Category Archives: Tools & Tactics

The Difference between Social Media News Releases & Traditional Press Releases

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | 6 Comments

first mnrWhat’s the difference between a social media press release and the more traditional version?  This is one of the most common questions we receive here at PR Newswire, and the answer is simpler than you may think.

At the outset, the social media news release (SMNR) — originally conceived by Todd Defren of Shift Communications — looked pretty complex, incorporating a host of multimedia assets as well as links to related information, such as other press releases from the company and quotes from experts.    The emphasis on the format intimidated many, and frankly, continues to do so today.

The difference between the two release types, in our mind, is pretty clear.  A social media release at its most basic is easy for readers to scan, includes elements (text, multimedia, etc.) that are easy to share, and offers readers ready access to a collection of associated, relevant information.   A more traditional message lacks these features.

Easy, social-friendly formatting:

When asked about social media press releases, we like to emphasize key features that are easy for almost any PR pro to incorporate, rather than focusing on a specific format.  It’s important to do the best you can with what you have, and let’s face it, you may not have a cool video or sleek graphic for each message. Social- and traditional media friendly features all releases should all include:

  • Sharing: Make it easy for readers to share your content. Embed buttons for social sharing, blogging and other interactions within your news release pages, and be sure the vendors you use have social sharing buttons embedded in the versions of the press releases they host on their web sites for you.
  • “Scannability”: As you write your release, you’ll want to be sure the text is easy for readers to scan.  Using bold subheads and bulleted lists enables readers to quickly scan the document and readily ascertain the key points. This tactic improves reader engagement. As a bonus, key pieces of text like headlines, subheads and key bullet points are often relayed on social networks.  Use bold text on your subheads, and don’t forget anchor text links, which draw the eye to key terms.
  • Links:  Embedded anchor text links, as well as links to more information, are welcomed by readers if they deliver on the promise of providing more information or an answer to a question.   The content to which you link has to be specific.  It’s of little use to your reader, for example, to link from a product name in a press release to your company’s home page.  Don’t make your reader navigate their way to the information. Serve it up on a platter.
  • Contact information: This piece of advice comes from the team that builds and maintains our MediaRoom products (we host media and IR sites for clients.) Contact information needs to be at the top of the page, in a prominent position, and it needs to include a means to reach company contacts directly. Journalists and bloggers work in tight timeframes. They appreciate having ready access to your organization’s media contacts. This is not the place for a generic “email us” form.

Visuals

Now, on to the fun stuff.  Visuals are important, for a number of reasons.  In addition to attracting attention and ultimately delivering better results than plain text copy, visuals encourage social sharing, thus amplifying your message and increasing your audience.

  • Distribute & Share:  If you have a image or  video, don’t just host the video on your web site. Upload it to your company’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and other sharing sites like Vimeo, SlideShare and Flickr (yes, the last two accept video as well as images.) And don’t forget Twitter.  They just debuted Vine, a new video sharing app, today.
  • Describe:  On all the sites and pages on which your multimedia content is hosted, do be sure to surround the video with descriptive information.   When uploading it to a sharing site, be sure to give it a descriptive title, use a variety of tags, categorize it correctly and include a full description –with a link back to a related page on your web site.  Doing so will ensure the video comes up in relevant searches and is indexed correctly on the web site.

Professional help:

At a certain point, there’s only so much a brand can do to distribute and promote content, and when you reach that point, if your message needs more oomph, it’s time to seek professional  help.  Here at PR Newswire, our MultiVu team routinely produces and distributes a range of multimedia press releases as well as more the sophisticated digital content format we call the ARC.    Marrying sophisticated video distribution to dozens of web sites with a host of interactive multimedia options, these message platforms can illustrate, animate and amplify your messages is ways you’ve probably never considered.  Learn more about how we’re helping organizations everywhere engage audiences with multimedia.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

 

 

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

SEO Trends for 2013 & What They Mean for PR

Posted on January 23, 2013 by | 8 Comments
seo_2013

This image, originally published on the Ink Blog, nicely summarizes the diverse tactics and approaches that are shaping SEO today.

The practice of search engine optimization has changed dramatically over the last couple years, and now offers PR pros and other communicators some real lessons in achieving relevance to audiences.    A look at current SEO trends offers some great ideas for anyone charged with creating content or doing outreach for a brand.   Here are some common themes I’ve been seeing on leading SEO sites and blogs this winter.

