Having just installed the new Documents app on Facebook, I was reminded that this kind of collaborative doc sharing has been around for a while ie Google Docs. On the surface, you’d have thought it is the kind of thing that PR companies might make routine use of for drafting and approving releases. Perhaps they do, but I haven’t heard much talk about it.
However, given the general downer that journalists have on press releases, it occurred to me that some entrepreneurial hacks could offer to edit, advise, etc on draft press releases – for a fee of course (or for free in they are feeling charitable). And all this could be achieved in a confidential way as only specific people can have access to the documents. PRs would learn how to write better releases as well as get feedback on whether their stories are any good.
Dunno – maybe it’s a stupid idea – then again…….
3 replies on “Collaborative press release writing”
I’m so glad to see you mentioned press releases.
You might be interested in knowing that I’m offering a free email tutorial called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”
I explain why we should no longer be writing press releases only for the press, but for consumers who can find the releases online, click through to our websites and enter our sales cycle, even if journalists don’t think our release is worthy of attention.
The course includes several terrific press release samples as well as “before” and “after” makeovers.
You can sign up for the free press release writing tutorial at http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm
It’s a very long tutorial but please stick with it. By the time you’re done, it will be like earning a master’s degree in writing and distributing press releases. And you’ll know more about this topic than many PR people.
I’ve been using Google Docs for a while to collaborate with other writers — not for press releases as yet, but for a variety of other projects. Most recently, a few of us were invited to contribute to an online anthology with an emphasis on intertextuality, so we put our drafts online and reworked our material with reference to the other pieces and made editorial comments on each other’s work. When the time was right, we gave the commissioning editor access to the docs, and everyone was pleased with the results.
As I say, this wasn’t a press release, but the principle is exactly the same; the next time we generate copy to plug one of our events, we’ll most likely use the application.
The thing about Google Docs, as I’ve just dicovered (unless I’m mistaken), is that you have to have a gmail account to be able to access the shared files.
http://www.izimi.com doesn’t work like that. You don’t even have to log in to have access to the publicly shared files – that’s any file any size, shared directly from your PC.