Extra Credit

To succeed in public relations, it pays to do your homework. To help determine what works well for your organization, you’ll want to track your successes and failures. Save copies of your news releases, noting details like when the release was sent, to whom it was sent, and what type of press coverage you received. Compare releases that didn’t make the grade to releases that did and try to determine what could have been done to increase your media coverage. Ask yourself questions similar to these:

• Could the time or day that my release went out have affected my coverage?

• Should my release have been sent to a different type of media or to media in a different geographic area?

• Would a better headline or addition of a photograph have helped my story get noticed?

Did You Know: that with readMedia’s list builder you can create separate lists for print and broadcast media in your geographic target region? Writing a shorter snappier release for broadcast media might work better than sending them the same detailed release you sent to print media.