A mix of quality content:

You can’t read an SEO or marketing blog today without bumping into the phrase “quality content,” and there’s a good reason for that.   As brand publishing becomes more entrenched, the content we publish is at the very heart of our communications.  It’s the hub on our web site, it’s the landing page where we convert leads, it’s the fuel for social conversation, it’s the next step in the buying process.   So, content is crucial.  We get that.  But what does “quality” really mean?

In reality, and in this context, “quality” means a mix of content.  You need some attention-garnering, awareness-building, “upper funnel” stuff.   Many infographics, pithy blog posts about 6 ways to do something better and clever videos fall into this category.

However, this is the content equivalent of convenience food.  It’s bite-size and portable, but it’s not a feast.

“Clients are shifting not only to higher-end writers, but to subject matter experts,” noted Christina Zila in a recent Search Engine Watch post titled 5 Trends Shaping SEO & Content Marketing in 2013.  “In 2013, demand will increase not just for good writers, but for good writers who know their stuff.”

More substantial, meatier content that’s designed to inform and educate your audience – and move them deeper into the buying process – is crucial as well.   This content is tougher to produce, but  is high-value, more likely to generate links and readership, and is great fodder for derived content.

Integration of user experience and planned outcomes

Brian Loebig said it well on the InkBlog:  “There will be a tighter integration of websites, social media, press releases, SEO and mobile applications. In fact, I think the idea of optimizing for search engines will become congruent with optimizing for actual humans. If the content you are creating and distributing is highly useful and relevant for humans it will likely be favored by the search engines.”

This is an important point to remember, because while our audiences access content via all manner of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets) and platforms (web, mobile, apps, social) they expect a coherent brand experience.   This requires integration and coordination between departments, and also underscores the fact that we’re not optimizing discrete pieces of content or web pages anymore – we’re optimizing experiences.

It’s also worth noting that time-on-page and bounce rates are factors search engines notice.  Developing content and experiences that not just capture but keep attention is an important factor in both achieving successful outcomes and great online visibility.

Derived content – diverse and fresh

Content marketers have long advocated the derivation of many pieces of content from one.  A white paper, for example, can provide fodder for multiple blog posts, a deck for SlideShare, a webinar and be the basis for a variety of images.  Done well, this derived content can spark social sharing, and deliver readers back to the original work, which is often one of the meatier, more substantial pieces of content your organization has published (see above.)

Depending upon where the derived content is hosted, there can be some value in the links going back to the original work itself, especially if those links are coming from a relevant and respected industry blog or web site.  However, the fact that the work is being read and shared creates signals that engines notice.  Additionally, current content is still important, and derived works are a good way to fuel your brand’s content creation engine.  Just be sure that the derived works are themselves useful and substantial.

At this point, some readers may be thinking “This doesn’t sound like SEO to me,” and if your definition of SEO is limited to keyword density and link-building, then yes, you’re right.  This is new ground.  The lesson here for all communicators that we can learn from search optimization gurus can be summarized pretty simply:  Search engines are smarter than ever and they pay attention to signals generated by real, live humans.  To generate visibility in search engines, you have to start with compelling content, use multiple channels and formats to deliver the messages, and make serving your audience well the priority.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

See more blog posts on the topic of search engine visibility and content optimization:  http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/seo/

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

SEO is Dead! Now Let’s Optimize!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by | 14 Comments

top rank seo cycle

The heydey of SEO is over!

As a discipline it found a prominent place in the psyche of Web publishers because of the critical role the search engines played in driving traffic to Web sites, which in turn played a critical role in monetizing those sites.

But SEO was a victim of its own success.  That success led to excess and with that excess came a threat to the efficacy of the very search engines it was intended to attract.  Perhaps more importantly it caused publishers, marketers and various other content producers to lose the plot.  They stopped writing for their audience and focused instead on producing stuff that only resonated with algorithms, not with people.

Let’s take keyword search as an example, because that is SEO at its most basic level.  It was a pretty rational idea to try to identify what keywords were most commonly being searched for and then include those keywords in your story.  And add them to the headline.  And then add more and more of them.

Then the spammers joined the SEO party and put those keywords into content that had absolutely nothing to do with what the unsuspecting Web user was actually searching for.  In fact whole businesses grew up based on generating traffic by matching keyword queries and directing traffic to shallow, low-cost, low-value content.

So, 200 or so algorithm tweaks later, Google shuts this down.  The use of links is following a similar escalation to oblivion pattern.

