The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008 - (Page 4)

PREPAID BUSINESS February 15 · 2008 - 4 THE RETSKE REPORT By Gene Retske Getting the Word Out So, if you are sending PR to an editor who is looking for items that inform the reader, and you happen to send an article that informs, with a minimum of puffery, you are more likely to get ink. A PR that is boastful and full of superlatives may look good to the CEO of the company, but will editors, and readers, appreciate it? Probably not. What else can you do, besides toning down the hype? Well, make your PR easy to read. Don’t use jargon unless you define it. Don’t use acronyms unless you spell them out at least once. Good editors do not make a reader work too hard; good PR writers do not make an editor work too hard. Tell your story clearly, and easily. Google “inverted pyramid” for a powerful tip on news writing. Spoon feed an editor a lede (not a misspelling, again Google it), and you will be richly rewarded. If you make the editor’s job easier by following news editorial guidelines, it will require less editing, and is more likely to be published. Buy an AP stylebook and use it. It will make everybody’s job a bit easier. Journalists are taught that words are valuable, and every one that is used should have meaning. Same with PR, use as many words as you need, but don’t bloat your writing. Don’t, don’t keep saying the same thing, over and over again. Too many PRs fall into this trap. Leading (almost there) PR writers never fall into this useless trap. Use simple words, “transconfigurator” may look impressive, but will anyone understand what it means? Journalists are also taught to ask several basic questions, known as the Five Ws – Who, What, When, Where and Why. Sometimes, How may also be relevant. Editors need this for their stories, make sure your PR covers it. Make sure your PR has quotes in it. Preferably, quotes that add some meaning, and are not just of the, “We are so pleased that XYZ chose us ” variety. Of course you are pleased that you were chosen, that is why you spent hundreds of dollars to write and distribute the PR. Talk about the impact on your customers, and what it means for them? Avoid the vapid, “We love ABC” comments, they don’t mean anything, and look self-serving. Good editors do not make a reader work too hard; good PR writers do not make an editor work too hard. In 2004, February 27th to be exact, this column provided 8 hints for getting your news to an editor, and how to increase the likelihood it gets published. You should go back, right now, and re-read this editorial by a leading (more on this in a moment) columnist. OK, you read it? Good, now we are going to refine and hone our skills a bit. Now that TPP is the leading (more on this shortly) publication in prepaid, we are getting a large volume of press releases, news, story ideas and suggestions. We like this, we want this, we encourage this. But, we want to make it possible for you to get the maximum exposure for your news, and for us to be able to report the news. The suggestions I am going to offer here are admittedly our preferences, but we are a news publication, and our stories feed Dow Jones, so if you follow what we suggest, you cannot go wrong with other leading (soon, real soon) publications. Some of the advice we are about to be impart is common sense, which is never in overabundance in the world of Public Relations. The first principle to remember is that the objective is to get your news published. So, look at what you are sending from an editor’s point of view. Tell your story, and tell it simple and straight. Does your PR read like a newspaper? Or, does it sound like marketing collateral? Which one is more likely to get published? The editor’s job is to inform the audience, not convince them. Marketing’s job is to convince. Finally, when you send out your PR, make sure the editor can legally publish them. As silly as it sounds, we receive a few emails with notices on them, warning that the information is “confidential, and not for disclosure.” Editors are in the disclosure business, so remove these legal barriers, and any copyright notices that claim ownership over the content. Now, it is time for our ‘leading’ complaint about PR. One word. Leading. Yes, I confess, I hate the word, “leading” in any PR. It is absolutely meaningless and a clear attempt at unmitigated puffery. What does “leading” mean? The biggest? The best? The first? In reality, the word has no meaning at all, yet it appears in the vast majority of PR we receive. It is the first thing we delete. http://www.ibasis.com http://www.ibasis.com/services/callcardservices.htm http://www.ibasis.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008

The Prepaid Press - February 2008 Beachfront Property for Sale Cardholder Facing Systems Contents The Retske Report: Getting the Word Out 5 Minutes With Mark Flanagan, CEO of PrepaidWireless.com Regulatory Rundown: Mid-Winter Update 2008 Prepaid Wireless Handsets Consumer’s Union Raps Wireless Industry Prepaid Reviews Launches Canadian Website Maginpins and TúYo Mobile Form Alliance Prepaid Wireless in Brief Boost Mobile Introduces New $1/Day Chat Plan Mobile Voice to Overtake Fixed in Europe Prepaid Wireless Roundup Another Kind of Prepaid Calling Spot Rates VSNL Wins ATLANTIC-ACM Award The Legal Line Calling Cards in Brief Sapotek Partners with DigiLinea Pactolus Goes Live at Cable MSO Low-Income Market Initiatives to Drive Mobile Banking Payments in Brief Monitise Americas Expands Payments Network Charge Anywhere Mobile POS Wins Award Hypercom Introduces System for Small Merchants TIO Networks Announces TIO Prepaid MasterCard NPBCA Makes Leadership Change A Walk Down the Aisle Branding Your Retail Store Retailers Welcome Senate Approval of Stimulus Bill NRF Forecasts 3.5 Percent Growth in Retail Sales Cyphermint Teams With DHL Retail Focus in Brief Our Advertisers Contact Us

The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008

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