But before you hit that "send" button, take a moment and run your press release through this checklist. Remember, you only have a few seconds to catch attention of busy journalists and editors -- don't blow it over an easily corrected mistake.

Some of these may seem painfully obvious. Alas, even obvious gets overlooked from time to time (even from professionals – I know, I've made my share of mistakes) so it's always a wise idea to take a few moments to double check that your release is up to snuff before sending it out into world.

1. Is your release newsworthy? In other words, does it answer question "Will this interest my readers?" Remember, media people are interested in one thing – keeping their readers happy. Make sure your idea is something that will do just that.

2. Is headline compelling? Will it encourage media people to actually read story? If headline doesn't interest them, chances are they aren't going to take time to read rest of release. And you've just missed your opportunity.

* Your business donates money to nonprofit organizations. * You or your employees volunteer at a fundraising event. * You or your employees volunteer for a nonprofit organization. * You or your employees join a service club. * You or your employees network and/or volunteer at industry association meetings or business functions (such as Chamber of Commerce events). Some people might consider this networking and not community relations, but I would argue networking falls under community relations. Regardless, you get idea.

I'm going to go through pros and cons of community relations in a moment, but first I want to encourage all of you to think about ways to not only add community relations to your marketing strategy but also to get better at leveraging those opportunities to grow your business. But first, let's go through pros and cons.

Pros: * Builds credibility for you and your business. * Builds personal relationships with customers. * Works well with advertising – similar to public relations, community relations is a "soft" sell approach that can make your customers more receptive to your advertising. * Can be a stepping stone for PR. * Creates goodwill (and good karma).