smw toronto: how to make social media press releases work for you

How to Make Social Media Press Releases Work for You

•Press releases and their associated media show up in organic listings, which get 94-97% of all clicks online (organic versus paid).

•News has a shelf life and it is being incorporated into search engine results pages, crowding out web pages. Make sure to feed the news engines.

•Press releases allow for targeting the media and consumers

•Links distributed through press releases allow for search engines to find those pages, providing:

• credibility with search engines and help in boosting page ranks and organic listings

• direction of web traffic to a call-to-action page.

Communicating in a Pre-Web 2.0 World

Companies controlled the message

Media acted as gatekeeper

Audiences waited for the story

Conversation was “top-down” and one way

What kind of digital camera should I

buy?

What are you doing NOW?

What doesEVERYONE ELSE

think?

Check out howCOOL THIS IS!

Conversations are taking place with or without you. This map will help you visualize the potential extent and pervasiveness of the online conversations that can impact and influence your business and brand.

Source: Brian Solis – the Conversation Prism

Communicating in a Web 2.0 World

Conversation is multi-directional

Gatekeepers are gone

Audience is actively participating

• PR that takes advantage of social media to facilitate

conversations between people and engage audiences

(Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Technorati, etc.)

• PR that abandons one-way distribution and complete control

of the message

• PR that realizes you are not sending messages to media, you

talking to consumers

• PR that recognizes that “people like me” can be as influential

as media, financial analysts, and industry experts

What is PR 2.0?

Traditional Press Releases

Earnings results

Media Advisories

Embedded photo & video releases

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=776829

News Engines

Search Engines

Journalists

Buyers

10

Optimized (SEO) Press Releases

Integrating key words, phrasesand embedded links to optimize “findability” and rankwithin search engines

Targets for SEO releases areconsumers, not media

Helping your News get found online

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

She finds the link to your website and your product webpage

Your potential customer enters your keywords into a search engine (e.g., Google, Yahoo!)

YOUR POSTEDPRESS RELEASE

Distributed to 1,000s of places on the Internet

with your hyperlinked webpage

Writing for the Web

Google Rules but don’t forget about your reader

Words chosen and placed by copywriters in strategic locations on a web page in order to increase the volume and/or quality of traffic from search engines to a web page.

Examples: Brand, Product, Service Name, Geographic Location, Or Topic

Keywords

75% of PR professionals are practicing keyword placement

But keywords for PR campaigns are not necessarily chosen by PR professionals

A Search Engine is…

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp

Among many other variables, search engines place heavy weight on...

• The “title tag” of a webpage • The URL of a webpage• The “meta-description” of a webpage• On-page text• Inbound links to a webpage

• And anchor text• To a lesser degree, “meta-keywords” of a webpage

In every case, the presence of keywords is the critical component!

Location of Title Tags

The URL of the webpage

The Meta-Description

HTML CodeRight click; view source

Meta Description (as seen in Google)

The presence of a search term in a webpage’s meta-description

increases the likelihood that the page will be a top result

Inbound Links

“Inbound links...[are] one of the positive signals to Google about your site's

importance... relevant, quality

inbound links can affect your

PageRank.”

In other words, no matter how optimized a webpage is, the number of other pages linking to it

will have a major effect on the ranking of that page

Now, think of your press release as just another webpage...

...The same rules apply

Marketwire AUTOMATICALLY drops the release headline into the

Title Tag of the page

Marketwire AUTOMATICALLY drops the release headline into the

URL of the page

Meta Description of the Marketwire version

TIP: Include a quick sentence or two about the news in regular form, then move into the “News Facts” – this will

allow you to capitalize on including keyword-rich content in the meta description,

which only includes the first couple hundred characters (including spaces)

The Meta-Description translates to many downstream

distribution partners as well.

On page text is based on the copy of the press release.

You should be very keyword centric when writing.

The question to ask is, “which keyword searches

do I want to result in this release

showing up as a top SERP?”

Marketwire provides distribution of press releases with “inbound links” to reputable 3rd

party websites

For Example...CNNMoney.com

Inbound Links are more powerful when used with keyword-rich “Anchor Text”

Anchor text links are often used with specific product names or

as an “interactive” tool...While this is a good use,

more emphasis should be placed on creating anchor text links

behind more general keywords such as “Java virtualization”

or “server virtualization”

The more links you build, the more likely you are to increase the ranking of that webpage in a search for that keyword.

Google Search “Mayday”

Recent algorithm change weighs relevancy of articles using user behavior on long-tail keywords higher than content keyword densities.

In English? Interesting news, compelling content changes from being “King” to being “Godly” for all content. It used to be that long keyword phrases were easier to rank for based on keyword density alone, but now long-tail keywords will be held in the same esteem as shorter, generic keywords and phrases.

