Elements of Internet Marketing: The importance of the press release

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ON EXAMINER

DISCLAIMER: Every once in awhile, we cover “Elements of Internet Marketing” and why they are important for everyone to be aware or reminded of. Some of these topics are not new, but they are very important to consumers and service providers to repeatedly encounter and understand. Today’s “Element” is related to the topic of “Press Releases”. Enjoy!

We all want to get our message out to the masses. We all want to scream it from the rooftops and keep the “telephone” effect going. But, what will really help our brand to succeed in today’s Global marketplace? How will we encourage rapid spread of our message to Corporate Partners, Investors, Brand Enthusiasts and the media?

Traditional approaches have always encouraged businesses to release press sheets to the media in the form of a Press Release. This has always been highly effective, because Media Partners are always looking for “the latest” in news on select topics to report to their audiences. The less searching that they have to do to find out everything that they need to know about your brand’s latest news, the more likely they are to even learn of its existence.

As populations increase and more businesses are founded through these populations, more brands are seeking attention from media outlets. This is leading to the influx of flooded e-mail submissions and mailroom ambushes of press opportunities, all the while being ignored due to lack of feasibility amongst available resources. Writers simply find their own stories, either by means of networking or through Online distribution sites.

Modern technologies have led to new venues of spreading your message to the masses. Yes, the continued networking on social platforms, such as Linkedin and Facebook (and especially with those in the press), comes in handy. But, so much information is being submitted amongst “friends” and “connections” per minute, that it is easy to simply fall through the cracks. Additionally, those Brand Enthusiasts are already aware and interested in your brand’s latest releases, but what about those new potential consumers that aren’t even aware of your brand’s imprint within your industry. How do we reach them?

This is where we discuss the importance of the Press Release, as we know it today. Press Releases can appear to us in a tangible form, but they are now more common to be found via digital formatting around the net. Some brands simply include Press Releases within their own blogs, Press Rooms (which are very important to have) on company websites, or in E-mail Correspondences with previous contacts. This is fine. But again, where is the outreach to new potential consumers?

Today, not only is the release of press more common within a digital platform, but the receiving end is also done this way. As mentioned, writers are finding themselves heading to distribution sites around the net to seek a variety of unique press opportunities from brands and organizations around the World. They can simply search a topic and find an intriguing amount of results based on entered criteria. Due to multiple submissions, it won’t seem as though a specific brand has a monopoly on the writer’s news stories due to “contact only” submissions from those already in their Rolodex.

Press Releases, and especially Social Media Releases, are key elements in Advanced Internet Marketing tactics. They are one of the fundamental stages in Brand Awareness on the web. They include information about our brand, news about the brand, and links (backlinks) to our brand’s presence around the net. They are organic in nature, so they tend to optimize all links attached based on keywords found within the content of our release. With Social Media Releases (SMR), we are able to include videos and pictures that better depict the information that we are distributing.

Some news sites, like Google News, AOL News or Yahoo News, tend to demonstrate loyalty by solely using specific distribution networks to create press stories. Some newswires, another name given to distribution sites, generate submissions through paid subscriptions by brands, which are also accepted by the third-party news outlet. Each channel uses their own set practices based on established readers of the site. The key to distribution “switch offs” are by creating easy-to-use content that makes the process easier for wires to continually flow.

Stories that are most shared, backlinked to and from, or that are most accessed will more than likely be picked up by news sources immediately, due to obvious interest in your brand’s story. Using distribution networks with Social Sharing enabled will allow your release to be shared around the net, hike your optimization in search engines, and show a count of shared interest and/or “likes” surrounding your story.

While this may help, it certainly will not hurt your brand. What will hurt your brand is “spamming” too many distribution channels with the same exact version of the press release.

You will find, search engines generally do not like “duplicate” materials. Therefore, they are less likely to rank duplicate sources unless they are attached to highly ranked web channels. This is another story for another day, but what matters at the moment is choosing the right distribution channel wisely. Duplicate releases are fine, but this must take place only through channels that hold a high reputation on the web. Some sites, however, will reject duplicate material in order to keep their prestigious reputation in place.

Lower ranking sites usually do not mind duplicate stories, and it would be wise to have separate stories to share at these channels. As a matter of fact, if immediate awareness is all that you seek, go ahead and place your release within these sites. It is not promised that your release will ever be seen here, however. By doing this, it is also not promised that search engines will ever recognize it as a valuable piece of search history, because it is a duplicate. By having a separate release and engaging in this method, it is a gamble — but it can be highly effective on the contrary.

In releasing your story to the media, make sure you do not forget to backlink to it. Backlinks will find ranking through crawling of already established and ranked sites. Do not forget to submit your release to search engines. There are hundreds of search engines with active searches in place on a daily basis. Keep in mind, there are more search engines than just Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Keep in mind that YouTube is considered one of our most used and influential search engines, as reported by recent web studies. That being said, do not forget to include video with your Social Media Release. It may be wise to create a video with your latest story intact, even if not release an SMR.

News sources may include your video within their own version of your story for release. There are many people that get their news through video depictions, as opposed to actually reading the story surrounding it in text.

Through video, you have the opportunity to tell the whole story in your own way and be promised that the story not be misconstrued and misrepresentative of important facts that you want portrayed. Video counts will also dictate interest in your story through video views. Take advantage of this! It shows that people actually seek information that you are giving.

Press releases aren’t just the point of contact for our brand to media outlets. They are a highly effective tool for Brand Awareness, Back-linking and Consumption. They are an effective way of telling our story in our own words. They are a means of updating audiences of our brand’s track record, documenting our story and keeping positive energies flowing through our brand’s veins.

Continuous press excites our audiences and keeps them interested in our brand’s progress, even feeling a part of our brand’s success. How are you using press to your advantage in staying ahead of the competition? If you are not, maybe it is time to start.