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	<title>EndGame Public Relations, LLC &#187; Social Media Tactics</title>
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		<title>The Power of StumbleUpon</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/10/the-power-of-stumbleupon/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/10/the-power-of-stumbleupon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social bookmarking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stumbleupon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=1405</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[NOTE: I&#8217;m leaving this post intact, but be sure to read the follow-up about how I&#8217;ve been shut out by StumbleUpon. To some these days, social bookmarking sites are almost a little quaint.  Facebook and Twitter are the kings of social media content, and bookmarking sites seem so &#8230; five years ago.  I&#8217;m here to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>NOTE: I&#8217;m leaving this post intact, but be sure to read the follow-up about how I&#8217;ve been <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/19/shut-out-by-stumbleupon/">shut out by StumbleUpon</a>.</em></p>
<hr /><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/stumbleupon.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1406" style="border: 0pt none; margin-right: 4px;" title="stumbleupon" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/stumbleupon.jpg" alt="" width="107" height="109" /></a>To some these days, social bookmarking sites are almost a little quaint.  Facebook and Twitter are the kings of social media content, and bookmarking sites seem so &#8230; five years ago.  I&#8217;m here to tell you, however, that social bookmarking is alive and well as a traffic generator.  Recently, for client <a href="http://SleepBetter.org">SleepBetter.org</a>, I was researching which tactics we weren&#8217;t using to help people find the sleep tips and advice provided by the site.  Of course, we&#8217;re on <a href="http://twitter.com/sleep_better">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/sleepbetter">Facebook</a>, and we&#8217;re also utilizing <a href="http://google.com/buzz">Google Buzz</a>.  We tried <a href="http://digg.com/">Digg</a>, <a href="http://delicious.com/">Delicious</a>, and <a href="http://reddit.com/">Reddit</a> with little success.  Then, we started submitting links to <a href="http://stumbleupon.com/">Stumbleupon</a>.  The results were immediate and dramatic.  In fact, in the month of February, Stumbleupon was our second largest referrer, after Google.
<p />
<p>Unlike other social bookmarking sites, such as the aforementioned Digg, Delicious, and Reddit, users of StumbleUpon don&#8217;t have to be looking for your content to find it.  I&#8217;ve often thought this was the downfall of trying to use Digg to help visitors find you.  Unless your content is tech-related or involves someone falling off of a donkey and hurting a sensitive part of the body, posting to Digg is often like whistling into the wind.  StumbleUpon is different.  In fact, the whole point of the site is finding random content that you didn&#8217;t know you were looking for. You click a button and &#8220;stumble upon&#8221; a site.  It&#8217;s much like channel surfing.  StumbleUponn can help you find random content that&#8217;s been submitted, or you can have it help you find random content within a category. Obviously, it&#8217;s an outstanding time waster.</p>
<p><span id="more-1405"></span>StumbleUpon&#8217;s strength is it&#8217;s lack of the cliques found on Digg and other sites.  On other sites, it can be hard to generate interest unless you&#8217;re already well known.  In other words, if you&#8217;re well known already, you&#8217;ll get plenty of &#8220;Diggs&#8221;. Thing is, if you&#8217;re well known already, you don&#8217;t NEED Diggs to help people find your content.</p>
<p>So, what&#8217;s the strategy for using StumbleUpon if you&#8217;re hoping to generate interest in your site or your other content?  It&#8217;s pretty simple.  First of all, submit your content to StumbleUpon.  You can go directly to stumbleupon.com to do it, or you can download a toolbar for your browser that will help you.  Then, review others content.  Don&#8217;t give random reviews that are not well thought out.  Find good content relevant to your own, and write good reviews.  After doing a couple of reviews per day, if your content is good you&#8217;ll find that more people are reviewing and finding <em>your</em> content.</p>
<p>Pretty simple.</p>
<p>Happy stumbling!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-bookmarking/" title="social bookmarking" rel="tag">social bookmarking</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/stumbleupon/" title="stumbleupon" rel="tag">stumbleupon</a><br />
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/10/the-power-of-stumbleupon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>PR Learning to Bypass the Media Filter</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/29/pr-learning-to-bypass-the-media-filter/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/29/pr-learning-to-bypass-the-media-filter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:14:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[PR Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[newspapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=1022</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Public relations has always included business-to-consumer promotions in its arsenal of tools, but a large portion of the PR business has traditionally involved attempting to get stories placed in the media, in the hope that the consumer will then see those stories.  Even highly public promotional stunts were largely, in the end, designed to gain [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1023" style="margin-right: 5px;" title="newspaper-headstone" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/newspaper-headstone.jpg" alt="newspaper-headstone" width="219" height="158" />Public relations has always included business-to-consumer promotions in its arsenal of tools, but a large portion of the PR business has traditionally involved attempting to get stories placed in the media, in the hope that the consumer will then see those stories.  Even highly public promotional stunts were largely, in the end, designed to gain mass media coverage.</p>
<p>But, what happens when the media weakens, and there aren&#8217;t enough reporters to cover even the most fascinating stories?</p>
<p>I happened upon two different articles this week that say essentially what I&#8217;ve been saying for some time &#8212; the answer is to create your OWN media.  Blogging, podcasting, web videos, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/23/online-news-release-distribution-review-updated/"><strong>online news release distribution</strong></a>, Tweeting, and Facebooking all can take your message to your customers in an unfiltered way.<br />
<span id="more-1022"></span></p>
<p>From <a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=139864"><strong>Advertising Age</strong></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>As the body count of magazines and daily newspapers continues to rise and the once-robust news and feature holes of surviving publications shrink along with reporting staffs, some marketers have given up on the traditional path to media coverage: pitching journalists. According to the website Paper Cuts, which tracks layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers, nearly 30,000 reporters have left the industry since the beginning of 2008. So instead of pitching their stories to reporters, a growing number of marketers are directly engaging consumers through original content they and their agencies are creating.</p></blockquote>
<p>This bleak picture of the media industry is one that I see on a regular basis.  I still do quite a bit of traditional media pitching, in addition to the <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/social-media-pr/"><strong>social media PR</strong></a> tasks that I perform for clients.  While I still have success with my client media pitches, there simply aren&#8217;t the same number of opportunities for media placement as there were for <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/03/18/top-10-dead-or-dying-pr-tactics/"><strong>PR professionals ten years ago</strong></a>.  The answer is to add to the value of your announcement/story/new product/etc. by utilizing social media tools.</p>
