Newsforce currently offers two services to their customers. Can you please briefly describe each of these services?

Newsforce has two main product lines right now. Most people know us for our SEO tool, but we’re totally excited about something we’ve just launched. Our new product is our “big story” that will ultimately change the way companies manage their online communications. It’s called the Newsforce Network, and it’s an always-on communication platform to give companies and agencies total control over their stories, their placement and their engagement strategy.

Newsforce is the first company to build a network to put ultimate power in the hands of communicators. We can take any kind of fresh, interesting content – whether it’s a press release, a mat release, a blog entry or a feature article – and place it directly onto prominent positions in premium news. We buy only the best positions on the page, typically a large ad unit above the fold on an article or a section index (we’ve even run on the home page of Newsweek!), and we replace the usual banners with much-more-interesting featured news slugs from our customers. When a reader clicks a Newsforce headline, they go to a beautiful and clean landing page that has multimedia and social media built in. We measure the engagement rates and actions on the article, and feed the data back to our customers so they can tweak their story to appeal more broadly to the viewing public. It’s evergreen, so it’s a living document companies can control as their story evolves.

We sell this service similar to how advertising is sold, on cost-per-thousand impressions (which translates to “views by actual people”. We throw in the social media news release template for free, and as a value-add you won’t lose its derivative SEO properties because we’ll keep hosting it even after we stop featuring it in our headline unit. We’re sort of mashing up PR, advertising, social media and SEO into one streamlined channel.

For people who are struggling with the SEO part of their PR strategy, we also sell an inexpensive tool for SEO, starting at just $20 per use. Our automatic press release optimization suite is an online service made just for PR people, to help them focus more on their writing skills than their technical skills. We have a version of it integrated into Business Wire’s EON offering, plus we sell it on our site www.newsforce.com.

How is the Premium News Network different than distribution channels such as PRWeb, PRLeap, and other similar sites?

We’re digital-only, for one thing. They’re paid inclusion, we’re paid placement – verified and guaranteed positions, turn coverage on and off at will. I think of standard wire and feed services as being parallel to how people use SEO in the marketing side of the world: it’s a great thing to do for casting a broad net and hoping your story is interesting enough for a quality pickup or a high-volume return. It’s low cost, typically, and it is great for “organic” distribution. What’s been missing, though, is a serious level of control for communicators in either the online or the offline space. In the online space, we finally have some options we never had before.

In the print and broadcast world, the journalists are the gatekeepers to the limited real estate they have – measured in pages or minutes. In the online space the engagement is 24/7, and the real estate is based on traffic of people, not time of day or numbers of pages. It’s unlimited and unending. So why are we still designing our communication strategies in “episodic” mode, moving from campaign to campaign or release to release? There is a steady stream of news readers hitting news channels online or on their phones, over 600 million page views worldwide every day! And it’s just getting bigger! In 5 years, most people in the developed world will access their news either on a computer or a handheld device. And just as the dayparts shifted for other types of media, it’s shifting for PR people too.

We think what we’re doing is evolutionary, but some people have called us revolutionary. I’ll take either compliment.

Where do you see the future of internet press releases heading?

If we have our way, it’s going to be less about “press releases” and more about “story telling” and ongoing optimization of your stories for maximum reader interest and support of your corporate goals over the long haul. I’d like to see a return to the value of a professional communication team as keepers of the corporate stories, using their creative powers in new channels to influence the public directly, in addition to continuing with evolving media relations.

Maybe that’s too radical (or just too much work)? If you’re still uncomfortable with the idea of being an always-on writer/story teller, you can still think on a release by release basis, but you’re going to probably want to write three different versions: one for journalists, one for the mass public, and one for search engines. Oh yeah, and a mobile version too! So that should keep PR people employed for a very long time, because someone’s got to figure out how to best use these different channels to meet communication goals.

