For anyone who has ever had the pleasure (🤪) of having a press release reviewed by me, one thing usually sticks out in my feedback …
No one cares that you are excited about your press release news.
…What?
Err … Let’s back up.
Usually, when you are working on a press release, the general idea is that you are excited about the news. Sure, there may be times when the press release is more specific to a situation, or even a crisis, but in general, press releases are vehicles for positive news.
Maybe it’s a new hire, new product, new business achievement, event, merger …. you get the idea. This is news you want to disseminate, and you hope other people are interested in it as well.
I would define a press release as the official statement from your business that shares specific information to the media and general public.
…Ok, but shouldn’t we be excited about that?
In a word, yes. But, what I’m going for here is that you need to find a better word to describe it.
The number of business announcements that I have reviewed, or read, over the years that use a variation of the word “excite”, specifically in press releases has made the word lose its meaning entirely.
To make my point …
^ those are all direct quotes from releases that were published via PRNewswire this morning. There were almost 100 press releases (out of ~500) using “excite” before 9am today.
Not only is the word overused, but you also need to think through what that quote accomplishes. If a reporter does pull out the quote to use, do you want to showcase excitement, or knowledge and next steps in the field?
Let’s face it. Press releases aren’t cause for all that much excitement anyway.