<p>More on the topic comes from <a href="http://www.newsvetter.com/2009/10/23/the-dumbing-down-of-media/"><strong>Newsvetter</strong></a>, which says the death of the newspaper beat system is a huge opportunity for PR pros to become the experts that reporters so desperately need.  I&#8217;ve lived the issues that this article brings up as well.  At medium to large newspapers, there used to be one reporter in charge of health, another in charge of technology, and so on.  Now, one reporter might be in charge of health AND technology AND food AND any number of other things.  Even worse, reporters might be assigned to stories based completely on availability, not on knowledge of a topic.  One suggestion from Newsvetter to make yourself the expert that reporters can rely upon is to utilize corporate blogging:</p>
<blockquote><p>Minimize the use of the dreaded press release and focus instead on developing your own corporate news channel that distributes information via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, or some other platform that you control. This will get your information to both consumers and the media.</p></blockquote>
<p>Solid recommendation.</p>
<p>One thing to bear in mind in this new world of PR is that you can&#8217;t ignore the traditional media any more than you can ignore the new social media channels.  The old media is not dead, and I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;ll ever completely die.  I&#8217;m not ready to write their obituary and chisel their headstone, despite the attempt at an amusing picture at the top of this blog post.  The world is changing, however, and PR professionals who want to be successful need to change with it.</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/newspapers/" title="newspapers" rel="tag">newspapers</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/public-relations/" title="public relations" rel="tag">public relations</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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		<title>Facebook Groups Better for Businesses</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/22/facebook-groups-better-for-businesses/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/22/facebook-groups-better-for-businesses/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:01:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=990</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It went unnoticed for a lot of people because Facebook groups are not used as widely as they used to be, but Facebook earlier this week unveiled a redesign of those groups. The screen shot below is of the former Fight SMA Facebook Group, which I&#8217;ve been working for some time to transition to a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/endgamepr"><img class="alignleft" style="margin-right: 7px;" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/pages/find_us_on_facebook_badge.gif?2:81200" alt="" width="144" height="44" /></a>It went unnoticed for a lot of people because Facebook groups are not used as widely as they used to be, but Facebook earlier this week unveiled a redesign of those groups. The screen shot below is of the former Fight SMA Facebook Group, which I&#8217;ve been working for some time to transition to a <strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/fightsma">Fan Page</a></strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/fightsma-facebook-full.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-996" style="margin-left: 4px;" title="fightsma-facebook-thumb" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/fightsma-facebook-thumb-300x292.jpg" alt="fightsma-facebook-thumb" width="300" height="292" /></a>The first thing you&#8217;ll notice (click the image for a larger view) is that the look and layout are  now much more in line with Fan Pages and individual profiles.  One obvious unique addition is organization information in the left sidebar, above information about group members.</p>
<p>So, the first question I asked myself after hearing of this redesign is, &#8220;Are groups now better than Fan Pages for businesses?&#8221;  For the answer, lets look at the pros and cons of each&#8230;</p>
<p><span id="more-990"></span></p>
<p>Groups have always had one huge benefit over pages: You can send a message through Facebook to every member of the group at once.   You&#8217;ve never been able to do this with a Fan Page.  If you are using Facebook to promote  a business or other organization, it&#8217;s a great way to contact people and perhaps offer a coupon or other special benefit to members of your group.  It can help you create something along the lines of a &#8220;special customers&#8221; club.</p>
<p>The benefit that Fan Pages have had over groups is that when you post something on your Fan Page, it shows up in your fans&#8217; news feed.  This is great for promoting your company, as the posts show up in the feed alongside status updates, pictures, and videos posted by friends of your fans.  This obviously makes your news more likely to be seen.   The problem with groups has been the lack of this feature, which made your news invisible to anyone who didn&#8217;t actually visit the group page.  This has changed somewhat with the new group redesign, as Facebook has introduced a somewhat neutered version of this feature.  Facebook explained how it works <a href="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=156031977130"><strong>in their blog on Monday</strong></a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>To ensure that you get the most interesting and relevant content from groups you&#8217;ve joined, you only will see stories [in your news feed] when one of your friends posts within a group rather than when all members post. For example, you now will see a story when your friend uploads photos from a recent party at your high school alumni group or when one of your friends posts a message on the Wall of your pick-up soccer group saying that there is a special game this week.</p></blockquote>
<p>So what does this all mean?  If you already have a Fan Page or a group and have a decent number of fans or group members &#8230; keep the status quo.  I know from experience that it&#8217;s VERY hard to get people to move from a Fan Page to a group, or vice versa.  There&#8217;s no way to pick them up and move them all at once.  They have to do it themselves, and it&#8217;s like herding ferrets.  Until this redesign I would have recommended that any organization move  from a group to a Fan Page, but it&#8217;s no longer a clear cut decision.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t currently have a group or a Fan Page, or are thinking of making a change, you have a decision to make about how you plan to use Facebook.  If you&#8217;ll be primarily posting news about your company and perhaps having discussions with your customers, then a Fan Page is the way to go.  If you&#8217;re close with your customers (i.e. you&#8217;re Facebook friends with many of them) and need a way to message all of them at once (perhaps to send a coupon) then consider starting a group.</p>
<p>One more note: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/endgamepr"><strong>Become a &#8220;fan&#8221; of EndGame PR on Facebook</strong></a>!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/facebook/" title="facebook" rel="tag">facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-networking/" title="social networking" rel="tag">social networking</a><br />
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>5 Steps to Proper Setup &amp; Feeding of Twitter</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/14/five-steps-proper-setup-and-feeding-of-twitter/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/10/14/five-steps-proper-setup-and-feeding-of-twitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:41:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=945</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re a member of the Twitter Elite (Twelite? Tweelite?) or even a regular user of Twitter, you probably already know everything there is to know about setting up your Twitter account.  This post is for everyone else. I&#8217;m surprised at the number of people who have 1,000+ followers, but haven&#8217;t filled out the basic [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-947 alignleft" style="margin-right: 4px;" title="twitter_bird" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/twitter_bird-300x198.jpg" alt="twitter_bird" width="143" height="94" />If you&#8217;re a member of the Twitter Elite (Twelite? Tweelite?) or even a regular user of <a href="http://www.twitter.com"><strong>Twitter</strong></a>, you probably already know everything there is to know about setting up your Twitter account.  This post is for everyone else.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m surprised at the number of people who have 1,000+ followers, but haven&#8217;t filled out the basic information that Twitter allows.  In fact, when I see an account with a mess of followers but no details, I automatically assume they&#8217;re playing the <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/09/03/twitter-follow-you-back/"><strong>Twitter Numbers Game</strong></a>, and don&#8217;t follow the person.</p>
