Is it easy to read?

Editors look at hundreds of press releases every day, and if your news release is difficult to read, they will throw it out. It should be on plain white paper and printed in black ink. The main body of release should be double-spaced and have at least a one inch margin all around edges.

Your letterhead should appear at top of first page to establish your identity.

Have you double-checked your spelling and grammar?

A good press release has no typographical or grammatical errors. If yours contains such errors you'll lose credibility; it will have same effect as a badly written business letter or resume. The release should be typed. Print out (or type out) a fresh copy for each person to whom you will send it. Do not send out poor-quality photocopies with dark staple marks or blotches.

Did you include six news elements?

They go on to say:

“Analysis has three major limitations. First, in a remarkable number of cases, you don’t need it to find big truths. Second, analytical tools have their limitations in a turbulent world. These tools work best when parameters are known, assumptions are minimal, and future is not fuzzy. Third, good analysis rarely motivates people in a big way. It changes thought, but how often does it send people running out door to act in significantly new ways?”

More every day, we see need for emotional intelligence in business world. Our thinking can only take us so far. We can gather data to rationalize our decisions, but often we’re better off using our intuition.

Yes, you must be analytical about choosing your new computer or phone system, but when it comes to trying to figure out why Allen’s team is failing, when you know in your gut, it’s Allen, isn’t productive. It doesn’t provide any more information that you already know.

And no amount of intellectual arguing is going to change someone at their core and motivate action or change. You have to reach in and touch their emotions. You have to find out what’s important to someone, and you have to model what’s important to you – at feelings level.

EMOTIONS IN YOUR FACE CHANGE PEOPLE’S MINDS

Kotter and Cohen give a marvelous example of this. A CEO takes a client out for dinner and listens to him talk about his disappointment with a product that, supposedly built to specifications, keeps being delivered defectively. “We ask again and again for things to be changed,” says unhappy customer, “and person we talk to nods his head but he doesn’t seem to listen.”

What CEO does is send a video team over to customer’s office next day and ask him to speak candidly, which he does, and then he shows video to his employees, many of whom had never interfaced with customers, and never experienced this sort of “strong, negative feedback.”

THE ‘ARM CHAIR LIBERAL’ MOVES INTO THE WORK PLACE

I saw this happen repeatedly in my days in non-profits when I raised money for homeless. I spoke all over town on homelessness and encountered all sorts of reactions, including “Why don’t they just get a job?”