Write Better Press Release Titles

by My Web Writers

You might slave away on a press release about the launch of your company’s latest widget. The core content may be impressive, but what about details like the title? The truth is you should put just as much stock in the title as you would in determining the body of the release.

It’s possible for those in the media to receive hundreds of press releases each day. They typically peruse headlines to determine which ones seem interesting enough to read fully. Will yours make the cut? In short, your title will make or break your chance to grab their attention. Follow these tips to craft effective press release titles.

• Be clear vs. clever—Save “clever” for advertising copy. Editors just want the facts, not a punchy version of it. Therefore, your title should capture what’s covered in the body of your press release. As a rule, focus on the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions, to get your point across.
• Be accurate—Again, leave clever to advertising. You will put yourself at a disadvantage if your title is somehow misleading. Good intentions can cause you to lose credibility, and potentially weaken or sever media relationships.
• Ditch the sales pitch—A press release should be informative and/or entertaining. What it is not is an advertisement for your products and services. You can be interesting, while still being factual and straightforward.
• Keep it short—A good rule of thumb is if you can’t express what you need in 10 words (or 100-150 characters) or fewer, you might need to reconsider if you really understand what you’re promoting. Again, as mentioned above, members of the media are pressed for time, and will only dedicate a few seconds to whatever is put in front of them. Practice creating concise titles that get your point across. You might even want to try several different versions of your headline to make sure you have a good handle on it.
• Include keywords—Alas, don’t forget about optimizing your press release. It’s true search engines tend to favor press releases. That means high rankings for targeted keywords. Strive to get the main keyword in the title.
• Use Numbers— List posts are popular due to their visual nature.  Incorporating this into your title can serve as teaser. In today’s blog dominated world, people demand easy-to-scan content. An example: “5 reasons you should love XYZ product.”
• Proof, proof, proof! —Don’t be “that company” who sends out press releases with typos or other errors in the title. You might want to consider re-visiting it the next day, or even having a peer review it. It’s better to be overly cautious than sorry—and humiliated.

Now that you have the elements of a solid press title down, concern yourself with the writing process. Write the body of the release first, then proceed to writing the title. Why? A title serves as a sort of promise to the reader about what he or she should expect. Writing it last provides you with the benefit of ensuring you followed through with the promise you made in the title.

~Lauren

Tricks to Using LinkedIn and Quora to Research Topics and Articles

By My Web Writers

LinkedIn and Quora can be used for much more than meets the eye. Most think of LinkedIn as a professional website for job hunting, and some see Quora as a question-and-answer site with no more credibility than Wikipedia. If you know a few tricks, however, both can be excellent resources for researching topics and articles. Whether you’re a content writer or researching for a school assignment, turning to these sites can provide some great information, or at least point you in the right direction for other outstanding sources.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is no doubt a great source for networking and showcasing your list of job skills for potential employers, but it can also be used to research topics and articles. LinkedIn Today is the perfect spot to see what other professionals are sharing. Like the “How to use LinkedIn Today” video says, “There’s too much information out there, and not enough time in the day.”

LinkedIn Today gives you information from industry professionals and experts who have knowledge to share about specific topics. Not only can you search for a specific topic on LinkedIn Today, but can then filter down the results even further based on time posted, industry, or even company.

You can also set up your LinkedIn Today posts to show up on your LinkedIn homepage. You can select specific topics or even people to follow. The articles will be catered to your specifications!

Join a LinkedIn Group and read what others are asking or sharing.  Some of the best, blog post topics can be formed just by looking at forum questions.

Quora

“Anyone can ask, answer, or edit questions on Quora,” is the welcome you get once you’ve logged in to your Quora page.  Get answers from real people from all over the world. The answers might come from doctors, lawyers, writers, etc.

Quora has some great tips on getting started and how to decide which information makes for a good answer. For example, a good answer will often include a link to a research article or website that will provide more detailed information. The best answers are voted to the top of the often long list of answers.