<p>Below are a list of five tasks that I feel are required for a successful Twitter account:</p>
<p><span id="more-945"></span></p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Upload a profile picture:</strong> If I see a brown square with two circles and a line, I know that&#8217;s not you and I wonder what you&#8217;re hiding.</li>
<li><strong>Fill out your bio: </strong>How am I going to learn about you if you don&#8217;t tell me?</li>
<li><strong>Provide a link: </strong>This is a chance to market your website.  Why pass that up?</li>
<li><strong>Start posting BEFORE you start following: </strong>When I get a follow notification, I actually check out the new follower&#8217;s profile.  This gets time consuming, but I feel like it&#8217;s good courtesy.  It also keeps me from following people wholesale, which leads to having to unfollow people later.  When I check out a profile and it only has a couple of posts (or worse, doesn&#8217;t have ANY posts), I don&#8217;t follow back.  I suspect a lot of people are like this.  Before you start following people, write at least 5-10 posts so people know that type of Tweeter you are.</li>
<li><strong>Get a custom twitter background: </strong>Anyone who has been on Twitter for a while can spot a generic Twitter background.  If you don&#8217;t have the graphic skills necessary to make one yourself, go to <a href="http://www.twitbacks.com"><strong>Twitbacks</strong></a> and get a free one.</li>
</ol>
<p>Happy Tweeting!</p>
<p>PS &#8211; Once you&#8217;ve completed these tasks, <a href="http://twitter.com/stevemullen"><strong>follow me</strong></a>!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/twitter/" title="twitter" rel="tag">twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/twitter-tips/" title="twitter tips" rel="tag">twitter tips</a><br />
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		<title>Surprise! Journalists use Social Media!</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/09/30/surprise-journalists-use-social-media/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/09/30/surprise-journalists-use-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:39:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media Relations Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=911</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It should come as no surprise, but it&#8217;s at least a confirmation of what I and others have been saying for a while.  A new study by Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) shows that 70% of reporters use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter when doing research for stories. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It should come as no surprise, but it&#8217;s at least a confirmation of what I and others have been saying for a while.  A new study by Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) shows that 70% of reporters use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter when doing research for stories.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s an excerpt from an article about the study on <a href="http://blog.journalistics.com"><strong>Journalistics</strong></a>:</p>
<p><span id="more-911"></span></p>
<blockquote><p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p></blockquote>
<p>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&#8217;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&#8217;d be willing to bet the percentage is quite high &#8230; so high in fact that SEO should be an extremely high priority for businesses.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.journalistics.com/2009/70-percent-of-journalists-use-social-networks-to-assist-in-reporting/"><strong>Here&#8217;s a link to more on the study, from Journalistics.</strong></a></p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/journalism/" title="journalism" rel="tag">journalism</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Optimizing Twitter for SEO</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/07/03/optimizing-twitter-for-seo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/07/03/optimizing-twitter-for-seo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:17:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SEO Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=667</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You had to know it was coming.  Twitter is taking over.  Now, we have to optimize it to make it happy! Just kidding, of course.  What I&#8217;m talking about is making sure your Twitter account is optimized for the search engines.  Yes, Virginia, Twitter is indexed by Google.  That means you want to make sure [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You had to know it was coming.  Twitter is taking over.  Now, we have to optimize it to make it happy!</p>
<p>Just kidding, of course.  What I&#8217;m talking about is making sure your Twitter account is optimized for the search engines.  Yes, Virginia, Twitter is indexed by Google.  That means you want to make sure you get the most bang for that opportunity.  I found a good article at <a href="http://www.mashable.com"><strong>Mashable</strong></a> recently that described the steps you should be taking, including picking the right Twitter name and taking advantage of the space for your bio.</p>
<p>Read more at <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/06/25/twitter-seo-tips/"><strong><em>The Top 10 Twitter SEO Tips</em></strong></a></p>
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		<title>Reviving the Traditional Press Release</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/05/19/reviving-the-traditional-press-release/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/05/19/reviving-the-traditional-press-release/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 19:01:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[PR Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Brian Solis, a Social Media PR practitioner in California, has written an extremely detailed look at the present and future of the news release.  It&#8217;s definitely worth carving some time out of your schedule to read it. From the PR 2.0 Blog: Reviving the Traditional Press Release No tags for this post.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Solis">Brian Solis</a></strong>, a Social Media PR practitioner in California, has written an extremely detailed look at the present and future of the news release.  It&#8217;s definitely worth carving some time out of your schedule to read it.</p>
<p>From the PR 2.0 Blog: <em><a href="http://www.briansolis.com/2009/05/reviving-traditional-press-release.html"><strong>Reviving the Traditional Press Release</strong></a></em></p>
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		<title>Richmond&#8217;s Social Media, In One Room</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/05/07/richmonds-social-media-in-one-room/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/05/07/richmonds-social-media-in-one-room/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2009 03:46:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[richmond]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=439</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Richmond, Virginia&#8217;s Social Media Club was born tonight &#8230; with a roar.  The roar wasn&#8217;t an exclamation of any sort, but rather the roar of a very large crowd gathering, networking, and Tweeting at Morton&#8217;s Steak House. The SMCRVA held its inaugural event earlier this evening.  The event sold out, to the tune of 130 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/image_045.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-440" style="margin-left: 4px;" title="Social Media Club, Richmond, VA" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/image_045-300x225.jpg" alt="Social Media Club, Richmond, VA" width="300" height="225" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46611095777"><strong>Richmond, Virginia&#8217;s Social Media Club</strong></a> was born tonight &#8230; with a roar.  The roar wasn&#8217;t an exclamation of any sort, but rather the roar of a very large crowd gathering, networking, and Tweeting at Morton&#8217;s Steak House.</p>
