Last year, this company was invited by Vibe Magazine to work on Jay-Z’s resume. The proper use of press releases would be to announce this to as many media outlets as possible and of course the world. However, PR is tricky. If you were to write an article, it would not be accepted as a press release. So therefore writing a press release has to be crafted in a very specific way. At SalemGlobal we mostly use PR Web. They allow us to distribute press releases to thousands of media outlets and websites. These press releases should follow the same format as any search engine optimized web page. Meaning your primary keywords should be at the top of the press release and anchor text should be used to link to important landing pages and your home page.

Press releases help one of our clients, a NJ homeless shelter and soup kitchen (www.EvasVillage.org), spread the word about their services. Two winters ago they wrote a press release announcing their open doors for the homeless during the winter. This news was so enticing that it was picked up by the weather channel.

In conclusion, you should be writing a minimum of one press release a month, prioritizing your keywords and linking to and from your press release. Next week we will talk about gearing up for the holiday season and how you should prepare for it from a marketing perspective.

If you have any questions or would like help writing press releases email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call us at 212-993-5828 or visit www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.

http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=salemglobal

Let us help you spread the word about your business in all the right channels.

http://newsrooms.prweb.com/websitemarketing/

The personal News Room is a great way to aggregate all of the stories we’ve been writing about for some time. Of course, it helps that PRWeb is a leading online newswire and news distributor, with millions of unique visitors worldwide. It’s a win-win situation that goes three ways — we get to showcase our news, visitors get a chance to read about all the interesting people and services we’re affiliated with, and PRWeb gets more exposure and new customers. This is PR in the spirit of the holidays.

Raphi’s seminar was a terrific success.  A full house turned out to listen to him speak about how to “Make More Money this Year with Online Marketing.” His seminar was so successful, in fact, that he was bombarded with requests to make his PowerPoint slideshow available online, which he is, of course, happy to do. Just click here to redirect to the SalemGlobal homepage, where you can download the presentation as a pdf. You can also watch the video below and listen to Raphi dish some wisdom on SEO and optimizing your website.

Finally, congratulations are in order as well: they go out to Frank Manus of www.naa.cc; Valerie Mahoney of Live Your Life Travel; Gavin Sloane of Geneva Worldwide; Matthew Kiger of WCBS Radio; Ashraf Ezzeldin of the Egyptian General Consulate; and Valerie Delaportas of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. These are the lucky winners of the numerous raffles SalemGlobal held throughout the day. Enjoy your brand new 512 mb memory sticks — you earned it!

2) Link Building: You can use your important keywords as anchor text and link them to relevant pages on your website. When the press release is distributed these links will be picked up by distribution partners. Links from many of these sites will not be counted, but some of them will.

3) Reputation Management: If someone has criticized your company, one sure way to get the criticism off the first page of Google Blog Search or Google search results is to issue multiple press releases. Of course, if you want to do a professional job, then you need to get external links to your press releases and bookmark and tag these releases.

4) Bloggers and Web 2.0 Audience: Many bloggers subscribe to online press release distribution services like PRWeb. If your press release interests them, they might blog about it and give a link to your press release or your website. If you consistently reach out to this audience, you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.

5) Traffic from Traditional Media: If your press release interests journalists, they will follow up with you and write a story about your business. This will most certainly lead to a short term boost in your website traffic and sales.

Wire Services and an Online Distribution

Wire services distribute press releases to traditional media outlets like newspapers, magazines, radio stations and news agencies like Reuters and the Associated Press. If your main objective is to target journalists, then use a traditional wire service.

The other option is online distribution — targeted to journalists or bloggers who sign up to receive emails from a particular industry, category or sub-category. Popular news aggregator websites like Google News and Yahoo News are also targeted. Additionally, many bloggers subscribe to distribution and news feeds. Chances are one press release from a good online distribution service will get you multiple listings spread across Google News, Search and Blogsearch. For the widest reach, consider both wire services and online.

The difference in distribution methods can be summed up as push vs. pull. Wire services push press releases to media outlets, while consumers pull information from online services like PRWeb through email alerts and RSS feeds.

Press Release Basics

Most wire distribution services charge by blocks of 375 or 400 words. That includes title, a brief summary, body of the release and contact information. If the release is more than the word limit, you will be charged extra per 100 words. Images, video, documents or podcasts are also charged extra. But many online PR distribution sites do not have the typical 400 words limit. Image and document attachment is also commonly provided with the basic service.

Before turning loose your press release, decide where you will make the most impact. Wire distribution services classify a press release into:

1) National Release: Targets all national media outlets for a particular industry like Automotive, Consumer, Sports, Technology or Travel.

2) Regional Release: The four main regions are Northeast (includes New York and New Jersey), Southeast (includes Florida and Virginia), Midwest (includes Illinois and Ohio) and West/Southwest (includes California and Texas).

3) State and Local Release: New York State and New York Metro can be two different options. In general, New York-related distribution is expensive, because of the high number of media outlets in the region.

4) International Release: Again, there are many classifications and sub-classifications of an international release based on countries and/or continents.

Apart from the above categories, some wire services also target Hispanic, African-American and North American Chinese media outlets.

Keep in mind that you should draft and submit your press release two days in advance, because most wire services will call for a verbal confirmation before distributing.

With online services you can specify 5-10 industries to target. By default, the region is set to global but if your release applies to a specific city or region, you need to choose the appropriate setting. Any journalists or bloggers who have subscribed to releases for that region will then receive your release.

Now that you have decided what type of distribution service you will use and where you will target your audience, it’s time for the most important part — creating effective, compelling press releases.

Seven Tips for Writing a Press Release

1) Unique Value Proposition: Instead of writing a press release for simply the launch of your product or service, create a press release around your unique value proposition. This should include those special attributes making your service better than the competition.

2) Avoid Hyperbole: Keep your language natural and tone conversational. Nothing is more counter-productive than a jargon-filled sales pitch. Report facts.

3) Optimize your Press Release for Search: Include your most important keywords in the press release title and first paragraph, but not at the cost of important information. Hyperlink important pages with suitable keywords as anchor text.

4) Create an Online Press Room: Because only limited information can be included in a press release, it’s a good idea to create an “Online Press Room” on your website. It should list your media contact with an email address and direct phone number, contain a high-resolution logo of your company in various formats (JPEG, PSD, CDR) and high-resolution photos of key people in your organization. Point links to important products, case studies, client comments, press releases and media coverage. Provide a link to this page on all press releases.

5) Create Google and Yahoo Alerts: Create Google and Yahoo alerts with your company or individual name. This will help you see which websites are covering your press releases.

6) Decide your objective: If the primary objective of your press release is online reputation management, then you might want to go for a service like PRWeb. However, if you think there is an angle in your press release which can appeal to journalists, use a wire service that also has SEO options.

7) Use Stock Tickers: If your company is not publicly listed, but associated with a listed company (i.e. if the listed company is your client) you can ask their permission to include their stock ticker in your press release. This will help you get visibility across all journalists who will be searching for the listed company.

Press releases can be extremely valuable for both short- and long-term purposes. If you are not yet convinced or feel that you need some practice, start with a free service, then move on to professional service. However, a single press release will not give you much exposure. Try to write at least six press releases a year that will cover your unique value proposition, good customer experience, and awards and recognitions.

About the Author: Milind Mody is founder CEO of SEO firm eBrandz Inc. Part of eBrandz’s service performs search marketing for a division of United Business Media, parent company of PR Newswire.

Distribution Services

PR Newswire: PR Newswire is the biggest name in press release distribution service. It is also the most expensive. A 400-word national release can cost $680 and $185 for additional 100 words. A 400-word release with a photo will cost $1,325. Regional distribution will cost less. The national release includes SEO, but for other distribution options, add $255. If you don’t want a national release, search for PR Newswire partners
like WebWire, which offers a 15 percent discount.

Business Wire: Business Wire was taken over by Warren Buffet’s Hathaway Berkshire last year. In general, Business Wire costs 8-10 percent less than PR Newswire. Business Wire has partnered with Vocus/PRWeb which powers their Enhanced Online News Text optimization tool. Through PRWeb, Business Wire can produce SEO-friendly press releases while PRWeb can now provide traditional wire service to their clients.

Marketwire: A 400-word national release on Marketwire costs $460 with $150 extra for additional 100 words, less for regional and state/local distribution. Additional photos cost $50, SEO enhancement costs $75 and audio/video links cost $75 each. Customer service is good, making Marketwire is a nice option if you are price conscious.

PRWeb: PRWeb is not a wire service, but an email-based service. Journalists or bloggers who signup with PRWeb receive a daily email from PRWeb based on their preferences. The release is also distributed to other websites that subscribe to PRWeb feeds. The basic service at PRWeb starts at $80 per release. Their SEO visibility service starts at $200 and there is a podcast interview option for $100, where one of PRWeb’s staff will conduct a four to five minute interview with you. This is a great option for business owners who want their press releases to stand out but don’t have time or energy to produce their own podcast.

