The Future of the Press Release. Again.
November 17th, 2008 by Tim Allik
Rumors of the death of the press release have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, you could even say the humble press release has been reborn – as a traffic-driving, search-engine-optimizing workhorse. Smaller companies are seeing the light when it comes to the press release’s new role, while larger corporations are more apt to have a traditional view of the press release and may be missing out.
That’s the conclusion of Mihaela Vorvoreanu, PhD, of Clemson University.
Vorvoreanu, a fellow of The Society of New Communications Research, presented a study at the SNCR Symposium last week on how businesses, both large and small, are using online news releases these days.
Smaller businesses are warming up to the fact that online news releases written with search engine optimization in mind are an economical way of tapping into an organic search audience — and may be a better value than sponsored search strategies. They also tend to view online releases as a way to communicate directly with consumers.
Large companies, in contrast, tend to view press releases primarily as a method of getting their news in front of reporters, with hopes of ensuing media coverage, Vorvoreanu said.
Perhaps the big players can learn something from their smaller brethren.
The survey didn’t measure the impact of the social media release – which was more of a PR marketing stunt (albeit a successful one) than anything else. The social media release as envisioned by its creator Todd Defren hewed to the traditional definition of a press release: a method of getting news in front of professional reporters and bloggers. It wasn’t designed or apparently intended for the consumer, who couldn’t care less about “pre-approved quotes” or “boilerplate statements” (But then again, so couldn’t most reporters).
When it comes to the news release, here’s what I think: get rid of the marketing speak and buzzwords, link to relevant blogs, video, and/or audio, make sure it’s optimized for search engines. That’s 25 percent of it.
75 percent of it is this: tell a good story that consumers, reporters and bloggers alike will all find interesting and valuable. And if you can’t make it interesting, question why you’re doing a release in the first place.
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