If you can’t find a question that’s already been asked about your topic, ask the question yourself! You’ve got a world of people out there waiting to answer, so why not ask? The answers could open up a world of information you had no idea was out there and can be quoted in your blog post.

While LinkedIn and Quora shouldn’t be your only means of researching, the information found can certainly point you in the right direction. LinkedIn and Quora can offer analysis from industry experts and professionals that you might not otherwise find. ~Natalie

What is Reddit and How Should Bloggers Use It?

 By My Web Writers 

What’s good, and what’s junk? How about you decide for once instead of the mainstream media making all the decisions? That’s exactly what Reddit is- a website that showcases what the people find most interesting on the Internet. As a blogger this site can help you in many ways. Their mascot, the Reddit alien, is a silly little guy, but don’t let that keep you away from this very helpful website. New bloggers get ready!

What is Reddit?

More than 2 million people are active Reddit users and in April it had more than 69 million unique visitors. The site is quickly gaining in popularity. It’s basically a place where people post interesting content. “Redditers,” people who have Reddit accounts, vote the content higher or lower based on how interesting they find it.

Since there’s a huge flow of content constantly being posted, there are also “subreddits” or topics that can help you narrow down information you’re looking for. Redditers can post, comment, and vote content up or down the list. Check out Reddit’s YouTube page for more information on ways to use the site and for some FAQ about it.

This isn’t Yahoo! or CNN deciding what’s interesting, it’s the general public. There’s even a page with the most controversial postings on Reddit. Reddit can give you a look at what people are talking about, what people find interesting, and it can certainly help your blog.

How should bloggers use Reddit?

If you’ve ever wanted a glance into the minds and hearts of people on the Internet, Reddit is a great place to start. Since people vote on what’s most interesting, it’s like getting a view of what people would want to read and/or look at.

Reddit is also a place you should be submitting your best posts to. While posting on Facebook and other social media sites is a great way to see what your friends, family and fans think, Reddit will give you more of an idea of what the general public thinks. Experiment with a few different blog posts on different topics. See which ones are voted up or down. Either way, this will drive traffic to your blog.

Like any public posting, be prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly. People are brutally honest on Reddit, and they also typically don’t want to read pages and pages of content. Make sure you submit shorter posts that people will find interesting, not a post about your life story that goes on forever. Bloggers also need to be aware that if your post is voted down too many times, they’ll keep you from posting again for a while.

Make sure what you post on Reddit is your best work. Start off by picking your favorite blog post (not too lengthy), and see what happens. It should drive traffic to your blog and give you some instant feedback on what the general public thinks of your submission to Reddit. Though, keep your eye on Penguin 2.0. How this next Google update will affect linking from sites like Reddit to your blog remains to be seen.  Don’t forget to spend time looking through other people’s submissions to see what people have voted up and down.  ~Natalie

5 Ways to Write Content on a Shoe-String Budget

My Web Writers 

As a business owner you are faced with challenging decisions every day, if not several times throughout the day. Everything from your focus and vision to your marketing plan, each requires significant attention to detail and countless hours of envisioning, business mapping, and collecting data to support the strategic planning that you put into place to live out your company goals and mission.

One of the most challenging decisions that you, as a business owner, might make is how to effectively develop your company’s web site content to increase your business presence, reach your target audience, and boost your business’ performance while maintaining your “shoestring budget.” You know, it comes as no surprise, neither marketing nor advertising come without cost. Lucky for you, however, we’ve come up with five ways to help you write content on a shoe-string budget.

In-house writers: If your company is fortunate to have a marketing department, albeit large or small, using in-house writers can provide you with good, quality content. As a department, your company should identify the goals it would like to accomplish through the use of its content. Will your content be used primarily online, in print, through various direct mail, email or telemarketing campaigns? Once you’ve hit on the logistics, get your team involved. Creating unique and interesting content doesn’t come easier than to involve a lot of different people. Help your team to understand the company’s vision and then let them be the voice of the company. Each person will come with several different and unique approaches to your company’s marketing strategy.  Whichever strategy your team is tackling, monitor and track how successful your company’s outreach is and develop your future plans accordingly. It will help you to respond to the strengths and weaknesses of the department and meet the needs of your company’s target audience.

