Here’s an excerpt from an article about the study on Journalistics:

The survey also found that 69 percent of respondents go to company websites to assist in their reporting, while 66 percent use blogs, 51 percent use Wikipedia (wow), 48 percent go to online videos (double wow), and 47 percent use Twitter and other microblogging services (would have guessed higher on this one).

A big part of this shift has to revolve around journalists having less help to do their jobs, while being required to produce more content across various formats in near real-time. Journalists have no choice but to use these tools to find sources fast – and in some instances – crowdsource suggestions, tips and interviews.

This is just confirmation that companies need to think of the big picture when formulating their web marketing strategy.  Of course, we should take the stories directly to the reporters by using media relations tactics.  However, reporters come up with stories on their own, and we need to be where they’re looking.  That means, among other things, being on Twitter and having good visibility in relevant Wikipedia articles.  One thing left out of the study (as far as I know) was how often reporters simply search on Google for sources.  I’d be willing to bet the percentage is quite high … so high in fact that SEO should be an extremely high priority for businesses.

Here’s a link to more on the study, from Journalistics.

Listen to the episode by heading over to the Startup BizCast blog, subscribing via iTunes, or by downloading the mp3 file directly. You can also click the button in the sidebar of this blog that says “listen now” to launch a podcast player.

So, what are the tips? Here’s a preview:

1. Prepare in advance
2. Don’t use jargon
3. Be aware of time
4. Speak in the right direction
5. Bring a prop
6. You’re always being interviewed
7. Wear dark colors
8. Don’t leave until you’re excused
9. Record and review later
10. SMILE!

Give it a listen for more details, and feel free to leave feedback via the Startup BizCast blog or, even better, by calling the Startup BizCast voicemail hotline at (206) 984-0860.

From today’s news release:

“As the explosive growth of video sharing sites demonstrates, organizations of all sizes are using video content as a way to tell their story,” said Bill Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer of Vocus, Inc. “Feature Video allows PRWeb customers to embed videos directly in their news release, providing a true multimedia experience for their news and increasing the video’s visibility on the web.”

The Internet continues to change the way companies promote themselves (or how their PR firm does it for them). This is an obvious statement, I know, but it really is amazing how things have changed in such a short amount of time. It wasn’t that long ago that faxing was the primary delivery system for news releases.

The day started with a luncheon where I was seated (I think intentionally) next to Karine Joly. Karine is a very interesting French Canadian woman who manages a blog about higher education and launched her own social networking site for college educators. We spent quite a while talking about my PR/SEO PR business, podcast production service, and Startup BizCast. We also discussed how she ended up in the US writing about US educational institutions.

After we’d eaten, we were treated to a presentation by Dan Heath, author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.” Karine was armed with her laptop and a video camera, and I didn’t take any notes at all. So, as you may guess, she’s able to blog a bit more coherently on what was said. I’ll send you over to her blog for more, in her post titled VCCS Conference: How to make your marketing messages and ad campaigns stick.

My speaking opportunity was in a breakout session called “Pitching Stories that Stick”. It was designed for the PR and public information officers in the group. I was part of a roundtable Q&A that included Andrea Burney from Danville Community College, Jennifer Wishon from the Richmond bureau of Roanoke, VA television station WDBJ, and Laura Bland, the online content coordinator for the Charlottesville Daily Progress newspaper.

Our discussion was supposed to cover how to pitch stories to the media, but while it covered that fairly well, we also wandered slightly off of the reservation (sort of my fault, but mostly directed by our moderator) to talk about how social media like blogging, podcasts, and vidcasts can be used to promote your institution.

The most interesting comment of the roundtable session was from Ms. Bland, who disagreed with my statement that one strategy for getting news coverage is to build personal relationships by meeting with reporters in your area. Ms. Bland said that at newspapers, since the beat system is dead/dying and reporters are so busy covering so many different stories, it’s pointless to ask for those kinds of meetings. She suggested instead talking to the managing editors. I didn’t argue with her during the session but I stand by my initial statement. In my experience, calling the managing editor of a larger newspaper isn’t going to get you very far. If you get a response at all, you’ll likely be directed to a section editor. Additionally, while dealing with editors can be useful, there’s nothing like having a reporter fighting to get some print for your story. It is more difficult to build relationships with the climate in newspaper newsrooms, but it’s still worthwhile. There is one case where I would call a managing editor — when you’re talking about a small community newspaper. At those publications, the managing editor is also a primary reporter.

To wrap up this long post, I want to thank VCCS for inviting me. I even enjoyed the two hour drive from Richmond to Staunton. I don’t get to see the Blue Ridge Mountains much anymore and, since I grew up looking at them from my front yard, I do miss them sometimes.

