Category Archives: Content PR & Marketing

Content PR and content marketing are redefining how brands communicate with audiences. Inbound tactics featuring content that answers audience needs attract attention and create gravitational pull for a brand.

The Press Release as Discovery Tool

Posted on May 21, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Today’s noisy media environment poses challenge for brands:  how to get for important messages when there is so much fragmentation of the audience — and competition for their attention.  People share and consume incredibly granular information, and a fundamental communications vehicle – the press release – is proving remarkably adaptable and effective, provided communicators refresh their approach to using this PR workhorse in this new environment.

“Press releases have a chance to be something so much more relevant,” notes Steve Farnsworth, chief strategist at Jolt Digital Marketing, and publisher of the widely-read Steveology blog. “But they have to be immediately specific and relevant.”

Who’s reading press releases (and why?)

A couple minutes' worth of press release tweets from this morning. Click the image to see the live feed.

A couple minutes’ worth of press release tweets from this morning. Click the image to see the live feed.

According to research PR Newswire conducted with Forrester on the visitors to PRNewswire.com, a significant portion of millions of monthly visitors are engaged in researching a product or service, and they find  press releases through their use of search engines.  People are also accessing press releases increasingly on mobile devices –views to PR Newswire’s mobile site have almost doubled in the last year. 

What’s the attraction? Press releases, as on-record statements from the organizations issuing them, are viewed as credible sources of information, and they are read and shared by the public, as well as journalists, analysts and bloggers.

“Most press releases that are produced aren’t read by the media, they’re read by the people,” says Farnsworth. “Your readers are going to be your stakeholders, and you’ll reach more directly that way than through the media.”

The long tail of the press release

Many communicators distribute the press releases in one way or another, whether through an email to industry players, a newsletter to customers or a commercial newswire service.  Once distributed, press releases develop an amazing ability to work their way into key industry niches, attaining the credibility of earned media status as they are liked, commented upon and shared.

Additionally, press releases are read long after they’re issued and the PR department has moved on to other things.  PR Newswire’s data indicates that most of the views the average press release will accrue over the four months following the distribution of the message – longer than many communicators expect.   A good message can actually increase its audience’s attention span.

To capitalize upon the ongoing attention the message generates, the press release also needs to provide direction for interested readers to take.

“The press release needs to be a guide to something bigger or better than itself, such as an infographic or ebook,” commented Eddy Badrina, co-founder and chief strategy officer at BuzzShift, a digital strategy agency.  “In fact, all those things you spend time creating probably deserve a press release.”

The recent “Dove Beauty Sketches” campaign included a exemplary press release that – while also loaded with multimedia elements – was also masterfully written to capture attention behind-the-scenes information about the wildly successful social media campaign.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of content marketing, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik .

 

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4 Best Practices Brands Should Implement, Now That Twitter is a Yahoo News Source

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Last month a single 61 character tweet (12 words as a matter of fact) caused the S&P 500 to drop $136 Billion in mere minutes.

It boggles the mind and makes one try to find some sense in it. What does it mean?

Well, it certainly proved the tremendous reliance we all have on the content that comes from Twitter. Some would say investors rely too much on automated trades based on tweets.

It also proved the great value our society places on Twitter as a provider of content and information.

Tweets will now be featured in Yahoo’s news feed.

Yesterday Yahoo announced that it was taking Twitter very seriously indeed.

In her blog, Merissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo stated, “Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed.”

She went on to say that over the next few days users would begin to see Tweets “personalized to their interests and preferences” appear in their content stream, delivering on earlier promises that the search and new aggregation giant would move toward more personalization of content for its users.

[An interesting side note is that the title of Mayer’s blog post “@Yahoo delivers #bestoftheweb” is really not very tweetable. Oops. To start a tweet with a Twitter name is a mistake unless you are talking ‘at’ that person/account. It will not appear as normal tweet.]

Yahoo’s big search competitor, Google wasn’t able to keep its former relationship with the microblogging giant. Twitter results disappeared from Google some time back, making this an quite a win for Yahoo.

But what does this move mean for communicators?

