When is the last time you wrote a news release? Not just a blurb on your website, or a Facebook entry. The hard copy paper news release still has value. If for no other reason than so few are produced and sent these days, and electronic emailed or posted releases are easier than ever to disseminate.

While most of us think of a news release as something reserved for a big deal announcement, the truth is that news is constantly being made.

Consider your target markets

The key to using news releases is to consider your target groups. What are your constituencies? Don’t forget your targets, both internal and external: management, employees, contractors, vendors, customers, and potential customers. Each of these target groups is connected to you and has a certain interest in what you’re doing.

Keep it short and informative

The first question to ask yourself when drafting a news release is, “Why does the red care about this?” That may require that you have multiple versions of even a simple release so that the copy can be focused for the audience. Sometimes all it takes is changing a single line or paragraph to tweak the message for a specific group.

Restrain Thyself

Having just gotten you excited about the possibilities of writing more news releases, now, I’m going to warn you to use restraint. Notwithstanding some major breaking news that must be sent, keep news release messaging under control and don’t overdo. My general advice is to limit a release to no more than every two weeks to any one of your target groups.

Things to consider

1. Start thinking creatively about reasons to send a release
2. Write and distribute specific message releases to individual groups
3. Put links in electronic releases and send those links to special pages on your website
4. Consider important keywords used by each of your target groups and integrate them into the text
5. Create a company news section of your website and post everything there
6. For important company news, consider services like PRNewswire