It’s like spam that you can’t avoid.  In many cases, that’s because the people who send it to you are part of your social network.  For me, it means that I may have to ‘unfriend’ myself from people within my network to avoid the clutter.

I’m talking about ‘press releases’.  I get a lot of them and do my best to ignore them.  Every now and then I skim through one to see if I am indeed missing out on something.  It appears I have not.  In fact, earlier this week I received a 495-word press release about a social media site that’s been redesigned yet maintains its original purpose.  The rest of the release is filled with quotes and information that was refreshing three years ago.

Here are my two ‘not-new’ pieces of advice about press releases:

1) Have something to say. Before you create your release, ask yourself if the release is of interest to the public or just of interest to you. If there’s no story to latch on to in your release it will be a pointless exercise for you.

2) Know your target audience and deliver to them.  If your release is largely for your own network/community, most of which you have a real connection to, use a mailing list service to write a more personal and concise note that provides an update.  I’d much rather get a note saying something along the lines of “Hey Mark!  After three years of the same look-and-feel, I decided to update my site to make things more interesting for me and my community.  I relaunched it this morning.  It looks great and I’m really excited about it.  If you haven’t been by my site in a while, you may be interested in seeing how things have evolved over the last few years.  I’m also interested in your feedback.  Take care!”  There, 73 words delivering a more concise version of the message and I’m more likely to be follow-through.

Do you have any advice on press releases?