Tag Archives: press release writing

Media News & Moves for May

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

http://prnbloggers.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/agility-logo.png?w=127&h=125&h=125

MEDIAware, PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department newsletter, features recent media news and job changes in the industry. Here is a sampling of this month’s edition:

Fort Lauderdale’s South Florida Sun Sentinel (http://www.sun-sentinel.com) won the prestitgious 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its outstanding series “Above the Law: Speeding Cops”.  The series led to numerous police officers being suspended and one who got fired for his excessive abuse of speed. Investigative Reporter Sally Kestin, Investigative Editor John Dahlburg and Database Editor John Maines were part of an entire team at the Sun Sentinel that worked on this series. You can read the winning series here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/speeding-cops/

The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com) won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News with its coverage of the Aurora Movie Theater mass shooting last year.  The Pulitzer cited the Post’s use of social media, video and the written word in their winning coverage of the story. You can check out their winning coverage here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Breaking-News-Reporting

The Alcohol Professor (http://AlcoholProfessor.com) is a new blog about liquor, spirits & ale. It was started by beverage connoisseur Adam Levy (https://twitter.com/AlcoholProfessr) who also founded the New York International Beverage Competitions. The sites main contact is Senior Editor-in-Chief Amanda Schuster (alcoholprofamanda@gmail.com).

Minneapolis’ Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com) won two 2013 Pulitzer Prizes for Local News and Ediorial Cartooning. Glenn Howatt, Brad Schrade and Jeremy Olson won the Local News Pulitzer for their work on a series about the rise in infant deaths at Minnesota day-care centers. You can read that series here: http://www.startribune.com/local/150283965.html. And Steve Sack won the Editorial Cartooning award. You can view a bunch of his great political cartoons here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Editorial-Cartooning

Columnist Daniel Ruth and Editorial Editor Tim Nickens won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for the Tampa Bay Times (http://www.tampabay.com). Their op-ed pieces and columns were a campaign that helped reverse a decision to take fluoridation out of the water system in the area. You can check out pieces of their work here: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2013-Editorial-Writing

The New York Times has made its own crossover as for the first time ever, they have published an article in Spanish. “A Drug War Informer in No Man’s Land” will go down in NYT history.
You can read it in Spanish here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/mexico-dea-fugitive.html or in English here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/us-mexico-dea-informant.html?pagewanted=all 

Representing The New York Times in the category of Investigative Journalism, David Barstow (barstow@nytimes.com) and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab were selected as Pulitzer Prize winners for their year and a half long project which centered on Walmart’s interests in Mexico. The journalists investigated the Multinational Retail Corporation’s use of coercion as a means to gain a competitive advantage in Mexico. Eventually, the exposé led to an investigation by the Justice Department into whether Walmart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A series of 10 articles which covered the business practices of Apple and other technology companies, won a group of journalists at The New York Times a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Explanatory Journalism. The series focused on the question of whether or not the United States could be considered a lucrative place for innovators to manufacture new products. Apple’s choice to employ cheaper manufacturers in China, passing over the opportunity to invest in the United States’ turbulent job market, was one example used in the series. The reporters included Keith Bradsher (https://twitter.com/KeithBradsher), David Barboza (barboza@nytimes.com), Charles Duhigg (duhigg@nytimes.com), David Kocieniewski (kocieniewski@nytimes.com), Steve Lohr (lohr@nytimes.com), John Markoff (https://twitter.com/markoff), David Segal, David Streitfeld (https://twitter.com/DavidStreitfeld), Hiroko Tabuchi (https://twitter.com/HirokoTabuchi), and Bill Vlasic (vlasic@nytimes.com).

The Pulitzer Prize in the category of International Reporting was given to David Barboza (https://twitter.com/DavidBarboza2), Shanghai Bureau Chief of The New York Times. Barboza composed a series of articles that focused on the overwhelming wealth which many of China’s top leaders have kept in hiding. According to Barboza, over the span of a year he “pieced together hundreds of names and a web of connections among more than 100 companies found in China’s official financial records.”