I am a reformed journalist-turned-marketer. Why did I change? Because I feel that ultimately the greatest opportunity to change people’s opinions, one person at a time, is through a multi-channel communication strategy. The power to create *action* is actually closer to the realm of marketing and PR than in traditional journalism, in many cases. While I loved writing news and working as a journalist, I truly found my calling when I wrote my first “advertorial” and realized how powerful a biased voice can be. That sounds like heresy, doesn’t it? And yet, if you think about it – as humans, we assume a certain amount of bias in any media we consume. Humans pride ourselves on being our own “filters” and making our own decisions, and we consume all types of information in context, whether it was produced by a journalist or an ad agency, in order to inform our decisions. So the biggest winners in communications are often the ones who are willing to take the most risk in terms of disclosure (transparency in your motivation) and creativity.

Do you think that all companies should be using internet press releases? Why or why not?

I guess it depends on the goals of your campaign, and what is an appropriate mix of channels to help you accomplish them. Bottom line: I think that all companies should tell great stories on the internet. If it happens to take the form of a news release, then yes, of course. People do actually read press releases – we have piles of cool research showing that they read press releases just like regular editorial news. But I think that if you’re writing a press release for internet distribution you should strongly consider the omigod-this-is-so-boring potential of corporate messaging to a broad reading public. If you wouldn’t click it yourself, then you should probably give the story angle a little more thought. The potential of the internet is that it gets you directly to the public. That’s both a good and a scary thing. Since we can now track reader engagement (or lack thereof) in real time, I predict it will ultimately teach us all to be better communicators.

What is your best recommendation for companies who want to start using internet press releases but not sure where to start?

We actually have a pretty great set of articles on the Newsforce site written by one of our founders, Greg Jarboe.  Greg didn’t invent the internet like Al Gore did, but he is often credited for “inventing” the advanced search optimization strategies for press releases and popularizing the tactics among internet marketing types. If you want to get some broad exposure to search marketing, the SEMPO Learning Center has piles of research, articles, glossaries and free webinars.

I always encourage people to keep a “keyword calendar” to go along with their editorial calendars for the year. If it’s part of your core strategy to have frequent pops in news search engines (so that you’re showing up in the fresh news results regularly), you will want to map a baseline of core keywords to target on a regular basis, plus a seasonal and/or opportunity set of keywords that you target based on the editorial “seasons” of your industry. Think of them as mini-topics to cover.

I guess with that in mind, one of the best skills a PR person can develop first is the art of keyword research. Internet outreach is just like any other communication strategy: it’s listening and responding. That is, “listening” to the keyword demand data and your social media buzz metrics, and then responding to threats and opportunities with various communication channels. The fact that we can literally see the words that people are using to describe all sorts of things, and the frequency and popularity of the terminology, is such a gift of insight. I’m honestly surprised that most PR people aren’t as freakishly obsessed with the information as search marketers are – maybe it’s because they haven’t learned to have fun with it yet. It’s very eye-opening!

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If you’ve turned on your computer at all in the last five years, you know the Internet is the future for marketing your business. While you may not be a techspert, you can still use the Internet to establish your business’ place in your industry.The key is being in as many places online as you are comfortable being. Some examples:

· Company website
· Blog
· Press releases
· Mention on other websites
· Comments on blogs/forums

Having a website for your company is non-negotiable. Many people only do business with companies who have a website. It shows you understand the value of being online and that you have invested the time and money it takes to develop a professional site.

A blog is a valuable tool that can help you establish yourself or your company as an expert in your field. Many top companies have blogs today, including Southwest Air, Dell.

Press releases are great for building web presence and SEO. While you may or may not end up on Oprah as a result, you will diversify the places your press release (and also your URL) end up on the web. Your release will be distributed on major news channels, like Google News, as well as industry sites, and bloggers in your niche will pick it up as well.

This will lead to mention on other sites. The very nature of PR today is that it is viral. What starts in one place will quickly spread faster than you can blink. And that’s a good thing.

By leaving comments on blogs and forums, you’re leaving a breadcrumb trail. Just be sure to include the URL to your site in your signature. And only post relevant conversations, because the purpose is to communicate, not blatantly push your company’s agenda.

