Writing online press releases is an art. The basic rules of press release writing still apply, yet there is the subtle craft of web writing, SEO optimisation and structure that need to be captured in the online form.

Let’s remind ourselves of the basics. Start global and in subsequent paragraphs move into the specific. A strong headline that grabs the eye and draws interest enough for the reader to continue is a must have. The first paragraph should support the headline, explain it, and outline the entire story. It must paint the ‘big picture’. The structure of the entire release, which is usually no longer than 250 words (perhaps 350 for mainly trade or technical press), should then have a natural flow. A beginning, middle and and ending to some extent and certainly explain the why, what and how of the story.

The subsequent 5 or 6 paragraphs should go increasingly into the specific detail of the story and include any supporting information. The less interesting or supporting detail should be left until the end, but interspered to help bring the story to life the people involved in the story can be quoted to help tell it. The standard tools of editors notes, contacts, supporting information should all be used at the end of the piece, and clearly indicated as such.

Now we come on to the basic rules of web writing. It has to help the eye: readers’ attention spans are shorter on the web (and in general these days), and it is also more difficult for the eye to read on a screen. So remember the following:

And now for the grand finale of online release writing. Both the headline and the copy, particulary the first few paragraphs of the body, need to be keyword rich.  This copy needs to include a mix of keyword phrases that people use to search for information on the web.  To achieve this you will need an insight into what words and phrases searchers use to find information on the web. Optimised news will attract more journalists and customers alike.  And research consistently shows that these readers use the web as their preferred medium for finding out news about your clients products and services.

Links are also critical, both to provide helpful insight, information and additional support for your readers and to help with SEO so that your news is easier to find.  Internal and external links are equally as important. As are inbound links from external websites. And this is certainly one reason why having your online media centre on an independent domain – i.e. not a subdomain of your main site – helps with your SEO. So make use of the online release distribution sources such as PR Wire, cisionwire, Response Source etc.

Tags are important considerations but you should only aim for around four per release and they need to be directly relevant to that release, and not a blanket ‘brand name’ repetition. And don’t forget the RSS feed – your releases will need to have their own unique feed if you really want to give journalists the edge in finding your news quickly.  They can subscribe to your feeds via email download, browsers or burn them into their feedreaders to have your news pushed into their inboxes as soon as you issue it. There’s more to writing press releases in the digital age than meets the eye, and its time for PROs to get web savvy.

The rules of PR have changed overnight and if you don’t understand how to use PR 2.0 and embrace online communications you’ll miss out on many benefits for you and your clients.

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Robert Dilts, one of the co-founders of NLP, has recently posted an informative article on the topic of modeling.  Dilts says in his article, “Anyone who claims to know or care about NLP is aware that the process of modeling is the life blood of the field. The origin of NLP and its continued evolution come from the ability of NLP practitioners to model the verbal, cognitive and behavioral patterns (the “neuro-linguistic programs”) of exceptional people. It is frequently pointed out that the basis of NLP is modeling and not the “trail of techniques” that have been left in its wake.”

Within the realms of NLP there are two ’schools’ of modeling – two distinctions – as prefered by the likes of John Grinder. Like Dilts, I tend to use the analytical modeling framework; although I have a passion for what I refer to as ‘implicit modeling’ and actually use a combination of both in my work. Yet there is also what Dilts refers to as ‘pure NLP modeling’ – this is the implicit or non-impositional form of modeling.

The difference resides principally in the degree of imposition of the perceptual and analytic categories of the modeler during the modeling process. – in the case of NLP modeling, the imposition is minimal; in the case of Analytic modeling, the imposition is maximal.

Read Dilts A Proposed Distinction for Neuro-Linguistic Programming article here.

Listen to our podcast to hear about our approach to modeling:

Found out more about Changeworks Communication on our revamped website.

In the final part of my interview with David Gordon, he talks about the application of this phenomenal technique in organisations. What are the characteristics of good modelers? Modeling is both art and science (in my mind).  This requires a level of skill and training (in particular a high level of expertise in NLP and questioning/listening (coaching helps too).  So it is quite an investment in learning that many are not willing to take. Creating the case for modeling in the corporate arena is not straightforward, however once they get involved they see the vast benefits and rewards that this technique offers for organisational learning.

The February issue of Scientific American’s Mind magazine has an interesting news article about identity and behaviour. New research suggests that cloaking oneself in a new identity – even for only a few minutes – can disrupt long-established patterns of behaviour. To conduct the study, psychologists entered the online gaming world and developed new ‘avatar’ identities for volunteer ‘players’ and then got them to do maths tests. From a mix of male and female participants those given a female identity and who competed against two males performed worse and gave up quicker than did those assigned male identities and whose opponents were female.  However the subjects’ real genders did not affect their scores!

Whilst the news item does not elaborate the specifics of how the avatar roles were created or transferred to the volunteer subjects, we know that identity is made up of a number of important factors.  It is who we are, who we see ourselves to be; that is our abilities, beliefs we have about ourselves (ie females are rubbish at maths??!!), our values (a certain form of belief that is non contextual) and our thoughts, as well as our attitudes, emotions and the behaviours and strategies we have adopted for that identity (ie playing dumb to be a female ??!!). 

These are of course, exactly the components we study, deconstruct and reconstruct in experiential modeling (or you could call it experience reprocess engineering!). So this research supports what we find (and have found for the last 25 years) in modeling ability and the structure of experience using NLP.  (Why does it always take the psychologists so much time to catch up with NLP?  my opinion only .. and perhaps a little ‘blind’ at that!!). And what we have found is that the effect of identity and ability is not tied to a lifetime of experiences, and can therefore be deconstructed and taught to others.

In my second interview with David Gordon he talks about how modeling can be used by organisations to improve performance and help organisations become excellent. Drawing on examples of work done modeling technical skills for a patent office, modeling effective team work for a large oil company on an oil platform in the North Sea, and also a modeling study on a CEO to improve leadership communication.  Listen to the 5 min interview below.