The right get older to make a fact sheet is any era you infatuation to ... a reporter upon a obscure ... dont mind ... they just dont want to think too hard. They helpfully dont have t
The right period to make a fact sheet is any mature you habit to spoon-feed a reporter on a obscure subject.
Reporters dont mind thinking, they just dont desire to think too hard. They helpfully dont have the time. They are writing archives in a hurry. The accent is on hurry.
PR Rainmakers undertake this and use it to their advantage.
Creating a fact sheet gives you more run beyond the savings account that you will have without it. A reporter in a hurry is completely likely to say you will your fact sheet and covert at least allocation of it into a section of the story.
The fact sheet offers the reporter a short-cut that few can refuse. suitably come up with the money for it.
There are four steps to creating a powerful fact sheet. They are:
Step 1: gather content.
Bring together all recent document your company has produced upon the topic you want the reporter to cover. regard as being widening your net to add together documents produced by similar associations, colleges, think tanks and even competitors.
Talk to the folks in your company who in fact know the subject. Focus not unaided on the executives, but as a consequence on the grunts who in reality fabricate the perform and consequently know it inside out. allow careful notes.
Think behind a reporter. What would a journalist need to know? But with look for the surprising, the engaging or the unusual: things the reporter might not expect. intensify these ideas as well.
Step 2: Organize and outline
Sort your opinion by subject. Some PR Rainmakers use binders or folders. Others use computer software. Go subsequently all works best for you.
Lets say you represent a drug manufacturer who is issuing a other pill that instantly cures hives caused by consumption of MSG. Your content might combine the pills formula, the team that created the pill, the size of the companys investment, the potential push for the pill, the lithe ingredients, the chemical acceptance to MSG in allergic humans, and on and on.
You want to tolerate each bit of useful suggestion and put it bearing in mind aligned information. give each box of guidance a name: team, market, ingredients, and therefore on.
Your try is sort out your content until it makes suitability to you.
Next, upon a sheet of paper or upon a computer screen, you desire to write a master list of the names of each box.
This will give the basic outline for your fact sheet. remodel the outline until the structure makes sense.
Step 3: Prune, enhance and simplify.
The try is, in few pages as possible, to develop a fact sheet that hits the topics you want to look in the reporters story.
Rule of thumb: At least five boxes, and no more than 10. Prune away until you attain a number along with those two.
Look for opportunities to swell boxes. For example, if you have some content sorted as executive team and different as research team, judge combining these into one bin labeled team.
Also, you habit to locate ways to simplify perplexing ideas. Search for comparisons and analogies that will spread complicated processes. Transform jargon into English. Focus on 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 want to go as soon as this part of the process.)
If the subject is just too highbrow to edit to a single page, rule creating more than one fact sheet. Just create positive each fact sheet focuses upon 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 habit to use your experience, creativity and common desirability to pick the one that best organized your material.
Try to save the fact sheet to one page. unconditionally no more than three.
Use a readable typeface, such as Arial, in a 10 to 12 lessening typeface. Double spacing isnt necessary, but use a empty line surrounded by paragraphs.
The page should begin with the word Fact Sheet, followed by a certainly brief headline that explains the subject of the page.
From that lessening on, accomplish in the manner of your outline. Use a small header to introduce each box. believe to be using a bullet to way in each paragraph.
Insert lonely the most interesting, most valuable or most relevant assistance you have to offer. Remember: Your job is to make it easy for the reporter to write the story.
Finally: Dont be scared to steal a format you locate attractive. If you want to examination the designs of 10 fact sheets that might act out for you, visit http://www.prrainmaker.com/factsheets.html.
Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.
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