<p>The SMCRVA held its inaugural event earlier this evening.  The event sold out, to the tune of 130 or so people, as you can see from the (admittedly blurry) cell phone picture I took of the sea of humanity.  The room was absolutely buzzing.  Early indications are that this is going to be a successful and long-lasting group, and I thank the organizers for their hard work in piecing it together.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re interested in reading some of the fun and at times weird Tweets that came out of Morton&#8217;s tonight, search #SMCRVA on Twitter.  It&#8217;s worth it &#8230; I promise you!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/richmond/" title="richmond" rel="tag">richmond</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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		<title>Facebook Bad for Your Health?</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/02/19/facebook-bad-for-your-health/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/02/19/facebook-bad-for-your-health/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:59:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=257</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A psychologist in the U.K. says Facebook and other social networking sites are bad for your health: Dr Aric Sigman says the amount of time we spend with each other has slumped dramatically and in turn is damaging our health. He says our devotion to such sites could alter the way genes work, upset immune [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A psychologist in the U.K. says Facebook and other social networking sites are <strong><a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/get+off+facebook+and+get+a+life/2965262">bad for your health</a></strong>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Dr Aric Sigman says the amount of time we spend with each other has slumped dramatically and in turn is damaging our health.</p>
<p>He says our devotion to such sites could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, and the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.</p>
<p>Levels of hormones such as the &#8220;cuddle chemical&#8221; oxytocin, which promotes bonding, altered according to whether people were in close contact or not.</p>
<p>This could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia.</p>
<p>Dr Sigman spells out his warning in the latest issue of Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology, and maintains that social networking sites have played a significant role in people becoming more isolated.</p></blockquote>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span id="more-257"></span></span></p>
<p>Sounds a little crazy, I think &#8230; but he&#8217;s a doctor and I&#8217;m not, so I won&#8217;t argue with him too much.  It just reminds me of the doctors 10 years ago who cried that the Interwebs would lead to isolation.  Instead, because of social media and social networking sites and the &#8220;meet ups&#8221; that grow out of them, I&#8217;ve met (virtually or in person) more people than I possibly could have otherwise.</p>
<p>Too much of anything is probably bad for you, which is I guess what Dr. Sigman was trying to say.  It&#8217;s something that needs to be watched particularly closely with kids, and responsible parents do that.  That&#8217;s common sense.  I just hope no one overreacts to this report.</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/facebook/" title="facebook" rel="tag">facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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		<title>Poll: Next Prez Should Use Social Media</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/01/05/poll-next-prez-should-use-social-media/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/01/05/poll-next-prez-should-use-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:09:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=235</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During his campaign for U.S. president, Barack Obama made more and better use of social media and phone texting technology than any previous candidate, and according to a new poll released by Pew Internet, many voters want that trend to continue when he takes office. Some highlights from the survey: Among Obama voters who were [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright" style="float: right; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/graphics/barakprez.jpg" alt="" width="142" height="213" />During his campaign for U.S. president, Barack Obama made more and better use of social media and phone texting technology than any previous candidate, and according to a new poll released by <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/271/source/rss/report_display.asp"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pew Internet</span></a>, many voters want that trend to continue when he takes office.</p>
<p>Some highlights from the survey:</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span id="more-235"></span></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Among Obama voters who were engaged online during the campaign, 25% expect to support the administration’s agenda by reaching out to others online</li>
<li>Fully 51% of online Obama supporters expect some kind of ongoing communication from the new administration</li>
<li>34% of Obama-supporting email users expect email communication</li>
<li>37% of social network site users expect SNS updates</li>
<li>11% of phone texters expect to receive text messages from the new administration.</li>
</ul>
<p>It only makes sense for the next administration to take full advantage of not only the texting technologies available and referenced heavily in the survey, but also social media such as Facebook and Twitter.  Presidents throughout history have tried to get their message to mass numbers without having to put it through the filter of the media, and now that wish is being made possible.</p>
<p><em>A hat tip to <a href="http://www.podcastingnews.com/2009/01/01/voters-expect-obama-government-to-use-new-media/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Podcasting News</span></a> for its report on this survey.</em></p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/obama-administration/" title="obama administration" rel="tag">obama administration</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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		<title>Facebook Growing Exponentially</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/12/19/facebook-growing-exponentially/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/12/19/facebook-growing-exponentially/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:35:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[EndGame PR Site News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO PR News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This news is a few days old, but I&#8217;m just now getting around to blogging about it.  Word came out this week that Facebook is growing by an estimated 600,000 or more users PER DAY.  Let me repeat that, because it&#8217;s hard to get your head around&#8230; Facebook &#8230; is growing &#8230; by 600,000 or [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Richmond-VA/EndGame-Public-Relations/73436355598"><img class="alignleft" style="float: left; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px;" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/pages/find_us_on_facebook_badge.gif?2:81200" alt="" width="144" height="44" /></a>This news is a few days old, but I&#8217;m just now getting around to blogging about it.  Word came out this week that <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</a></span> is growing by an estimated <a href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/12/16/facebook-now-growing-by-over-600000-users-a-day-and-new-engagement-stats/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">600,000 or more users PER DAY</span></a>.  Let me repeat that, because it&#8217;s hard to get your head around&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Facebook &#8230; is growing &#8230; by 600,000 or more users &#8230; per &#8230; day.</strong></p>