Sports Reporter for The New York Times John Branch (https://twitter.com/JohnBranchNYT) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the category of Feature Writing. Branch composed an article entitled “Snow Fall: the avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” about a fatal avalanche in the Washington Cascades. Branch combined text, online video and graphics to vividly illustrate what took place.

The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines, N.C. is launching yet another magazine. It already publishes PineStraw and O. Henry. Now it adds Salt magazine to its line-up of cultural publications. As with the other magazines, Jim Dodson will head up Salt as Editor. The free, monthly magazine is scheduled to launch later this month with a distribution of 18,000.

Following up on a Charlotte, N.C. story previously reported on in MEDIAware, the FCC gave final approval on the sale of WYMT-TV and WJYZ-TV to Fox Television. With the ruling, the stations were free to hire more personnel. Lynda Grahl was chosen as VP of Finance and Jay Abbattista was added as VP of Sales. Both report to the previously hired GM Karen Adams. As a result of this purchase by Fox, another local Charlotte station, WCCB-TV, will switch affiliations from Fox to the CW this summer.

There have been two personnel changes at the Cooking Channel and Food Network. VP of Digital for Emerging Brands Mark Levine (mlevine@scrippsnetworks.com) has been promoted to VP of Programming and Multiplatform. And new to the stations is Todd Weiser, who was hired as VP of Programming and Development. He arrives from Animal Planet, where he was previously Director of Development.

After 21 years in print, The Rhinocerous Times (http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com) is now an endangered species. The publication originally had two editions: Greensboro and Charlotte. It folded the Charlotte edition back in 2008. Now with a growing debt, the Greensboro edition is closing as well. The website will remain but for how long is not known.

Culture Critic Philip Kendicott of The Washington Post won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In one of the articles submitted for the award Philip examined the use of controversial photographs in the media. You can read the piece here: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-27/entertainment/36016736_1_images-subway-track-pleasure

Aereo (https://www.aereo.com)has been hit with a copyright lawsuit by almost every major network trying to prevent Aereo from creating a free streaming of their content. This is something to keep an eye on, as it can change the way networks will distribute its content if Aereo wins the case.

KSL-TV, the Salt Lake City NBC affiliate, has announced on its Facebook page as well as its website that it will no longer air episodes of the network series “Hannibal.” This decision was made due to the extensive graphic nature of this show. The time slot will be replaced with a special edition of KSL 5 News at 9 pm. “Hannibal” is a TV show about serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a literary character created by author Thomas Harris and initially made famous by the movie “The Silence of the Lambs.”

KMOV-TV in St.Louis won the 2012 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. Craig Cheatham and Jim Thomas won in the category of “Ware Zone: The Destruction of an All-American City.” Read more at http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/kmov-wfaa-win-ire-awards_b86802

Mike Herrera, Long-time New Orleans broadcaster, passed on April 6 at the age of 66. Herrera who for the last five years served as an engineer at WWL-TV previously worked as a staff announcer, Weathercaster and Producer/Director at WVUE-TV for more than four decades.

William Glaberson says farewell to The New York Times. His 25-year career at the newspaper came to a halt on April 26th. He most recently served as Court Reporter, throughout these 25 years he covered Guantanamo Bay and the Crown-Heights trail.

Highly respected Chicago Sun-Times Movie Critic Roger Ebert has passed away. Over the course of his expansive career, Ebert hosted various television programs such as “Sneak Previews”, “At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert”, “Siskel and Ebert and The Movies”, alongside Gene Siskel, and the series “Ebert & Roeper & the Movies”. He also produced his most recent show, “Ebert Presents: At the Movies”. Ebert was an author of more than 20 books and won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Nils Larsen has stepped down as CEO at the Tribune Company. He managed Tribune local stations, WGN America and WGN Radio. Jonathan Wax has been named Senior Vice President of scripted programming for WGN America. Wax currently serves as Vice President of drama development at Twentieth Century Fox, Inc.

Edible Milwaukee, a new magazine set to launch its May issue, will focus on the production, distribution and consumption of food in the greater Milwaukee area. The magazine reaches out to the local and regional food consumers and buyers who are zealous about food quality. Jen Ede will serve as Publisher and Editor for the quarterly. You may reach her at jen@ediblemilwaukee.com or http://ediblemilwaukee.com.

You can view the whole May issue of MEDIAware here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/

And all of the Regional Updates here: http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/mediaware/May-2013-Updates-By-Region.html

You can also follow all of the latest media moves and news from PR Newswire’s Audience Research Department on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PRNmedia

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Online Influence

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

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 .

 

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

Tagged , , ,

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 .

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

Content We Love: The Boot Campaign’s Bold Video

Posted on April 5, 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.

What Can You Do in 90 Seconds? Through Pushups for Charity, in 90 Seconds you can make a life-changing impact on the lives of veterans healing from a variety of physical and emotional wounds. Pushups for Charity is an annual fitness competition which aims to raise $1 million to support the mission of the Boot Campaign. Your participation will provide Housing, Jobs, Wellness, Urgent Assistance and Family Support to wounded service members, past and present, through the Boot Campaign. http://www.PushupsForCharity.com

A hard workout with sweat dripping from your brow.

In the name of fitness, we push ourselves to new levels and new goals. If you’re anything like me, you feel the best pushing yourself physically to new feats.

When I saw The Boot Campaign’s release challenging all to 90 seconds of push-ups to benefit the military returning from combat, I was instantly drawn in.

The story itself captures the attention with the proper use of bolding.

Why be so bold?

Written word differs from spoken word (obviously) but there are key important details within a story. The solution? Emphasize the important details in text with bolding.

What is bolded in this press release?

  • Pushups for Charity
  • aims to raise $1 million to fulfill the mission of the Boot Campaign
  • May 18, 2013
  • Visit www.PushupsForCharity.com to search for a Pushups for Charity event being held in your community

Showcasing the major points, The Boot Campaign made the details jump off the page using bolding. Highlight the main points of your story in the release and aid the viewer with the key points to remember!

The release also featured multimedia aspects which took the story from pumping iron to pumping gold.

With the knowledge that multimedia not only increases visibility but also leaves a lasting impression, how imperative it is to add these components!

*But why include a video WITH a release?

Not only does video attract viewership, gain visibility, and tell the story,
but it expands your reach.

Different websites house and host different types of content. There will be websites reposting just the text, the images, and some will post solely a video.

  • Reaching different audiences through different platforms is visibility multiplication.

No matter the story, adding key bolding and multimedia components win the gold, 90 seconds or less.

Big thanks to The Boot Campaign for sharing your release with us!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/what-can-you-accomplish-in-90-seconds-through-pushups-for-charity-you-can-help-military-returning-from-combat-200914371.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 Digital Content

Tagged , , ,

Content Engagement Tips from an E-Mail Marketer

Posted on February 12, 2013 by | 1 Comment

I sat in on a session about email marketing at the Online Marketing Summit yesterday, and wow – those folks have one difficult job.  Much of the conversation was about formatting, in order to increase the likelihood that the images in the email body will render.  Fact is, many email programs and company firewalls disable images, meaning that email marketers also have to pay close attention to their text messages, and there in was some good advice that that PR pros can use, too.

The speaker, Karen Talavera of @synchmarketing,  addressed the change in what sort of information works in today’s campaigns, and suggested that it’s time to leave the old AIDA model of messaging for a new approach.

So you can see the differences clearly, here’s a brief outline of the AIDA model:

  • A – Awareness:  the message attracts the reader’s attention.
  • I – Interest: the reader’s interest is piqued.
  • D – Desire: the message convinces the reader they want what’s being promoted.
  • A – Action: the call to action that turns the reader into a customer.

Instead, she offered a new model that I thought was pretty interesting – “IEEO”   which focuses instead on educating and engaging the reader, or, as Karen put it, “Serving, not selling.”  Here’s an outline:

  • I – Invite – Messaging doesn’t hit the reader over the head with the offer
  • E – Engage  - Instead, the messaging engages the reader, serving up multimedia and related information
  • E – Educate/entertain – The overall tone is educational and/or entertaining – it’s not the hard sell
  • O – Offer – Instead of “buy now” the call to action is presented in an offer that is relevant to and fits with the overall tone of the message.

The IEEO approach is radically different than the traditional AIDA method.  The newer approach incorporates and is informed by customer needs, and relies upon education rather than desire to inspire the reader to take action.

However, we’re talking about an approach to email marketing.   Those communications are designed to immediately capture reader attention, and convert the reader from prospect to purchaser in the space of one message.

While most press releases aren’t intended to generate sales directly, there’s no question that they have to compete for attention, and within most press releases are various calls to action – just like marketing emails.    Awareness-building has been a core function of press releases since time immemorial.   However, as I considered the IEEO approach to email messaging, I started to wonder if we could generate more value from press releases – for both the issuer  and readers – by borrowing some tactics from email marketing.  Is generating awareness enough for us, or should we be crafting press releases and other PR content with the goal of engaging and educating our readers – and guiding them to a specific call to action – within the press releases we issue, and the other content we publish?

Follow the tweet stream at #OMSummit for ongoing commentary from the Online Marketing Summit this week.

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

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

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 , , , , , ,

Content We Love: National Instruments’ Click-To-Tweet

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

 “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.

Writing a press release can be daunting. Not only do you have information to relay, but technology to embrace, visual clues to remember, and extras.

Extras? What do I mean? Links, images, bullets, social media… there are a lot of options! Yet I could barely conceal my joy when I read National Instruments’ latest release about 5G Wireless Research.

There nuzzled between a bulleted list and a quote made my social-media-loving heart soar!

A) The tweet is awesome. Pithy. Informative. Hashtag (only one– so not ‘spammy’ looking). Company handle (@NIGlobal) is within the tweet so it doesn’t look like a reply*.

Bonus: #5G is searchable on Twitter (as are all hashtags) so if you’re looking to see the news about #5G technology or how many people are tweeting the tweet–done!

B) Click-To-Tweet (http://clicktotweet.com/) is a website that takes the leg work out of asking your readers to tweet the news… the release is so much more shareable because quite literally, it is a push of a button.

C) It puts the content in the hands of the consumer. The consumer could be a journalist, a blogger, a person perusing the internet, someone writing a research paper, an individual looking for information about this technology– Tweeting is the “like,” the “share,” the “email,” of twitter.

*Replies you ask? Starting a tweet with the handle (@) signals a reply in twitter lingo. Why would this be bad? Programs can automate to hide all replies and/or when viewing the feed and the tweets are replies, it is natural to skim over instead of read them. **Utilizing social media is already a step in the right direction so having a great re-tweetable tweet is like crossing the finish line.**

Adding social media to a release is imperative as the social platform is taking off by storm AND search results are featuring social related things higher and higher. Want to increase visibility? Let’s go social!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-instruments-releases-software-defined-radio-module-used-in-leading-5g-wireless-research-176420331.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 Digital Content

Tagged , , , , ,

Content We Love: Survey Reveals Favorite James Bond Car

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Hello there! Welcome to a new feature here on Beyond PR!   On “Content We Love,” a team of our content specialists will be be showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels.   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. 

Content We Love: Survey Reveals Favorite James Bond Car of All Time

This release is near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons– James Bond and vintage cars? (Just add chocolate and I’m a goner!) Starting at the very top…

Survey Reveals Favorite James Bond Car of All Time
Pithy headline— short, direct, and includes exactly what you need to know. Survey? Check. James Bond? Check. Car!?! Tell me more!

Sub-headlines are brilliant things to include. Why? Every release has a message. Agree? But how do you cram this news into a short headline and include all the important information!? Ah-ha! The sub-headline!

Next, my inner-geek is excited by the links in the first paragraph. To break it down:  SEO isn’t scary and though it sounds innately complicated, it’s easy to make your releases a scrumptious meal for the search engine spiders. (Search engine spiders, you ask? Fun name for the how the content is found on the internet) Maybe you’ve poured over our press release SEO tips, maybe you’ve never looked at it, but it is 100% in your favor to include these things. But why?

Take me as your example of the “writing for a human”tactic.  If I’m reading information about what your company is doing, the results I’m seeing, the new product, the awesome survey in regards to a gorgeous vintage car, I want more!  Give me a link right there in the first paragraph? Aw, thanks! And guess what; you just made it easier for me to go to the website! You just made a connection (a ‘web’ on the web, if you will).  So how does that help you in SEO? Well you just created a release for a person, so the search-engine spiders respond to it as such. It connects in the cyber world to your website. It associates new content with existing content. Spiders love their webs. Congratulations, you just boosted SEO!

Last, but certainly not least, is my favorite thing to see in a release — social media!

There in the first paragraph is a link with a clear definition for Facebook. Do you use facebook? Do you want to connect to an ever broader audience using the channels you already have?  “In a Facebook poll….” is how the sentence starts. The company is not only utilizing the public platform of social media to further their presence, they are giving you a reason to invest time and investigate.

Should you start creating surveys and polls necessarily? Completely up to you. Here at PR Newswire, we love the word “engage” for a reason. It goes beyond the connection between your audience and you– it sets the relationship! So get engaged with your readers by way of your content!

Take a look at the rest of this release—and it’s ok if you google Aston Martins like I did to oogle over the beautiful cars.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-reveals-favorite-james-bond-car-of-all-time-174139391.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

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged , , ,

Balancing Substance with Attention: Creating Content That Attracts & Appeals

Posted on October 2, 2012 by | 6 Comments

I’ve long thought that the discipline of search engine optimization (namely, the art and science of getting your web site positioned high in search engine results for specific keywords) offers great lessons for PR and content marketers.   A blog post on SEOMoz today titled “What Kind of Content Gets Links in 2012?” offers an unusually rich trove of data and ideas for communicators to consider, and it got me thinking about different the different types of visibility our content generates.

Some readers skim quickly over content, others spend a lot more time on the page.   Some readers will share links to the content you publish, others will click through the links you serve.  With some readers, the opportunity to connect is fleeting.  Others may make a greater commitment to your content, such as bookmarking it for future reference, or linking to it from their blog.

The Linkers & the Sharers

For simplicity’s sake, let’s create two audience groups – the Sharers, who consume and share content at high speed, and the Linkers, who engage with content more deeply.    (Admittedly, these two groups are very generalized, but for the sake of this discussion, we’ll focus on commonalities, not particulars.)  The Sharer and Linker behaviors are different, and a lot can be learned from asking how they differ, and why.

Marketers would say the Sharers are at the top of the marketing funnel – in the Awareness stage.  They are like butterflies in a field of flowers, flitting about and sampling many.  They haven’t committed.  The Linkers are further along in the content consumption / decision making process, moving into the Consideration (and maybe even the Preference) stages as they mull over, click through and re-read your content.

Both represent vitally important audience groups.  The Sharers may one day evolve into Linkers.  In the meantime, this group helps amplify your messages when they share links to your content on social networks.   The Linkers, especially when they link to your content from their blogs, create lasting traction that search engines value.  And, of course, they represent a qualified audience that’s valuable to the organization, because they’re more likely to take the action the company is encouraging, whether that’s registering for an event, buying a product or subscribing to a service.

Is it possible for communicators to serve both? 

In an earlier post, I talked about embedding multiple calls to action within press releases and other content, in order to appeal to (and engage) different audiences.  Chris Sietsema, in a recent post on Convince & Convert titled “Creating Social Substance: Talkable & Useful Content” starts to plumb this issue, discussing the differences between creating talkable and useful content, which my context, appeal to the Sharers and Linkers, in that order.  I believe we can take that a step further, and appeal to different types of readers, by paying attention to how we format our content.

