Doug Hay, CEO of Expansion Plus and Molly Campanella of Marketwire discuss best practices for online optimized press releases.

1. Optimized (Online)
Press Releases
Webinar: February 24, 2009
Presenters:
Doug Hay, CEO Expansion Plus
Molly Campanella, Senior Account Manager, Marketwire, Inc.
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2. The Challenge of the Living Web
The Internet is a
living, breathing, ever
changing, constantly
improving
communications
network.
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3. 3 Types of Press Releases
1. Traditional media
2. Internet focused
3. Social media release
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4. Press Releases Online
News Engines
Search Engines
Journalists
Buyers
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5. Tremendous Opportunity
• In real estate it is
location, location,
location
• For the Internet it is
content, content,
content
• Web sites, blogs, content
in RSS feeds, and online
press releases are all
content
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6. Different Styles
There are different styles of
writing for:
• Blogs – informal
• Online press releases –
written like a news story
• Web pages – Educational
and sales at the same time
• Articles – written to
educate not sell
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7. Prospects Are Online Actively
Searching
• You need to create
content with key
words.
• This is called
“optimizing”
• E.g. Optimized press
release
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8. SEO
• Short for search engine
optimization.
• The process of increasing
the amount of visitors to a
Web site by ranking high in
the search results of a
search engine.
-
Webopedia
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9. Successful SEO
• The site itself must be optimized
– Key word research and strategy
– Write new content for web pages using key words
– Design, programming, tags, etc per the strategy
and key words
• Link building with new editorial content
(press releases, articles) which Google places
heavy emphasis on.
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10. Google Rankings
Even the Google
engineers acknowledge
that tweaking your tags
and on-page elements
are not as important as
having good content and
a reputation in your
community (think links).
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11. Google Universal
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12. RSS (really simple syndication)
• RSS is a family of web feed formats
used to publish frequently updated
digital content, such as blogs, news
feeds or podcasts.
• Users of RSS content use software
programs called "feed readers" or
"feed aggregators".
- Wikipedia
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13. RSS & SEO
• Each syndicated press release or article would
have one or more links to selected pages on
your web site
• RSS content is vital for SEO as the syndication
builds back links
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14. Write For The End User
• Write with a
passion and
excitement.
• Know the product
or service and
write compelling
content.
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15. New Communication Channels
• You are the source
of the content.
• There are often no
journalists or
editors to rewrite
or edit your
material
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16. Do Your Homework
• Before you start
writing, research
what is the
current news.
• Create an alert for
ongoing
assignments.
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17. PR 101 Still Applies
• Use the tools you
know from
traditional PR.
• Readers love
controversy, big
names, etc.
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18. Make Your Press Release Newsworthy
• To get the attention of reporters or editors
you have to send them a press release that
reads like a news story.
• If you write a thinly disguised product
announcement or worse, an advertisement,
your press release will end up in the trash
basket.
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19. Keywords
• You need to choose one
main keyword or phrase and
one or two minor keywords
or phrases
• Write the release with these
words in mind.
• Focus on the main keyword
or phrase.
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20. Headlines
• Your main phrase should
go in the headline.
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21. Links
Add a link to the
website page you want Links In Press
to send the traffic to at Release
the end of the first
paragraph and again at
the end of the release.
Select Web
Pages
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22. Overview
• Have a story to tell
• Format the press release
properly
• Keep your press release
short
• Syndicate your press
release online using RSS
• Use a wire service with
Internet capabilities
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23. Social Media 2.0

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26. Social Media Example
Embedded Video, Social Media
Bookmarking, Live Search
tracking, and embedded
hyperlinks – all for the web 2.0
community
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27. Trackbacks to measure blog
postings, embedded
comments that the client
can moderate, and keyword
searches
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28. External links, interactive
thumbnail image of the
client’s website of choice, and
Custom Technorati search tags
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29. Sharing Options
Share or bookmark this
release on over 50 different
social media websites
including Facebook, Digg,
Del.icio.us, and SlashDot
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30. Search Stats
Reader gets 1-click access to
all search results for the
release headline on Google,
Yahoo!, MSN Live, Digg.com
and Technorati… Instant
search stats.
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31. Options
Email to a friend or print this release
1-click access to other releases by this
company issued over Marketwire
Search engine, blog post and social
bookmark-friendly “permalink” URL
Trackback URL
Keyword cloud, created automatically, that
links to all other client releases containing
these keywords. Easy navigation and
improved SEO.
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32. Multimedia
- Add unlimited multimedia
- Videos:
- Powered by YouTube.
- Link to your own video channel or distribute to YouTube,
Google Video and Yahoo! Video using Marketwire channel
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33. Multimedia
- Images:
- Distributed to Marketwire’s PhotoBucket channel, allows for
easy, social media sharing:
Specially formatted
for use with emails,
blogs, instant
messaging,
websites, forums
and bulletin boards
– content presented
in URLs, image
codes, and HTML
code for individual
user preference
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34. Distribution
– The Social Media Release format puts the power of
distribution and content repurposing into the hands
of the social media community via sharing and
bookmarking…it can become a viral PR mechanism!
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35. Expanded Reach… Over 200
Million Users!
iTunes 70 Facebook Photobucket
Million Users 50 Million Users 38 Million Users
Top Blog Sites YouTube
13 Million Users Second Life
24 Million Users
9.5 Million Users
Google Video Flickr Twitter
8 Million Users 1.5 Million Users ½ Million Users
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36. Traditional Press Release
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37. Social Media Press
Release
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45. BLOG
PRESS RELEASE
FACEBOOK PAGE
MYSPACE PAGE 45

46. Resources
Expansion Plus Inc
www.expansionplus.com
Press Release Distribution
Marketwire, Inc.
www.marketwire.com
RSS Service
PRESSfeed
www.press-feed.com
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47. Contact Details
Doug Hay, CEO, Expansion Plus
626-793-4911
dough@expansionplus.com
Molly Campanella, Senior Account Manager
Marketwire, Inc.
310-765-3225
mcampanella@marketwire.com
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48. Social Media Webinar Series
• Looking to create a social media marketing
strategy that will measurably boost your
organization’s ROI?
• An intensive 4-part webinar series starting in
March.
• Learn how to build your complete, actionable
social media marketing strategy.
• Watch your email for details.

49. Copyright Notice
All materials contained in these materials are
protected by United States copyright law and
may not be reproduced, distributed,
transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast
without the prior written permission of
Expansion Plus Inc.
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