<p>(crickets chirping)</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no way to really comprehend that type of growth.  Think about it &#8230; that&#8217;s like everyone in a small to medium-sized city signing up each day!  In all, Facebook has <em>140 million </em>users.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span id="more-234"></span></span></p>
<p>If we didn&#8217;t have it before, this is proof positive that social media and social networking has reached the mainstream.  Facebook started out as being for college students only.  You had to have a college email address just to sign up.  Once they lifted that restriction, &#8220;old&#8221; people like me started to flock to the site as a way to keep in touch with friends, share pictures, and play games.  It truly is like <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/ed/story.html?id=1eb72fcf-ccfc-48ad-b614-f7d0ea288aa7">a class reunion every day </a></span>over there.</p>
<p>So, what does this mean for PR people and businesses hoping to promote themselves in this social media landscape?  Obviously, it means you need to have a presence (either a page or a group) on Facebook, and that advertising there is becoming more and more attractive.  Facebook has been known for some time as a very inexpensive site to place ad, and right now it&#8217;s probably the best social media site on which to advertisde.  Of its primary competitors for eyeballs, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com">MySpace</a></span> is so 2007 and <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a></span> doesn&#8217;t have advertising &#8230; <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/twitter-testing-advertising-in-twitter-streams/">yet</a></span>.</p>
<p>Another way to take advantage of Facebook&#8217;s growing mass of people is by building applications for the site.  These are simple programs that provide fun or information for users.  They add them to their account, and when they do it&#8217;s broadcast out to all of their &#8220;friends&#8221; &#8230; essentially advertising the existance of the application.</p>
<p>PR professionals need to understand how to use these new tools.  It&#8217;s no secret that using the media to &#8220;get the word out&#8221; isn&#8217;t the only, or even the best, way to help our clients anymore.</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/facebook/" title="facebook" rel="tag">facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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		<title>Web Video for your Business: An Example</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/11/22/web-video-for-your-business-an-example/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/11/22/web-video-for-your-business-an-example/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=219</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Right up front, I&#8217;ll remind you (and inform those who are casual visitors of this blog) that part of my business is production of vidcasts and web videos.  I&#8217;ve talked to a number of business owners and marketing professionals who have said, &#8220;Really, I don&#8217;t know what on EARTH my business could record that would [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Right up front, I&#8217;ll remind you (and inform those who are casual visitors of this blog) that part of my business is production of <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/podcasts/vidpodcastclients/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">vidcasts and web videos</span></a>.  I&#8217;ve talked to a number of business owners and marketing professionals who have said, &#8220;Really, I don&#8217;t know what on EARTH my business could record that would be of interest.&#8221;  I always tell them that there&#8217;s *something* there, we just have to find it.  Here&#8217;s an example from a business that you wouldn&#8217;t normally expect to have much to say in the web video space.  I give you &#8230;. <a href="http://unitedlinen.typepad.com/united_linen_blog/2008/11/napkin-folding-the-boot-fold.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">napkin folding</span></a> from <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.unitedlinen.com/">United Linen</a></span>:</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span id="more-219"></span></span></p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="319" height="258" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="id" value="viddler" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="src" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/4077d9c2/" /><embed id="viddler" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="319" height="258" src="http://www.viddler.com/player/4077d9c2/" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object></p>
<p>Would YOU expect to be interested in a web video from a linen company?  I wouldn&#8217;t.  But, with some creativity and smart thinking, this company has found something that they do on a regular basis (fold linens) that they can teach via web video.  The tactic is working, and the video is spreading virally.  Holiday entertainers would likely find this information fun and useful.  The above video is actually the first in a series.  The second teaches you to fold in the shape of a candlestick.  Bravo to them!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/web-video/" title="web video" rel="tag">web video</a><br />
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		<title>News Release Distribution Review UPDATED</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/23/online-news-release-distribution-review-updated/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/23/online-news-release-distribution-review-updated/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:47:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SEO PR Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news release distribution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seo pr]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=196</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[NOTICE: This review is now out of date!  Please check out my updated review for 2010: News Release Distribution Review 2010 One of the most popular blog posts on this site is my April, 2007 review of online news release distribution services. Because this review is so popular, I feel a responsibility to keep it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>NOTICE: This review is now out of date!  Please check out my updated review for 2010:</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/02/22/news-release-distribution-review-2010/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">News Release Distribution Review 2010</span></a></strong></span></p>
<p>One of the most popular blog posts on this site is my April, 2007 <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2007/04/14/review-online-news-release-distribution-services/">review of online news release distribution services</a></span>. Because this review is so popular, I feel a responsibility to keep it updated.  I last updated the original post in September, and since then I&#8217;ve been promising a complete overhaul.  Now &#8230; here it is!</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span id="more-196"></span></span></p>
<p>Before we get to the review, I should provide an overview of what online news release distribution can do for you.  When you post a release on a good news release distribution service, they not only place the text of your release (along with a link to your site) on their website, but they also put your release in their RSS feeds.  Those feeds are picked up by media outlets and websites, and are used as content.  Some release distribution services also have digests that are sent to reporters.</p>