The goal of Google and every other search engine is to have quality rise to the top (unless of course you’re willing to pay to be on top).  So naturally their advice to Web authors is “write great content.”

But the search engines can’t really identify quality.  What they do instead is first of all associate the quality of the content with the place it appears (e.g. you’re more likely to come up with quality on the New York Times than on eHow,) and secondly, try to predict quality based upon robotically identifiable characteristics of the content.  For example, it may be true that 400-word stories are more likely to be of higher quality that 200 word items.  But they can’t deal with the fact that you could say something brilliant in one graph.

Post-SEO Optimization

If you’re a marketer or a PR professional, if you’re the digital guru of your organization or one of the new breed of content marketers, you can’t afford to just write something good and say “Here you go, Google.”  What you need to do is to optimize in a post-SEO world and here’s some advice on how to do that.

  1. First of all your content needs a good home.  Just putting it on your Web site isn’t enough, you should have an online newsroom as part of your site.  That becomes the landing page where you drive traffic to your content and the place were you use some best practice SEO for Web sites in order to capture searchers.  Make it interesting.  One of the biggest challenges with search engine traffic is getting them to click on more than one document.  Use photos, use video and if you don’t produce enough content yourself bring some in.  Add a Twitter feed, YouTube videos or Flikr photos.
  2. You should also have a blog, whether as an individual or as an organization.  A blog is one way to personalize your content.  Take advantage of the unique writing styles and perspectives of individuals within your organization.  De-institutionalize your content and provide another path to your online newsroom.
  3. You are not going to maximize your audience with search alone.  Use social networks.  Every new piece of content should give rise to several tweets with interesting excerpts from the document and links back to your online newsroom.  One tactic that can be effective in building an audience is to not only use an organization account but also have individual accounts of thought leaders in your organization.   This personalizes the messaging and makes it more social.  (If you haven’t built a strong following on Twitter you can use PR Newswire’s Social Post to reach followers on our curated vertical Twitter accounts.)   For B-to-B companies in particular, LinkedIn is becoming an increasingly important place to share information.
  4. It’s important to hit every social network you can think of that’s relevant to your business or your brand.  However, quality beats quantity – it’s better to focus on a couple where you can really concentrate on building a following.  By learning what types of messaging draw the most likes, or follows, or shares, you can refine how you use each network.
  5. Placement is another way to get lots of readers.  I’m not thinking about the classic and expensive ad network type of placement.  There are many innovative alternatives in the market today including recommendation engines, keyword buy options and sponsored and preferred placement on mobile and social networks. A cost effective approach for placement is to use a commercial newswire service like PR Newswire that has a robust syndication network.  This can enable you to reach many targeted sites that may have a very selective audience specifically interested in your content.

So optimization is as important as ever, but not for the practice of SEO that’s all about keywords and links and gaming the search engines.  Optimization has a broader meaning that starts with good content and good places to put it and then drives readers to that content through search, social and syndication.

Author Ken Dowell is PR Newswire’s executive vice president of audience development & social media.

Image courtesy of Flickr user  TopRankOnlineMarketing.

→ 14 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

Content We Love: A Masterful News Hook

Posted on January 18, 2013 by | 1 Comment

ContentWeLoveThe press release we’re highlighting today stood out for two reasons.  Titled “Startups Advise Obama: Focus on Taxes and Talent as Second Term Begins,” and issued by Silicon Valley Bank to promote their new Startup Outlook Report, the press release makes masterful use of timing, on the even of President Obama’s second inauguration, and it includes a data-packed infographic.  It’s timely, relevant and visual.  It just went out today, but we’re expecting this one to perform extremely well.

SILICON VALLEY BANK SURVEY

We’ve talked about newsjacking on this blog before, and while I wouldn’t say that this story qualifies per se — a newsjack is an extremely fast and focused response to a trending story, in which an organization is able to insert itself into the swelling conversation and coverage due to its response — we have to applaud the Silicon Valley Bank on the timing of this campaign, and the relevance of the hook.  We’ll see a lot of stories about the inauguration this week (in fact we are, see our Obama Inauguration press release page).   What we like about this one is not just its timing, but its extreme relevance to the issues of the day, and the fresh perspective it offers.

The headline also deserves a shout out.  It’s pithy and gets right to the heart of the press release content.  If you have any interest in the American economy, you’d be hard pressed not to click on that headline and read.  It’s compelling, and not because it’s coy.  It implies the presence of facts within the press release, and the press release itself delivers on that promise.