In other words, use phrases 3-10

Crafting The Perfect Headline

• Can a story be told in 140 characters?

• How about 60 to 70 characters?

• Supercharging news releases means paying attention to how your headline will appear online

• The headline is the most influential search engine visibility/optimization factor that you have direct control over

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/ranking-factors-version-2-released

Crafting The Perfect Headline

“Headlines that work in print don't work online because they're not search-friendly. Your headlines should be clear and declarative and state what your post is about.”

Paul Gillin, Veteran Technology Journalist And Author

Tips From Google News

• Ensure that the title is not too long or too short. Currently, a title must be between two and 22 words for it to be indexed properly

• Don't include a date or time in your article titleshttp://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?answer=93981&topic=11673

• It's unlikely to be useful to specify more than a dozen keywords or so per article

http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?answer=93992&topic=11666

Tips From Yahoo! Small Business

• To make your page most appealing to search engines, we (Yahoo!) recommend that you limit your page title to 67 characters

• Meta Keywords List:

• Input keywords in order of importance

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/webhosting/yss/promote/index.html

Tips From YouTube

• Video Titles: • Think of your title as a headline • If you want to include your brand name in the title, it should

always go last • Character Limit: 120

• Tags: • Be as detailed as possible • Include: Brand, City, topics• Character Limit: 120

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=141804

Recommended Headline/Title Length

Headline GoogleGoogle News

YouTube Yahoo! W3.org

Headline/Title Length

(Characters)

65-70 Max Displayed In

Search Results

(no documented recommendation)

Min 10 to Max 110

120 Max 67 Max 64 Max

Also keep in mind that Twitter has a maximum of 140 characters – but leave room for a shortened URL…that’s a net of about 120 characters for Twitter.

What Should A Headline Include?

• The focus of your news (AKA Keywords)

• Keywords can include:

• Brand, product or service name

• Partner/affiliate name

• Event name or topic

• Geographic location

• Executive’s name, title

• Observe trademark and copyright laws

• Keyword Suggestion Tools

How Do You Pick Keywords?

Google Adwords provides monthly search volume

for any keyword or phrase and offers related search term data.


• Keyword suggestion tools


• Internal resources:• Marketing/IT departments for analytic records


• Internal resources:• Marketing/IT departments for webmaster reports


MW’s SEO Analyzer grades the search optimization

level of a press release based on its headline,

multimedia assets, and body text

as well as the keywords. .


• SEO reports from news distributors • Online monitoring of blogs, message boards and social sites• Competitor product/service pages

Hyperlinks and Anchor Text

• Specify logical anchor text, not “learn more” – use keywords you want to rank for, but make sure landing page is relevant.

• Link to deep pages, not your homepage – search engines reward relevance

Feature:

•SEO Enhancement•Anchor Text Links•Links display on 100+ sites

Benefit:

•Backward links improve rank of website• Anchor text associates site with desirable • keywords•Picking own meta keywords allows • more creativity (Google Keyword Tool)• Combination of SEO Enhancement • and multimedia maximizes SEO•Long Tail – news lives indefinitely

Links in a news release, do’s and don’ts

• Please do:• Consider competing pages, volume and content• Consider visitor intent• Use descriptive anchor text

• OMG, don’t:• Link to general “hub” pages, like homepages• Deceive visitors• Use calls to action as anchor text

©

And remember….

• SEO is a slow burn, don’t expect overnight success

• Content freshness plays a factor

• Sustained strategic repetition can help long-term rankings

• Identify 3-5 keywords for each type of news you issue with 1 primary keyword or phrase

• Leverage Google Adwords to determine the current search volume for each

• Determine which webpage each keyword should link to

• As often as possible, include those keywords in relevant releases, especially in the headline

• Absolutely include those keywords in the body of the release, each time linking to the most relevant webpage

• If possible, become more involved in the data from your web analytics provider as a means of tracking the performance of a news release.

Recommended Strategy

Google Rankings

Even the Google engineers acknowledge that tweaking your tags and on-page elements are not as important as having good content and a reputation in your community (think links)

Target visitors or search engines?