While few details have been revealed, it’s probably safe to assume that Yahoo will feature tweets that are popular, influential and of course meet certain criteria for authenticity and newsworthiness.

As communicators we should be prepared and simply take this as a reminder of some best practices for content creation:

1)  Create share-worthy content with tweetable headlines and by highlighting crunchy, interesting facts in bold font or in bulleted lists.
2)  Cultivate social networks. Build credibility for your content and your brand.
3)  Build relationships with influencers.
4)  Calibrate your team for rapid response to current events.

Perhaps your content will make it to the Yahoo news page along with relevant content from trusted news sources which Yahoo customizes based on user interest.

One thing a fast-moving PR team needs is information. Stay on top of issues and opportunities as news breaks by incorporating MediaVantage into your communications strategy. Learn more about our real-time media monitoring suite.

Victoria HarresVictoria Harres is VP, Audience Development & Social Media at PR Newswire, the main voice behind @PRNewswire, social media lead for @Business4Better and a frequent speaker and writer on social media for business. 

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How Facebook Home Will Impact Marketers

Posted on May 16, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Every other week, The Q&A Team answers questions from ProfNet readers with advice from our large network of experts. Has there been a question burning in your mind lately, something you’ve been wondering that none of your colleagues can answer? Please send it to polina.opelbaum@prnewswire.com

Dear Q&A Team,

Now that Facebook Home has been released, I want to understand how it will impact my work as a marketer. Is it worth taking a closer look at? What should I be aware of? I want to make sure I don’t frustrate and annoy our fans with ads. Any advice?

“Home” Run or Loss

_____________________

Dear “Home” Run or Loss,

Here are three ProfNet experts who can address your questions about the impact of Facebook Home on marketers:

What is Facebook Home?

The Google Play store app provides the following description of Facebook Home:

“Facebook Home puts your friends at the heart of your phone. Replace your standard home screen with a steady stream of friends’ posts and photos. Get to apps with one swipe — just drag your profile picture up to open the app launcher. And when you download Facebook Messenger, you can keep chatting with friends when you’re using other apps.”

The app is available for download on various Android devices — including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and HTC One X+.

Pros to Using Home

Lorrie Thomas Ross, CEO of Web Marketing Therapy, simply says, “Businesses have to respond to Facebook Home — it’s here. The impact on the Facebook pages of organizations hasn’t been discussed enough. It is a big point for professionals to ponder.”

RJ Bardsley, senior vice president of Racepoint Group, says, “If Home takes off, Facebook marketing campaigns (paid and earned) become a lot more impactful. Home has the potential to turn Facebook from a primarily PC-based experience to a primarily mobile experience. This is important, seeing as PC sales continue to drop (14 percent this quarter according to IDC). If marketers invested in Facebook ads or another type of Facebook presence, they’re in for a treat as these move front and center on people’s mobile devices.”

Ross is also excited with the future potential of Home and says, “In theory, the new mobile app could create more inventory and advertising options, which can help address more monetization of the user base. This can also create more ad options.”

Cons to Using Home

Jacob Chapman, vice president of corporate strategy at Sazze, Inc., thinks Facebook Home will not prove to be an attractive option for most marketers of online businesses. Chapman has found that controlling where his message appears is just as important (if not more important) than controlling the content of the message itself.

“Controlling the ‘where’ provides us with insight into and control over our viewers’ moods and intentions,” he says.

Chapman explains that with most mobile advertising, the advertisement is placed within a certain app or collection of apps: “As the marketer, I know certain things about a viewer and their frame of mind if they open the Words With Friends app, or even if they open the Facebook app. Contrast that with Facebook Home, where all I know is that a person has turned on their mobile phone. This type of passive ad impression is phantom advertising and it is not going to be anywhere near as valuable as an ad that is served to someone who is primed for engagement.”

However, Chapman thinks this issue can be resolved if Home can serve up relevant location-aware advertising, which is advertising that is served to a user based on their proximity to the advertiser’s real-world location.

