So you’ve written a compelling press release about something happening at your company.  Awesome!  Now what?  Since it does you no good if your news doesn’t actually get read by the folks you’re targeting, It’s useful to understand the options for press release distribution available to you.

You have your news, but without getting it into the appropriate media channels, it’s not worth much.  You need to get it to journalists, editors, bloggers and websites to make a splash:

Traditional Media. Newspapers, magazines and journals are always in need of fodder to publish.  Sending a release to an editor or journalist is easy, but getting results can be difficult, especially the more popular the publication.  Editors at Fortune Magazine, for example, are inundated by press releases every day, so chances are slim they’ll actually be interested in yours.  If, however, you send it to the Dog Walker Association Journal (completely fictitious as far as I know), they probably don’t get nearly the number of releases, so your chance of getting coverage in your niche is much better.

Blogs. Bloggers are as much journalists as the folks working at a “real” publication these days.   You stand a good chance of a blogger being interested in your release than a busy magazine editor, if you do it right (see tips at the end).

For both traditional media and blogs, you need to research the appropriate contact (the editor or blogger who covers your industry) and reach out to them personally (email usually works nicely).  Be polite, introduce yourself and your product and explain how readers will benefit by using it.  Make this first contact (and every contact for that matter) about them, not you.

Websites. Press release distribution services like that of PRWeb.com are able to reach a network of websites within a niche to automatically publish your release to the industries you designate and news sites like Google and Yahoo! in an automated fashion.  The service can be costly with prices starting at $80 per press release.

Check out this video by PRWeb.com illustrating how their press release distribution works:

Which do I recommend?

All of the above. Work on developing a network of contacts both within traditional media channels (to benefit from their reach) and popular blogs in your category (to benefit from their influence).

A pleasant side effect of your PR efforts is the boost in search traffic.  Creating relevant backlinks to your website increases page rank and gets you on Google’s good side.  Track your website referrals through your analytics program to figure out what’s working.

Tips:

• Make sure you contact the editor or journalist that covers your topic – don’t bother with the general inbox.
• Please check your spelling – especially of their name!
• Make the introduction personable – No “Dear Sir”
• Read the publication (blog, magazine, or newspaper) you’re pitching to – make sure it’s a good fit.
• Proofread.  Proofread.  Proofread your press release.
• Include contact information including web address, phone and email.

Props to Jill and Kevin for infusing their own personalities into an ageless routine. It’s amazing what a little tweaking can do. They took something good and made it BETTER. What started as a treat for about 100 of their closest friends and family… the JK wedding entrance has accumulated over 1.6 Million views and 8K comments on YouTube in just 4 days. And this isn’t even the party — this is only the ceremony!

This video makes me want a wedding do-over.  It made my day. I think it’s probably making Chris Brown’s day too. ‘Forever’ is now No. 29 on iTunes, No. 28 on Amazon — and climbing fast! I’m totally diggin’ the red-headed usher… he can groove that aisle!

**Update: 3 hours after this post, YouTube views of the Wedding Dance were at 1.9MM and comments at 11.5K

**Update: 24 hours after this post (7/25/09), YouTube views of the Wedding Dance trippled to 4.4MM and comments also tripled to 22K. The video was featured on The TODAY show. ‘Forever’ is up to #3 on Amazon and #12 on iTunes.

It’s official, social networks are the new black and growing bigger and more valuable to marketers every day.  With over 130 Million active users on Facebook alone, the possibility of reaching your target market (and even your future target market) through this one social network is basically a reality.

From fortune 100s to start-ups, companies are flocking to social networks in an effort to connect with their customers in ways that are meaningful and genuine.  If you’re a marketer thinking about establishing a presence, you’re probably wondering where to begin.

Should you build your own company profile?  Should you hire an agency to handle your strategy?  Is Facebook even the right social network for you?  If not, then which and how do you find out?  And what do you do once you’re officially ON Facebook or MySpace or Bebo…

I mean, how do you build a vibrant community that empowers your biggest fans and generates sales?

Wait. What?  Sales?  Ummm…  Oh yeah, sales – we are marketers, we worship the ROI Gods and stand accountable for the dollars and resources we consume.  If an activity cannot be directly attributed to an uptick in sales, is it a worthy course of action or should you reallocate time and resources?

