Completing my response to the report was an enjoyable and interesting experience, as we were asked to consider factors such as

• how much education plays a role in producing quality content
• what we look for in a writer
• what university education (or lack thereof) has done for our own business

You can get your own copy of the report completely free when you sign up to Angie’s newsletter, or if you would prefer to find out more about the sort of content Angie will be providing in her newsletter then read a little more about it here.

I was aware of the Digital Surrey community, and on a recent trip to leading Surrey Online PR Agency, thebluedoor to deliver some advanced SEO training via SEO PR Training; was invited to attend the next event by the team there, who are instrumental in supporting and organising the Digital Surrey events.

The event on April 20th promises to be something extra special, as the format will consist of what is known as Pecha Kucha style, which restricts each speaker to a very strict 6:40 slot.

Although tickets for Digital Surrey April have already “sold” out (it’s free, but you know what I mean) you can register your interest should space become available!

http://digitalsurreyapril.eventbrite.com/

SES London is one of the largest search engine marketing conferences in Europe and is taking place between the 21^nd and 25^th of February at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre, in Westminster. Over 1500 search marketers will descend on London for three days of SEO, SEM, and social media marketing strategies and tips from a variety of industry experts. theMediaFlow are pleased to announce the conference networking party, supported by SES and Incisive media will be something a little different thanks to our venue sponsor, Raven SEO Tools.

DATE: Wednesday 23rd February

VENUE: HMS President

TIME: 7.00 – 11.30

ENTRY: To conference attendees only and you must show your conference pass at the door

CAPACITY: 350 is the maximum capacity, therefore you must arrive early to be sure to be admitted

Thanks to the generosity of our two evening’ sponsors; Raven, and Linkdex SEO Tools, the evening will start with a free bar, though given we search marketers are a sociable bunch it would be best to get to the venue as early as possible to take advantage of this.

Finally; my thanks go to Lisa Myers of Verve Search and Joanna Butler of Search Engine Chocolate, for their assistance in helping me organise this event.

SEO-driven releases may be more likely to land up in a content aggregation site than they are ever to land up in a journalist’s in box, but they will be read by people as well as search engines, and in an ideal world will make people want to know more than simply what ranking Google delivers. The bunch of words created deserves also to be compelling reading.  And when it’s a press release, the reader expects news.

Before we start, we’ve all heard those comical rushed provisos, terms and conditions – the verbal equivalent of small print – at the end of radio ads. This next bit is the written equivalent of one of those: if the release you’re creating is for a highly regulated industry, such as financial services and pharmaceuticals, or for a listed company, it’s important to double check the specific rules relating to information release.

And think which type of person you would like to be reading your release (customer, partner, potential employee) and write in a style addressing them. Don’t fall into stereotype traps though – the results can be hysterical. The picture to the right is a great piece of government speak to teenagers in ‘text talk’ poster. You can see what the kids made of that.

I’ve made a recording with the key advice for creating releases on it, mainly because once I got stuck into this article, it drivelled on for far too long, but the key elements of a release, summarised, are:

1. Straightforward title explaining the story
2. First paragraph giving the important bits – who, what, where when, why in two sentences, top off with the reason anyone should give a monkey’s
3. Details of story
4. Optional: APPROVED quotes if used, properly attributed
5. Marker for the end of the story. (Conventions are to used the words /ENDS or ##)

The bit after the ‘end’ should be back up information, usually headed up ‘notes for editors

1. A ‘boilerplate’ – a standard description of around a paragraph in length, used for consistency, to describe the issuing organisation(s)
2. Additional information pertinent to, but not part of, the story
3. Any legal stuff that the lawyers insist on
4. Contact details

Generally the most important information needs to be highest up in the press release. With each passing paragraph you lose readers, so make sure it hooks the reader from the start. Any corporate guff needs to be right down at the end.

For myself, I usually make a bullet point list/mindmap of things I want to get into a story, and then try telling the story out loud, as if to a stranger in a bar. It works for me in an otherwise empty office. I can see some drawbacks in a crowded coffee bar. The aim is to cut out the unnecessary detail – or at least highlight what can appear further down the release.

This approach helps create a more natural tone too. Corporate speak and jargon are un-necessary. Check out Tim Phillips’ Talk Normal blog [http://talknormal.co.uk/] for some amusing rants about the kind of thing I mean. Sometimes it’s the professionals who are the worst offenders.

Most of all, think like a reporter – you want other people to pick up on what you’ve written and find out more, so deliver it like a reporter: in the third person (he, she, they rather than I and we), as factually and as interestingly as possible. And above all, honestly. Lying in such a public forum has to count as really dumb: unless, of course, you have a very dodgy PR strategy of creating a huge storm./ends

Claire Thompson, Waves PR is a freelance PR consultant with sometimes colliding passions for technology and the environment. She has worked on many campaigns campaigns from the big guys, like Kodak, Oracle and Apple, through to pre-launch start ups, including LastMinute.com in its early days. She can be found most places ‘socially’ as claireatwaves, but mostly only has time for Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIN. Tel: +44 (0) 207 795 8147.