In the days of yore, a press release was often long and heavily detailed, with an air of self-service. Fast forward to today and you’ll find an incredibly different sort of press release is swiftly becoming the norm. Without it, your company news and information may just get left in the dust of antiquity.
Today’s press releases are optimized for search engines and social media and torn down into bite-size snippets of information to be quoted and republished on a wide variety of media outlets. The social media press release contains any combination of available multimedia assets such as photos, videos, audio clips, graphics, and pdfs in addition to the textual information. Text in the press release consists of a brief summary of news facts, a pertinent quote and background information through links within the text.
Traditional press releases are static and lacking in credibility. The social media press release is able to tell the evolving story through real-time updates because it includes tags relating to similar coverage and topics. In return, this boosts the credibility of the release.
A well crafted social media press release will:
- Be highly searchable and increase findability in popular search engines
- Use a writing style that is suitable for your particular audience
- Be concise and contain highly relevant information
- Reach old and new media as well as consumers
- Include multimedia information such as videos, photos and audio clips
- Be easily shared by including a short summary and shortened URL on the release, as well as a Facebook “Like” button, Twitter button and a del.icio.us button at the bottom
- Include links to other sites, blogs or podcasts referencing your subject
Optimizing your press release for search engines
Just as you use keywords to boost your website’s search engine ranking, when distributing and posting your release online you also need to use keywords to help others find your press release. Use keywords throughout your release that journalists and customers searching for your company’s type of products or services would use. Use the keywords often enough to have an impact, but not so much that it affects the readability of the release.
Additionally, it is recommended to include your company name and most important key phrase in the title of the press release. Link that same key phrase that is within the body of the press release to the page on your website that is optimized for this key phrase.
Check out these free templates to get an idea of what the social media press release looks like:
Shift Communications
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