The right times to create a fact sheet is any get older you need to ... a reporter on a technical ... dont mind ... they just dont want to think too hard. They conveniently dont have t
The right become old to make a fact sheet is any period you obsession to spoon-feed a reporter upon a mysterious subject.
Reporters dont mind thinking, they just dont desire to think too hard. They conveniently dont have the time. They are writing records in a hurry. The accent is upon hurry.
PR Rainmakers tolerate this and use it to their advantage.
Creating a fact sheet gives you more control more than the financial credit that you will have without it. A reporter in a rush is certainly likely to undertake your fact sheet and covert at least share of it into a section of the story.
The fact sheet offers the reporter a short-cut that few can refuse. correspondingly meet the expense of it.
There are four steps to creating a powerful fact sheet. They are:
Step 1: pile up content.
Bring together every recent document your company has produced on the subject you desire the reporter to cover. judge widening your net to add up documents produced by connected associations, colleges, think tanks and even competitors.
Talk to the folks in your company who truly know the subject. Focus not lonesome upon the executives, but with upon the grunts who truly develop the sham and therefore know it inside out. consent cautious notes.
Think subsequent to a reporter. What would a journalist dependence to know? But also look for the surprising, the interesting or the unusual: things the reporter might not expect. affix these ideas as well.
Step 2: Organize and outline
Sort your guidance by subject. Some PR Rainmakers use binders or folders. Others use computer software. Go later than whatever works best for you.
Lets tell you represent a drug manufacturer who is issuing a supplementary pill that instantly cures hives caused by consumption of MSG. Your content might enhance the pills formula, the team that created the pill, the size of the companys investment, the potential shout from the rooftops for the pill, the active ingredients, the chemical acceptance to MSG in allergic humans, and on and on.
You want to recognize each bit of useful information and put it taking into account combined information. find the money for each box of counsel a name: team, market, ingredients, and as a result on.
Your direct is sort out your content until it makes wisdom to you.
Next, on a sheet of paper or on a computer screen, you want to write a master list of the names of each box.
This will come up with the money for the basic outline for your fact sheet. revolutionize the outline until the structure makes sense.
Step 3: Prune, tote up and simplify.
The point is, in few pages as possible, to build a fact sheet that hits the topics you want to see in the reporters story.
Rule of thumb: At least five boxes, and no more than 10. Prune away until you achieve a number amid those two.
Look for opportunities to affix boxes. For example, if you have some content sorted as executive team and another as research team, rule combining these into one bin labeled team.
Also, you dependence to locate ways to simplify complex ideas. Search for comparisons and analogies that will announce complicated processes. Transform jargon into English. Focus upon benefits, not features.
Trim, trim and trim some more. (When I started this article, there were eight steps. Now there are just four. Thats where you desire to go next this part of the process.)
If the topic is just too mysterious to reduce to a single page, adjudicate creating more than one fact sheet. Just create clear each fact sheet focuses on a single aspect of the overall topic.
Step 4: Format and produce
There are as many ways to design fact sheets as there are topics. You will compulsion to use your experience, creativity and common suitability to choose the one that best organized your material.
Try to keep the fact sheet to one page. completely no more than three.
Use a readable typeface, such as Arial, in a 10 to 12 point typeface. Double spacing isnt necessary, but use a blank pedigree amongst paragraphs.
The page should begin later than the word Fact Sheet, followed by a utterly brief headline that explains the topic of the page.
From that reduction on, con similar to your outline. Use a little header to introduce each box. rule using a bullet to log on each paragraph.
Insert unaccompanied the most interesting, most essential or most relevant assistance you have to offer. Remember: Your job is to create it simple for the reporter to write the story.
Finally: Dont be scared to steal a format you find attractive. If you desire to scrutiny the designs of 10 fact sheets that might show for you, visit http://www.prrainmaker.com/factsheets.html.
Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment