We’ve just begun using a terrific social media release service in lieu of the traditional press release submitted via wire service. If you haven’t yet tried PitchEngine, you really should. News submitted through PitchEngine can be accompanied by multiple images, video, audio, resource links, and a ‘tweet pitch’ (your message in 115 characters or less). At the $29 pay-per-pitch level, it’s submitted to the major search engines and hosted forever on the site. For what you get, it’s a steal!

The strength and power of a social media release is its ‘sharability.’ So what do you do after the pitch to facilitate sharing and really get the word out about your company’s news?

11 Tips to Get the Most From Your Next Social Media Release

1. Make sure to use the ‘tweet pitch’ feature. Don’t just rush by this item. Give it some thought. Make your tweet conversational and engaging – and be sure to tweet it out yourself right away.
2. Create three to five additional tweets with links back to the release, and schedule them to go out over the course of the next week or so.
3. If your employees are part of your Twitter team, they should also share the release in the same manner. That doesn’t mean for everyone to say the exact same thing though. Personalize the message per Twitter account.
4. Share it on Facebook – on your business page, and if appropriate, also on your personal profile. Again, keep it personal in tone, especially on your profile page. Ask your staff to comment or at least ‘like’ your shared link on your business page, but to do so themselves, not as page admins.
5. Share it on LinkedIn. If all of your staff share the same basic contacts, one person sharing it may be sufficient. If there’s a great deal of diversity, ask everyone to share it.
6. Monitor the response. Set up Google alerts and Social Mention alerts on your company name, product or service, and the names you use in your social profiles.
7. Engage: As you receive comments or alerts that your company, product, or release is being mentioned, respond. This lets your followers know you’re real and you’re listening.
8. Share the link to your release with other bloggers as appropriate. For instance, if your release is about a new restaurant in town, find local bloggers and let them know about it. Better yet, local or regional foodie bloggers!
9. Share it on forums. If you regularly participate in industry forums, share your release with your online peers. It never fails to amaze me – how many of our clicks come from forums.
10. Share it on Reddit and other social sharing sites as appropriate.
11. Bookmark your release on Delicious and other social bookmarking sites.

Your turn: What are your best tips for after the pitch?

Don’t fall for the old  ‘press release is dead’  line. It’s simply not true.

It doesn’t make sense that information from you no longer matters to anyone. While periodical subscriptions, like newspapers and magazines, are waning, these are not the only places a press release will be used … far from it!

The way to think about a press release has changed, because the audience has enlarged – not gone away! There is a much bigger audience online than reading hard copy these days. And that doesn’t mean that people enjoying hard copy should be ignored, either. They are still a significant audience.

It does mean that we have had to learn to do things differently, even better. That’s good for you.

How do you know if a media release is right for your story?

• Are you, or someone at your company an expert at something?
• Do you have an engaging new angle?
• Are you releasing a new product or service?
• Are you introducing a new partnership that will benefit a certain group of people?
• Have you developed a new and better way to do something?
• Have you drastically reduced your pricing?
• Is your story a story, or an advertisement?

If you believe your idea can withstand that type of scrutiny, you shouldn’t hesitate to let people know. The longer you wait, the better the chance that someone else thinks of it and takes that idea – and maybe even trumps it. Happens every day.

What’s the best way to get your information to the most people?

After years of releasing press submissions to journalists, free online release sites, and paid news distribution sites, we have come to one conclusion.

All of these avenues used together make a big difference. Yep -  ALL of them. And it also takes a professional copywriter to craft your release so that it isn’t discarded for some of the very common mistakes many people make when they want to get their story out.

• Your story should be pitched to an editor or journalist,
• It should be available on the many free press release sites available (done correctly),
• And it should be submitted to a paid press release submission service that knows exactly where to put it for the audience, and will show you where they have distributed it. It is also extremely important that those places are actually places where the news is picked up!

If you have any questions about press release submissions, let us walk you through the process. You may have the next greatest idea, but you may need to dig a little deeper to make sure that what you want people to know about your story is really getting through to them.

Having a knowledgeable person handle your copywriting, submission, and pitch release to an editor is very wise. Columnists tend to use their trusted resources.

Timing is important. There are many variables associated with time – like submission deadlines and the release date as it relates to your story.

Enjoy a detailed interview with your copywriter to make sure you have all the necessary information compiled. Realize that a well-managed media release is an expense at the beginning, but in the end offers very cost-effective results to a sizable audience.

If you have an idea for a press release running around in your head, give us a call or send us your questions through our contact form. We’ll give you solid, industry-proven information to help you decide if you should move forward with your idea.

Photo Credit: Ron Zimmerman on Picasa

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Press Release: Write Often

A University of Wisconsin study found that daily newspapers discarded 72% of press releases. If your release is guilty of these common flaws, it might be time to learn how to write your wrongs.

6 Things Not To Write

The number one reason for press release fatalities was “limited interest to readers,” followed closely by “no reader interest at all.” According to the study, no real news in the release, poorly written material, and inaccuracies or duplication are no-no’s that keep your information from getting into the right hands, or in front of the right eyes.

On the other hand, there are some things you can do to get your story picked up.

Develop Relationships With Media Contacts

As Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, and Mickie Kennedy of EReleases will tell you, regularly submitted newsworthy content has a much higher chance of being picked up. Why? Relationship. Media contacts are people, too, and they become familiar with the names of the writers and the companies who submit quality press releases often.

How do you position yourself to more easily communicate with journalists? We believe a press kit is a simple way. Here are a few necessary components:

• Develop a press kit page in your Web site navigation with thorough, updated contact information including your name, phone number, and email address. Keep the navigation title simple, like Press Room, Press Kit, or Media Kit so that it’s easily found by journalists.
• Include a fact sheet about your company and a small bio picture of your company contact.
• As you accrue stories, list your topics.
• List links to other press releases you’ve submitted online, or post the actual release.
• Keep links to photos readily available for shared use. Name them by topic and it will be easy to attach them to the info when needed. Make sure there is sufficient detail in your pictures for download, and sufficient size, usually a minimum of 1MB – and possibly much larger, to be used if requested for print publications.
• Include supporting information, like annual reports, newsclips, and ads.

This resource will serve you well because readily available information makes everything your media contact needs easier and faster to produce when the time comes to submit a release.

You can see samples of some of our releases on our Media Kit page.

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