So how are you getting exposure online for your business?

Ways to Establish You or Your Business as THE Expert in Your Field

1.    Put out regular press releases. Keeping a steady momentum will increase your placement on search engines.
2.    Participate in conversations online. In forums, on blogs, in social media platforms.
3.    Start a blog about what you know best.
4.    Attend conferences.
5.    Get speaking engagements.
6.    Write a book or ebook.
7.    Get interviews.

Make Search Engines Love Your Brand

Search engines love press releases. When you write regular press releases and have them distributed online, more reporters, bloggers and future customers can find you. Before you know it, you’ll be sifting through a pile of interview opportunities and orders for your product!

[Disclosure: That's Great PR! utilizes Egg Marketing & Public Relations for some of our email marketing services.]

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Today, we have email, Internet, and SEO to throw into the mix. Press releases use all these elements, and are no longer  held captive by a few key editors. Now bloggers and consumers are the targets of releases.

In his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR , David Meerman Scott explains the “new rules of press releases:”

• Don’t just send news releases when “big news” is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time
• Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers.
• Write releases that are replete with keyword-rich copy.
• Include offers that compel consumers to respond to your release in some way.
• Place links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your Web site.
• Optimize news release delivery for searching and browsing.
• Add social media tags for Technorati, DIGG, and del.icio.us so your release will be found.
• Drive people into the sales process with news releases.

How are you using press releases? Are you still stuck in the “old days,” or have you evolved along with the process?

To accomplish this, Newsforce purchases ad spots on the major news media sites and then displays their clients’ press releases within that advertisement space.  When a visitor clicks on the PR it brings them to a hosted article page which can include videos, photos, links, etc.  The Newsforce team then sends you weekly reports showing you how the PR is doing and allows you to tweak your headline or content whenever you want.  Each PR runs for 30 days at which time it can be renewed or you can submit a new press release.  Their pricing structure is based on the number of headline impressions you are targeting for your campaign.

Newsforce has already partnered with several media sites such as: Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Herald, and a bunch more.  They also continue to add more partners each week.

So, below are a few tips that will help you when developing your next internet press release:

1. First and foremost, read The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.  While waiting for the book to arrive, start by reading the New Rules ebook.  These two resources will provide you with the fundamentals needed to dive into internet PR.
2. Optimize your press release with relevant keywords that your target audience will use when they are searching for what they’re looking for.
3. Use links in your press release to drive your potential customers to your website or to other relevant pages such as a recently published positive-related article, whitepaper or ebook which is referenced in the release.
4. Include your contact information including phone number and website so that potential customers have a way to contact you directly from the press release.
5. Submit your press release within approximately 7 days of when you want to begin creating buzz.  We typically see that our customers receive the most headline impressions and pageviews during the first 7-28 days that the press release is distributed.  However, a benefit of web-based press releases is that they will continue to live on the internet instead of a traditional print press release which is only beneficial during the immediate time after release.
6. Use a distribution service who will distribute your release to a wide network of media outlets including opt-in journalists, bloggers, television, radio, newspapers, and broad range of other resources.
7. Utilize social networks such as Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon to gain even more traction especially among those already interested in your blog, website or company.
8. Post your press release on the media/press section of your website.  By posting the press release to the media/press section of your website, you create more linking between your keywords and your website as the search engines crawl your site and index this information.
9. Submit press releases often and about any newsworthy event that involves your company, your products or your people.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, you should use internet-based PR like you use Twitter.
10. Optimize the landing page that you direct your potential customers to within the release.  On this landing page you could have an interesting and informative video, a field to capture opt-ins to a newsletter, an RSS link to your blog, and/or any other information which will take that visitor and turn them into a potential customer.  An example of an excellent landing page is the home page of personal branding expert, Dan Schawbel.

While I could go into greater depth about each of these tips (and will in future posts), this will help you to start developing a successful internet-based PR campaign.

