PR Goes Online Too

PR (public relations) has moved on aswell. Having spent years drafting press releases and making friends with news and features editors at various local newspapers, it's mind-blowing to think that at the push of a button you can now get your releases on the web. Of course this means potentially very large numbers of people can see your news and if you're luck they'll pass it on too.

Bloggers like to trawl for good news items and if you write your release with the web in mind it could really have legs! I'm happy to report that the basic rules of writing new releases stays the same. You need a good headline, relevant first paragraph that sums up the story (in case your item gets cut short) and written well in clear language, with no spelling errors. Most journalists (on the web or in the more traditional media) are happier if they can cut and paste your text so bear this in mind.

The only other things to remember for the web are:

• Remember your keywords and make sure they're used in your text for optimisation purposes
  
• Add in your website address if you haven't already so that they can link back to your business website and any other links that make your article more interesting
  
• Don't use html, you must write in plain text to avoid potential formatting problems.

Where can you send your press releases online?

Many of these services aren't free but there are free elements to most of them. Here are a few to look at:

www.prweb.com
www.pr.com
www.pressbox.co.uk
www.prleap.com

Happy Marketing!

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk