Tesar-Reynes

My sort of go-to Bible on social media is David Meerman’s Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing and PR. A New York Times best seller, David outlines simple steps a marketer can take if budget is an obstacle. Thanks to the Web and social media, creating buzz around a product stays within the realm of possibility.

One of the chapters involves writing online news releases. David’s thinking is, “Why take the time to pitch the media when you can write a news release that goes straight to the public instead?”

The media will generate good publicity, provided a PR person can make it through the 1,000 pitches a journalist gets daily. That’s a big if. Or, marketers can write online releases, optimized with links and search engine-terms, for anyone who’s looking for that type of news or product on the search engines.

David is saying, “Stop writing news releases for the media. Start writing news releases for YOUR BUYERS.”

I think a good marketer will take advantage of both new and traditional media outlets. But whether someone is pitching a journalist or their buyers directly, the Web can help save them from hours of cold calls or e-mails.

By putting ALL their news releases online, a PR pro can provide a place where journalists and consumers can go to discover new products and story lines. Plus, it shortens up the actual pitch to media outlets. You can include a link to a news release at the end of an e-mail pitch, instead of pasting the release. A journalist will visit the link if they’re truly interested.

What sounds more inviting to you?

A short e-mail, with a compelling 3-sentence pitch, and a link where you can go to find more info.

Or a long e-mail, with a 3-sentence pitch, followed by a 1200-word press release that’s being mass distributed to everyone and their mother.

Tips on Writing Your Online News Release

I’ve never written an online news release, so last week I attended a Webinar on the SEO of online news releases from PRWeb. Kerry Kaye, one of PR Web’s editor’s, hosted the event.

She said, “99.5% of news releases are not being optimized for the Web. You’ll be in the 0.5% that is.”

You give me a chance to stick out from the crowd, and I’m there. Below, I copied a few key points Kerry made. For distribution sites, I recommend PRWeb, obviously, but also EurekAlert.com if you’re involved in science news. One of my project directors at my last internship used that site and achieved similar results. It’s free too.

According to Kerry, online news releases should:

• Be about 300-800 words (125-1125 is acceptable)
• Contain a headline, summary, body and boiler plate
• Have a headline less than 80 characters, including spaces
• Have a summary length less than 2 sentences

To find keywords, which will be placed throughout a release, keyword generators like WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, or Google AdWords are useful.

PRWeb recommends that keywords:

• Optimize around two keywords or keyword phrases (1 primary and 1 secondary)
• Appear no more than 10 times each (3-4 for shorter releases, 6-7 for midsized)
• Appear in the headline, summary, lead and boilerplate or closing paragraph (the closer to beginning the better)
• Not be stuffed in a release just for the sake of quantity. (In other words, keep well-written, compelling content)
• Used in variation with similar words

Regarding links, PRWeb allows 1 link per 100 words of copy. Links can go to places like a company’s homepage or a relevant product or service page. Also, links should include “http://” in the link address, as some browsers need more than just a “www.” at the beginning of a link.

– Roland