And finally, there’s the infographic to consider and admire.   It packs a lot of information into a streamlined visual that conveys key data quite literally at a glance.   Readers love visuals, and this is a good one.

So kudos to the communications team at Silicon Valley Bank.    They made an already compelling story nearly irresistable with solid writing, excellent timing and a beautiful visual.

sarah avatarAuthor Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  Join her next Wednesday (January 23) week for a free webinar co-hosted with the Online Marketing Summit on Leveraging Converged Media’s Impact on Content Marketing

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

Grammar Hammer: I Can’t Believe I’m Older Than Schoolhouse Rock

Posted on January 14, 2013 by | 2 Comments

There was a great story on NPR this week, interviewing Bob Dorough, the man who wrote most of the original Schoolhouse Rock series that first aired in 1973.  I flash back to my childhood Saturday rituals, which usually meant piano lessons or a morning of cartoons and a bowl of cereal.  I’d be sitting in our TV room on the yellow shag carpet (yes, yellow SHAG), probably still in my pajamas.  I’ve just finished watching The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, which means Schoolhouse Rock is next, brought to you by Kellogg’s.

Everyone has their favorite Schoolhouse Rock episode.  I casually mentioned it to some friends and got stirring renditions of everything from “Three is a Magic Number” to “I’m Just a Bill” (and even a rather raunchy version of “A Noun Is A Person, Place, or Thing”). I think my favorite episode from Schoolhouse Rock is “Conjunction Junction.”

If you grew up watching the series, you don’t need me to explain to you that a conjunction is a word that will join together clauses or concepts. (sing it: “Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.”)  But when it comes to proper use of conjunctions, there are a couple of good tips to remember.

Tip #1 – Make  sure that the parts being joined by the conjunction have a parallel structure (if you are using a conjunction to join two verbs, they should have the same form).

WRONG: I worked quickly yet am careful.  (faulty verb form – am careful is not the same form as quickly)

RIGHT: I worked quickly and carefully.

Tip #2 – FANBOYS! Coordinating conjunctions join two independent clauses, or two nouns, or two verbs.

F – For

A – And

N – Nor

B – But

O – Or

Y – Yes

S – So

Example #1: I had the poached salmon, and Henry had the roast chicken.

Example #2: We were exhausted, but we had a great time.

Tip #3 – If you’re starting a sentence with a conjunction, the reader may be looking for an idea to connect the sentence. Common uses of conjunctions at the beginning of sentences can add emphasis, but it’s an informal way of doing it (best saved for personal or creative writing, not often used in formal writing).

WRONG: Many people say the ultimate thrill is jumping out of a plane. But trying to cross the street in New York City is thrilling enough for me.

RIGHT: Many people say the ultimate thrill is jumping out of a plane, but trying to cross the street in New York City is thrilling enough for me.

What’s your favorite Schoolhouse Rock episode?

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , ,

Is Your Content REAL? 4 Ways to Attract Qualified Audience With Content

Posted on January 10, 2013 by | 3 Comments

real contentThere was a time when PR pros and their counterparts in marketing measured success by the number of impressions a campaign generated.  I’ve never cared much for the fleeting impression.  In my mind, unless it turns into a measurable outcome, impressions are simply an abstract estimate of the number of people annoyed by a campaign.

There, I said it.  “Annoyed.”  Interruption is not viable communications model, not in this day and age, when our audiences are so firmly in control of the content they consume.  Rather than barging our way into our audiences’ minds, instead, communicators have a new charge.  Our brands have to be viewed as smart, interesting, useful, accessible and human by our audiences.  And it’s up to communicators not to just craft this image, but to deliver the experience.

“Experience” is the cornerstone, and communicators have to consider customer experience as they create and publish content.    To determine if your content is on the right track, ask yourself if the content you organization is publishing is “REAL,” which I’m using a handy little acronym for the following:

Relevant: Too often brands tell the story they want their audiences to hear, not thinking in terms of what information their audiences are actively seeking.   The first step to achieving relevance is listening to what audiences are saying.  What questions recur over and over in online discussion groups? What are the search keywords that are most often used in your industry category?  What questions do your customer-facing teams field most often?  Aggregating this data will help your organization understand what your audience really cares about.  In addition to answering these questions outright, the organization can also use this valuable intelligence as a framework for messaging.   Creating relevant content is the best way to ensure the audience you acquire is indeed qualified.