<p>There are two major benefits to news release distribution.  One is that it&#8217;s a way to distribute your release to the media.  The second is related to search engine optimization (SEO).  When another website posts your release, including the link back to your website, you get a link back to your site.  These links, known as backlinks, are viewed by search engines as votes.  The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you generally rank.  I generally recommend that businesses write and distribute a news release once per month as part of their link gathering efforts.</p>
<p>So, now that we know why you should be using this strategy, let&#8217;s discuss which service you should use.  I&#8217;m going to break this review into two parts &#8212; the pay services and the free services.  We&#8217;ll do the pay services first.  In each case, I&#8217;ll try to point out changes from my last review.  It&#8217;s not my goal to hit every single service in this review, as there are dozens of them.  If you have one you&#8217;d like to discuss, please talk about it in comments!</p>
<h2>Paid News Release Distribution</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com"><img style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 0px;" src="http://media.prnewswire.com/en/images/topbar/prn_logo.gif" alt="" width="132" height="86" /></a><strong><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com"></a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">PR Newswire (PRN)</span></a> </strong><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Varies, starting at $180 for a 400 word release<br />
<strong></strong><strong>Review:</strong> PR Newswire has been around in one form or another for more than 50 years.   They market themselves as being a mainstay among reporters and news organizations.   Out of all of the distribution services, theirs is the one that would most likely lead to news coverage for your release.  They also do a good job of distributing your release for use on other websites.  Your release will rank highly on Google News for your keywords, and you&#8217;ll get plenty of quality backlinks.</p>
<p>The problem with PR Newswire is cost.  They have a yearly fee that you have to pay for the priviledge of paying more to post your releases.  I was told in a conversation with PRN&#8217;s president some weeks ago that they&#8217;re willing to waive that fee for small businesses, but everyone else has to pay $150 per year in addition to any other distribution fees.   Releases start at $180 for distribution on their city or state wire.  That&#8217;s for a short release of 450 words, though, and they charge you for each word after that.   At that price, the distribution to the media is limited.  If you want distribution to nationwide media, you&#8217;ll pay around $600 for a single release.  With all of this said, I do think PR Newswire does a great job getting the word out to the media, and as I&#8217;ll say in a number of cases during this review &#8212; you get what you pay for.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prweb.com"><img style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 0px;" src="http://ww1.prweb.com/images_v4/prw_logo.jpg" alt="" width="163" height="51" /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong></strong></span></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.prweb.com"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>PRWeb</strong></span></a><br />
<strong>Cost:</strong> Packages range from $80 to $360<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>PRWeb has taken a different focus than PR Newswire.  While PR Newswire focuses on the media relations portion of the online distribution equation, PRWeb focuses more on the search engine optimization and link gathering benefits, and they do it very well.  It&#8217;s been my experience that if you post with them, you&#8217;ll get your backlinks &#8230; sometimes from some heavy hitters.    Plus, the release posted on their site will rank fairly highly in the search rankings and on Google News.   They don&#8217;t have quite the standing with journalists as PR Newswire, but they&#8217;re becoming more and more well known and they do have an additional package that include a special reporter distribution.  The big benefit of PRWeb is cost.  Pricing for basic PRWeb distribution starts at $80, and goes up to $360.  For what you get, I believe those prices are reasonable.</p>
<p>They have other additional services that cost more, like their brand new online newsroom.  I was offered a free trial of their newsroom service, and it&#8217;s a pretty good way to have all of your releases in one place, particularly if you don&#8217;t have the space on your own site to post all of them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businesswire.com"></a><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bw-logo.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-495" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="bw-logo" src="http://www.endgamepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bw-logo.jpg" alt="bw-logo" width="194" height="86" /></a></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.businesswire.com"><strong>BusinessWire</strong></a></span><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Varies, starting at $180 for the first 400 words<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>BusinessWire seems to be trying to straddle the space between PRWeb and PR Newswire, offering SEO optimized news releases as well as good media distribution, and they&#8217;re doing a good job of both.  Generally, online news release distribution is NOT the best way to get media coverage.  I counsel clients to use it for link building, and if media coverage results then it&#8217;s a bonus.  A basic release from BusinessWire will generate quality links for your release, and plenty of them.  One thing I noticed, however, was that the basic release itself didn&#8217;t rank very well on the search engines.  You expect an established paid service like BusinessWire to rank above free release services, and that wasn&#8217;t the case.</p>
<p>BusinessWire breaks its distribution into levels based on what media will be informed about your release.  The national distribution is the most expensive, with state and city distribution below that.  I recommend looking at the cost of citywide distribution versus state.  There may not be a considerable difference between the two, so the state distribution might be worth the few extra dollars.</p>
<p>BusinessWire offers a fully optimized release that is similar to the one offered by PRWeb.  The distribution, called <a href="http://eon.businesswire.com"><strong>EON</strong></a>, was originally developed in partnership with PRWeb&#8217;s parent company. This release costs an additional $225 above and beyond the regular price of distribution.</p>
<p>While I am very impressed with the number of backlinks generated by BusinessWire releases, time will tell whether they take PRWeb&#8217;s top spot for SEO releases.  The primary issue is cost and the lack of a quality ranking for the BusinessWire version of the release.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.onlineprnews.com"><img class="alignnone" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://onlineprnews.com/templates/prsite/graphics/index_02.gif" alt="" width="237" height="36" /></a></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.onlineprnews.com"><strong>Online PR News</strong></a></span><br />
Cost: $6 (free releases available)<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>I was contacted by a representative of Online PR News months ago, and was offered a tryout of their service.  It took me a while to get around to taking advantage of that offer, and I wish I&#8217;d done it sooner.  Online PR News offers many of the same search engine optimization features of PRWeb, but at a very small fraction of the price.  With your $6 release, you get anchor text links, a preview pane of your website, pull quotes, the standard social bookmarking shortcuts, and the ability to embed images, videos, and slideshows.  All of these features add up to a well optimized and sticky release.  I&#8217;m very impressed.  They offer a free release option, but it does not include anchor text links or the ability to embed videos or slideshows.</p>
<p>Distribution appears to be good for the price.  The Online PR News version of my release ranked well on Google and Google News, and it did spread to at least one other website &#8230; which is obviously one of the goals of online news release distribution.</p>
<p>I struggled over whether to include Online PR News in the free section, but the low price they&#8217;re requesting is well within any budget.  I will definitely be utilizing their services in the future.</p>
