“Digital influence has arrived.”
Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com
With the advent of Social Media, Web 2.0, the Blogosphere and Online Communities, the World Wide Web has become wider and far more interwoven, but most importantly, it’s become more about the world.
Now labeled Web 1.0, the former internet, the one that collapsed around the turn of the century (sounds so long ago) was funded and focused by businesses trying to figure out how to peddle their wares to their giant, worldwide audience. Web 2.0 is the term given to its successor, the surviving and thriving internet that seems to be more focused on serving the needs of its users. What a concept!
There wasn’t really a conscious meeting of minds that said, “How about if we try adding better content and more free services?” But the websites that did these things grew in popularity and use, sometimes with staggering speed. New internet giants sprung up in unlikely places with names like eBay, Amazon and Google. They had free features, easy browsability and a certain usefulness. As they grew, others paid attention to what worked and made copies and improvements. The reader reviews on Amazon were a model for other online communities reviewing their common interests. ‘Google’ entered the mainstream vocabulary, understood now even by people who don’t use the internet.
So what? What does this have to do with Public Relations?
In the last year or two, as the blogosphere and social websites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook (I could go on and on) have grown exponentially, so has their influence. It used to be that you had two choices to bring attention to your news or new product: purchase advertising or garner some media attention. PR agencies sold their ability to get media coverage with their connections, excuse me, relationships with media types and their extensive lists of ‘inside’ contacts. And it worked. I know because I worked in the industry and spent a good deal of time developing those relationships. I fall in the demographic that most resists the rewired world of PR – those who worked in the old world for two decades or more.
But I’ve seen the clear blue light. I pay attention to the viral YouTube video that goes around the world in a day. I tune in to the news aggregators that tell me what stories everyone has voted most important today, even if I disagree. I know what other people think is hot.
And what does this have to do with filmmaking? With screenwriting? What does this have to do with marketing? Because of this phenomenon (and I guarantee this falls in the category of phenomenon) there are new and powerful ways to get your news and ideas out into the world. And you don’t have to hire an expensive agency to do it.
I also discovered that perusing a few creative websites is a sure way to fire up my creativity when I’m brainstorming new concepts. Deals are happening every day because of connections on social websites. More on that later.
The New Rules of News Releases
Check out Hal and Cheryl Croasmun’s website: Class 3 Entertainment and read the news release on the press page for “Father and Son Fugitives…” With this little release, much was learned! This is an interesting and true story (a future post here will be "The True Story Rules") that was twenty years in the making, involved murder and intrigue, but was not yet sold to a production company for development. To spur the interest and get more ‘eyeballs’ on the story (SURVEY: do you find this Web 2.0 term offensive ?) a news release was prepared. NOTE: See "About Sheila."
PR professionals will tell you that it's best to go through an agency that has developed ‘relationships’ and who will custom deliver your news item to the ‘right’ people. That will cost you upwards of $1000, sometimes well upwards, depending on what you need. And there’s still no guarantee of results. There are options now, so with the Class 3 release, some were tried. A typical news release runs around 500 words, give or take 200. Some of the wire services will charge you extra depending on length, so make sure you check their word limitations first. I’ve used eReleases.com in the past, but they are retooling for the social media and will be more ready for the modern world by early fall of '08. PRWeb was less expensive so we gave them a try. In our first editorial review, they made us remove every reference to Oprah, even though it was worded appropriately and was, we thought, a harmless and true reference to The Oprah Show. PRWeb editors threw a block and to get past them, all references to Oprah were removed. For the really juicy story, go to the Class 3 news release and click the bottom link for more information: the 3-page pdf document with more details.
So all the wire news release services have editorial guidelines and tips for using the service on their website. I’m including a pdf document I made (scroll to the bottom of post) to compare three of the most popular services, based on a question I asked on LinkedIn. eReleases will be better soon. PRNewswire is a membership service @$200 a year, which is very worth it if you have enough volume or you want to maintain one of their online media rooms on your website. I highly recommend them. They’ve been around for 50 years with outlets in all major cities. But we were shopping for an economy ride so I stayed away from the luxury sedan. If there’s interest in researching the benefits of PRNewswire or eReleases, let me know and I’ll do it.
Here are some things to remember.
1. Just like when pitching a high concept, work hard on your headline. That’s the first thing, maybe the only thing, someone will see.
2. Think about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if you want to reach more people or drive more visits to your webpage. There are sites (these three have them) where you can research keywords (the most popular words or phrases searched on browsers) and make sure you use your keywords in the title or first several sentences.