Free Distribution: Apart from these main services, there are some free online distribution services like openPR.com and PRLog.org. These websites are regularly crawled by Google News. But a word of caution: These free sites make money by displaying Google AdSense ads alongside your press release. It’s entirely possible that your competitor’s ads are shown alongside your press release!

From WebsiteMagazine.

Many companies narrowly define PR activities online solely as blogger relations when in reality, online public relations is so much more. Internet based public and media relations encompasses gaining editorial exposure on the web with sites like blogs of course, but it also leverages web based technologies, networks and platforms for developing and maintaining more efficient communication with the media. And by “media” I mean traditional media with an online presence as well as other influencers – be they bloggers, power social news users or social networkers.

Communication efforts might happen online, but the media exposure outcomes may be in print or the web. The question arises, if the connections are made and maintained online using online PR and social media tools, but the exposure is offline, is it still online PR?

Earning editorial visibility on the web as a function of public and online media relations efforts is entirely congruent with the idea of optimizing content for better web visibility. For the most part, you can’t “manufacture” editorial based visibility and the commensurate traffic. You earn it.

An example of the disconnect is when companies demand specific traffic increases within defined time frames. Those situations aren’t typically good candidates for online PR and especially SEO. Certainly, there are some short time frame traffic possibilities with social media and viral content promotion, but specific traffic forecasting for a short time frame SEO project is unrealistic. Advertising is the most viable option for those that need traffic “yesterday”.

Anyone demanding traffic has a few other issues to deal with first anyway. Traffic is a proxy to other important metrics like leads and sales. The same goes for search engine rankings. The reason improvements in rankings and traffic are desired is to achieve another business outcome. Unfortunately, some businesses continue to get hung up on the” means to an end as the end”.

One of the big issues some bloggers and most journalists have is finding great story sources. In many cases, deadlines approach pretty fast and it can be difficult to find sources that fit the story angle. Optimizing news content knowing journalists are searching can be a very effective tactic as part of an Online PR strategy.

The key is to make it easy for consumers and journalists alike to find your message on the channels and in the format they prefer. This is true for content whether it’s text, images, video, audio or interactive. If it can be searched on it can be optimized. Read more about DAO or digital asset optimization for more info on that topic.

Rankings on search engines can carry just as much weight (or more) with online PR efforts as getting covered in a prominent blog or online publication. As a result, increasing numbers of public relations firms are making efforts to incorporate SEO into their offerings. I’m happy to say M&O-TopRank has been at this since 2001.

There are many ways in which SEO tactics can be used for PR outcomes and vice versa. According to a study by Bulldog Reporter/TEKgroup International, 64% of journalists report that they use either Google or Yahoo! news services and nearly half of all journalists reported visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week. Search is a significant channel for finding these news sources.

The fundamental benefits of optimizing news content include:

• Makes it easier for journalists researching stories to find you
• Expands company branding footprint on the web
• Contributes to proactive search results reputation management
• Helps fuel the sales pipeline

How is optimizing PR and news content different from optimizing content for lead generation or making sales? It has to do with the target audience. The needs of a journalist are different than a consumer. A journalist writing a story needs verifiable information, easy to find contact information, examples and any other information that will help them write the story. Consumers are typically focused (depending on their stage of the buying cycle) on finding information, solutions or purchasing.

Here are some of the different types of news content that can be optimized as part of an Pull PR program:

• Press releases / news releases
• Online op-eds / letters to the editor
• Online news rooms and media kits
• Corporate site PR content
• Blogs
• Reports / white papers
• Webinars / demos
• Email newsletters
• Interviews (coach interviewee on keywords)
• Podcasts / Internet radio shows

While the optimization of news content in conjunction with blogger and online media relations can be the one-two punch for an online PR program, it is the addition of social networking that serves as the knockout.

Social networks like LinkedIn / Facebook and increasingly, microblogging platforms like Twitter can be leveraged by journalists to find subject matter experts in a very short period of time. Here are articles by a TV reporter and a newspaper reporter on this topic.

That means companies need to invest in not only monitoring social media, but also developing profiles and participating on social communities. If you don’t give, you’re not going to get, so it’s important that any efforts at social networking with the media are transparent and give value.

Giving to get, transparency, conversation and participation are key concepts when it comes to an online PR program that involves not only blogger relations but also the search engine optimization of news content and engaging with social media/networking communities.