<p><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">DISCLOSURE (added 10/1/09): I have done some consulting for OPN, and have since formed a loose partnership with them.  I&#8217;ll be announcing more about this in the coming days and/or months.  This review was written before I had any relationship with the owners of the site.</span></em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.prleap.com"><img style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://www.prleap.com/includes/images/PRLeap.png" alt="" width="220" height="50" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.prleap.com"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">PR Leap</span></strong></a><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Distribution starting at $49.99<br />
<strong></strong><strong>Review: </strong>This site was included in the free services last time around, but they have discontinued that free option <em>(NOTE: This is a change from the last review!)</em>.  Their basic distribution is now $49.99.</p>
<p>PR Leap has always been a good option for online distribution, and it&#8217;s a shame they discontinued the free option.  But, if you&#8217;re looking for a less expensive service or perhaps a second site to post on, you should look into their service.  Their releases are usually picked up by Google News and rank fairly well.  They&#8217;ve put some attention into SEO, and it shows.  I don&#8217;t believe they&#8217;re great at getting the word directly to reporters, but, bear in mind that reporters do use search engines to look for sources for stories.  So, if your release is out there and ranks well, there&#8217;s the chance it could lead to coverage.</p>
<p><a href="http://pr.com"><img style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://www.pr.com/images/logo_m.jpg" alt="" width="99" height="97" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://PR.com">PR.com</a></span></strong><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Distribution starting at $29.99<br />
<strong></strong><strong>Review: </strong>PR.com is a service that wasn&#8217;t included in the last review.  I love the domain name, of course, and their site appears very professional.  You&#8217;ll find in many cases the low cost or free services look like spam sites, and in some cases they actually are.  That isn&#8217;t the case with PR.com.  I&#8217;ll be honest, i haven&#8217;t used this service yet, but I did some research into what they offer and how well their releases rank, and I&#8217;m reasonably impressed.</p>
<p>PR.com does have a free option, but I wouldn&#8217;t recommend bothering to use it.  The free option will not include an active link from the release back to your site.  Their basic distribution is $29.99 and includes links within the release.  They claim to usually get inclusion in Google News and, from what I can see that&#8217;s true.   They&#8217;re probably worth checking out as another low cost alternative to the bigger guys.  I probably will consider them in the future.</p>
<h2>Free News Release Distribution</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.pitchengine.com"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>PitchEngine</strong></span></a><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Free (no ads)<br />
<strong>Review:</strong> PitchEngine allows you to easily create social media press releases, complete with videos, images, supplementary information and links, and even a Twitter pitch!</p>
<p>When you sign up for the site and post your first release, you&#8217;re asked to create a profile for the organization behind the release.  This can be somewhat time-consuming if you post releases for a number of different organizations.  However, the way that information is used is very slick.  On your final release, there will be a slide-down tab on the top with all of the info you enter about the org.</p>
<p>The only issue I have with PitchEngine is the system of entering your release.  It&#8217;s mildly ponderous, but can be overlooked &#8230; given the price.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em>Edited on 5/30/09 to add: Pitchengine announced today that they are removing free releases from the feed that goes to Google.  What this means is that free releases are no longer eligible for inclusion in Google News.  The site&#8217;s owners say this is because spammers were using the site for SEO reasons. </em></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em>Edited on 10/30/09 to add: It&#8217;s come to my attention that NO PitchEngine releases are currently being indexed by Google News.  This includes those posted by paying subscribers.  I&#8217;m told it&#8217;s a temporary issue.  You can read  PitchEngine founder Jason Kintzler&#8217;s response and explanation in the comments of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2009/05/31/no-more-google-news-from-pitchengine/"><strong>this post</strong></a></span>.<br />
</em></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.24-7pressrelease.com"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">24-7 Press Release</span></strong></a><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Free (ad supported), with a $49 paid option<br />
<strong>Review:</strong> 24-7 Press Release does a good job of free distribution.  I&#8217;m not fond of the name at all, as it sounds a bit low rent, but they do a good job.   They have free and paid options, and a professional looking site.  I&#8217;ve seen that their releases rank well for a free site &#8230; which is the most you can ask for from a free site.  Generally, you will NOT get Google News inclusion from a free site.  Their free option does not include a link within the release, but they will include one in a contact information box that&#8217;s on the page.  They have a paid option of $49, which includes enhanced SEO benefits such as anchor text for links within the release.</p>
<p>24-7 Press Release does review all releases before they&#8217;re released.   Now, this is a pain if you&#8217;re in a hurry, but presumably this means they&#8217;re filtering out the ones that are truly spam.  Or, it could be that they&#8217;re trying to get you to pay for quicker distribution.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prlog.org"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>PRLog</strong></span></a><br />
<strong>Cost:</strong> Free (ad supported)<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>This is a site that i had some very nice things to say about in the original review.   Unfortunately, that&#8217;s not the case any longer.  This Bulgarian-based site has gone in the wrong direction, in my opinion. The site has started accepting job listings and they&#8217;ve added quite a few unattractive elements to the site in general.  With all of the additions, the site has become confusing and looks a great deal like a spam site.   A lot of the releases you&#8217;ll find on the front page are not so much releases as poorly written blog posts.  It&#8217;s obvious that there&#8217;s little quality control, and they were concerned that they weren&#8217;t getting enough traffic.  Unfortunately, it also appears that their releases are no longer being indexed by Google News.</p>
<p>With all of this said, release from PRLog still rank very well on Google.  If you can tolerate the look and feel of the site, it&#8217;s something worth considering.  It&#8217;s free, so you don&#8217;t have any money to lose.  And, with the decision by PitchEngine to neuter its free service, PRLog is looking more attractive.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://i-newswire.com/">I-Newswire</a></strong></span><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Free (ad supported) with a $25 paid option<br />
<strong>Review:</strong> This is another good free distribution site that has a paid option.  Their service is similar to 24-7 Press Release in that the site looks professional.  They allow you one link within your release, and have additional options in their $25 paid option.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.theopenpress.com">The Open Press</a><br />
Cost: </strong>Free (ad supported) with a $10 paid option<br />
