Guidelines For Good PR

1. Guidelines For Good PR • Getting good press coverage is the easiest thing in the world if it is done in the right way. So what’s the best way to do it? • There are three main PR tools that you can use when publicising your project: • Press Releases • Case Studies • Contact • Press Releases • A press release is a shortconcise statement detailing the main points that you want to get across to the journalist. A press release should usually be no longer than one side of A4. • Your press release should look like this:

2. Press Release Hints & Tips On average journalists receive hundreds of press releases per day, most of them don’t even get opened. For example, the finance editor of The Telegraph receives on average 150 emails a day. She does not have the time to open them all so she will delete the email before opening it if the title doesn’t interest her! If the press release is lucky enough to get opened, the journalist will decide from reading the first paragraph whether the story is interesting, if not it gets deleted. The key to getting your press release read is to make it stand out, be different, be interesting, be creative. Your press release should be a story, not simply a list of information. Journalists thrive on ‘human interest’ stories and as the majority of projects include people, this is something that you should strongly focus on. If it’s about people, people will be interested. Make your press release relevant. Link it to popular themes. For example, if the world cup is running or Harry Potter mania is in full force, somehow link your press release to that, it is more likely to get coverage as the public are interested. If you cannot link the content of your release you could certainly include it in the title to grab the journalist’s attention. If you are aiming your story at the local press make sure you emphasise the local theme. Regional media have to place a certain amount of local interest stories and people are nosey, they like to know what people in their area are doing! So, for example, if your project was running a football club for the youth in the village of Nailsea and Harry Potter was your theme your press release title could be: “Muggles Take On Nailsea’s Best In Magic Football Tournament” Make sure you don’t send your press release out with spelling, grammar or punctuation mistakes as it implies sloppiness and can give you a reputation of unprofessionalism. It only takes a minute to spell check but can make the world of difference to the journalist first impressions of you. Always write press releases in the third person, this makes it sound objective and unbiased. Finally, local media love photos of people, if your press release is about people take some interesting action shots and in the Notes to Editor simply write, photos available upon request. This gives the journalist the option whether to follow it up. Do not send the photos as a matter of course when emailing your press release, photos take up a lot of space and journalists don’t take kindly to having their systems slowed down because of this. Only send the photos once the journalist has requested them.

3. Press Release Magic Ball • (Example Press Release) • Muggles Take On Nailsea’s Best In • Magic Football Tournament Of The Millennium • On Sunday 27th April 2003 Magic Ball held its first ever football tournament at Scotch Horn playing fields in Nailsea. • Magic Ball is a football club set up to develop the football skills of the youth of Nailsea who would otherwise be hanging around on the streets. Magic Ball seeks to provide a safe and fun environment for young people to come together to develop their football and team building skills. • Joe Bloggs, a member of Magic Ball United said “The tournament was brilliant, it was so much fun and really gave our team a chance to show everyone what we could do. But winning it was the best! I can’t wait for the next tournament.” • The next tournament will be held at Scotch Horn playing fields on Sunday 25th May. If you would like to enter a team please pop into Magic Ball’s office on Nailsea High Street for more information. • For more information please contact Laura MacKendrick on 02074015485 or email lauramackendrick@unltd.org.uk • ENDS 6.5.2003 • Notes to Editor • Magic Ball is a Millennium Award winner. • Photos are available upon request

4. Targeting So you’ve written your press release, how do you know who to send it to? National Press– It is probably unlikely that you will want to get national coverage but if you do want to you must first find the email or postal address of the relevant editor, for example, if you want to get coverage in The Daily Mail, phone the paper and ask the switchboard for the name and email or postal address of the relevant editor for your story. Each paper will have different titles for similar roles. Then simply send them your email and wait and see if you get coverage. However, don’t be disheartened if you don’t get coverage, remember you are up against a lot of competition. Local / Regional Press – Again do the same as for the national press. Generally local journalists have more time so it would be an idea to ring the journalist after you have sent the press release as a follow up to see if they are interested or if you can help them further in any way. This is good to make contact and could lead onto further things. Trade Press / Specialist Magazines – Again the process is the same but you should probably ring the journalist first to introduce yourself and tell them about your story. Often the trade press is understaffed and they rely on contributions from people in the sector – they need you as much as you need them. Remember to target the correct press for your story. For example, if you have a youth sports project you could target the sports press, the youth press or the social press. Getting coverage in a Scottish paper is great but when you need to get coverage in your local area in South Wales it is not! Just think about what you want your coverage to achieve.

5. Case Studies A case study is simply a way of getting free publicity by using a story of someone who has been affected in some way by what you are trying to publicise. For example, if you are trying to publicise your youth sports project you might use the story of one of the youth who has benefited in some way from your scheme. There are two ways you can place a case study: Request - The journalist phones you requesting specific requirements for their publication. If the journalist requests a case study they will conduct a short telephone or face to face interview with your case study and send a photographer to take their photo. Your role will be one of facilitator although this will only occur when the journalist is aware of your role. Sell in - You can sell your case study as an exclusive to one publication by contacting the journalist to see if your case study may be of any use to them. Your local press will probably be very interested as it is a human interest story. If you sell your case study in, you will be expected to have written a short account of the person’s story and have a photo already prepared. Remember, don’t use portrait photos but action shots to represent the project to get the message across. Publications don’t like duplicating what their rivals have published, exclusive case studies are always a great idea. Contact Of course, you can always contact the journalist and maybe arrange to meet them for a chat to inform them of your project. You will have to play this by ear depending on the journalist. Don’t be surprised though if some seem a little rude, they often have urgent deadlines to meet. But saying that, the majority of journalists enjoy meeting people and once you have established a relationship with them they can be a great contact which you can utlise as and when. Good luck in your PR mission and remember that Unltd are here to help if you need any further advice or assistance. And enjoy – it is fun!