Entertaining (or engaging, or both):  No matter what subject matter your content addresses, in order to be successful, the content must be entertaining or engaging  — and preferably both!  Some subjects lend themselves well to humor, which makes the entertaining piece a slam dunk.  But if your subject matter is of a drier nature, and doesn’t lend itself well to being funny, that’s still no excuse to be boring.  Lively writing peppered with anecdotes and real-life stories will make your content more interesting to readers.   Bullet points and lists will draw readers in.  And visuals – even simple charts – add appeal and dimension to otherwise flat content.

Actionable:  Will your content improve the lives of readers?   That’s a big question, but ensuring the answer is “yes” will virtually guarantee the utility of the content you’re publishing.   While your content may not be the answer to lifelong happiness, it should enable your readers to do something better.  Does it offer tips to help them use your service more efficiently, save budget dollars or do their jobs better?  Does it offer insight that will help them make a more informed buying decision?   Ensure your content offers a course of action your readers can follow that will make positive impact on their lives.

Leading:  While many of us love writing, the content we’re producing really does need to have a point.  It needs to offer a pathway for interested readers to follow – and to further qualify themselves as prospects for your brand.   However, the path you lead your readers down doesn’t need to be (and probably shouldn’t be) as overt as requiring them to fill out a form for more information.  Instead, if you have developed a set of interesting and useful content, trust it to attract and guide your prospects.  Offer more useful information, which drills more deeply into specific needs and answers ever-more detailed answers.  Effectively, you’re mapping content to the buying cycle, putting general interest information at the top of the funnel, to attract prospects, and then qualifying those prospects as they pursue more information.  By the time your prospects do reach out and contact your brand, most of them will have done extensive research, and eliminated potential vendors – and they will be very well qualified prospects.

Anyone who has a hand in creating content for a brand knows of the ceaseless demand for information generated today’s information marketplaces.   And let’s face it, content creation is time consuming and expensive.  However, content that is truly “REAL” and is mapped to the different stages in your organization’s buying funnel can be a tremendously efficient generator of qualified leads for your business.  Before you publish, take the time to get the content right, and make sure it’s “REAL.”

Want to learn more?  Attend the Online Marketing Summit, and get a 30% discount on registration:

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  She is presenting on the topic of Driving Qualified Audiences into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks  at the upcoming Online Marketing Summit.   A 30% discount) on event registration is available to readers of this column – click on the link above for details.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

Forget Influencers — 4 Steps for Identifying Connected Industry Insiders

Posted on January 10, 2013 by | 3 Comments

We spend a lot of time talking about “influentials” in the context of PR and social media marketing.    Top industry bloggers and Twitter stars are on everyone’s “A” list.  But what about the people in the trenches, who actually get the work done?   To keep things simple, let’s call these folks “insiders.”

Industry insiders are important, because they have powerful influence in their own right. In many cases, they have built their own solid social networks that are important to their own careers and personal reputations.   They also have real credibility with their peers, because they’re not figureheads – they have day jobs and are doing the real work.   And for brands, these are the people who have input on buying decisions.  Simply put, it’s not enough to court your industry’s rock stars.  You have to connect with insiders, too.   So how do you identify the day-to-day professionals who make up the insider crowd?  Here’s the 4-step approach I used to identify insiders for a sister company that operates in the IT space.  They needed to grow their audience in several verticals, and social media was a logical channel for achieving this objective.

  1. Hashtag research:   Researching hashtags is the logical starting point for a project like this. I always start with a visit to search.twitter.com,  plugging in common hashtags, and noting other hashtags people use in the Tweets I surface.  For example, #CloudComputing, as it turns out, is often simply shortened to #Cloud.  If you search one, but not the other, you miss people.
  2. People tweeting hashtags:  Twitter has a neat feature that many overlook – you can easily see who is tweeting under a particular hashtag.  Scrolling through the list of participants in the conversation around a hashtag is a great way to find people who are truly interested in the subject.   To see who is tweeting content with a particular hashtag, search that hashtag on Twitter.com, and then, as you’re viewing the resulting Tweets, click on “People” in the upper left hand corner, under the word “Tweets.”  Doing this displays the Twitter handles of the people who have used the hashtag recently.
  3. Relevant Twitter Lists:  Listorious is a useful tool, enabling users to easily find popular Twitter lists built around specific topics.   Take a look at popular lists within your target segment, and who is on those lists.  They’re popular for a reason, and many times you’ll find some great insiders among the members.
  4. Top Insiders:  One of the most useful tools I’ve come across is Little Bird, a start up that’s currently offering beta access.  Essentially a search engine for experts, Little Bird allows users to research topics and, through algorithmic machinations, identify insiders who are expert on that topic. I used Little Bird to search for people (filtering out brands and news organizations) related to the verticals on which I was focusing.   It works very well, identifying a slew of new people who had eluded me in my hashtag and Twitter list research.

