4. Is it written in third person? In other words, use "he/she/they." No "you" or "we."

5. Is it less than a page? Media people don't have time to read long press releases. Unless you have a darn good reason, keep it less than a page. For that matter, even if you do have a darn good reason, still keep it less than a page.

6. Are there grammatical or spelling errors in your release? Trust me, these are professionals. They'll catch your errors. And those errors won't leave a very good impression. At very least use your word processing's spell checker, but hiring a proofreader is an even better solution. Or you could simply have someone you trust read it. But definitely do something.

7. Do you have your contact information on release? Media people are on deadline. They don’t have time to search for your contact info if they need clarification or a quote from you. Make it easy for them – put your contact info in a prominent place.

8. Do you have any sales copy in there? Reminder: Press releases don't go to advertising department – they're for editorial. And editorial doesn't look very kindly on sales pitches. Nix promotional copy and just focus on content – if they use your story, they'll put your contact info in there.

While there are no guarantees with publicity, making sure your release follows this checklist will go a long way to garnering you publicity.

Basically, you can sum up cons to this: spend lots of time or money for little/no return.

Not a good marketing strategy.

But, it doesn't have to be that way. You can and should find ways to increase your ROI (return on investment) for all community relations activities you take part in. And one good way to do that is to leverage them into marketing strategies.

Creativity Exercise -- How to get a return on investment with community relations

Grab some sheets of paper and a pen (I like fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some brainstorming.

First, list all activities you're doing that are considered community relations. Write them all down.

Next, analyze those activities. What ROI are you currently getting from them? Do your customers know you donate time and/or money to those activities? Do you get sales because of your involvement? Are you building your brand and/or awareness of your business because of your donations?

Don't know? Well, then you probably aren't getting much return.

Next, I want you to brainstorm ways you can start leveraging those activities. Can you devote a section on your Web site to telling people about your involvement? Can you use your Web site to help raise money and/or volunteers for causes you support? If there's an event involved, can you more aggressively market your services during it? (Set out flyers or brochures or have a really good elevator speech if you're able to introduce yourself.) Can you send out press releases? Can you have your logo added to organization's marketing materials? Or have organization link to your Web site?

Try and brainstorm 20 ways you can increase your ROI. Some will be silly, some will be completely impractical -- but that's okay. All you need are one or two gold nuggets to really jumpstart your marketing and make that investment in time and money really start to pay off.