The answer is more simple than you might expect.  Ready for it?  Okay – the answer is… that depends.  As a marketer, really as anyone in business, you’ve got to succumb to trade-offs.  The time and energy you expend on executing, managing and measuring social media campaigns is time and energy no longer available for another activity.  In the end, it’s about balancing short term goals with long term objectives.

In my opinion, investing time and resources in social media is ABSOLUTELY worth the effort.  Social media exists because it is, by nature, social.  It is propelled by REAL people engaging in REAL conversations about the things that matter to them.  Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, that conversation turns to your company, your products, your brand.  Are you there to join in?  If not, shouldn’t you be?  Not because you want to control it, but because you don’t want to miss a golden opportunity to influence it.

Whether it’s re-affirming the good things chatted about your brand, or addressing the negative, the important thing is to be there when it matters to prospects and customers. In the end,’it’s less about establishing an online presence (After all, we’ve proven that you’re already there by way of conversations) and more about influencing the role you portray in the ongoing drama.

Brands that respect and empower existing communities are more likely to see their social media campaigns pay off in ways that amount to increased sales.  Do you really need to BUILD a community?  How about starting with JOINING the one that already exists?  Now there’s a concept.

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I’ve written about this before, but it merits mentioning again. The marketplace is C-R-O-W-D-E-D. Your customers and prospects are being bombarded with a continuous stream of competing marketing messages. What is a marketer to do? How do you make sure your messages are heard?

Believe it or not, some companies are successfully penetrating the noise. Their messages are being heard and responded to. What you want to do during times like these is stake out a territory – a position – which your company alone is uniquely qualified to occupy.

The result is an effective positioning that sets your company and products apart from the competition. This competitive advantage gives rise to the clarity and focus necessary to outperform rivals.

Demand Metric is teaming up with MarketingExperiments to launch a new eWorkshop on May 19th about positioning. It aims to provide you with tools and practical guidance to discover and/or refine company and product positioning.

During the eWorkshop they’ll address:

1. What Positioning is and why it is important
2. The role Positioning plays in product launches
3. How to develop a Competitive Product Position Map
4. How to develop Product Positioning and a Product Positioning statement
5. How to leverage your positioning statement in all marketing communications to achieve greater message consistency and effectiveness

Plus, when you register you’ll receive instant access to the Premium Tool-Kit which includes:

· Competitive Analysis Tool
· Competitive Product Positioning Tool
· Market Research Report Template
· Product Positioning Tool
· Value Proposition Worksheet
· BONUS REPORT: Market Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning

The tools and training you receive will help you understand the value of positioning your company and its products, and equip you to lead a positioning planning process for your organization. Find out More>>

If you decide to register, let us know what you thought of the training in the comments.

Anybody notice how noisy it’s gotten?  I mean, all of a sudden I’m being flooded by a constant flow of press releases and social media releases and sooo-much-PR… it seems endless.

It’s as if, in a mad dash to be heard, companies are cranking out more and more releases every day — whether it’s newsworthy stuff or not — just hoping, even praying they’ll get picked up.  Working harder to accomplish less is never the smart business choice.  Better to have a few effective campaigns under your belt than a dozen forgettable attempts.

What does your communication strategy look like?  Do you even have a strategy?  Or are you like many busy marketers out there firing off standalone tactics?  The good news (If I can call it that) is that your competition’s probably in the same boat that you’re in — so what we’ve got here is an opportunity.  A chance to get ahead of the pack and sharpen your skills at the same time.

From figuring out the goals for each campaign — to allocating the appropriate amount of resources and time — you need a plan to be effective.  And believe me, the answer isn’t to write a press-release about everything just to cover your bases.  It’s a lot like crying wolf — after a while your audience tunes out.  You need to know what’s newsworthy in order to keep them engaged and listening.

If you’re not sure where to start, there’s an eWorkshop with Demand Metric and MarketingExperiments on April 28th that’s worth checking out.  In addition to the hour-long training, you get tools and templates to use for developing your media relations strategy.

I started using the tools and played around with the templates today (My company’s producing the event) – as a package, they’re powerful indeed.  During a webinar rehearsal a couple weeks back Brian Solis, Principal at Future-Works, said that “Influence is the ability to inspire action and measure it” — Optimizing my media relations strategy seems like an excellent starting point.

What do you think has caused the uptick in press releases?  Do you think it’s a result of reduced marketing budgets and thus an over-reliance on traditional media strategies?  Let us hear your theories in the comments.

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