So what do you do with all these people you find?

I’ve done a few things.  First and foremost, I built my own Twitter lists, comprised of carefully selected insiders gleaned from these sources.  The sister company’s social team can (gradually) start following the people on the list.  In the meantime,  they can follow the list itself, re-tweeting and commenting upon content shared by list members, which will help them start building recognition and credibility with this new audience.

Secondly, I’ve been identifying blogs written by people on shiny new lists.  In addition to providing content for curation, insider blogs provide valuable intelligence for brands about real world user issues.   Getting to know a few more thoughtful, well-connected bloggers is also good for any pretty much any brand these days, and will be useful for my project.

It’s worth noting that before embarking on any of this research, I determined that my desired audiences were in fact active on Twitter, based upon the volume of discussion around key topics.  Clearly, Twitter is an important clearinghouse for news and information relating to the IT verticals I was targeting.

Another great tool to inform your influencer identification efforts is your media database.  Using our Agility Influencer Engagement platform, I’m able to find journalists and bloggers who cover niche topics, and get their Twitter handles.   I then take a look at who they follow, and who follows them.  This is fast and accurate way to identify original thinkers in the business, and the people who are interested in industry news and information.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media and author of the free ebook “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , ,

Grammar Hammer: Accepting the Challenge of a New Year

Posted on January 7, 2013 by | 4 Comments

What is it about January that brings out the list-maker in all of us? A friend of mine took to the social media airwaves on New Year’s Day, called resolutions something I can’t repeat in polite company, and instead, suggested you pick something you want to do and make it happen in 2013. I like the premise. It saves me a lot of time from having to make pesky lists that I will lose by the end of the week.

Speaking of lists, I’ve seen a lot of them lately. They range from the top news stories (both good and bad) of 2012 to lists of buzzwords we’d like to retire in 2013 (sorry folks, I’m afraid “fiscal cliff” will be with us for a while) to lists of resolutions for writers.

Grammarly recently offered a top ten list of grammatical peeves. I think it’s a great list and I’m sure there are many others that can be added to it (I’d couple in the contraction of “should have” is not “should of” along with #4 on that list).
I’d also offer one more to add to Grammarly’s list – “accept” is a verb and “except” is a preposition.

Accept is a verb which means “to take something that is offered.” My favorite example is the Groucho Marx quote, “Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” It can also be used to mean “to agree that something is right” (example – “The candidate’s views were not widely accepted”).

Except is most often used as a preposition, meaning “with the exclusion of.” “I bought Christmas gifts for everyone except my brother’s cousin.”

Except can be used as a conjunction, meaning “other than” or “if not for the fact that” – “I loved everything about the party except the host.”

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged

Content We Love: Anna’s Linens Dreamy Headline

Posted on January 4, 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.

Dreamy Headlines and SEO

Dreams are powerful. They take us on great adventures, push us to great heights, and sometimes visit while we are sleeping. And if you’re anything like me, you’re also completely smitten with a little shut-eye. I love sleep!

Yet when I read the headline, “National Sleep Survey Pulls Back The Covers On How We Doze And Dream,” instantly I was wide awake.

Headline Nerd-Time:

  • Did you know that search engines only index the first 65 characters of a headline?
  • Did you know the headline is sometimes the only thing visible on a release?

This headline opens the information in a way that sparks your interest.

Remember the phrase growing up, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it“? Headlines 100% follow this rule. How so? By uncovering the story in a headline in a way that is pithy and interesting, you are inviting your audience to read the entire release! Which is the point of a press release– to tell your story!

Surveys are common. Chances are, you’ve completed a survey once or twice in your lifetime. So what happens to the results? If you’re Anna’s Linens, the choice is to publish the results in a fresh and SEO-friendly way.

“If you’re counting sheep at night, chances are you’re doing it on your side, in your pajamas, and between 10:00-11:00 on a Sunday night, according to a new national sleep survey conducted by the home furnishings retailer Anna’s Linens.”

