Every content marketer has their favorite go-to tactics, and almost all will share one in common - deriving content from content. In my hands, a simple blog post can spawn a press release, a slide deck and a host of tweets, posts, shares and updates.
We're hearing this question a lot, so we thought we'd take time out from our regular programming to dig into how PR Newswire has created the best platform for hosting press releases in the business, and to discuss some of the elements that go into optimizing a big site like ours, as well as granular pieces of content like press releases.
It's impossible to write about search engines without referencing change, and this post is no exception. We've updated the advice we're offering for optimizing press releases and other content for maximum online visibility. There are some important changes, including: An increased focus on creating content that is useful.
A lot of search engine optimization professionals are incorporating PR tactics into their optimization strategies these days, and there's a very good reason for this trend: the search engines are placing premiums on authentic earned media. The very nature of earned media has evolved, however.
Pulitzer Prize winning photographer John H. White had been at the Sun-Times since 1978.- Tina Sfondeles (@TinaSfon) May 30, 2013 Summary: As media outlets continue to cut newsroom resources, new opportunities for brands emerge to fill content voids. But is the visual content your brand creates newsworthy enough to make it into your favorite digital news sites?
Summary: There are 3 important lessons for public relations professionals in crafting effective press releases and other digital messages to be gleaned from the Financial Times' launch this week of FastFT, a short-format news service. The Financial Times this week launched FastFT, a nimble and ultra-short-form news service publishing extremely short (<250 word) stories.
Assuming that you need to stick to dry language and a certain format when drafting a press release can limit the appeal (and ultimately the success) of your message. Press releases have the potential to reach huge audiences, and constituents of every stripe.
Today's noisy media environment poses challenge for brands: how to get for important messages when there is so much fragmentation of the audience - and competition for their attention. People share and consume incredibly granular information, and a fundamental communications vehicle - the press release - is proving remarkably adaptable and effective, provided communicators refresh their approach to using this PR workhorse in this new environment.
You 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.
It's surprising that so many companies use English when communicating within China, even though the official spoken language of China is Mandarin, and the official written language is Simplified Chinese.
This post originally appeared on the Business4Better Blog. Ed note: Today is the second day of Business4Better, a new event produced by PR Newswire's parent company, UBM plc., designed to foster partnerships between non-profits and corporations. As I was scanning the blog posts recapping the first day, I spotted the post below and decided to share it with you.
There's a lot of discussion these days about the role of content in the public relations and marketing strategies, and much of it is focused on the awareness-generating and attention-acquiring benefits a stream of content can produce.
A few days ago, I wrote a post about the lessons we can glean from this year's Pulitzer Prize for Journalism winners. In that post, I noted the winning entry from the New York Times for feature writing, and I've decided that I didn't do this particular winner justice in my original post.
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.
One of the most popular press releases on PRNewswire.com right now is an item that was released in March. How is that even possible? This particular press release, issued by the American Academy of Neurology, and titled " AAN Issues Updated Sports Concussion Guideline: Athletes with Suspected Concussion Should Be Removed from Play " outlines the organization's sports concussion guidelines and specifically states that athletes with concussions should be immediately removed from play.
"Let's be very clear. Press releases have always been about generating awareness." ( Tweet it) That sterling point was made by a panelist on a recent webinar, and he was bang on the money. Because before you get the audience to act, you have to first garner their attention.
While live events and webinars are generally thought of as marketing activities, designed for the purpose of generating leads, the promotion of these events has some real similarities to launching a PR campaign. By pulling a few pages from the PR playbook, an organization can increase awareness of an interest in the event among a qualified audience.
Listening to the webinar with David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) hosted by MarketingProfs today reinforced the speed of change in the PR and marketing arenas. Over the course of the discussion, David offered his perspective on how the communications arena has changed since he published the first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR in 2007 (and has since been updated numerous times,) and the opportunities available to PR and marketing pros today.
Stories have a way of sticking with us. They're enjoyable, relatable, and understandable - and these qualities ultimately make them memorable. The context of the story provides linkages and framework that connects information, enabling us to recall a full set of information that we'd be probably be unable to memorize by rote.
How long do the press releases you issue maintain news value? Conventional wisdom says that the news value of an announcement degrades after a day or so. However, changes in how people find and consume information has given press releases and other content considerably longer shelf-lives.
Strategic earned media, designed to contribute to a web site's search rank. Downloads of a new productivity app. Surfacing an expert's blog posts, to position the organization as a thought leader. Developing a qualified audience for the content the company has invested so much in producing. Clearly, these are all communications goals.
If you want to position your organization as a thought leader or enhance your brand's reputation on line (or, for that matter, do the same for yourself), honing your ability to curate relevant content is crucial.
O ver the last two days, we've talked about how PR Newswire optimizes press releases, and about press release tactics authors can employ to generate better search results. There's one more piece to the puzzle, and that is discovery. Discovery is a vital component to generating visibility for your organization's messages.
Yesterday we discussed how PR Newswire optimizes press releases. Today, we'll focus on the role the content's author plays in the whole optimization equation. The search engines' focus on the actual on-page content puts a lot of responsibility on the author of the content.
An article Ragan's PR Daily ran last week titled " Is the Traditional PR Pitch Dead? " flirted with the notion that it's possible to practice PR without pitching media and bloggers. The author, Rachel Farrell, concluded (and I agree)that social media is a path to news, not a replacement for it, and that pitching thought leaders and who shape opinion is still a good idea.