There are dozens of mobile companies trying to make this model work, but no one has been able to get the formula quite right (e.g., Groupon Now!, MobSav, Scoutmob, etc.), said Chapman. “If Facebook Home goes down this road, they will certainly have the brainpower, scale and financial resources to do it successfully where others have failed.”

How to Prepare for Home

Ross recommends that businesses interested in Facebook Home do the following three things: 1) monitor traffic from Facebook to see if there is more traffic driven to their site from mobile devices; 2) anticipate more ad costs to account for the additional inventory that could develop with the new real estate; 3) develop a strategy for the app experience — management, communications and measurement.

The more the marketplace adopts Facebook Home, the more businesses need to be prepared to monitor it and be present on it, advises Ross.

Bardlsey reiterates the importance of being present. He thinks that for good marketers, it should be all about improving the brand’s visibility by providing more value. “Now that marketers know their audiences will be more mobile, we need to think about how we engage and what value we bring to people on the go.”

Nonetheless, Ross thinks one concern for businesses is how Facebook pages will work on Home: “Will they have new features above and beyond the browser experience, or will experience be compromised with the smaller app screen? That will likely evolve in time.”

How Users Will Respond to Home

There is always initial frustration with ads, but consumers seem to get over the initial frustration fairly quickly, says Chapman.

“I definitely think Facebook will need to be very careful about how many ads they insert into Facebook Home, who they allow to advertise and what format those ads take. Tasteful and relevant sponsored posts can probably be worked in without horrendous backlash, but ads for diet pills would drive people to uninstall Facebook Home in short order,” he explains.

Bardsley agrees with Chapman, saying, “Too much of anything can be bad — and this is especially true in marketing.” He strongly suggests that any marketer focusing a campaign or part of a campaign on Home become familiar with the MMA. It has a great set of guidelines/best practices for mobile marketing.

As far as users staying away from the app due to security/privacy risks, Chapman says, “It isn’t as benign as a native operating system like iOS or Android, but there is nothing inherent in the app that makes it more dangerous than the standard Facebook app.”

However, he still urges users to be particularly aware of their privacy settings, because they will be engaging with the Facebook Home app constantly and passively. “Users may be okay sharing certain data, like their location, when they have to launch an app and take an action to share the data — but it is a different story if Facebook Home is always sharing that data whenever they turn on their phone.”

Even though the Facebook Home app may still be evolving, remember this advice from Ross: Slow is the same as stop in the social Web world. Being aware and engaged will only help your social media marketing efforts.

Good luck!

-The Q&A Team

Written by Polina Opelbaum, editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources.  The Q&A Team is published biweekly on ProfNet Connect, a free social networking site for communicators. To read more from Polina, check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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Press Release RX: 3 Ways to Improve Reader Experience

Posted on May 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

PR RXYou can’t read an article or blog these days on web design or SEO without seeing a reference to “user experience design” (or “UXD” if you want to look cool.)   It’s a hot topic, and for reasons that go far beyond aesthetics.   The experience users of a web site encounter have a direct effect on that site’s search rankings and conversion rate.  And in the advice offered by UXD pros and SEO gurus are some important lessons for writers.

First, a little background.  When we’re talking about web site user experience, we’re referring to all the different aspects of content, structure and navigation that enable a site visitor to do the things he or she wants to do, whether that means reading a white paper, registering for an event, browsing information or purchasing things.  Poor UXD means that something on the site prevents the visitor from doing what he or she intended to do.

pr as leadgen

This blog post was actually inspired by a press release I reviewed for a client last week.  It was long, wandering from topic to topic.    It tried to tell the story of a new product along with the story of the product pipeline as well as the story of a successful acquisition.  It tried to achieve too much, and as I read through it, I really wanted to stop reading.  And that is exactly what we don’t want our readers to do.

As we’re drafting press releases, we should be thinking about what exactly we want our readers to do, and then structure the content accordingly.  But how do we design press releases (and other content, for that matter) to encourage readers to move forward, to the outcome we want them to take?  Here are a few ideas.

