Announcement guidlines

[Rajiv Vyas <r rvyas gmail com>]

Some guidelines for media/public relations and putting out
announcements (in press release formats of Blogs):

•       Pre announcements should go out in time – usually a week before the event
•       If you want to put out an announcement after the event, it should be
within two days, usually the next day
•       Keep the announcement short, but not so short that it does not say
anything i.e. four to six paragraphs (with hyperlinks, it shouldn't be
that difficult
•       While getting out the announcement in the most well written fashion
is the best approach, we are all volunteers here, so keep the
timeliness in mind
•       This is very important: have a database of reporters, writers and
columnists who write about GNOME, Linux and FOSS.
•       Most of our work should be push (send an email with a link or the
story to each individual writer or a group of writers) and not pull –
we are not as popular as Google that we can expect writers and techies
to be visiting our Weblogs.
•       The release announcement should go with a GNOME address. Which means
don't use Gmail or Yahoo to email to announcements.
•       Press releases should be put out regularly, but not so often that
people our emails start making it to the junk folder. I would suggest
once every six to eight weeks.
•       As a writer, the first question I would ask is: What's the story
here? So, we should have a hook.
•       And let's have some structure. Once the first draft of the
announcement is written, we should have all the edits and suggestions
in 2 to 3 days. The second draft and if possible the final copy should
be put out within 4 to 5 days of the first draft – this timeline would
vary depending upon how sensitive and big the announcement is.
•       Also, we should have someone in charge of putting these releases on
the Web and few backups.



Let me know if there are some suggestions.

Thanks,

Rajiv