Multimedia works wonders, presenting

The SEO Chart of Awesomeness

©Courtesy of Garry Przyklenk, Online Marketing & Lead Generation Manger, Marketwire

Potential Audience

Twitter190 Million+ Users

veoh28+ Million Unique Users

Facebook600 Million Users

Photobucket 30 Million Unique Users

Top Blog Sites 24 Million Users

YouTube2 Billion+ videos viewed daily

Second Life13 Million Residents

LinkedIn90 Million+ Users

AP Mobile 38 Million monthly page

views

Social Media Press Releases

• The social media release is an adaptation of the traditional news release to make your message more engaging and user-friendly in this new media environment

• If your goal is conversation and increased Web presence, then

the social media release is a key tool and a first step in sparking

the dialogue

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Reeds-Inc-Adds-Social-Media-Elements-to-

Marketing-Plan-NASDAQ-REED-984473.htm

The SM 2.0 News Release

Multimedia Elements

DIGG,Technorati, Search Engine Stats

Technorati Mashup

Corporate RSS Feed

Bulleted News Facts

Multiple Quotes

Corporate Web Site

Social BookmarkingLinks Intelligent Keyword

Navigation

Resources

Facebook(Social Networking)

Feature:

• embedded pictures• streamed video

Benefit:

• More engaging• Convenient for media / bloggers• Own screen real estate• Improved SEO

Images:

• Distributed to Marketwire’s Photobucket channel, allows for easy, social media sharing:

Multimedia

Specially formatted for use with emails, blogs, instant messaging, websites, forums and bulletin boards – content presented in URLs, image codes, and HTML code for individual user preference

Feature:

• ALT Tags

Benefit:

• Improved search engine ranking for image/logo

Multimedia

• Add unlimited multimedia• Videos:

• Powered by YouTube.

• Link to your own video channel or distribute to YouTube, Yahoo! Video and VEOH using Marketwire channel

Feature:

• SEO Enhancement• Anchor Text Links• Links display on 100+ sites

Benefit:

• Backward links improve rank of website• Anchor text associates site with desirable keywords• Picking own meta keywords allows more creativity (Google Keyword Tool)• Combination of SEO Enhancement and multimedia maximizes SEO• Long Tail – news lives indefinitely

Feature:

• Sharable on more than 230 social networks

Benefit:

• Lowers barrier to interaction• Maximizes viral potential• Gives target audience the ability to share release the way they want with others who are interested in news• Increases reach• News recommended by friend carries more weight

Feature:

• Built in real-time reporting• Easily view Diggs• Easily view Technorati track backs• View & link to Google, Bing, Yahoo appearances

Benefit:

• Quickly assess key metrics/value• Easy reporting• Allows audience to easily see what others are saying about release

Search Stats

• Reader gets 1-click access to all search results for the release headline on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Digg.com and Technorati

• Instant search stats

Feature:

• Company RSS feed• Permalink•Trackback URL• Keyword Cloud• Website Preview

Benefit:

• Audience can easily sign up to receive future releases• Permalink and Trackback create stable links to give release staying power• Keyword cloud adds searchable content and provides data visualization • Web preview convenient for audience

RSS (really simple syndication)

• RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

• Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators."

- Wikipedia

72

How Does the Media Use the Marketwire Website?

• Search for news releases• Monitor breaking news and organizations• Receive news as it crosses the wire • Access to multimedia content

Feature:

• Headlines appear on blogs with relevant content via the Pheedo Blog RSS ad Network

Benefit:

• Value add release in front of highly targeted audience that is more likely to absorb and share message

PC Magazine

NY Times – Health News

PHEEDO BLOG RSS AD NETWORK

Delivery of Multimedia Press Releases to Smartphone Users via AP Mobile

Social Media Press Releases

The social media release format puts the power of distribution and content repurposing into the hands of the social media community via sharing and bookmarking…it can become a viral PR mechanism

Set Goals

Goal # 1: Inform journalists and bloggers while maximizing social media viral potential

Marketwire sends release to news aggregators who repost release, such as MSNBC. Blogger links to this release

Social Media 2.0 release reposted to targeted blogs for subject matter

Blogger includes resource link to Canadian Virtual Hospice website

Online version of hard copy magazine

Newspaper article online rates relevance of article to search on the site

Goal # 2: Drive traffic to project website

SEO Enhancement (Included with Social Media 2.0) allowed Canadian Virtual Hospice to linkimportant keywords back to their chosen sites, encouraging click-throughsand providing convenience to their audience.

Goal # 3: Improve the search rank of the main and project websites

• In addition to driving traffic, wanted to supplement their efforts to improve the search rank of their websites, making it easier for journalists and interested parties to find their information

• Backward links from quality websites are a major component of search engine algorithms. By adding links that stayed live on over 100 sites, got the maximum SEO boost from their press release and helped associate their site with important keywords

Goal # 4: Take advantage of available multimedia to create a more engaging message

• Using Social Media 2.0 gave the ability to add pictures and video to their release--content that was reposted by downstream sites in varying degrees. This not only created a more engaging release, it improved the chances for pick-up by providing convenience to journalists and bloggers who could quickly grab this content. It also ensured that less ads would clutter their release when it posted on various sites. Since search engines algorithms tend to weight pages with multimedia higher, it improved their SEO prospects as well.

