Features

1. Features

2. Features • Features can be written by: • PR practitioners • Media staff • Freelancers • Features written by PR practitioners usually appear in: • Professional organizations’ publications • Trade or industry publications • Client or employee publications

3. Benefits of Features • Generate credibility • Give your organization a more human face • Get more in-depth coverage of an issue • Bring attention to positive aspects of your organization • Can distribute to a wider audience

4. Features Features can be one story or a series of stories: • Profile on Steve Jobs • Feature on the Blue Bell ice cream factory • Meet our executives • IBM’s milestones at 100

5. Discovering Feature Material What makes a good feature story? • Human interest • Profiles • A new development, product, disease • Stories that have a news peg • Historical features • Stories tied to holidays, seasons • Descriptive features • How-to features

6. Discovering Feature Material • Research! • Find out what new story needs to be told • Identify important facts and figures • Get background info from experts inside and outside your organization

7. Writing Feature Leads • Hook the reader upfront • Set the mood of the story • Can be more than one paragraph • Usually do not include the 5 W’s and H Check out the “Feature Leads” handout.

8. Writing Feature Endings There are six basic feature endings: • Lead replay • Proximity ending • Restatement • Word play • Quote • Surprise ending

9. Finding an Outlet • Make a list of potential outlets • Where would the feature find a receptive audience? • What type of features do these publications favor? • Look at editorial calendar to see if feature fits with a topic (often in Media Kit section of a publication’s Web site) • Real Simple • Maxim • Gear feature toward editorial calendar topic if possible

10. Pitch Letters for Features • Similar to other pitches . . . plus: • Sell your story idea as good enough for a feature • Say specifically that you’d like a feature • Sell the appropriateness of the idea for the publication’s audience • Say what you can do to facilitate the process • Sell your sources (Who can they talk to? What do you know? What kind of resources can you provide) • One page max

11. Pitching Features • Capture editor’s imagination with a hook – a stat, a trend, an interesting anecdote • Give evidence that the article is good for that outlet • Suggest art, photographs, charts and sources that could be used • If you want to write the piece, specifically ask and say why you are qualified to write it • Sell feature stories one at a time • Follow up with an email and phone calls

12. Working with Outlets • Facilitate access to information • Provide proprietary information and research • Set up interviews • Point them to sources • Give them background information • Provide images, videos, access • Beware the risks!

13. Feature Writing DO’s • Use a feature format (lead, elaboration, conclusion). • Hook ‘em with the lead • “Your words are your paint” • Pick a unique angle • Support the idea in the lead in the article

14. Feature Writing DO’s • Verify and attribute facts and statements • Provide examples, quotes and anecdotes • Use dramatic, descriptive and human tone • Use personal words like “you,” “we” • Write in the past tense, third person. • Vary your sentence structure.

15. Feature Writing DON’TS • Editorialize or apologize • Use words or phrases with double meaning. • Use "and," "so," "thus," "therefore," excessively. • Use nicknames or unfamiliar abbreviations. • Use superlatives excessively. Everything can't be "incredible". • State the obvious or overuse well-known facts. • Mischaracterize people to make your point.