3. Use quotes, even if it’s your own news and you have to quote yourself. I think the electronic editors red flag a release that doesn’t have quotation marks.
4. Include all the timely and newsworthy facts and your contact information. Be aware that calls can come at any time so plan accordingly. Include your website.
5. If you have a website, you should be putting out releases occasionally, especially with trackbacks to your site so that search engines see activity and move your site up in the rankings.
6. Don’t wait until you have super-big news to try this out. Spend $80 on the smallest service and just put out some interesting news to test it out. That way, when you have really big news, you’ve got the system figured out. Big news can make you so busy, you put off doing it even though you know it will help your career in the long run!
Online Communities: Making Them Work for Us
The number one rule of the new social web is Participate! Start with baby steps: Go to a blog (this one?) and post a comment. It’s easy. Link with some ‘friends’ on LinkedIn or elsewhere and build relationships. Take a tour of ecademy or Facebook and start checking out the features.
Hal Croasmun's ScriptForSale.com has a thriving online community with separate features for the ProSeries Alumni. The more you use the available class structures, the more beneficial features are available. We’ve been doing some experiments with “Digg” and “Yahoo News” to buzz stories up in the rankings. When the stories go higher in the rankings, they’re more likely to get mainstream media attention. Let your 'friends' and community know when you have something we should 'Digg.'
I think there will be more comments and posts along these lines, so I’ll add more later. For now, I close with some quotes from LinkedIn professionals who answered my question about wire services (with their permission, I used full names):
Antonella Montagna is a Marketing and financial communications specialist at Hawk Associates.
“I prefer BusinessWire over PR Newswire or Marketwire. The top reason for this is that BusinessWire has on average more editing bureaus throughout the U.S. and the customer service is better than PR Newswire or Marketwire (although Marketwire is indeed the least expensive of the three).
Make sure that your distribution list is comprehensive but on target- don't be "seduced" by the free options. The PRNewswire website receives more hits than either BusinessWire or MarketWire. If cost is your primary concern, use MarketWire.”
She added later: “I don't think you need a PR firm for every release- you can write a PR fairly easily after you've done a couple of them, and distribute them as well. A wire service will only go so far as to correct blatant errors, but they will not suggest different wording or amendments to your text that might make it better received by the media. What I suggest you can do is hire a part time journalist or editor for release writing.”
Sharon Kraun is a Public Relations and Marketing Consultant from Atlanta GA.
“I have used PRWeb, Marketwire, BusinessWire and PRNewswire for various clients over the years. I use the wire for clients who need that national distribution.
“As to which news service I prefer: MarketWire was difficult to monitor in terms of results. BusinessWire does the best job at providing the online pickup reports. For clients with business oriented releases, I tend towards BusinessWire. PR Newswire I favor when my stories bend towards features. Both organizations are easy to work with and have reporting mechanisms to show results. PR Web I didn't find a solid return for my investment.
Linda A. is a professional writer and founder of a business.
“We use PRWeb and have been happy with the results. We haven't used the editing feature, but they send editing suggestions. So we revise based on what they suggest. We haven't found it necessary to spend more than $80 to get results. One time, a booker for The Today Show contacted us about the press release for one of our books. So it does get out there.”
Mike is a PR and social media consultant.
“I prefer Marketwire. It's the least expensive of the major newswires, which I consider to include PR Newswire, BusinessWire and Marketwire. (Some people include PRWeb in that list, which is actually a little cheaper than MW.) Also, MW has a good bit of services geared toward Web distribution and publishing (most notably search engine optimization), which is quite important for me in most cases.
“Marketwire catches -- or at least checks with me about -- errors, typos, inconsistencies, etc. PR Newswire never did that, at least not as well, in my experience.”
Kim is a Public Relations, Marketing & Communications Consultant.
“I've had fantastic results with a company called PR Web (www.PRweb.com). Their prices are cheaper and they have top notch features like the ability to Search Engine Optimize your release with key search terms, plus the ability to embed links and images into your release. The tracking function provided by PR Web is outstanding as well and is easily downloadable for incorporating into status reports for your clients.”
“You cannot beat the web/blog visibility you get when sending a release out via PR Web - it would take a team of people weeks to get the blog postings you can receive from one PR Web blast. So that, in itself, makes it worth the approximately $350 fee.”
Peter is a Public Affairs Specialist
“For a wire service, we have used PR Web a couple times on major news releases and have received good coverage. It was nice to be able to go in and see how many times it was viewed.”
Download compare_wire_services.pdf
