Pages

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Is the News/Press Release "A Necessary EVIL"? Absolutely Not!

The News/Press release more important today than ever before in our rapidly moving viral 21st century communications age. However……

Last week, I was once again inspired to defend the honor and value of the News Release after reading the article, ‘Why The News Release Is Worthless In Today’s Social Media Age’, where Aaron Perlut from Forbes MarketShare BLOG writes: “news releases in most cases, are a worthless bother. Yes, there are times when they are a necessary evil.”  And he’s off and running declaring that the news release is dead yet again. Although he makes some important points he confuses public relations with advertising and totally leaves out of the conversation the optimizing process that is integral to the newly vibrant VIRAL News Release. To read Perlut’s entire article click here

Wanted to share my response to Perlut’s Forbes MarketShare Blog Article:
The News/Press Release “A Necessary EVIL”  Absolutely Not! News/Press releases are more important today than ever before in our rapidly moving viral 21st century communications age. However, the release needs to be written, conceptualized and formatted in a totally new way that captures the viral world and that means SEO. To read more on SEO and ‘A New Approach to PR’ go to: http://www.cjcstrategists.com/philosophy.shtml.


This new approach to press relations requires a whole new skill set, which means Optimizing your news release. YES, my fellow PR & Communication colleagues have been loath to adapt these new skill sets either out of ignorance, laziness–or just not wanting to educate their clients’ CEOs 1950’s marketing speak. An optimized release, expanded with URL’s, hyperlinks, key and (SEO) optimized words that give the interested reader concise info in the head line (first 67/160 characters), sub-header and 1st paragraph has the ability to supply additional information and expanded point priorities that reader wants, while maintaining interest with the broader market.

CJC Strategists (www.cjcstrategists.com) has been applying these optimizing tactics to releases for our clients for over 10 years. Our clients get a higher than usually pick-up and click-through rate (CTR) because they are optimized. These tactics strategically boost the long-tail online visibility of your press release so that it can be found, seen and shared by readers weeks and months, not just hours and days, after distribution.

PitchEngine’s ability may allow Brands to promote themselves but this is just another form of advertising not public relations.  PR allows professional journalists/media to give a third-party impartial view of a product and or service.


Organizations like Business Wire www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/seo/ have been instrumental in helping the industry stay on top of the latest SEO tactics with expanded services like EON http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/how-to-use-eon/ that take an optimized release to the Wire with viral and social media reach, archive the information, product or company on the Internet for future searches and give it an on going life. The News/Press Release “a necessary EVIL,” absolutely not!


An optimized release is one of the most important and effective tools in today’s Viral Communications and Social Media Age!


# # #