3 Tips to Leveraging News to Create Newsworthy Content

Posted on by
Reply

Leverage News to Create Content


Wanting to incorporate content marketing and tools like news release distribution into your online marketing mix is a great first step to maximizing your reach and driving visitors to your website.


But one of the most common questions remains: “what do we write about?”


Companies may have an idea for the first release or two, but what about news release #15, 32 or 46?


Perhaps you’ve gone through the traditional sources of product announcements, new hires, special events and grand openings. What can you do to provide content that viewers will look for eagerly?


Follow these 3 suggestions on how to leverage news to create newsworthy content:


1.Be Aware of Industry & World Headlines


Keeping up-to-date on what’s happening is a great way to inspire new ideas and/or find connections between top stories and your company’s offerings.


Perhaps a trend piece relevant to your industry is published and receiving a lot of online play. Extract one or two of the statistics (and cite it of course) and build off of the data as it relates to your offering.


To help you keep up-to-date on the amount of content created by news outlets, leverage a tool like Google Alerts to notify you as things happen or once a day.


Dependent on upon your settings, you can get various types of content delivered right to your inbox. You can choose to receive:
NewsBlogsReal-time UpdatesVideo Discussions


2.Research


Perhaps it goes without saying but we’re saying it anyway. If you haven’t done exhaustive research of your industry, trends, analyst insights and/or the competitors, you are selling yourself short in regards to having a holistic and well thought out content plan.


Subscribe to industry and competitor blogs to stay current with the types of content being created. Check out for example, this list of Top 12 Small Business Marketing Blogs.


Next is following “thought leaders”. These folks specialize in reporting on your industry. They spend the hours each day you can’t afford to researching, discussing and sharing the latest developments related to your industry.


Follow those who know your industry best on Twitter. Not only will you know what the influencers in your space are saying and therefore what your target audience is listening to, but you can also keep up-to-date with what they see as important by following their links.


3.Comment Marketing


Today’s news stories don’t end where the journalist stopped writing. Rather, the story continues in the comment section and/or on the publisher’s Facebook page.


It’s within the comments that you can see how people are responding, what questions they have and/or what types of insight they are adding to the topic.


Not only is this a great place to do some commenting of your own and get on the radar of the journalist, but very often you can find new content ideas. One way to do this is by compiling the questions posed (and citing who posed them) and writing a blog post to help provide additional insight. Once you get into the habit of paying attention to the news and finding ways to extract ideas for your own content, you will be well on your way to a holistic and strategic content plan.


Check out other PRWeb articles for additional ways to generate press release ideas.


Want to read even more on creating news releases? Download this free whitepaper, “Your Expert Guide to Writing Great Online News Releases”.


How to Write a Press Release




View the original article here

5 PR infographics to go GaGa over

Posted on by
Reply

The age of the infographic is upon us in full swing. Want the latest PR trends, stats and comparisons? You can’t beat these colorful, vibrant images to inform and delight the eye and give insight into the constantly evolving world of online marketing, public relations and the channels that keep both disciplines interesting.


Here are 5 we found especially awesome:


1.How engaged is your brand? Here’s an interesting look at the opportunities the net has for your brand. This is not only nifty-looking, it has a number of elements that you can judge your own online efforts against.


It also offers a good reminder that anything you distribute on the net stays there forever. Your marketing strategies should all be designed to complement each other in building your brand’s presence on the web.

How engaged is your brand? Click to enlarge or
See original image here

2.Modern Marketing/PR Fluency Matrix. For all those small business owners and traditional PR pros, this will give you a look at where you might need to step up your Internet I.Q.


If you feel you’re lacking, subscribe to PR thought leader blogs, follow influencers on Twitter and stack resource books like The Social Media Bible next to your desk.

Modern Marketing & PR Fluency Matrix Click to enlarge or
See original image here

3.All things Facebook. This infographic is chock full of everything you could ever want to know about the social giant. Also, a good reminder that you should probably be leveraging this channel actively.


Go beyond collecting “likes” or “fans” and determine how this growing audience fits into your marketing objectives – don’t build a following just for the sake of popularity. Fine-tune your efforts to connect with the target audience for your brand.

All things Facebook Click to enlarge or
See original image here

4.Custom content distribution. This infographic illustrates a streamlined approach to an effective content marketing campaign.


With content being the ultimate internet tool, this should spur you to find more ways to use your company news, news releases, helpful information and solutions to aid buyers in their decision-making.

Custom content distribution Click to enlarge or
See original image here

5.A Strategic Approach to Using Twitter. If you haven’t considered all the ways Twitter can help your PR strategies whether connecting with journalists, prospects or both – this graphic is great to help you think beyond the tweet.


Incorporate the Follow, Create and Engage platform for all areas of your social media mix.
Follow thought leaders and your competition to stay on top of the latest news and trends.Create content that is relevant and compelling.Engage your target market with questions on your blog, participation in forums and production of webinars.

A Strategic Approach to Using Twitter Click to enlarge or
See original image here

Seeing information in a whole new way is a great way to stir your creative juices.


When contemplating your own PR efforts, why not try inventing your own infographic? You may not only come up with a whole host of new ideas, your creation might just be the new darling of the infographic craze.



View the original article here

Press Release Grader

Posted on by
Reply

Get instant feedback to make your news work harder online


We know your story’s good. But will it work hard for you online? Let PRWeb help you Make It Better.


PRWeb now offers a free “Make It Better” button, a brand-new feature that gives you instant, expert feedback on how powerful the components of your news release are—and how to make them stronger. It’ll show you quick ways to make your release more visible to search engines (so you get found faster), more engaging (so people share it), and a better driver of traffic to your website.


Here’s how to use it:


1) Create a free account and enter your Keywords. If you’re a returning customer, sign into your account as normal.


Press Release Keywords


2) Enter your news release into the PRWeb release creator, along with your multimedia and links that will make your story more visible and engaging.



Click to enlarge


3) Click the Make It Better Button on the left to get your instant report.


Make it better


4) PRWeb will analyze its four key online components—content, multimedia, keywords and links—and tell you what you’re doing right, and what you need to work on.


Grades


5) Go back to the Release creator and make your improvements—or go ahead and publish your news release if you’re happy with it.


Note: Don’t lose the multimedia you included in your release. To publish a full multimedia release, you’ll need to select a release package that includes images (Advanced) or images and video (Premium).

Click the Button to Get Started Now and… Make it better

 


View the original article here