Contracted writers: In some cases, companies don’t have the staffing to maintain the necessary presence on the web to satisfy their marketing team’s departmental goals or in-house writers don’t quite have a full understanding of SEO.  If that sounds like your company, consider partnering with a content writing agency to supplement or manage your online presence.  Think about your overall space, administrative, and time costs saved when putting together your budget.  You will get what you pay for, so be realistic.  Look for content quotes that are reasonable to the parameters and demands of the project.

For a smaller budget, your in-house writers can begin their script and merely use contracted writers to edit or spruce up content. However, for slightly larger budgets or needs, freelance writers can take the joys of a blank page, use the mastery of their word-smithing capabilities, and turn your would-be dreams into a reality. And all the better, hiring contracted writers frees you and your staff of their highly valued time (especially if you’re likely to struggle at the stroke of the keys).

Content Management Software and Systems: Allow your company to tap into the ready-waiting success of content management software and systems just waiting to be utilized. If you’re not familiar with Hootsuite, let me give you the quickest, easiest one-two facts about it: It’s an A-MAZING must have. Hootsuite allows you the ability to manage and measure your social media networks all in one suite location. You can monitor and schedule social media messages, posts, and tweets for multiple accounts, while tracking any of your company mentions, all with the luxury of analyzing social media traffic. Sticking to your online schedule is simple when you schedule posts through Hootsuite. In fact, when the thought strikes you, schedule your post to appear in days, weeks, or months from the date you actually jot down your noteworthy thought. It’s a business-saver. And while you’re at it, sign up for an easy-to-use, online visibility account that keeps you in the news with PRWeb. Yep, it’s simple. Your writers can produce press releases about newsworthy happenings within your company and then share them with the rest of the world. Anything from a new employee, event, or product can now make headlines with the ease of online viewership. If you haven’t tried them, you should. Content management software and systems make distributing content affordable and easy, and they will make you seem like a genius!

High School and College Intern: Networking with local high schools, colleges and universities can be one of the most advantageous methods for developing content on a shoe-string budget. At most schools and colleges, student interns are nearing graduation and are experienced junior or senior level undergraduate students. In addition to having the benefit of hardworking students, desiring a position to give them hands-on, transferrable skills to carry over into the workforce upon graduation, employers can work closely with student interns to mentor them and provide them with the skills they desire in an employee on a trial-run basis, so to speak. It’s a win-win; students earn college credit and employers have good quality content written typically at no – or a low – cost.

Social Media: It should come without saying, plugging into social media is one of the wisest moves a company can make. Millions of individuals, nationally and internationally, visit social media sites daily. By maximizing your presence in various social media platforms, your company will successfully share your message, content, and company mission with the online world. And while you are building your platform, network, network, network. The more contact you make with the online world, the better you will be at getting your brand out to the world.

Marketing can be a tough hill to climb, but it doesn’t have to be. Utilizing the various marketing measures available to your company can help you take your business to the next level. ~Leah

The Latest on the Ever-Evolving Pinterest

By My Web Writers

Back in November 2012, Pinterest released, Business Pages, a new feature geared towards businesses and marketers. These Business Pages are not brand pages like what one would expect to find in other social networking sites. These pages actually look the same as the other pages. There are a couple features that set Business Pages apart from other Pinterest pages.

First, website authentication is now part of the sign up process.  Also, businesses are able to enter business names when signing up for their accounts instead of dealing with the hassles of entering individuals’ first names and last names. There are new terms of services for businesses (before this launch, Pinterest was strictly “non-commercial”).