  1.  Identify the specific outcome you want your primary audience to take.  In most cases, you’ll want other constituents to read the story, too. But trying to serve all audiences in one message is tough to do.  Focus the content on one audience, and one outcome, such as getting industry media and bloggers to write a particular story, generating social shares of an image or getting readers to click on a specific link.
  2. Focus the content of every paragraph on leading the reader to that outcome.  If your writing starts to veer from the path, so will your reader.  Stay focused on the key message.   Other messages will need their own separate vehicles, whether that means another press release or something else, such as a blog post or inclusion in a customer newsletter.
  3. Structure the content to enable the reader to get to the desired outcome.  It’s important to assume that most readers do not read all the way through a piece of content, unless it is meeting their needs and hooking their interest every single step of the way.  This means that in addition to keeping the message focused, you need to put links where people will click them – such as right after the first paragraph, rather than at the very end of the copy where they could be easily overlooked.   Weave links and access to supporting information throughout the content.

As writers, we need to think first about what our readers want to read and accomplish, rather than what messages our organizations want to convey.   Press releases should march the reader straight to the key points of the story and wrap up with an inevitable conclusion.  Just as marketers strive to prevent their sales funnels from leaking, and webmasters focus on increasing the time visitors spend on the site, writers need to be thinking about maintaining reader attention as they author content.

 Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of content marketing, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik .

 

 

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Content We Love: Backbone of Storytelling

Posted on May 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

ContentWeLove“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

mnr lead

The headline and the lead dive straight into the story.

#Storytelling

Growing up, the phrase “There are two sides to every story” echoed all around.
Being a writer and a content specialist, finding the story is the primordial base where magic exists.

To my delight, the impactful message about a state-of-the-art surgery from Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego leapt from the page because of how it was written, the visual elements, and the social media components.

Instead of being laden with corporate jargon and a “who/what/when/where/how” approach, the release made waves with great storytelling and more than just the kids took notice.

mnr photo galleryRight off the bat, the story leaps off the pages with video and images of the families. Paired with the technical (and readable) words of describing Early-Onset Scoliosis and how the magnetic rods operate, are videos and images that bring the experience to life.

  • On one side is the incredible feat of the surgery itself, clearly defined within the release. The words are compelling and easy to understand (acronyms explained, processes defined, etc). Yet on the other side is the human element of the doctors’ scope on their young patients and the family scope of their loved ones.

The images give a face to the message. This is not just an ordinary surgery; this is a surgery for Tommy and Anthony.

Images increase visibility on releases because humans are inherently intrigued by visuals. Including an image on your release is placing a bull’s eye target, which instantly attracts the line of vision.

Stop your audience in their tracks with powerful imagery.

And much like the magnetic rods, this release continues to grow.

The tale also took to social channels to spread the news.

Tweet: .@radychildrens performs groundbreaking growing rod surgeries for early-onset #scoliosis http://prn.to/10afja8

  • With search engines showing social results higher and higher, it is 100% in a company’s best interest to involve social sharing of news.

Much align to a story, there are two sides to social media: the share and the conversation. Social Media sites are buzzing with shared information (thoughts, ideas, articles, etc) to a collective group and these same sites are abuzz with conversations about the information.

In one swoop, the story transcends from viewership on news’ sites to the online social feeds. Not only is the message shared to a bigger audience, the conversation has started with just one tweet. From a tweet can come a retweet, a conversation, and a connection. Cool!

When penning a press release, reflect on the story it is telling. Add those great images and share the great news via social media. Share your story to the world!

Big thanks to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, San Diego Center for Spinal Disorders, and Ellipse Technologies for showcasing the backbone to storytelling!

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/61604-rady-children-s-hospital-san-diego-ellipse-magec-early-onset-scoliosis-eos

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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Finding the Link Between Content & Conversion

Posted on April 30, 2013 by | 1 Comment

There’s a lot of discussion these days about the role of content in the public relations and marketing strategies, and much of it is focused on the awareness-generating and attention-acquiring benefits a stream of content can produce.

However, as an organization builds out a content strategy, it’s also important to consider the role the published articles, case studies, press releases, blog posts, white papers, etc., work together to create a pathway for readers that ends (ideally) in conversion.

