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April 2012 Archive | Catapult Public Relations
The following posts were made in April 2012. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.
May 18, 2012
How Can I Make My News Release More Social Media Friendly?
This is a common question I hear from clients. What I often remind clients of is the enduring influence of the news release. As a colleague of mine likes to say, “We live in an era of self-publishing our own stories.” I couldn’t agree more. I recognize organizations are moving toward eliminating news releases entirely from their PR tool-kit – I argue now is the time to be issuing more news – not less! But how can you make your news releases more social media friendly? I strongly propose what I am calling the “Social Media Boilerplate.” Please see below for my top five tips.
Top Five Tips:
- It is All In How You Use It: Ensure all news releases from your newsroom or news section of your site can easily be ‘shared’ via social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and even simply emailed.
- Make It Easy: In recent weeks I have witnessed several leading IT organizations including ‘recommended tweets’ within the body of their news announcements. This is what I am calling the social media boilerplate. Please see (http://www.serena.com/news/read/press-release-03-26-2012.html) for an example of what I mean. For a client example please see below.
- Include Ways Readers of Your News Can Join In The Conversation: Make it a standard practice just as you do in a boilerplate, to include ways customers, end-users and influencers can engage with you in conversation.
- User Hyperlinks Three To Five Times: In participating in some recent webinars from various news release wire distribution services it has been a consistent theme to include hyperlinks no more than three to five times per announcement. Any less and it is not enough and any more it is too much. Try to strike a balance with three to five times.
- Remember Your Audience: Constantly evaluate who you are trying to reach and ask yourself what platforms does this audience most use? If it is the C-Suite perhaps you should seek out other platforms beyond Twitter to share your news.
How are you making your news release more social media friendly? Please share your ideas and thoughts.
Click the image below to view the social media boilerplate.
[Social Media Boilerplate]