Why should businesses be excited? The evolution indicates possibilities for the future. Pinterest is undoubtedly expanding their reach by adding more business and marketing related tools.  The added features could bring brands on board to further merchandise goods through business pages. Will Pinterest be the next Amazon?

Researcher Eric Gilbert from Georgia Tech and Loren Torveen from the University of Minnesota recently teamed up to use statistical data to answer the question of “What drives activity on Pinterest?” They used their data to …

• help understand the motivations behind Pinterest activity,
• determine what roles gender plays among users of Pinterest, and
• investigate the factors that distinguish Pinterest from other social networking sites.

Gilbert and Torveen ultimately found that:

• Female users have more repins, no matter what their location geographically.
• Men tend to typically have more followers on Pinterest.
• There are 4 verbs that set Pinterest apart from Twitter: “use,” “look,” “want,” and “need.”

Gilbert noted that “You can use the word ‘this’ after all of these verbs, reflecting the ‘things’ at the core of Pinterest. Many press articles have focused on Pinterest’s commercial potential, and here we see verbs that illustrate that consumption truly lies at the heart of the site.”

If you were thinking about using Pinterest for marketing, all systems are “go.” According the researchers, a recent market survey “showed that a higher proportion of Pinterest users click through to e-commerce sites — and when they go there, they spend… more money than people who come from sites such as Facebook or Twitter.”  In fact, Venture Beat reports that Sephora’s fans on Pinterest spend 15 times more through Pinterest than from Facebook. Additionally, shoppers on Pinterest average spending at $140-$180 each checkout, which is truly remarkable when compared with the $80 from Facebook and $60 on Twitter.

So, who should you be marketing to on Pinterest as Business Pages accelerate and features change on the site to appeal to businesses? Well, moms are 61% more likely to visit and spend time on Pinterest than the average American, according to a recent Nielson report. Internet Marketing reveals that for those U.S. Pinterest users, they are more likely to be pinning from the Midwest.

Oh, and that Georgia Tech and University of Minnesota research collaboration also gave us this takeaway:

“After conducting this research, if I had to choose where to put my money and marketing, Pinterest would probably be my first choice.”  ~Sara

Other Posts You Might Like:

Managing Social Media in a Crisis- Best Practices & Case Studies

Using Social Media to Help Brand Your Company

What is the Real Value of Pinterest to Your Business?

Write a Better Press Release with Our Template and Tips

My Web Writers

It’s difficult to get noticed these days. It’s easy to get a press release out to media outlets across the globe with the help of the internet, but it’s not easy to stand out from the rest and get your press release noticed.

For extra guidance, consult a press release writer, but you might first want to try our template on writing an engaging press release that will get your content noticed and published:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (this lets the reader know they are reading a press release with important, time-sensitive material)

Name (who is writing the press release OR who should be contacted for further information)
Title (Director of Marketing, Marketing Assistant, etc.)
Company
Phone
Fax
Email
Web Address

Headline (write a headline that is to the point)

Month date, year – Location

Opening Paragraph – You aren’t writing a news story or magazine article, so don’t get caught up in trying to be clever. The first paragraph needs to summarize the entire press release in a sentence or two. It will hopefully cover the “who, what, where, when and why”. There’s no need to bury your information.

Also, make sure your information is newsworthy, or that it has the potential to be built upon to make a great news story.

Include a quote – A good press release will include at least one quote from an industry expert or analyst. This adds some good substance to your press release and gives readers a chance to read someone’s opinion, since the rest of the press release should sound be objective.

Include a photo/graphic – Everyone is more drawn to a reading if it has some sort of info graphic or photo. Your release is much more likely to get picked up if there is artwork to go with it.

The rest of the release – Stick to the facts and back them up with references if appropriate. Always double check your information to make sure it is accurate. Revise and proofread to make sure grammar and spelling are free of errors. Throw in another quote towards the end if it adds value to the release. Don’t use quotes just to fill space.