The best practices for press releases and other content we’ve long advocated on this blog are especially important when it comes to attracting sharers’ more fleeting attention.  To garner readers, the following tactics are especially important:

  • Write a headline that’s around 120 characters and put your most important keyword within the first 65 characters of your 120 character headline.
  • Include an image in your content.
  • Embed an anchor text link (or two) in the text to give readers who are interested a path to follow.
  • Make it easy for readers to scan the content – use bullet points, numbered lists and paragraph sub-heads.

However, appealing to Linkers requires longer, more complex and robust content.  In fact, the SEOMoz post today backs this up, finding a correlation between longer content, and the number of web sites that had drawn links to the content:  longer content elicited more inbound links.  This might seem surprising, given that many SEO gurus and purveyors of blog best practices suggest we eschew longer-form content on our digital properties.   Clearly, even in today’s sound-byte, 140-character communications culture, there is still real demand for more detailed, useful information.

In my mind, the charge for communicators is pretty clear.  We shouldn’t shy away from the longer content that attracts Linkers, helps create more qualified leads and, as SEOMoz noted, can be a valuable source of inbound links.  Nor should we go overboard.  Our content portfolios should contain a mix of content – in terms of length, character, purpose and medium.  But crafting content that is designed to support people who are moving from the Awareness stage into the Consideration and Preference stages of the buying cycle is good practice.  We should certainly still adhere to the best practices noted above when we create longer-form content, in order to attract some Sharers while also serving our Linkers well.

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

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , , ,

How to Write Press Releases that Work

Posted on September 11, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Yesterday at the Ragan Communications Best Practices Summit, Ruth Sarfaty of Spark PR and I gave a presentation on the subject of press release best practices.  This particular discussion is one I have often, and the answer is ever-evolving.   I say “ever-evolving” because we operate in a fluid environment today.    The algorithms that dictate what we see in social networks and search engines can change dramatically day-to day,  rendering last week’s best practice a worthless tactic today.

“Releases have changed and so have we,” noted my co-presenter Ruth. “While press releases may be intended primarily for journalists, let’s not forget the long tail who tweet and retweet your news!”

Here is the most current iteration of my “best practices” deck, along with the case study Ruth presented of our work together on the study of press releases and social media we did with CrowdFactory.  It’s long and comprehensive.  I’m not going to re-type all the details here (you can easily access the whole thing via Slideshare, just click on the image at the top of this post) but a couple points are worth emphasizing.

Their house, their rules.

It’s important to remember a few things about the search engines and social networks that drive so much visibility for our messages today:

1) Google does not exist to promote your press releases.  Many people forget that the reason Google exists is to return a profit to their shareholders.  They do so by selling ads.  Those ads are effective because of the immense utility most of us derive from using Google to search for stuff.    It’s very important to Google that people find their search engine useful. Ergo, the best way to get visibility in Google? Publish useful and interesting stuff.

2) Social networks are social.  Not commercial. Not advertorial (for the most part.)  People go on to Facebook to hang out, for example.  Twitter, however, is often about the exchange of information, especially niche info and breaking news.   Point is, if your message doesn’t fit the context of why people are using a particular social network, you’ll have difficulty gaining traction there.  You’ve heard the adage “Horses for courses” – well, the same applies for content and social networks. Content that plays well on Facebook won’t necessarily work on LinkedIn.

A lot of time and energy is spent on the optimization of press releases.  Without a doubt, some of the best practices outlined in the deck above will help improve message visibility.  However, at the end of the day, the best way to ensure your message is to provide content that is interesting and useful to your audience.

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

Related reading:

4 Essential Tips for Writing Effective Press Release Headlines

Rethinking Press Release Tactics to Meet Evolving Audience Preferences

Press Releases Shared More on Facebook, But Twitter Drives 30 Percent More Views

Writing Press Releases that Get Results

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , , ,