Optimizing Press Releases Made Easy with PRESSfeed Toolbar

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The shift in media consumption is accelerating - according to the Newspaper Association of America 43.6 percent of all U. S. internet users visit newspaper websites.

Nielsen’s figures for March show that each of the top three news destination on the Web (MSNBC, CNN and Yahoo!News) individually each drew more than half the unique visitors of the entire newspaper industry. Year-over-year, MSNBC grew 9 percent, CNN 4 percent, and Yahoo!News 16 percent.

The majority of PR professionals are aware of this trend and the need to optimize press releases and news content for search – 75 percent are adding keywords to the headline and body of their news content.

But there is much more to optimizing a release for search.
To help PR people understand the optimization process so that they can reach this online audience, PRESSfeed, a content syndication and social media tool, has developed a free toolbar and instruction sheet that puts all the technical information needed, along with tips, tricks and tools for news optimization, in one convenient place.

The toolbar links to an instruction sheet on the PRESSfeed website that has detailed information about how to optimize a press release for maximum search visibility and pick up. It includes how to do keyword research and spot search trends. It also has all the tools and websites needed to do the steps in the instructions.

The toolbar is available as a free download on the PRESSfeed website

Quotes:
“Optimizing news content for search is no longer a choice,” says Sally Falkow, co- developer of PRESSfeed and the new toolbar. “In the last year the number of people who get their news online has passed the number who read newspapers. The majority of those who do go online for news do a search. We developed this toolbar so that PR and marketing people can have easy access to the tools they need to improve their optimizing skills and reach this online audience.”

“We’ve seen an increasing interest in optimizing press releases,” said Melanie Widmann, Search and Social Media Manager for Marketwire. “We’ve had over a thousand people register for the last two webinars that were geared toward informing as well as helping our clients master this skill. This new toolbar makes it easy to both access technical information and includes many useful tools that PR practitioners can use for press release optimization.”

“It’s very timely, and a welcome innovation,” said Dana Todd, CMO of Newsforce. “Companies like PRESSfeed are making it easier for PR professionals to integrate digital strategies into their normal workflow. It’s helpful to have tools that are uniquely aligned with PR goals and tactics, which are often quite different than marketing and sales.”

"The PressFeed toolbar provides an easy, non-obtrusive tool that I use regularly to prepare, submit and track my clients press across the Internet," stated Mark Moline, Managing Partner at IRTH Communications, LLC in Santa Monica, CA. "The clever integration of Google's search, trend and analytics tools; and, press release optimization and key word selection, makes it easy for me to create a compelling press release that will get the placement my clients need."

"Using the tools offered in PressFeed, a recent press release we disseminated on behalf of a client received a response rate unlike anything we had done previously. We received numerous press inquiries, requests for interviews and a tremendous increase in channel views on the client's YouTube channel," added Moline

Statistics
Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey:

? 75% of PR and marketing professionals use keyword in the headline and body of the text
? 38% insert meta tags

The Newspaper Association of America first quarter 2009 audience data release:
? 43.6% of the US Internet population get their news online
? First quarter traffic to newspaper Web sites was reported as 73.3 million unique visitors (average per month) by Nielsen
? Each of the top three news destination on the Web (MSNBC, CNN and Yahoo!News) individually each drew more than half the unique visitors of the entire newspaper industry in March 2009. Year-over-year, MSNBC grew 9 percent, CNN 4 percent, and Yahoo!News 16 percent.

Technorati Tags: toolbar, press releases, news, online,

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Optimizing Press Releases Made Easy with PRESSfeed Toolbar

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The shift in media consumption is accelerating - according to the Newspaper Association of America 43.6 percent of all U. S. internet users visit newspaper websites.

Nielsen’s figures for March show that each of the top three news destination on the Web (MSNBC, CNN and Yahoo!News) individually each drew more than half the unique visitors of the entire newspaper industry. Year-over-year, MSNBC grew 9 percent, CNN 4 percent, and Yahoo!News 16 percent.

The majority of PR professionals are aware of this trend and the need to optimize press releases and news content for search – 75 percent are adding keywords to the headline and body of their news content.

But there is much more to optimizing a release for search.
To help PR people understand the optimization process so that they can reach this online audience, PRESSfeed, a content syndication and social media tool, has developed a free toolbar and instruction sheet that puts all the technical information needed, along with tips, tricks and tools for news optimization, in one convenient place.

The toolbar links to an instruction sheet on the PRESSfeed website that has detailed information about how to optimize a press release for maximum search visibility and pick up. It includes how to do keyword research and spot search trends. It also has all the tools and websites needed to do the steps in the instructions.

The toolbar is available as a free download on the PRESSfeed website

Quotes:
“Optimizing news content for search is no longer a choice,” says Sally Falkow, co- developer of PRESSfeed and the new toolbar. “In the last year the number of people who get their news online has passed the number who read newspapers. The majority of those who do go online for news do a search. We developed this toolbar so that PR and marketing people can have easy access to the tools they need to improve their optimizing skills and reach this online audience.”

“We’ve seen an increasing interest in optimizing press releases,” said Melanie Widmann, Search and Social Media Manager for Marketwire. “We’ve had over a thousand people register for the last two webinars that were geared toward informing as well as helping our clients master this skill. This new toolbar makes it easy to both access technical information and includes many useful tools that PR practitioners can use for press release optimization.”

“It’s very timely, and a welcome innovation,” said Dana Todd, CMO of Newsforce. “Companies like PRESSfeed are making it easier for PR professionals to integrate digital strategies into their normal workflow. It’s helpful to have tools that are uniquely aligned with PR goals and tactics, which are often quite different than marketing and sales.”

"The PressFeed toolbar provides an easy, non-obtrusive tool that I use regularly to prepare, submit and track my clients press across the Internet," stated Mark Moline, Managing Partner at IRTH Communications, LLC in Santa Monica, CA. "The clever integration of Google's search, trend and analytics tools; and, press release optimization and key word selection, makes it easy for me to create a compelling press release that will get the placement my clients need."

"Using the tools offered in PressFeed, a recent press release we disseminated on behalf of a client received a response rate unlike anything we had done previously. We received numerous press inquiries, requests for interviews and a tremendous increase in channel views on the client's YouTube channel," added Moline

Statistics
Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey:

? 75% of PR and marketing professionals use keyword in the headline and body of the text
? 38% insert meta tags

The Newspaper Association of America first quarter 2009 audience data release:
? 43.6% of the US Internet population get their news online
? First quarter traffic to newspaper Web sites was reported as 73.3 million unique visitors (average per month) by Nielsen
? Each of the top three news destination on the Web (MSNBC, CNN and Yahoo!News) individually each drew more than half the unique visitors of the entire newspaper industry in March 2009. Year-over-year, MSNBC grew 9 percent, CNN 4 percent, and Yahoo!News 16 percent.

Technorati Tags: toolbar, press releases, news, online,

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What's the difference between PRESSfeed and a blog?

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AppId is over the quota

Blogs have exploded on the Internet in the past two years. What started out as a personal journal online has evolved into a sophisticated marketing tool. Blogs make it quick and simple for anyone to find the ‘power of voice’. They provide a way for non-techie to post content to the web and, because every blog has an RSS feed, the content can easily be found, indexed by the search engines and shared with others.

According to the unwritten rules of blogging, a blog is a conversation and so should

? Be updated as often as possible
? Have an authentic human voice
? Open a ‘window’ into the company
? Build up thought leadership for the person/s blogging
? Start a dialog, so it must?have comments
? Not be ‘the company line’
? Not be written by PR people
? Not be used for press releases
? Not have to go through a legal check on each post

What does PRESSfeed do?

PRESSfeed creates news pages. It’s used for press releases and educational articles.

The purpose of these pages is to increase the online visibility of your news content. It is not intended to be a blog. Like a blog, these pages are in a content management system, so it’s very easy for PR and marketing folk who are not tech savvy to control their news content. No more reliance on IT to get your press releases onto the website!

Because the pages have many of the same features you find in blog software these news pages can reap?the benefits of blogging while not having to abide by the ‘rules’ of blogging.

? Search engines index the pages faster because of the RSS feed
? Search engines think they are blogs and so index these pages in their blog search section as well as the web section
? However, people do not think they are blogs, so your not confined by the ‘should be’s’ of a blog
? You don’t need a ‘genuine voice’
? The pages do not have to be updated a couple of times a week
? One person does not have to write the content
? The content can be prepared by the PR department or agency
? PRESSfeed has social bookmarking links built in to make it easy for your news content to be saved and shared with others
? These articles get syndicated in an RSS feed and get seen by new audiences
? Each article should have a link back to your website and so will build inbound links that positively affect your search ranking.
? The index page is set up to look like a newsroom page. The index page has headlines and a short intro that links to the full article
? The pages do not look like a blog with each post fully visible in one long sequential page

Should you have a blog or should you use PRESSfeed?

The answer is yes! You should do both. A blog is for building relationships and starting conversations. You should have a blog and you should abide by all the ‘rules’ of blogging. It’s very important to have that authentic voice reaching out to your customers and providing your public with a way to get to know you.

But you should also have your company news out on the Internet. Create a series of articles that educate your public about your industry and your products/services, Post them to your website and make them available in an RSS feed.

PRESSfeed was built specifically to assist PR and marketing folk to use social media elements on their news pages. If you write articles and press releases based on a sound keyword and content strategy, you’ll find that your corporate website starts to move up in the search ranking and other bloggers find and blog about your content without you having to do very much.

Take a look at our case studies.

Technorati Tags: RSS feed, blog, blogging, PRESSfeed, online news, newsrooms

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