Jargon. Modern language.
It’s not what you say, but how you say it.

Modern SEO (Search Engine Optimization) actually works against if your release is laden with complicated jargon meant for computers. Confused?

You get better results when you write for people.

People read your release (not computers), so how imperative is it to write in an easy-to-understand way. When a release is clearly not written for people, search engines actually respond the same way a person would: Zzzzzzzz.

Take a read of the survey. It is pithy, dynamic, insightful, and definitely not a snore. When you’re writing, keep SEO and headlines in mind. That will take a great press release from a pipe-dream to a reality.

*Writing your release and want more information on SEO? Keep these tips in mind: SEO Best Practices

Big thanks to Anna’s Linens for providing a great release for us all to read!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-sleep-survey-pulls-back-the-covers-on-how-we-doze-and-dream-184798691.html

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

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Tools & Tactics, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Top 10 Best Practices for Social Media

Posted on January 3, 2013 by | 5 Comments

editorial guidelines sticky noteI recently challenged myself to come up with the top-ten best practices for social media for a presentation. As it turned out, it was hard to keep list to only ten items.

So I did some research and much scrapping of excessive rules and realized that it all does boil down to ten very basic principles to be successful in social media:

#10 – Have good tools

Sure you can do social media with nothing but web access to Twitter and Facebook, but if you want to measure success and if you want to have a well-orchestrated presence for your brand (personal or business) then you need to think about tools that can save you time and give you useful stats. Some of my favorite include Hootsuite (web and mobile), SocialOomph, Buffer, Twitter lists, SproutSocial, Bit.ly and Topsy.

#9 – Be nice

This may sound simplistic, but I can’t stress enough how important this is. Social media is about being human, participating in the big virtual cocktail party, as some like to call it. So that means being nice and helping others where you can. Offer answers when people are looking for it. Especially when you have nothing to benefit from it. People notice and remember.

Want a journalist on Twitter to remember you fondly? Give them a tip that helps them and does nothing for you.

#8 – Be responsive

You have to ‘man’ the social accounts. Clients will expect you to provide customer service there. You have to be present to respond to questions and handle concerns. It’s better to have one or two well manned social channels than a multitude of accounts you have trouble keeping track of.

#7 – Engage!

No need to buy a diamond ring for this, but you do need to engage your audience. A stream of tweets that have no or few @replies or mentions is really no different from paid media. If you want earned media you have to participate in the greater conversation.

#6 – Have clear editorial guidelines

Your editorial guidelines may be very simple and fit on a sticky-note (guilty) but you do need to write them down. Even if you are the only social media manager. You need it clear in your own mind what topics you will or won’t discuss on your brand’s social accounts.

This, of course becomes significantly more important when you have multiple people managing social media.

#5 – Have a crisis plan

Again, even if fits on a sticky-note and you have it stuck on the wall above your desk, this is a must. List who needs to be contacted or consulted in case of a potential situation. If you have multiple managers you better also clearly state what constitutes a crisis.

And keep it simple. No need to be over-specific and risk confusion.

#4 – Have a clear mission

You should have a reason for your social media endeavors and you should be able to put that clearly into one or two sentences. Again, as above this is especially important if you have multiple people working together, but even if it’s just you, put that sticky-note up as a daily reminder.

#3 – Listen!

Listen to your clients, listen to industry experts, listen to your competitors and then listen just a little bit more to a few more people. Listening is like learning, you can never learn too much.

#2 – Set social media policies and guidelines

Your policies and guidelines don’t need to be complicated, preferably they’re not, but they do need to exist and they need to be housed where all employees have easy access to them. Everyone should be familiar with them and more importantly have a clear understanding of them.

And, last but not least:

#1 – Like your mom said, “Be real!”

Maybe your mom didn’t say that, but I’m sure someone’s did. Seriously, be human, be yourself, be ‘real.’ The greatest gift of social media is the opportunity to humanize a brand and being real is the only way to do it.

What did I leave out? Do let me know if you think there should have been a  #11. I would love to hear your thoughts on best practices.

All press releases and other content distributed by PR Newswire have social sharing built in, and the amount of social interaction these messages generate is pretty amazing.  Get the most out of the content you publish by incorporating some of the easy tactics we recommend here: Headline Hashtags & Other Tweetable Press Release Tips.

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

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , , , ,