 Our other video on public relations writing focused on strategy and style, but in this video, I want to really focus on content In today's world, it's all about generating that content and getting out your message and finding different ways to reach audiences There are so many different ways So we're going to spend a few minutes in this video talking about some of the different ways that we can generate Content we're not going to get in-depth on on the techniques behind these things. We're really just going to cover What are some of the methods for generating content and the channels through which we can reach out using public relations writing? so to start with we can look at Again, some of the common public relations writing tasks that we have include things like a news release So very frequently as a public relations practitioner, you'll be asked to draft news releases And so one of the things we want to keep in mind in doing news releases is what we call the inverted pyramid The inverted pyramid and so we start with the very broadest part of the inverted pyramid. This is just a method for specifically the the content of your news releases and the shape that they should take so we start at the very top of the very first thing that should be in your news release and using the inverted pyramid are the 5w's now remember that people reading this news release and using this news release are gonna have a very limited amount of time Not only to review this material sometimes, but also a limited amount of time in which they can discuss these things So you really want to put these 5w's right up front right up top Who what why when and where get the the facts of the situation out very clearly Right up front so the very first paragraph of your news release should include all five of the w's who what where when and why So that people Reviewing this news release and using this news release can access that information Very very quickly right at the very start of the news release So then after that you can include some key quotes and supporting facts That should be the next segment of your news release you you're providing a little more depth here Get him beyond just the straight facts of the 5w's and into here's some other information that you might be useful to this person as They put together their news article or their news report right to put together some quotes and supporting facts that they can use Within their own article in their own writing and then you can add in after that and some additional But maybe some less important facts or quotes things that aren't as directly related to those 5w's that may not be quite as useful But if this is somebody writing a longer form piece then you can You can include that in there so that they have a little bit more content really what you're doing is making their job easier for them In essence right you're providing this material to them and levels that they can use if they only have a very short amount of time Then they have the 5w's that they can use and then you're layering in additional information that they can use as time and space Allow in their particular format Then you can also provide some background information what led up to this situation in general providing any kind of additional Information related to that and then finally some general information about your organization or use an individual where they can contact you For further details and things like that, but this is what we call the inverted pyramid right the 5w's start The news release and should be right up front and then you can layer in additional details that they can use And then finally some other background information and general information for follow-up and and about the organization So this is a pretty good model to use when you're looking at any kind of news release Because again it provides the details that the people need and then any subsequent material that that might be helpful to them In a format that's easy for them to understand so think about this in paragraphs if you have, you know Five paragraphs the nation include you know these levels of things or a little bit beyond that but you get the idea here We want to use the inverted pyramid any time we use any kind of news release In today's world we we can also think about things like digital releases where we include links to other resources links to our organizations website an email address that's linked in there we can provide these digital resources and links and maybe you know links to Shared drive or places where these people can go and get further information as well So don't be afraid if it's being sent in digital format to you to include that type of information and Use the digital resources that are available and even more so we can include multimedia releases where we're including videos Where we're providing again content making their job easier if they're just in the news gathering function This can make their job easier for investigative reporters. They want to do their own legwork They want to do that kind of stuff But if this is just somebody sitting in a newsroom thinking I've got to fill x amount of hours a day With some news coverage, then you want to make their job as easy as possible. Hey, here's an audio clip Here's a video that you can use and you can you can include in your thing Here's a here's a link to a website or an interactive Survey or different things like that. Whatever it is you can do to make their job easier You can do that through these multimedia releases as well by providing video content audio content And you know just making their job as easy as possible while also furthering your message obviously and and promoting your own message so so there are all kinds of Factors and and types of news releases that we can think about but all of them should essentially follow the inverted pyramid format and Then include whatever kind of resources you have available as well Another common PR tool for generating content is social media. We can use social media, of course and You need to make choices as an organization about how you're going to use social media How you're going to engage what type of tone you're going to