The clock is ticking and there’s less than 3 weeks to go until Infosecurity Europe 2017. So, you should be well on your way to developing your big news story for the show.
Once you’ve got your story, it’s vital that you follow a few golden rules to give your organisation the best possible chance of getting the journalist’s attention. You need to make sure your team has set aside some time to put in place, update or source the following essentials so that you can really make the most of the media profiling opportunity presented at Infosecurity Europe 2017:
1. Named media contacts:
All too often press releases never get to the intended recipient because they are sent to generic email addresses like news@publication.com. You need to have a ‘named’ contact to send your press release to because generic email addresses are rarely monitored at busy times, if at all. By personalising your email your organisation comes across as being far more switched on, thoughtful and interested. If you want a journalist to use your story shouldn’t you, at least, know their name?
2. A picture speaks volumes:
Good quality photography, or graphics, which bring your story to life can give you the edge over your competitors. This is because good images provide you with an opportunity to dominate the page and side-line other stories. Magazines prefer to receive images as Jpegs and PNG files so make it is easy for the publication to use your material by sending your images in this format. Images should be sent as attachments to the email, not pasted in to the body of the release.
3. Make it a headline worth reading:
The headline is going to be the first thing the journalist reads which means that it needs to be short, informative and attention grabbing. Remember, news editors will receive hundreds of emails a day – so don’t try and be clever, keep to the point and let the editor jazz them up if they think appropriate.
Three simple things that can provide you with significant marginal gains.
With images, videos and dynamic content currently having a major contribution to the success of your posts, you need to make sure that the images you are using are the right fit, below are three tips for you on resizing images.
1. Selection is a key process – Choose the highest resolution available, this makes it easier to manipulate or resize. I have found that Photoshop or Microsoft Office Picture Manager are the most useful programmes to edit images. Photoshop can be used for more complex editing of photography but I prefer to use the Microsoft Office Picture Editor due to its simplicity and suitability for my needs. However this programme is unavailable on the current Microsoft Office Suite but is downloadable using these instructions.
2. Make it a perfect fit – When uploading images to a blog or social media all your images should be the same size to create a more fluid look. Here is a handy link that outlines specific sizes for individual websites and the sizing for their posts/updates etc. use these and your images will look great.
3. Check, check and check again – When uploading your images always ensure that your image quality hasn’t been impacted. If your image seems to have changed in any way and your images appear blurred you may need to resize your image (ask your website manager for suitable sizes).
Where can I find suitable images?
To ensure you get the best images for your website use suppliers that have a wide selection, are cost effective and have high quality stock. I like to use the following sites: Pixabay – Free images that are downloadable and includes permissions that allow you to use for your blog and social media posts. Freeimages – This site also has free downloadable images for use on your blogs and social media posts with permissions. Shutterstock – Depending on your budget this option has an endless selection of great images but at a pretty penny.
The clock is ticking and there’s less than 3 weeks to go until Infosecurity Europe 2017. So, you should be well on your way to developing your big news story for the show.
Once you’ve got your story, it’s vital that you follow a few golden rules to give your organisation the best possible chance of getting the journalist’s attention. You need to make sure your team has set aside some time to put in place, update or source the following essentials so that you can really make the most of the media profiling opportunity presented at Infosecurity Europe 2017:
1. Named media contacts:
All too often press releases never get to the intended recipient because they are sent to generic email addresses like news@publication.com. You need to have a ‘named’ contact to send your press release to because generic email addresses are rarely monitored at busy times, if at all. By personalising your email your organisation comes across as being far more switched on, thoughtful and interested. If you want a journalist to use your story shouldn’t you, at least, know their name?
2. A picture speaks volumes:
Good quality photography, or graphics, which bring your story to life can give you the edge over your competitors. This is because good images provide you with an opportunity to dominate the page and side-line other stories. Magazines prefer to receive images as Jpegs and PNG files so make it is easy for the publication to use your material by sending your images in this format. Images should be sent as attachments to the email, not pasted in to the body of the release.
3. Make it a headline worth reading:
The headline is going to be the first thing the journalist reads which means that it needs to be short, informative and attention grabbing. Remember, news editors will receive hundreds of emails a day – so don’t try and be clever, keep to the point and let the editor jazz them up if they think appropriate.
Three simple things that can provide you with significant marginal gains.
My task this week was sourcing and adding video to our website, as well as reporting back on this b2b PR blog what I learnt in the process. So here’s my quick guide to help you on your way to finding, choosing and uploading great video to communicate your message.
Be clear about what you want to achieve: There are a lot of videos out there. So, to save time and energy have a clear idea about what you want your video to say or demonstrate to your audience. Ask yourself – what’s its purpose on my website.
Do I need permission to use this video: Approach with caution… Using video from third parties on your website that is not covered by the ‘Creative Commons Licence’ can land you in some very hot water. Here’s a link for more information about Creative Commons Licence https://creativecommons.org/
My top three sources of high quality video content: You can find videos on websites such as Youtube, istock and Vimeo and depending on your budget you can either share or purchase videos that are most suitable to help achieve your desired result (Tip: You can locate video material covered by the Creative Commons Licence using this search tool https://search.creativecommons.org/?q)
What is effective content: For your video to be effective it must outline or demonstrate your key messages clearly. Try to make sure that the video you use is of reasonable length and maintains your audiences’ interest.
Ask for feedback: After completing your search, it is always extremely valuable to get the feedback of others. Showing colleagues your short list of videos before embedding or publishing content can you help you establish whether you have achieved your desired outcome. Give it a fanfare:
When embedding or publishing your video it is always useful to put together a few words and use an attention grabbing title to compliment your post.
My chosen video features Dr. Genevieve Bell from University of Melbourne she is delivering a keynote address entitled ” The Internet of Things” at 4YFN in 2014. Geraldine’s speech lasts for just 14 minutes. She is informative, engaging, humorous and insightful and although this talk was delivered in 2014 it stands the test of time because it is so well executed. Genevieve delivers informally but with complete authority keeping the subject moving so that you never lose interest.
