How to Write an Effective RAPID Industry News Release
The additive fabrication industry has a great story to tell the world and yet is one of the worst storytellers imaginable. News release after news release issued by members of this industry read as if they were written by engineers -- which they probably were.But while engineers can design systems and parts that wow the imagination -- i.e. 'build a better mousetrap' -- the world will not beat a path to our doors unless we do a better job of telling our story.
Writing news releases is an art -- not a science. So my guidelines herein are intended as just that -- guides. In general, the most important insights that RAPID owners and executives can take away from this lesson are these.
- Write a Grabbing Headline for Your News Release, Even if that Means Leaving Your Company's Name/Product Out of the Headline.
- In the first paragraph or two, get immediately to the 'so what' of your announcement -- leaving the details (who, what, when, where) for further down. If readers don't know the import of your announcement upfront, they likely won't bother reading deep into your news release to discover it.
- Write as if you are telling a story to your neighbor or a member of your church. Your audience needs to be enticed.
Amazing But True: Expert Forecasts You Will Hold Your Breath for 4 Hours
[Headline is intended to get journalists and others to read further. Take note that I don't mention any name or company in the headline, so as not to bog it down. If you see this headline, it is hard not to read on -- don't you think?]
Orlando, Fl. (May 30, 2008) -- An expert in nanomanufacturing says that researchers are developing molecular-sized machines that in our lifetimes will allow humans to live without a fresh intake of oxygen for as much as four hours.
[I don't say who the expert is yet because until the readers care about this news release, they won't care who the expert is or where he works. I also don't weigh down this first sentence with technical jargon -- such as respirocytes. Instead, I refer to them as 'molecular-sized' machines. Even your neighbor can picture that.]
That means that underwater swimmers will need no special equipment to stay down for hours on end and that heart attack victims will be able to leisurely make their way to a hospital to receive treatment.
[I state the significance of all this long before I attempt to explain what "it" is I'm talking about. Try asking yourself, "What Does This Mean?" for readers and then make sure you answer that in the first two or three paragraphs of your news release.]
This is not science fiction, according to Boris Fritz, an aerospace engineer, who outlined the potential uses of these so-called "respirocytes" during his remarks at RAPID 2008, a conference and exhibition sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).
[Okay, so now for the first time I put a name to my expert and also introduce the technical term 'respirocytes.' But I don't yet give more details about Boris nor do I burden this sentence with details about RAPID 2008 or SME.]
Fritz believes that respirocytes - which function as artificial red blood cells capable of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body - could replace 10% of actual human blood cells to provide the extra four hours of intake-free, life-sustaining oxygen.
A video interview with Fritz is available now on the Low-Volume Manufacturers Association site at www.l-vma.org.
[This is my real sales pitch. I want to attract readers to the L-VMA web site and to view my interview with Boris. But I was very patient in making sure that readers would want to hear more about Boris before I introduced this link.]
Fritz is a senior engineer technical specialist in the Materials & Processes Laboratory at Northrop Grumman Corp. He is also founder and a past chairman of SME's Nanomanufacturing Technical Group.
[Look how long I've waited to give Boris's specific title and affiliation! Most companies try to crowd this information up high in their news releases. To do so is a mistake. Until you make the readers truly interested, they don't give a twit about titles and affiliations. Remember that!]
When the technology for respirocytes is ready, the nanomachines are likely to be "printed" using the type of additive fabrication systems currently deployed to produce non-mold prototypes and low-volume direct digital manufactured parts.
Fritz told RAPID 2008 and L-VMA that he also is excited about the ability to use additive fabrication systems to produce programmable material - sometimes called utility fog or foglets - that can change shape, feel and bond based upon a user's needs.
As Fritz explained, in the future - perhaps as soon as 20 years hence -- billions of volumetric pixels (voxals) will be simply manufactured and programmed to conform to users' needs: a bed that can be used at night that then reforms itself to be a desk or kitchen table during the day.
Likewise, Fritz envisions a more distant future in which programmable material is used to build homes that can be 'remodeled' at will and holodeck-like rooms where the interiors can reshape themselves to match almost any desired scenery - including to-the-touch accurate human models.
[To keep the readers reading, the news release must keep being interesting. I try to achieve this by transitioning from respirocytes to volumetric pixels. My use of the word 'holodeck' is a deliberate effort to appeal to the science fiction fan in all of us.]
"This isn't virtual reality," Fritz notes. "It is more like real, reality, because it is made of foglets," he says.
Dean Rotbart, founder and director of L-VMA, says that Fritz highlights the fact that the additive fabrication industry - which most people think of as dealing with industrial prototypes and parts - is on the cutting edge of 21st Century technological advances. "Talk about undiscovered potential, the additive fabrication industry has the potential to make the Internet look so 'yesterday'," Rotbart says. "Investors, entrepreneurs and journalists who want to see tomorrow today should be talking to RAPID industry leaders such as Boris Fritz," he adds.
[This is my release. Although it may seem to be about Boris and his speech, it is really about the L-VMA. Yet look where I chose to insert myself into this narrative! By now, if I still have an audience, I feel the audience is ready to know me and my interests. Until now, the release has been designed for the readers' benefit alone -- as any good release should be.]
The Low-Volume Manufacturers Association is a volunteer organization dedicated to showcasing the benefits of rapid-prototyping, rapid-manufacturing and other emerging additive fabrication technologies. Membership in the group is free and open to all bona fide additive fabrication companies.
[If I've done my job well, readers have read most, if not all, of this release and don't feel 'sold' when they are done. In fact, I kinda hope they'll actually talk about the release with their colleagues and perhaps even email a copy of the release to friends. Remember, a release is not about you, as silly as that seems. It is about your intended reader and making sure that reader gets repaid for his/her investment in reading your release.]
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