value chain which lies within your own production. How much power and how many resources are being used at the company’s address? When this part has been covered all the other links must be reviewed, step by step. How much does the use of the product affect the surroundings? Then trace the product back through the value chain the same way.

Don’t try to obtain points on an invalid ground, it will backfire on you. Everything you tell has to be very well documented. As this takes resources it is of great importance that the entire company are committed to acting socially responsible, otherwise it will be superficial and without any effect…