Client videos on Marketwire YouTube channel on first page

• Keep content king; message concise and pointed

• Provide core news facts in the bulleted format

• Link to other pages for more information

• Use hyperlinks to demonstrate broader web presence

• Link your users to other social sites where they can get a broader understanding of the story you want to discuss

• Embed multimedia elements

• Share images & video that readers can embed in their own pages to help further the discussion. Keep in mind that this is a social communication tool and you want the PUBLIC to talk about you!!

Top Takeaways

• Use targeted keywords to attract interested readers from the search engines - SEO

• Select just two or three keywords to optimize your release

• Use the keywords in positions or prominence – the headline, metatags, and first paragraph – and use them frequently

• Include relevant social tags and create online buzz

• Include tags for social news and bookmarking communities like Digg.com, del.icio.us and Newsvine

• Offer Technorati tags to generate searches for keyword-relevant blogs

• Employ online users, influencers as evangelists

•Press release = webpage – Make it interactive w/links to other resources along with being search-friendly with keywords. Add multimedia to provide context and a better user experience. Think “online media kit” one stop shop

•Conversational, Authentic - lose the “Spin” – Bulleted facts and key points are best

•Share – Engage directly with people (& employ them) – Deliver in the way people navigate the net.

•Share images & video that readers can embed in their own pages to help further the discussion.

Keep in mind that this is a social communication tool and you want the PUBLIC to talk about you!!

‘Rules’ for Social Media PR

The Social Media Newsroom

Social Media News Room

Add Social Media News Releases to Your News Room

News Room

Popular Social Media Services

Images Capability

Video Capability

Quotes & About Us Section

Social Media 2.0 Recommendations

• Use Social Media to introduce a new program that you want to create a buzz about

• Reach a targeted audience that you haven’t been able to penetrate

• Quickly pick up feedback that may be negative or false and act on it

• Dedicate someone in the department to follow and track blogs - check out blogpulse.com to see blog trends about your organization or industry

• Don’t miss an opportunity to build relationships, participate in conversations and reach out to your audience directly

Social Media 2.0 Recommendations

• Include hyperlinks throughout your release, inviting readers to check out your blog, twitter posts, Digg page, Facebook fan page or LinkedIn profile

• Include bulleted news facts & multiple quotes

• Get content online so it can be found – have digital assets in all these content categories: news, images, video and blogs – better results for Universal (Blended) Search

• Check out the Marketwire Social Media Newsroom archive for ideas on writing a Social Media release

Join the conversation, but where?

“The art of conversations is

mastered through both the practice of

hearing AND listening”

The 5W’s of business intelligence

What are people talking about?

When did these conversations happen?

Where did these conversations happen?

Who’s talking and what’s their influence?

Why are conversations happening?

Who’s doing social media well?

• SMBs• New word-of-mouth• Reducing customer service costs• Hyper-local reach

• Enterprise• Fortune 100 companies• Building and joining communities

Real-world applications

• Brand/reputation management• Agencies

• Value-added social media reporting• Measure results and ROI on social media efforts• Business development, competitive intelligence

• SMEs• Identify influencers and advocates• Resolve customer service issues• Gain insights on competitors

Dell’s infamous $3M on Twitter(and a few better examples)

• @DellOutlet generates $3M on Twitter

• Cisco reduces 43% of support cost

• socialmedia.cisco.com – blogs, twitter, Facebook, YouTube

• Ebay finds engagement boosts ARPO by 54%

• Build-A-Bear built a platform, generated $500k

• BP’s reputation-management strategy

Social media for IR: Cisco Systems

Traditional Text Release are not extinct?

• News releases in all forms – from text-only to Social Media – continue to play a major role in communications and the news cycle

• Downstream partners and their technological capacity often dictate the type of news that is sent (ASCII vs. XHTML)

• The type of news often dictates the format of the news release (quarterly earnings with financial tables vs. viral video)

AND REMEMBER…

CONTENT

Social Media Fitness Program

Free online

Basic or Advanced track

Work at your own pace

30 minutes a day

Fits easily into busy day

Help keep you focused

Expert advice all along the way

Improve your online networking and engagement skills

www.sm10x30.com

Resources

Social Media Corner on LinkedIn

http://twitter.com/marketwire

#smmeasure chat

http://www.marketwire.com/PR 2.0

http://www.marketwireblog.com/

Public Relations Marketing and Planning Tools Summary From Marketwire:

http://www.marketwire.com/mkt/PDF/Marketing-PR-Planning-Monitoring-Tools.pdf

[email protected]

416-941-5828

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