“Content creates the context for consumption,” noted Ninan Chacko, PR Newswire’s CEO, at the Content Marketing Summit hosted by the Business Development Institute last week. “Earned & paid media historically have been separate silos, but that’s changing.  Social media has brought the two together.  Audiences don’t live in the paid or the earned environments. The challenge is now how to craft content that lives across different media.”

The challenge for communicators, he went on to say, is in understanding the resulting metrics, and how engagement activities, such as social interactions, contribute ultimately to conversion.

“Ninan made a great case for engagement as a metric. While retweets, likes, and other signs of engagement might not directly translate to leads, they are invaluable when it comes to measuring the success of your efforts,”  wrote blogger John Brhel of Social Eddy, in his own recap of the event titled “Top 5 Quotes from Content Marketing Summit 2013.“

Here is Ninan’s presentation deck, which illustrates the connection between content and customer conversion: 

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Content We Love: Using Visuals to Create a Seamless Path for Readers

Posted on April 26, 2013 by | Leave a comment

CWL Banner

“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content
specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of
time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof
reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and
offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on
the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you
why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from
discussing them enlightening.

taters

A snapshot of the multimedia press release issued by the United States Potato Board. It seamlessly integrates multimedia with their own web site content, creating a widely-distributed portal back to the organization’s web site.  Click the image to see the full MNR.

Everyone loves food.

Cookbooks woo us with the colorful images of decadent cuisine. We salivate over each picture and build confidence that it would be easy to re-create the recipe. The moment of truth is finding yourself in the kitchen with smoke billowing from the oven and the realization you’re not Julia Child. Or maybe that is just me.

Visuals engage the reader.

Press releases, at their core, are to provide information. For the United States Potato Board, their Multimedia News Release* is geared towards not only sharing information and recipes, but dynamically engaging the reader with rich multimedia –in short, the visuals.

Ring in Spring by Using Unique Potato Types to Create Colorful, Nutrition Packed Dishes

There are many ways to showcase a message and tell a story with press releases. The captivating Multimedia News Release provides assets (photos, videos, PDFs, etc) to your release and therefore can increase your engagement with the reader.

Instantly the images of delicious meals fill the view but it doesn’t stop there. In tandem with the release are videos of different potato types, recipes, nutritional content, images, a connection to Facebook, and a logo combining the message with the assets, “Goodness Unearthed.”

We know imagery increases visibility, so what about engagement?

  • When crafting your story, having your audience take the next step and share/interact with your message is engagement.
Engagement is action.

Why is it important for a press release? To act, one must not only remember the content, but be inspired to act upon it.  For this release, the information takes a step further into a kitchen by way of recipes. The nutritional information, the pictures, and the videos all tie together with the message to create a truly engaging release.

  • Multimedia increases engagement. For your releases, remember the goodness of USPB and showcase your message using multimedia and social channels.

A seamless pathway for readers

The glossiest, most engaging multimedia doesn’t mean a thing if there’s no mechanism for capturing the interest your message has created.  In this example, the USPB integrated their own web site content into the MNR.  This tactic does two important things:

  • It offers readers seamless experience, creating clear path for them to follow, taking straight to web pages the USPB controls; and
  • Because the MNR is widely distributed, the USPB has effectively created and broadly circulated a portal leading directly to their web site across the web.

Big thanks to the United States Potato Board for a release full of goodness!

Want to explore new ways to tell your brand’s story?  We’d be happy to chat with you about creating a video or a designing multimedia distribution strategy that will increase discovery of your brand’s messages.  We’d love to hear your ideas, and help turn them into reality. Contact us for more information.

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow
her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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Content We Love: the Press Release Behind the Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” Campaign

Posted on April 19, 2013 by | 2 Comments
A snapshot of the Dove "Real Beauty Sketches" MNR. Click the image to see it live.

A snapshot of the Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” MNR. Click the image to see it live.

The biggest viral story of the week was undoubtedly the latest in the Real Beauty campaign from Dove. Titled “Real Beauty Sketches (#wearebeautiful),” this installment clearly illustrated the issues women have with negative self-perception.    And while I could spend a lot of time talking about the genius of this campaign, for this edition of Content We Love, I’m going to focus on how the organizations behind the campaign – Unilever, Ogilvy Advertising and Edelman – chose to promote the campaign.