To learn more about why it’s beneficial to distribute a search-engine-optimized press release through the internet as opposed to traditional print channels, take a look at this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also, here are some more resources on internet-based press releases:

• Brian Solis of FutureWorks wrote a guide on how to write social media press releases.
• Todd Defren of Shift Communications developed a social media press release template to help guide you during the development/writing process.

How has the use of the internet as a marketing tool changed the way marketing and public relations firms communicate their clients’ messages?

It’s made our jobs easier. We no longer print and physically mail press releases, wasting postage. Press releases and news can reach an audience within seconds. We can reach a larger audience by including bloggers and future customers and no longer relying on a journalist deciding to cover our news.

What are your thoughts on using search-engine-optimized press releases that are distributed on the web versus traditionally distributed press releases?

I’m laughing because for me (a GenXer) SEO releases are “traditionally distributed!” I still send releases directly to targeted editors I think have interest in the release, but I sell the SEO factor to my clients. Even if Oprah doesn’t call you to be on her show (and I’m telling you, don’t hold your breath), you’ll be all over the internet and increase your ranking on search engines with a press release distributed on the web.

How do you think companies should be using social media/networks such as Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, YouTube, etc.?

1. Carefully. Just like everyone, I jumped into all social media sites without knowing what I was doing. Choose the ones that work for you (or that others refer you to).

2. Designate a person to handle this aspect if you have someone to put on it, or specify a limited time to work on it each day/week.

3. Consider your audience. If you don’t sell cute t-shirts or rock bands, MySpace might not be your audience.

4. Plurk? There’s one I don’t know. Great. Another one I have to join!

How important is it for a company to be visible on the internet?

Absolutely necessary. If you don’t have a website, I don’t want to use you (as a consumer) or help you (as a marketing/PR firm…unless we can first design your website!). Being online shows that you at least respect technology, even if you don’t understand it. As a consumer that tells me you’ve invested in reaching me as someone who searches for your company online.

In what ways does your firm help companies to become visible on the internet?

Egg Marketing & Public Relations uses a slew of online marketing tools to increase traffic to our clients’ websites. We use press releases, email marketing, SEO, blog/forum commenting and online advertising. We look to who our clients’ ideal customers are and tailor a solution that fits the way they receive messages.

What do you see in the future for marketing/public relations firms?

Who we work with to spread the word about our clients will keep shifting away from the editors who hold the keys to publishing and popularity. Now we have hundreds of bloggers in a given niche who are clamoring for content. In product marketing, these are the people that readers listen to. They’re the ones giving the thumbs up or down. They’re the one that consumers believe. Consumers don’t want to be advertised to on television, newspaper or billboards. They want to be entertained while having the option to accept advertising messages. Marketing and PR industries have to completely embrace this. It’s starting to happen now, but “old school” marketing is still dominating a lot of areas.

• Interact with our friends, families, and colleagues
• Network with others who have similar personal and professional interests
• Promote ourselves
• Promote our blogs
• Promote our companies
• Promote/discuss important causes, upcoming events or share relevant news
• Help improve search engine results for ourselves, our blogs, products, or companies.

We should be using internet PR campaigns for all of the reasons above (except maybe interacting with our friends, families and colleagues ).  By distributing search-engine-optimized press releases we can promote our personal brand, blogs, products, company, important causes, or upcoming events.  These press releases will help improve search engine results for you depending on the topic and keywords used when distributing the PR.

Just as we post a tweet or status update every time we publish a new blog, we should be distributing new internet press releases any time we have any positive news about the above topics.  While a tweet or status update will only reach your network (though some users networks are very large), it is still limited in scope compared to how many people you can reach with a well-written press release distributed online.

When distributing through a newswire or professional internet PR agency, your press release will be usually distributed to over 100,000 opt-in journalists, newsrooms, radio and tv stations, blogs, and other media outlets.  These sites and people, if interested in the topic, will then redistribute the press release….alas, viral marketing.  As the press release is re-posted on other sites, you will see your search engine rankings improve, hits to your blog or site increase, as well as an uptick in prospective customers, inquiries, and/or readers.

