-:: Malaysia Mobile Tech News ::-

I receive my fair share of press releases from companies that I cover, and sometimes from companies whose products have very little, or even more surprisingly, completely no relation to what my blog covers.  Here are my observations and tips if you’re a PR professional who sends out these press releases:

1. try to send out press releases as an Adobe Reader file.  It’s normally smaller than Microsoft Word files.  The contents can easily be copied and pasted.  Should members of the media require the “full” Microsoft Word version, either store it in a public folder somewhere such as Windows Live SkyDrive, or share it using Google Docs.
2. try to keep the size of image files down.  I honestly do not need an image file that is 1500 x 1500 pixels – if I put that on my website, my readers will curse me for wasting bandwidth.  For web use purposes, a maximum of 1024 x 768 pixel resolution is more than enough.  Preferably in JPEG or GIF format, which although lossy, has sufficient fidelity to be used.  File size should be less than 300KB per image, preferably even less!  Again, for those who need it for print publication purposes, for example, the high definition images can be shared using SkyDrive or Google Docs.
3. it’s also more environmentally friendly to have a shared folder – it reduces e-mail traffic, updates can be sent out almost instantly by sending out a short e-mail alert telling media members about files which have changed, etc.
4. please do try to get your clients to have the press releases up on the press releases section of their websites.  It lends unquestionable credibility to the press release that I am posting about, and shows professionalism on the part of your client – websites are not static wells of information, to be updated once a year – it is a medium to continuously engage your customers who are increasingly very web savvy and will do research online before proceeding to a purchase.  Imagine the customer’s perception if your client’s website hasn’t been updated in a year or more.
5. try to put out a “post-event” email of the event, if an event is organised as part of a press release or product launching.  This can include additional pictures of the event, as well as any major points brought up during the Q&A session – after all, more (pertinent) information is better than none.
6. please check and re-check the press release for glaring errors such as grammatical errors, pricing errors, availability errors as well as accuracy – if your client is a global client, simply copying and pasting the global press release sometimes do not make sense because of the way business is done in various parts of the world.  My job is not to check your press releases for these errors.  I will make fun of press releases with obvious errors that I come across!
7. try to include a section which summarises the press release, especially if the press release is more than 2 pages.  Basically, something that tells us “why we should care”.  When attention span nowadays is measured in seconds, if you don’t get your message across in the first 3 lines, it’s as good as useless, I think.

Will these tips result in me being struck off the PR mailing list for being overly demanding?  Who knows?  I frankly do not care – I’m doing companies a favour by highlighting them – I don’t charge for them.  I’m not saying that this site gets millions of hits every day, but even if I only got 50 hits, it’s better than nothing eh?

As usual, comments, and constructive criticisms are welcome.  Insults get automatically deleted.  So do press releases exceeding 1MB in size  :P

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