By John Miles, Associate Editor
Bigger is not always better in finding an audience for your press release. Not every news item demands the entire world’s attention. In fact, the content of most releases appeals to a very specific audience – oftentimes a targeted industry segment or consumer demographic. However, sometimes your most valuable readers are just down the street. (more…)
Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day!
What’s this, you ask? Well, Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD) was created back in 2010 by Jeremiah Owyang to celebrate the tireless efforts of community managers around the world. Community managers spend their day acting as a bridge between their company or brand and the world at large. At any given time you can find a community manager acting as the PR, marketing, sales, customer service and voice of a brand all at the same time. Today is the day we give them thanks.
Does your company have a community manager? Have you had a great experience from a brand thanks to their community manager? Today’s their day, so thank them for the wonderful job that they’re doing. Presents aren’t required (although I’m sure they also wouldn’t be turned away), but your thanks and appreciation is welcome.
Now, when I said that presents aren’t required, I meant it, but we have two for all the community managers out there anyways.
First, we have the ebook “A Collection Of Community Management Advice.” We teamed up with TheCommunityManager.com and issued an open survey of seven questions to community managers around the world. We got some great responses and put them together for anyone that’s interested in learning what it takes to be a successful community manager. Inside, you can find advice from community managers from EventBrite, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Syracuse University, Edelman, The Community Roundtable, The U.S. Department of State and more.
You can click here to download and keep A Collection Of Community Management Advice.
Our second present is also packed with useful advice for community managers, but comes in the form of a video. We had a few friends at New Media Expo a few weeks ago answer a couple of community management questions. We asked some social media professionals “What makes a great community manager?” and who some of their favourite community managers were. Check out their answers:
So to all those community managers out there making their companies better 24/7, we say thank you!
How do you throw an event that will get the right media to attend and gain valuable coverage for your product or client? It takes a little more than just throwing a party, inviting everyone you know and hoping for the best.
In our webinar we looked at how public relations professionals can get journalists to call them. In this series, we’ll look at how the experts put together an event from deciding who to invite to following up after the event.
This week, we look at the preparation before an event. (more…)
By Joe Schnaidt, Supervisor, Editorial US West
A company’s first press release is critical, showing what it is and what it does.
To keep your audience engaged, your next release should focus on establishing a more personal dialogue with the reader. How will your service make things more convenient, efficient or effective for the consumer? Does it have specific local relevance? The more novel the solution, the more your offering stands out. (more…)
By Ryo Tanaka, Associate Editor, LA office
Good blog posts and press releases can generate considerable web traffic from your target audience but have you wondered what the best medium might be when it comes to making that big announcement for your company? Here are some key differences between blog posts and press releases that can help you determine the most effective way to disperse your news. (more…)
By Natalie Leal
Chances are you’re well-versed in the industry you’re writing about. But there is a possibility your readers will be scratching their heads after they read your in-depth description of virtual desktop infrastructure, Software-as-a-Service, or dynamic random access memory. And if they feel like they’re reading another language, and it drags on, they may tune out. Consider learning about the importance of brevity in a press release, if keeping readers is important to you. It won’t take long, I promise! (more…)
By John Miles, Associate Editor
You’ve created the perfect press release, replete with groundbreaking information, a defined audience and a snappy headline that’s sure to grab the reader’s attention. All set for distribution, right? Sure, providing timely, relevant information to journalists and bloggers is still the single-most important aspect of a distributing a press release. Yet, without considerations for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you’re only ensuring that your release will be distributed, not discovered. (more…)
By Lauren Barlow, Associate Editor
“You don’t get a second chance at a first impression.” This statement holds true in many regards, including when writing a press release. The first paragraph of your release will either grab the reader’s attention, or make them lose interest and move on. Pull them in to keep reading by including the most pertinent and interesting facts up front.
The following tips will help make your first paragraph memorable, informative, and most importantly, make your audience keep reading:
By Adam Lovinus, Associate Editor
The Marketwire SEO Analyzer measures how well you’ve incorporated your SEO strategy into your latest press release.
Journalists and investors rely on search engines for information gathering. This is why modern press releases should be written with SEO in mind, so that your news has maximum visibility and relevance for those who are looking for it. The cornerstone of producing content that indexes on internet searches is to target a specific keyword phrase, and work it in at five key points throughout the press release — the headline, first paragraph, multimedia elements, embedded URLs, and the backend of the release.
This week on our Small Business blog we have tips on how to keep your company’s information safe if you use cloud storage. Writer Kelli Korducki asked a few experts about security best practices for cloud.
Aaron Broverman takes a look at how bartering can save money for your small business, providing you’ve got an in-demand product or service.
By Dagmar King
You’re yawning through yet another boring presentation. Try as you might, you find it really difficult to focus and your mind starts to wander. The presenter seems to care more about what he or she is saying than about what his or her audience is absorbing.
Sound familiar? (more…)
Happy Monday! How do you feel about headlines? It’s not easy to write an eye-catching headline and, let’s face it, you need to catch eyes in order to promote your business or product.
Robert Garrova, one of our Los Angeles editors, shows us how to write a headline that’s fun, eye-catching and, yes, SEO-friendly.
Wondering what this is? This is a sketch of a panel recently held by Marketwire. Marketwire held the event in Chicago as part of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference on the topic of building businesses with thought leadership. It was presented by Marketwire’s senior vice president Tim Lambertus and consultant and journalist Mark Evans.
The main question was: how do you develop thought leadership, especially in a crowded market? Through creating original, interesting content, of course. Your content, whether it’s articles, infographs or webinars, will help you establish credibility, empower your brands and help you develop relationships.
We could bore you with an itemized list of learnings from the session but the sketch says it all and in a much prettier fashion. The top right corner is very important. So is the left side. Actually, all of it is important so why not print it out and keep it?
Mitch Schneider, Senior Account Executive – Agencies knows a lot about gaining the media’s attention. It starts with the news release. That’s right, it only starts with the release. There’s so much more that needs to be done before a journalist takes interest. He reveals the tricks in our three-part series.
This week on our Small Business blog we’re looking at problem solving. What do you do when you have an angry customer, why every entrepreneur should have an elevator speech and how outsiders can help solve problems that stump experts. We’ve also launched our new column, Small Spaces.
Oh, here’s a question for you: One of our readers asked in 10 tips for today’s business bloggers, “But what about how to keep the idea fountain flowing? Any tips for when it’s running a bit dry?”
We’ll have an article covering this topic soon but I wanted to put it out to you- what do you do to keep the ideas flowing?
Aaaaah, the business blog. A welcoming destination where visitors get to glimpse behind the velvet ropes and experience your organization’s unique business personality. Where they’re drawn to captivating content that speaks to them. And where feedback and conversation are encouraged. Do these statements describe your organization’s blog? Or is it a foreboding place that posts business updates and pushes corporate propaganda? If it’s the latter, or if you want to improve the results of a so-so blog, take a few tips from Jeff Ente, publisher of “Who’s Blogging What?” and Mark Evans, award-winning blogger and journalist.
We continue to be amazed at the variety of creative ways our clients use Sysomos Heartbeat and MAP (Media Analysis Platform) to monitor, analyze and engage in the social sphere. Although the basics are the same, the applications are as wide-ranging as each client’s business objectives. There’s no doubt that social media monitoring is today’s must-have for every type of organization, whether B2B, B2C, non-profit, government, media outlet or agency. The possibilities are endless.
Social media is rife with business buyers searching for business solutions. According to Forrester Research, 84 percent of business buyers say word of mouth has the greatest influence over their purchasing decisions, far surpassing any form of paid media. And Twitter is a great place to find business buyers. It’s a veritable goldmine that can pay off handsomely for B2B organizations. Jonathan Astor, social media lead at Valtech and Sheldon Levine, community manager at Marketwire + Sysomos, show us how to find and nurture social media leads. To listen to Jonathan and Sheldon discuss this fascinating topic, tune into the archived version of our recent webinar: “B2B Social Media: Turning Untapped Conversations into Business Wins.”
If you’re in marketing, PR or any communications role you’ve likely been inundated with expert advice on how to incorporate content marketing into your business strategies and heard why it’s a must-have in your corporate plan. Many practitioners are just getting familiar with terms like content marketing, content strategy, content publishing and content curation, while others are writing books and blog posts about it. If you’re new to it all, don’t despair: You’re probably already doing some kind of content marketing, even if you don’t realize it.
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