use in social media But it's a very common source of generating content for for public relations practitioners to use social media anymore Typically, it's it's free. I mean it's low-cost. It's it can generate some viral buzz But you got to be careful, you know because it can also generate negative buzz But but some organizations are really quite effective at using social media to enhance their message and to enhance their The purpose of their organization So be thinking about how you can generate content and what type of content you want to generate and how you want to use Your social media for that organization as well Should become familiar with organizing and writing fact sheets Which are just what they sound like they just provide basic facts on any kind of effort any kind of campaign any kind of product whatever it is idea that you're trying to get out there's just a Basic fact sheet that you can provide to the public you can provide to the media That has just the essential information on facts about whatever it is your your campaign is related to You can also do a backgrounder which is essentially just a tool to tell your story and tell What why this effort is important what this campaign is about and and and just establishing some background generating some Some knowledge about that organ about that effort and that organization and whatever it is You're trying to to accomplish so you can you can put together a backgrounder piece for people who don't know anything about the effort And to establish that kind of knowledge You may oftentimes need to generate content through a one-on-one pitch Excuse me if you have an opportunity to To have an interview with a particularly relevant Media member for example, you may need to Think about a one-on-one pitch for that generate content for that or if you're meeting with a particularly important Donator or influencer in that field then you may consider a one-on-one pitch and what's going to be best for you to tell your story and to To engage that person in a one-on-one basis, so you may need to generate content through a more focused one-on-one pitch Other times you may have opportunities through a feature or an op-ed where you are essentially writing the article and There's no real third party there You are you are providing the content in a whole and generating content by by offering a fully Produced and fully formed feature or or op-ed piece for a media outlet So that's another way that you can generate content again News organizations often have they have X amount of hours to fill or X amount of space to fill and sometimes they struggle especially smaller Organizations can struggle to fill that space and fill that time. So they may Just say look if you've got a five-minute piece we can put up here. Let's do it We'll just we'll just throw it on here because they're desperate for that kind of you know That kind of filler they're trying to fill that time with something different instead of repeating the same thing over and over again So especially when you have slower news cycles organizations may be more and more open to that So you can generate content through those features and through op-eds Finally and through enough I live it through a media kit And this just collects several of these types of things that we've been looking at and just kind of pre packages it for different media Outlets it may include a fact sheet a background or some news releases some some op-ed some features and just a variety of things That you can include in that media kit and say here here's a package You can pick and choose and use whatever you can from this and again You're just making their job easier for them in a sense by providing this information for them And especially providing it in a format that makes it easier for them to use So go back and review that kind of strategy and style thing and make sure that we're meeting those needs for them as well So they don't have to do a lot of repackaging We're just giving them something they can kind of pick and choose and pull out what works for them And then we can generate content through speech writing sometimes as a public relations practitioner You may not even be the person giving that speech But it may be that that you need to write a speech for somebody else and there are certain things involved in that Obviously, we need to think about content. We generate content through that and so we need to think about what's our purpose? What's our goal here and strategize in that way But you also have to think about things like who's giving the speech and what is their voice? And how can I write this in a way that's going to sound natural coming from them? So so often times public relations folks get into a situation where they need to to be able to write speeches for themselves Or for other people in order to generate content in that way create and establish content and tell their story in that way Regardless of what you're doing with these things, you know There's a there's kind of a saying here that that takes 10,000 hours to master any craft right whatever it is And so all of these things feed into that 10,000 hours for you 10,000 hours to break it down a little bit That's eight hours a day five days a week four to four forty four weeks a year For five and a half years to generate really an expertise in those things So we ought to be working at our craft constantly Putting in those hours to get to that 10,000 hours in all of these things in order to become a more effective Practitioner and a public relations by generating content through all the different ways that we can if you have questions about Writing for public relations or creating content and how to do that effectively, please feel free to email me I'd love to hear from you there in the meantime I hope you'll think about all the different ways that public relations folks are involved in Generating content and all the different ways, you know, not just opportunities that we have to do that as practitioners of public relations But then all the different skill sets we also need to develop in order to be effective at all of these ways in which we can generate content as we write for public relations