1. Choose and use your keywords. Think like your reader: What words are most likely to be searched for by people looking for what you want them to find in your release? Choose/use those words multiple times.

2. Use bold, italics, headlines and subheads to make key phrases and keywords more visible. Emphasized text may help your release stand out and can positively impact search engine results.

But don’t overdo it. It becomes annoying and hard to read.

3. Keep it readable. While your goal is to appear high in search engine results, don’t miss the mark by writing copy that’s overly repetitive, spammy or unreadable. You want search engines to find you and for readers to click through to your text. Strike a balance.

It’s an extremely difficult balance. Strive for it. If you have to err, err on the side of readability. It does you little good to have a highly-ranked release that no one wants to read.

4. Be careful with puns, innuendo and double meanings. Search engines, spiders and robots have no sense of humor. Keep this in mind when trying to attract their attention.

In other words … don’t get too cute.

5. Write timely content that provides useful information to readers. Provide tips, advice, or analysis in your press release that is relevant to your industry or your customers’ interests. Search engines are more likely to include releases that are honestly useful in their results.

I haven’t found that the search engines know what’s useful and what’s not. This is excellent advice for getting people to read your releases, though, and also is good advice for blog writing.

6. Utilize hyperlinks and anchortext, but don’t overdo it. Too many links can flag your release as spam and get you kicked out. One link max per 100 words is recommended. Choose relevant links that direct traffic to the specific pages you are promoting rather than generic company links.

7. Be consistent. Some words have multiple spellings — such as t-shirt and tee-shirt, or email and e-mail. Stick with one spelling to avoid appearing illiterate, preferably choosing the more frequently searched spelling.

8. Keep it fresh. As releases age, they tend to drift lower in the search engine results pages. A campaign of several releases is more likely to drive results than a single press release.

Excellent advice that I frequently give my clients. I recommend at least one release per month.

9. Publish on your own website. Be sure to publish releases sent on the wire or EON to your own website also. Since links are like votes, link to them. And work with your web team to make sure your site is optimized.

This is one a lot of people don’t understand. “Why should I link to my release?” This is why. It makes your release rank higher, and thus the links you get back if it’s posted someplace else more valuable.

10. Use Business Wire for the Big Bang; EON for the Long Tail. We’ve witnessed the best outcomes when press releases are sent on Business Wire and EON. Business Wire provides the big burst of attention; EON gives it the Long Tail and allows it to live forever online.

I could do without the commercial, but I included it because they did the work for me on this blog post :)

News Release Distribution Review 2010

I read recently that the online news release distribution business is booming, and that certainly explains the explosion in the number of companies jumping into the fray. Generally speaking, online release distribution services take your release, post it on their site, and then distribute it via RSS feed to other sites that use the releases for content. Other services also distribute your release directly to reporters via different means. Communications professionals use online news distribution for many different reasons, but they generally fall into two categories…

1) Media relations professionals want to put the release in front of reporters, via distribution service reporter feeds.
2) SEO PR professionals want to put the release in front of consumers and build backlinks, via distribution service news RSS feeds

So, which is the best place to distribute your news releases to reach the above goals? Below is a review of what I consider the best of the best, both free and paid. Feed free to add your own via comments!

PR Newswire
News feed distribution: $180 and up
Free option: None
PR Newswire is the granddad of the group, starting out more or less as a way to distribute your release directly to reporters via old fashioned newswires. They’re still the best at getting your releases in front of mass numbers of journalists. Releases placed on PRN not only appear online, but also are distributed via a portion of the Associated Press Newswire. PRN also has lists of reporters who receive news on selected industries via email.

Where PR Newswire falls short is search engine optimization. They just don’t seem to understand optimizing online news releases. They will still get you a number of links due to being an industry giant, however, they could be better. An option is available to have PRN optimize your release, but I wouldn’t recommend it. To take advantage you must first purchase their top distribution, which costs a minimum of $680.

PRWeb
News feed distribution: $80 and up
Free option: None
PRWeb was the first release distribution service to fully embrace news release optimization, or at the very least they were the one who promoted it best. Until last fall they had a free option that was outstanding, but it was eliminated shortly after they were purchased by Vocus. These days they have essentially three pricing levels – $80, $120, and $200. Different services are available at the different levels, but all three include some type of news feed distribution. A new product was announced last month that offers distribution via the same Associated Press wire that PR Newswire uses. This “Media Visibility” package includes online distribution as well as the media distribution, and costs $360.

Releases on PRWeb are more fully optimized for search engines and social media than any I’ve found. They include features such as links to social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati, category listings, and a proprietary trackback system. If approved, your release appears on PRWeb’s sister site, eMediawire, which automatically gives you a second backlink. Their stats at the $120 and $200 level are impressive as well. One irritation I do have with them is that at the $80 and $120 pricing levels there is a two day delay before your release is distributed.