Review: This is a great free distribution site, with one downside.  Signing up is extremely ponderous.  Currently, you cannot sign up on the site, but rather you have to send an email and request to be registered. The explanation given is that they&#8217;ve had issues with spammers.  Once you go through that process, however, the site is very good.  It looks businesslike, and the releases posted there rank well in Google web search.  Tasteful ads are placed on your release, which can be removed by paying $10.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.wikio.com">Wikio</a></strong></span><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Free<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>This site is a bit different in that it takes more of a social networking approach to news release distribution.  Releases are voted for, similar to the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.digg.com">Digg</a></span> system.  They&#8217;re worth checking out.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pressreleasepoint.com"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>PressReleasePoint</strong></span></a><br />
<strong>Cost: </strong>Free to post on their site (ad supported) and $15 to distribute elsewhere<br />
<strong>Review: </strong>This site has another different concept.  You can not only post a release on the PressReleasePoint site, but but for $15 they claim to be able to post your release on more than 50 other free distribution sites.  I&#8217;ve not tried the service, but I must admit that what they offer is interesting.</p>
<p>I do have some concerns about the site and the concept for this service.    The first is that Google&#8217;s <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=66359"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">duplicate content rule</span></a> may come into play after the same content is posted on that many sites.  Another problem is the layout of the site.  The text in the releases frequently ends up ON TOP of the advertising on the site.  My final concern is a big one, as it has to do with credibility.  The text on the website itself (not just the releases posted by users) is riddled with grammatical errors.  It appears to be written by someone without a good grasp of the English language.  My suggestion to the owners is that they have a professional copy editor go through the site with a fine-toothed comb.</p>
<h2>The Best of the Best</h2>
<p>So, which of these sites are the BEST?</p>
<p><strong>For SEO: PRWeb</strong><br />
PRWeb has the best mix of available SEO options, and their prices are reasonable.</p>
<p><strong>For Media Visibility: PR Newswire</strong><br />
It&#8217;s hard to beat PR Newswire&#8217;s reputation among journalists and the media distribution they offer.</p>
<p><strong>For Free Distribution: PRLog</strong><br />
Despite unfortunate decisions from the ownership of the site, releases rank very well on Google &#8230; which in the end is the name of the game for SEO PR.</p>
<p><strong>Honorable Mention: Online PR News</strong><br />
It&#8217;s hard to know where to rank this site.  It&#8217;s not a free site, but their $6 price is extremely manageable. Regardless of what you call them, the features they offer are outstanding for the price, and the releases rank well.</p>
<h2>Now &#8230; Discuss!</h2>
<p>Disagree?  Agree?  Did I miss one I shouldn&#8217;t have?  Discuss in comments below!</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/media-relations/" title="media relations" rel="tag">media relations</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/news-release-distribution/" title="news release distribution" rel="tag">news release distribution</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/seo/" title="seo" rel="tag">seo</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/seo-pr/" title="seo pr" rel="tag">seo pr</a><br />
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		<title>Recorded Archive of Recent PRWeb Webinar</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/22/recorded-archive-of-recent-prweb-webinar/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/22/recorded-archive-of-recent-prweb-webinar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:41:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Speaking Engagements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webinars]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=194</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of posts ago I mentioned presenting at two PRWeb webinars in consecutive weeks.  One was on October 14 and the other was earlier today.  The topic for each was the same &#8212; using PR to promote your small business.  My portion of the presentation in each covered using SEO, SEO PR, and social [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A couple of posts ago I mentioned presenting at two <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.prweb.com">PRWeb</a></span> webinars in consecutive weeks.  One was on October 14 and the other was earlier today.  The topic for each was the same &#8212; using PR to promote your small business.  My portion of the presentation in each covered using SEO, SEO PR, and social media strategies such as blogging.  In all, there were approximately 1,600 attendees for the two webinars!  The reviews from attendees on both were very good.  If you missed the first one, I now have a link for you to listen to the audio and see the slides.  I&#8217;ll post the link on a future date for the webinar that happened today.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://vocus.connectpro.acrobat.com/p63466681/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Click here to view/hear the October 14 PRWeb webinar</span></a>.</strong></p>
<p><strong>***UPDATED October 29, 2008:</strong></p>
<p>Rather than writing an entirely new post, I thought I&#8217;d add the recording from the October 22 webinar here as well.  This one had a similar topic, but my co-presenter this time was the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine!</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://vocus.connectpro.acrobat.com/p63466681/">Click here to view/hear the October 22 PRWeb webinar</a></span>.</strong></p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/small-business-advice/" title="small business advice" rel="tag">small business advice</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/speaking-engagements/" title="Speaking Engagements" rel="tag">Speaking Engagements</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/webinars/" title="webinars" rel="tag">webinars</a><br />
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		<title>Choosing Your Blog&#8217;s Domain Name</title>
		<link>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/22/choosing-your-blogs-domain-name/</link>
		<comments>http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2008/10/22/choosing-your-blogs-domain-name/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:29:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Mullen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media Tactics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domain names]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=193</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just saw a tweet on Twitter from Leesa Barnes recommending a post on Pro Blogger that charts in great detail how to pick out a domain name for your blog.  It occurs to me that much of the advice included in the post also could be extended to how to pick a domain or [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just saw a tweet on Twitter from <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://twitter.com/leesabarneshttp://">Leesa Barnes</a></span> recommending a post on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.problogger.net">Pro Blogger</a></span> that charts in great detail how to pick out a domain name for your blog.  It occurs to me that much of the advice included in the post also could be extended to how to pick a domain or even a NAME for your business.  Good stuff within, even if the post itself if more than 2.5 years old.  <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/16/choosing-the-domain-name-for-your-blog/">Here&#8217;s a link</a></span>.</p>

	Tags: <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/blogging/" title="blogging" rel="tag">blogging</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/domain-names/" title="domain names" rel="tag">domain names</a>, <a href="http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/tag/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media</a><br />
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