Days later, the global Tweet stream is still going strong.

Days later, the global Tweet stream is still going strong.

It’s not unusual at all for a brand to promote a new advertising campaign with a press release.   In most cases, the press release is pretty standard, describing the campaign, the related calls to action and special offers for customers.    The press release for the Dove campaign, however, took a different angle.

An exemplary headline:

Instead of focusing on the campaign, the PR team at Edelman focused on some of the stories underlying the campaign, and they did so right out of the gate with a compelling headline:

FBI-TRAINED FORENSIC ARTIST CONDUCTS A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT TO ILLUSTRATE THE ONGOING STRUGGLE WOMEN HAVE WITH RECOGNIZING THEIR OWN BEAUTY

Dove® “Real Beauty Sketches” Campaign Reveals the Dramatic Difference Between Self-Image and What Others See

This is a fantastic headline, for a few reasons:

  • The headline elegantly captures the two key themes of the press release
  • Credibility for the story is built immediately noting that an FBI-trained forensic artist is at the center of the social experiment the campaign illustrates.
  • It doesn’t waste space with the brand name or campaign title.  Those are relegated to the subhead, which neatly describes the Real Beauty Sketches campaign itself.
  • It is almost tweetable, checking in at 136 characters (with spaces) but I’m not going to quibble length, because the descriptive language employed in this example works, and is necessary.

This is the kind of headline treatment I’d like to see on more press releases – one that leads with facts and story elements, rather than a brand announcing something.   It reminds me of advice I heard Kevin Helliker of the Wall St. Journal give PR people and years ago:  write the headline you want to see in the paper, and use that in your pitch email and press release headline.

Followed by a near-perfect lead:

The writer of this press release set the hook with the lead sentence, and followed immediately with salient facts that ensured the reader didn’t go anywhere but onward:

The way women depict themselves is dramatically different from how others perceive them. Over half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic1, which equates to a staggering 672 million women around the world.2

Once again, we see restraint employed when it comes to brand mentions.   The brand and campaign aren’t mentioned until midway through the opening paragraph.

Now, let’s be clear.  I’m not anti-brand, not at all.  But I think most will agree that the lead sentence from this release is leagues better than the more standard-issue (and let’s face it, boring) lead we  see so often.  You know the one I’m talking about:

XYZ organization, a leading provider of whatever, is proud to announce today a jargon-laden description of something.

The lead paragraph doesn’t exist for to extol the virtues of the organization issuing the release.  It exists to set up the story and develop the reader’s attention. Whether the goal of the press release is gaining media coverage or engaging the audiences or driving social awareness (or any combination thereof,) a well-written lead will go a long way to securing the results you want to see for the campaign.

My advice when it comes to leads is simple:

  • Don’t confuse the lead with the boilerplate.  Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to leave company information out of the lead.  The exception is  material news from a public company, when putting the company name and ticker symbol in the lead is standard practice.
  • Use the lead to develop the story.
  • Think back to the inverted pyramid of journalistic writing.  Put the key points at the top of the message.
  • The lead and the headline should work together to describe and then start to develop the story – even in a press release.

“Unselfish” story angles

The body of the release is devoted to developing two stories, offering an up-close look at the forensic artist who did the sketches of the subjects, and at the underlying issue of negative self-perception.  I use the term “unselfish” to describe this approach, because it puts the audience first.   The focus on the artist’s professional background and his experience with the campaign is meaty stuff.  Any reporter covering this story would be interested in these details.  And for the more casual reader – the millions of individuals who read, tweet and share press releases each month – the detail on the artist lends powerful credibility and authenticity to the story.

The issue of self-perception, which is at the heart of Dove’s ongoing Real Beauty campaign, is also discussed.  Again,  the press release writer provided substance – in this case, survey data – that is useful to professional media and credible with other audiences.