PRLeap
News feed distribution: $50 and up
Free option: Available DISCONTINUED
PRLeap essentially wants to be PRWeb. It’s not a bad thing to desire, as PRWeb has been very successful. However, they just don’t seem to get there. Their pricing is good, but my experience is that link building via PRLeap isn’t as affective as PRWeb. One huge advantage they do have is that they have a free option. I do recommend taking advantage of that, as posting is quick and easy. Free releases have reasonably unobtrusive ads placed on them. Anchor text links are available starting at $20, however at that level the release is placed on the PRLeap site, but not distributed via news feeds.

[Edited September 2, 2008: PRLeap discontinued their free option effective the first of this year.  Their paid options are $49, $99, and $149 ... with different options available for each.  I can't believe I missed the elimination of their free option, but it's probably because I haven't used PRLeap for quite a while.  I was actually planning to try it out tomorrow, given my distaste with the changes at PRLog, but if I'm going to pay for a release I'm going to pay for PRWeb.  At this moment, I'm considering a switch over to using 24-7 Press Release (see below) when I'm only planning to post in one place.]

PRLog
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
A new entrant into the field, PRLog is quickly making a reputation for a free way to create a quality backlink. My experience with the service is that releases posted on their site are always indexed very high by Google. Recently I had a free PRLog release actually rank above a paid PRLeap release on Google News! My theory on this is that it’s because PRLog has a .org URL instead of the .com you would expect. As you may know, .org addresses are automatically given special consideration by the search engines. Regardless, the site provides outstanding performance for a free service. I haven’t noticed a large number of additional backlinks created by using PRLog, but a top ranking on Google News will do that for itself for many searches.

With every release, PRLog includes links to bookmark on social media sites like Digg and Technorati. They also give you the option of linking to long URLs that include your release title, or non-optimized URLS that are slightly easier to remember. PRLog also allows you to upload a logo or image for your release.

[Updated August 13, 2008: I've posted a couple of releases on PRLog lately, and frankly I'm not liking the direction this service is going.  The site is looking rather "spammy" these days, and they're now accepting job listings in addition to news releases.  Not good.  I'm still thinking about it, but it looks as though PRLog may be losing grip on its "favorite" status.]

Express Press Release Distribution
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available
Express Press Release offers free release distribution with no frills and no links included.  They also have $29 distribution that includes link activation and improved placement on the site. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never used the pay service. However, despite the lack of links I’ve actually found good search results for their free service. Two releases I placed their for my PR firm have popped up for my primary search target for months.

24-7 Press Release
News feed distribution: $45 and up
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
Like Express Press Release, I have only used the free option on 24-7 Press Release. However, the results have been good. Generally my releases have been indexed on Google News, and some have ended up on the news site Topix. 24-7 is trying to nudge into the PR Newswire world by offering what they call “Mass Media Distribution” for $299 (releases with more than 375 words cost more). This service claims direct distribution to trade publications, as well as 80,000 individual journalists. If anyone has tried this out, let me know how it worked for you!

PR News Now
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
I hesitated to include this one because it has the appearance of a spam site, to be honest. However, I’ve used the site and found that my releases there do rank for target searches. Releases posted on their site are littered with ads, and they don’t look terribly professional. But, for SEO purposes, they’re beneficial.

[Update from 2/14/08: I've been meaning to post for a while that you may actually find your PRWeb releases popping up on PR News Now, much to the chagrin of the PRWeb folks.  PR News Now is apparently taking PRWeb feeds and reposting them without attribution and sometimes without even including the links.  I've decided I'm staying away from this service.]

Others:
Wikio: A site built specifically for people to post articles and releases. It’s painfully easy to use.
SearchWarp: More for articles than news releases but, at least with the way I write, it’s not tough to turn a release into something that looks like an article.
I-Newswire: Another site much like PRLog, 24-7 Press Release, and PRLeap. I’ve had fairly good results posting free releases here.

There are many, many, many others. But, which are the best? Here are the Media Relations & SEO PR Blog Best Bets:

For reporter distribution: PR Newswire
Despite being chocked full of news releases, PR Newswire actually has a reputation among journalists as being a good place to find story leads.

For link building: PRWeb
No one beats PRWeb for the number of links generated from one release. Period.

For free release distribution: PRLog
I’ve been extremely impressed with the tools offered by PRLog, and the results I’ve gained by using them. I have a sneaking suspicion they’re going to launch a paid service soon, and I’ll be trying it out.

As I said earlier, I’d love to hear about your success stories using services I didn’t mention. Lay them on me in comments!