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The world's worst press release landed in my inbox the other day.
Competition is stiff for that title but this release, which came with the subject line, "Lifesaving information for Chicago citizens," ran away with the crown.
After a cheery, "Hi Mary," it began:
"We are only a little over a halfway through with 2017 and Chicago's violence shows no signs of stopping."
No argument there. Violence is the curse, the tragic flaw, the interminable disease of this great city — a psychological undercurrent even in the many neighborhoods that rarely witness it; and this wasn't the first press release I've ever gotten that takes note of that fact. I routinely get pitches involving violence, some with ideas that sound productive, like programs that work with kids in struggling parts of town.
The world's worst press release wasn't one of those.
It has been a tense spring in the realm of big-time newspaper consolidation. Back in April, Gannett, owner of more than 100 newspapers across the country, including the flagship USA Today, made a roughly $400 million takeover bid for the Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and several other titles. The intervening weeks have seen a great deal of maneuvering by Tribune Chairman Michael Ferro to rebuff the bid, an effort that advanced Thursday with the news that Gannett may be backing off its bid in light of “expectations” that Tribune shareholders would back management in a critical vote. [VIDEO: Tribune rejects Gannett’s bid again] Amid all this business, the Tribune lost its mind, in a press release. First, it renamed and rebranded itself: On June 20, we'll be tronc. Yep. tronc. pic.twitter.com/PvK8jtrQbp— Michael Zajakowski (@zajakowski) June 2, 2016 “Tronc” stands for “Tribune online content,” or, as this tronc press release renders it in smaller case: “tribune online content.” So obsessed is the new, rebranded company with the Web’s lower-case vibe that its press release starts various sentences that way. ...
PR Newswire has advised our clients to include images and video in their press releases for a number of years, and we are now seeing a much greater usage than previously. In 2015, 42% of releases included visual elements.
This is a sharp increase from the mere 14% we saw the last time we analyzed these numbers in 2013; however, there is still room for improvement. When you look at last year’s 100 most viewed press releases, 68 included multimedia, a 42% increase compared to 2013’s top 100.
It’s clear that the use of multimedia in press releases is quickly becoming standard practice within the industry. With the continued influx of visuals across the larger communications landscape, I expect these numbers to continue to climb....
When you should—or shouldn't—send press releases over the wire is a popular topic.
We found that Monday, Tuesday and 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern were the most popular times to send a press release. Our advice was to publish releases later in the day and week so your news didn't get lost in the commotion. Remember, all this is from 2013.
This year, we took our research a step further. First, we analyzed the distribution of more than 100,000 press releases published via Marketwired, PRWeb and PR Newswire in 2015. Second, we determined how many times each release was shared across nine social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn....
You have exciting news to share about your company, but how do you get the word out? One of the most effective strategies is to create and distribute a press release.
With an attention-grabbing title and the right hook, your company news can be shared with the right audience at the right time.
Do you need help getting started? We’ve talked before about how to format a press release and even included a template here. We’ve also shared 28 great examples of real press releases from the pros. And, in case you need an in depth analysis of which press release distribution service is best, we’ve got you covered too....
According to Hubspot researcher Dan Zarella, the short answer is yes. Online press release are viewed an average of 275 times during the week and media views account for at least another 70 views. The more eyeballs checking out your announcement, the more likely you are to gain traction with journalists and conversions with customers.
It’s not enough, though, to simply post a few words about your company’s latest news and take the rest of the week off. Effective press releases are part art, part science. Here are 10 things you must do for maximum press release power....
...What I love about today’s Content We Love example is twofold. The company issuing the survey results, Videology, is doing a great job of promoting a piece of their own content by surfacing the newsy elements, writing a really good press release, adding an infographic and distributing the whole package to the media.
(Link to the release: Heavy Video Viewers 57% More Likely to Spend on Holiday Gifts)
However, the way the PR team packaged the story will help direct resulting any news coverage advantageously for the brand....
Google’s latest Panda algorithm will not spell the death of press releases. Rather, it will ensure they contain higher-quality content that consumers and members of the media are looking for, say major wire services.
Google rolled out Panda 4.0, an algorithm designed to prevent sites with poor-quality content from ranking high in its search results. While the company has updated Panda several times throughout the years, a recent report by Search Engine Land claimed wire sites lost "significant rankings" on Google, between 60% and 85%, after the most recent update....
Pew’s State of the News Media report and an Inkhouse and GMI study each present a portrait of the media that’s increasingly becoming a digital world.
That may be the overarching theme of Pew’s latest State of the News Media report. It also revealed that most Americans now get their news through a digital platform, with 82 percent using their desktop or laptop and 54 percent saying they get news from their mobile device.
Daily newspapers shouldn’t be discounted quite yet. Subscriptions make up 70 percent of audience-driven revenue for media outlets, totaling $10.4 billion last year.
Inkhouse and GMI conducted a similar study recently, and found that 73 percent of news consumers turn to TV for their news, followed by news websites (52 percent), print sources (36 percent) and radio (25 percent), which barely beat out social media (23 percent).
Should you REALLY invest in a PR Section on your website? We think not-- and here's why.The time has finally come: You can go ahead and get rid of that “Company News” section.
Nobody’s reading it. In fact, a recent analytical report compiled by Chris Scott of Headscape suggests that the fewer than 1% of visitors who DO read your press releases tend to leave your site shortly after.
So there you have it: your company news page – with all its press releases, employee event descriptions, award notifications and job promotion updates – is actually driving your prospects away...
New webmaster rules from Google just killed PR agencies according to Tom Foremski's post "Did Google just kill PR agencies?" last month.He highlights a Google webmaster update warning about black hat, linkbait press releases and other similar improper SEO content practices trying to manipulate search engine results.Look out PR agencies Foremski warns....
Google now calls links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. Even though Google took away the anchor text links in press releases (and guest posts and articles), there are still press release optimization opportunities.
Google's most recent update to their defintions of link schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR world; a real downer to link building strategists.
It's true: the world's largest search engine called links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. What does this mean to organizations using press releases to gain digital visibility in search and social?For brands publishing a press release or an article on your site and distributing it through a paid wire service, such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwire or through an article site, you must first make sure to nofollow the links if those links are "optimized anchor text."
Is This a Big SEO Deal? Yes. No. Maybe.
Google has been slowly squeezing the SEO life out of press releases for a while now.
"In 2006 online press releases were amazing for SEO. In 2013? Not so much," said Joe Laratro, SEO expert and PubCon lead moderator. "Online press releases have had very little value in terms of links and content over the past few years – I would say it had been steadily declining. However, I still thought it was a good part of a large organic link building strategy until the new guideline changes."...
There are few companies or organisations that can come close to rivalling the power that Google wields over the internet and search in particular....
So when the search engine updated its rules on unnatural link schemes recently, making specific reference to press releases, it triggered a rather alarmist article from ZDNet asking whether Google had killed PR agencies.
The convergence of PR and SEO is something we’ve covered previously on the blog, with articles focusing on the importance of search optimised PR and suggesting seven SEO tools to improve online PR efficiency.
However the article on ZDNet understandably (and probably intentionally) ruffled a few feathers within the PR industry as it painted them as black hat SEOs, out to flood the internet with dull, keyword loaded press releases just so they could help their clients climb a few places in search rankings....
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Marketers and public relations professionals can find plenty of advice on how to write a press release, but rarely is that advice directly from the journalists that press releases attempt to engage.
It turns out, journalists have a lot to say about press releases. It also turns out that marketers have a lot to learn.
Although I recently joined an inbound marketing agency, I'm a 25-year veteran the Chicago Sun-Times and the Contra Costa Times, among other. For decades I started my mornings weeding through the press releases in my inbox, one finger hovering over the "delete" key and ready to strike.
Wondering whether things have gotten better lately, I reached out to several journalist friends.
"Most of what I get is garbage," said Mary Pols, a longtime Portland Press-Herald/Sunday Telegram reporter who has also worked at the Los Angeles Times.
Ouch.
Follow these top 9 recommendations to stand out....
It can be difficult to get a news release approved internally—even without thinking about search engine optimization.
However, if exposure, disclosure or page views are your goals, you must heed content discoverability and make your release SEO-friendly.
A list of search engine violations and penalties shows ways your content can fail to attract attention online. This applies to all your owned media content—including your website and news releases.
What makes some releases more successful than others in terms of drawing traffic? They’re written with healthy SEO features. These successful news releases appeal to Google’s latest algorithm, which rewards high-quality, unique and non-spam content.
Follow these five simple steps to create releases that can rank high in search results....
While many find the press release to be an antiquated and now inefficient method of delivering content, the truth is that the press release is far from dead.
There are many audiences online who still rely on press releases as key sources of information.
Be it tradition or its deep roots, they continue to be used, and by more than just public relations (PR) departments. Except nowadays, many different types of press releases serve many different purposes.
But if you’re interested in creating effective and relevant press releases for distribution, you’ll have to understand the history, its evolution in a growing content universe, and all of the options you have available to you.
Consider this a crash course in all things press release...
Google is constantly changing its algorithms. We all know about Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird, but what people often forget is that each one is periodically updated, often without any confirmation or announcement by Google.
The latest known Panda update is Google Panda 4.1, according to the Moz Google algorithm change history log, which has had a profound effect on PR agencies.
The Panda algorithm, in particular, has made huge waves across the PR industry. According to the article ‘Did Google Panda 4.0 Go after Press Release Sites?,’ industry expert Barry Schwartz launched a study which revealed prominent PR agencies like PR Newswire, BusinessWire, and PRWeb lost up to 85% of their visibility within a matter of days.
Studies like this demonstrate that PR agencies are intertwined with the SEO industry, and must adapt or perish in a changing environment....
Google likes to keep us PR pros on our toes.
Last year the big update to search results came through the “nuclear bomb” that was Panda 4.0. The age of the keyword was essentially over, and proper storytelling blogs and press releases were in. Many claimed that SEO was on its way out completely.
Recently, Google made even more changes. Though the advent of Panda 4.0 made press releases seem borderline useless, the search engine has now revalued them. There’s one big alteration, though, that changes the way savvy PR pros should use press releases....
A lot of businesspeople wonder why a certain press release fell flat. Nine times out of 10, the answer is quite simple: It didn't highlight any news.
Once you're able to understand what's newsworthy, your press releases will start to generate results.
Focusing on the following six topics is a surprisingly common pitching mistake in the startup world. While some of the topics are trivial or just advertorial, others have a germ of an idea that could made newsworthy by a shift in focus in the press release....
Hot on the heels of the World Cup games, this announcement by Dynamic Architecture titled “The Dynamic Football Experience: World’s First Football Entertainment Centre to be Rotating Building” became the most viewed multimedia news release on PRNewswire.com.
It’s no surprise that the news earned so much attention; a spinning, soccer-ball shaped building to be constructed in the middle of Rio de Janeiro sounds like a story beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. But this press release does a great job at anticipating the questions a journalist or potential visitor might ask and includes eye-catching visuals, an intriguing story angle, and fifteen translations of the text release to entice soccer enthusiasts around the globe....
...Sher has uncovered a paradox: Journalists, who are in the business of telling stories, have actually ruined age-old narrative traditions through their approaches.
For Sher, the inverted pyramid writing style is one of the worst offenders, because it often reveals the juiciest part of a story in the first paragraph. So, why read on? Sher’s revelation was unsettling for his audience, a room full of journalists at this year’s Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Thankfully, Sher has a remedy. He offered some tips that he promised will help reporters tell a more engaging tale, whether they are shooting 60-minute TV documentaries or writing short Web hits. The following tips can also be used to tell your brand’s ongoing story in a press release. After all, your goal in PR is to appeal to the storyteller inside every journalist....
Press Release Writing Tactics: 2014 Update
Learn why most PR stinks, and how to fix it.
Hired a new executive? Write a press release. Painted a wall in your office? Duh -- press release, everyone is going to want to hear about that. Shipped a teeny tiny feature? To the press release we go!
Here’s the problem -- we've already established that reporters aren’t over the moon about inboxes chock-full of press releases, and the act of writing them isn’t particularly thrilling for any marketer. And yet, I think the heart of the problem has less to do with the age-old argument of whether press releases work or not, and more to do with the need for a seismic shift in how we think about media relations....
I wince at 99.99% of the press releases I receive daily. That’s because 99.99% look like sloppy cut-and-paste jobs, ones that have nothing to do with the Daily Fix and its readers, and everything to do with the sender, the sender, and, oh, right, the sender. Reading a press release that doesn’t make me wince is rare—yet not impossible.Now and then, I receive press releases that are smart, audience-focused, brief, and interesting. So, for this week’s post, I thought I’d stay on the sunny side of the street and share seven traits about press releases that DO get read....
10 Yetis Vents - Google update has not killed press releases or PR Agencies its just killed crap content and spammy writing.
Right now the interwebs are full of "Google has killed PR Agencies/press releases" stories. These all relate to big G's latest update that talks about its crack down on keyword optimised press releases and the need to use no-follow links in stories that PRs push out.
Whether it is emails from nervous clients wanting clarification on the situation, or people on Twitter sending me DMs asking if I have seen various stories (because we set our stall out around being very SEO savvy), it is really up in my grill right now.
Not many public relations professionals have put their head above the parapet and come out with their take on this, so I thought I would give it the first shot....
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![The State of Multimedia in Press Releases [Study + Infographics] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/nsfZonQLcnT6cFUuceChQjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Not the worst news release I've ever seen but pretty bad. A nothingburger.