Be Professional!

"I don't want to delete your press release, but sometimes I feel like you're forcing me to," said Chloe Thompson, an assistant editor at TMG.

How can you make sure yours isn't one of the releases that's getting deleted? In an article for Ragan's PR Daily, Thompson advises against five bad habits. In her article, Thompson reminds PR practitioners to avoid the use of pet names, slang and Internet lingo like "LOL." She also reminds PR practitioners to provide all of the necessary details in their releases, to be focused and to be concise.

Thompson's tips were all beneficial, but I found that most of them boiled down to two main points: be professional and do your job right. It is hard to believe that some PR practitioners need to be reminded to not address a journalist as "babe" or to remember to include an important detail like the date of an event in a press release!

As Thompson points out, simply taking the time to make sure your material is polite and well-written are the first--and critical--steps toward ensuring your press release gets read. "Just do your part, and I promise I'll do mine," Thompson said.