This is a vexing question that so many are asking themselves these days. Is that target audience for your news the “media”? To be more specific, is it just your known media as in trade media? How about your clients and prospects for your business? How about your customers?
According to a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study, one in four media jobs have disappeared since the year 2000.
This figure is growing every day. I’m afraid to believe that this will grow to be two out of four media jobs by the end of this year. So, I have to ask the question again about who is the target for your news.�
When I worked for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer years ago, I would have said that the target audience for any press release was at least 80 percent media. Today, I would challenge that the audience for a news release is 50 percent press at most. The other 50 percent is search. Today, we have moved from an era of pushing our news out to an era of allowing our content to be pulled (check out The Power of Pull by Steve Rubel, Edelman) by those who are interested in it. This means that search is fast becoming the best way to reach your target audience.
There are lots of techniques to make your news more searchable. The good news is that a little know-how goes a long way. Even better news is that when you mix in these techniques with what you are doing now, it will stretch your budget dollars even further and show more ROI.
Here’s a few quick tips:
- Make sure you are choosing the right words and phrases when you are writing your news. Remember, just because you use one word or phrase internally, doesn’t mean that’s what people search for. Try using Google Insights for Search.
- Make sure you use your chosen keywords/phrases in the headline or subhead of your release so the search engine spiders will pick up on it.
- Use links. Too many people forget to include multiple links in their news. However, don’t just link to your home page; be sure to link directly to the pages within your Web site where you are trying to drive the traffic too. There is a lot of value in deep links.
Here’s a few more places where you can go to get more information:
- SEO What? PR Can Benefit from Playing a Bigger Role in Search and Social Media by Sarah Skerik
- SEO and the Press Release (video tutorial) by Michael Pranikoff
- Strategies for Optimizing Your News Releases and Media Room (free archived PR Newswire webinar)
- Writing that Sells – Using PR Tools to Reach Consumers Directly (free archived PR Newswire webinar)
By Michael Pranikoff, director, Emerging Media, PR Newswire, helps communicators learn about the role RSS, blogs, social networks, search engines and other emerging technologies play in public relations. He created PR Newswire’s Seminar Series “PR in a Web 2.0 World.” His own link blog, Delicious.com/MichaelPranikoff, links to sites and conversations that pertain to the intersection of technology and public relations.
Join Pranikoff for his session, “Make the Most of Social Media and Demonstrate Its Value: Maximize Your Public Relations Dollars,” at the Digital Impact Conference: Learn to Profit From New Media, April 30–May 1 in New York, NY!
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