Multimedia

If the press release for this highly visual campaign had been text only, the brands behind the message would have left a lot of visibility on the table.   Instead of using a plain text format (which by far still the most common press release format used today,) the team wrapped the excellent release in equally good multimedia.  Delivered in the form of a multimedia news release (“MNR” in industry parlance,) the message is fully formed, wrapped in three videos that illustrate how the campaign worked and offering interesting insights into the artist and subjects.

There’s no question that the Real Beauty Sketches campaign is a fantastic piece of work.  My own Facebook feed has been full of commentary from my own friends for days.   And in true Internet style, it’s even spawned a funny parody.   I really like this campaign.  But I truly love the treatment the team gave the press release.  Kudos to all of the people behind one of the most effective press releases I’ve seen.

Want to explore new ways to tell your brand’s story?  We’d be happy to chat with you about creating a video or a designing multimedia distribution strategy that will increase discovery of your brand’s messages.  We’d love to hear your ideas, and help turn them into reality. Contact us for more information.

 Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of content marketing, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik .

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What the Pulitzers Tell Us about Successful Storytelling Strategies

Posted on April 16, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced this week, and the winning stories represent a variety of different angles, techniques and tools that provide good ideas – and more than a little inspiration – for public relations and marketing communicators.

Breaking news:

The big winner in breaking news was the Denver Post, for their use of “journalistic tools, from Twitter and Facebook to video and written reports, both to capture a breaking story and provide context,” in their reporting of the movie theater shootings in Aurora CO.

The lesson:

A review of the Post’s response to the tragic event reveals a comprehensive approach that did a variety of things well – it delivered information quickly, created a hashtag around which people could coalesce, told the across platforms, and did a great job managing the extremely fast-moving story.

So what’s the lesson here for brands?  I’m going to step away from the obvious (but relevant) crisis communications parallel, because the real lesson here, in my mind, is how effective communications can be when an organization makes full and specific use of the myriad channels available to us today.   The Post blended channel-specific content and interaction with a heavy dose of the human touch.

Investigative & explanatory reporting:

The New York Times garnered awards in the investigative and explanatory reporting for long-form pieces on Wal-Mart’s use of bribes in Mexico and the business practices of Apple and other IT companies in Asia, respectively.

pp nyt infograf

This infographic is a small component of one of the rich elements the Times used to illustrate this story. Click on the picture to access the full presentation of assets.

The lesson:

It’s no secret that we’re living in an age of radical transparency. News travels fast and sways opinion immediately.  However, there is still plenty of interest in the deep dive.   Even though we may spend a lot of time whipping together blog posts, case studies and social status updates, there is still interest in the nitty-gritty – and from a brand standpoint, those are the details that can influence a potential customer.   Brands shouldn’t shy away from developing longer-form, meatier content.

Feature writing:

The New York Times racked up another win in this category, for a reporter John Branch’s “… evocative narrative about skiers killed in an avalanche and the science that explains such disasters, a project enhanced by its deft integration of multimedia elements.”

A snippet from the NYT story "Snow Fall." Click the image to access the entire experience.

A snippet from the NYT story “Snow Fall.” Click the image to access the entire experience.

The lesson:

The winning story the Times published looks nothing at all like a traditional newspaper story.  “Visually compelling” doesn’t even begin to describe it.   The presentation is immersive, and encourages the reader to delve deeper into the story by embedding an array of interesting multimedia components that do more than illustrate the story.   The take away for brands is the sheer effectiveness and stickiness a variety of good multimedia elements can create.   Utilizing a variety of multimedia elements has another benefit too – in addition to presenting the set of content holistically, chances are good the content elements can stand alone and create their own gravitational pull and traction in and of themselves.

Here’s the complete list of Pulitzer Prize winners.  Clicking on each winner’s name will enable you to access the winning story and related materials, where you’ll undoubtedly find even more ideas and inspiration.

Want to explore new ways to tell your brand’s story?  We’d be happy to chat with you about creating a video or a designing multimedia distribution strategy that will increase discovery of your brand’s messages.  We’d love to hear your ideas, and help turn them into reality. Contact us for more information.

 Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik .

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