Boilerplate – End your press release with a paragraph of information about the company that is releasing the information to the media. For example:

About Crazy Willie’s
Crazy Willie’s is a chain of mini amusement parks located in six states in the Midwest. It serves thousands of fun-seeking children and adults who are looking for an affordable and fun day trip. Since 1963, Crazy Willie’s has provided guests with state-of-the-art thrill rides and carnival games. For more information on Crazy Willie’s, visit CrazyWilliesPark.com.

Writing good press releases takes lots of practice. Use our template above to help you get started, and consider going to members of the media to learn what will entice them to pick up your release. Before you know it, you’ll be writing releases that get published or at least pique the interest of the media.

~Natalie

Other Articles About Press Releases:

How to Write a Press Release

Write Better Press Release Titles

What is Google Authorship and What Do Writers Need to Know About It?

By My Web Writers

What is Authorship?

Google Authorship can basically be thought of as your online, digital signature that directly corresponds with your Google+ profile, where Google would like you to store your manicured and verifiable online identity. Just a quick search on the internet for “Google Authorship” provides a flood of results explaining Google Authorship as well as how to and why you should use it.

Why is it so important, though?

The simple answer, as well as the most accurate, is that Authorship is important because Google really, really wants it to be. Google decided and decreed its importance and has helped proliferate the internet with what appear to be incredibly compelling reasons, particularly for writers, to use Google+ Authorship.

When you sign up, Google provides a “rel=author” mark up to include on your writing, which then ties back to your G+ profile. This, ostensibly, is to increase quality web content, increase authority and build trust for quality writers as well as protecting your original content and increasing ranking on SERPs and improving CTRs.

Authorship can be thought of us Google’s reward for writers who are willing to put their name and reputation at the forefront for content that they created. It is marketed as a natural continuation of the Panda update that swept through the search engine results and came down heavy on a lot of bad content companies that were heavy on links and light on unique, engaging content that web users were interested in. These articles were most often ghost written by anonymous content writers, so there was no accountability for terrible content and no reward for greatness.

So, as a writer, what do I need to know about Google Authorship?

Remember that web search for the phrase “Google Authorship”?  Ask yourself why the only results you’ll find are ones promoting and extolling Authorship. There are countless SERPs populated with digital-age John the Baptists crying out, “Prepare Ye the Way for Author Rank with your Diligent Use of Authorship!”

The benefits of Authorship are seemingly numerous for many fairly established writers and bloggers. Here is a visual representation of the glory of Google Authorship.

However, what if you are a writer who sells content to a publisher and ghost writes copy for clients?  Those industry-typical publishing companies own your writing and often play a part in editing and promoting your writing (Read My Conversation with Matt Cutts).  At this time, Google doesn’t acknowledge authorship for publisher or business G+ pages.

Reputable content publishers compensate writers for the content at fair wages that intrinsically reward quality insights and creative material (what Google claims you need Authorship for).  If you, oh Writer, happen to earn a living this way, Google Authorship would require you to sign up for a G+ account to use authorship.

Is this truly a “reward” for writers who produce professional and unique content, or a way to promote G+ accounts with the promise of increased SERPs ranking backed by the echo of Eric Schmidt’s ominous remarks at 2013 SMX West:

“The truest cost of remaining anonymous… might be irrelevance.” While unnerving, writers need to be able to question not only the truth of that statement, but any other assertions encountered time and time again both in life on-line as well as off. Without questioning assertions and providing unique perspectives that often challenge the status quo, writers face the danger of falling in line with the current dotcom doctrine, when in reality, no matter how big Google is (and how awesome many of their products and features actually are), they aren’t the boss of the internet – but sometimes we let them think they are.

For more information on Google Authorship, check out a few of our posts (and others) to make up your own mind about how effective Google Authorship will be for your writing and work.

~Sara

What Would History Say About Google Authorship?

How Should My Business Use Google+?

Google Authorship: How to Show Your Author Photo in Google Search Results

Google Authorship for Multiple Authors