Include Links to Visuals

Pictures sell. Journalists that view your images will be better able to visualize your story and will be more eager to share that story with their publication.

Images should be as relevant to your advocacy objective as possible. If you're writing a press release about the need for affordable HIV/AIDS medicines in Africa, include a picture of an unmedicated African child dying from AIDS, not a photo of your organization's headquarters. When relevant, also offer graphs and charts.

Make it easy for journalists and bloggers to repost your images. Provide the photos in .jpg format. Offer several high-quality, professional images taken from alternative angles.

You can also use your images to improve your search engine ranking. Include your keyphrase when naming your image file. Use your keyphrase again when writing the image title for a newswire service. Finally, include your keyphrase when writing a brief paragraph describing the image.

When distributing your press release, never send attachments through email. Fearing email viruses, journalists will not open email attachments. Instead, provide journalists with a link to the images in your online press room.