Photo used from Greg Verdino's blog

Of course, there is one major downside when comparing internet PR to promoting via social media sites: submitting PRs cost money while social media sites are free to promote your message.  However, I think that we should be using both internet vehicles to promote our messages.  To maximize this concept and improve your search rankings, follow these steps:

1. Have a press release written and distributed on the internet.
2. Promote that link on Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, and any other social media sites you use.
3. Post the press release in the media/press section of your site.
4. Either post the PR on your blog or write a similar post and publish at the same time of distribution.

Using some or all of these suggestions will help you to promote your message.

What are some ways that you have found to be successful in promoting any of the above concepts?  How did you promote it? What mistakes did you make along the way?

In my last post I mentioned that David Meerman Scott, in his book and ebook, suggests that we should write press releases about any topic and not just when we have big corporate news such as a new product launch.  This got me thinking about the various unconventional uses of internet PRs I’ve seen at my company.  Two examples come to mind:

Example #1: We had a client who used our company to write and distribute a PR for them because they were in the final interview phases with a major organization in their field.  The purpose of the press release was to gain them positive exposure on the internet when the firm searched for them.  We wrote the PR highlighting previous accomplishments, articles that had been written about them, and their education…basically a resume.

Result #1: In 15 days the client received 29,000 headline impressions, 400+ fullpage reads/downloads of the PR, and it was picked up by 50+ websites, blogs, journals, etc.  The client ended up receiving the job offer that they had been being recruited for.

This was an unconventiontional use of PR because it was used to enhance their online reputation and it was used to gain exposure to obtain a new position.

Example #2: I have distributed PRs for my restaurant, Caminito Steakhouse, when we have hosted beer and wine dinners

Results #2: We received similar stats as my first example.  But more importantly to me, due in part to our PR efforts, when you search Google for “argentinean steakhouse” we appear as the 2nd search result on the 1st page, 3 times on the first page and 13 times on the first 10 pages.  This is out of over 899,000 results when searching that term!  We are not nearly as big or in as big of a market as many of the steakhouses listed on that search result but, because of our SEO efforts and using PR in a traditionally unconventional method, we have seen an uptick in customers, website hits and reservations via our website.

Now, I know some may think that the way I utilized internet-based PR for the restaurant is conventional because something like a beer dinner is similar to a product launch for a typical company.  However, it’s unconventional because most restaurants, especially in smaller markets, don’t actively include PR in their marketing plans…if they even have a marketing plan at all!

These are just 2 examples out of many which I’m sure exist out there.  So I turn the question over to you…what are some of the traditionally unconventional ways you have either used or read about using press releases to gain exposure?

The old way of marketing – Traditionally marketing teams would put together a press release and send it to a handful of newspapers, magazines and radio stations.  The press release might be mentioned/written about and those audiences who subscribe to the newspaper/magazine or who listen to that radio station would be exposed to the content of the PR.  If the company hires a reputable marketing firm, they may guarantee that their PR will receive more exposure due to the reputation and network of that firm.  But, how would they reach all of the other possible interested folks who weren’t part of one of those groups mentioned above? Simply put: they wouldn’t.  This translates to lost opportunities for the company in developing prospective customers and helping the company to push their brand to a mass-audience.

The new way of marketing – Nowadays companies who embrace Web 2.0 have so many other available tools besides the traditional vehicles for reaching prospective customers.  Now companies can have a website, blog, social networking pages such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and also reach audiences into the millions with their PR campaign – if they know how to properly target that PR for the internet.

Besides becoming diversified on the World Wide Web, companies have to debunk the old myth that you only publish press releases when you have BIG news such as a new product release, corporate merger or acquisition, etc.  Companies should publish press releases about anything that they have going on.  The more press releases you get distributed, the more your company (and brand) will stay at the tops of the major search engines when prospective customers search for your company and/or products.

David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR suggests writing a PR about anything from your CEO speaking at a conference to winning an award or publishing a white paper.  Whatever the subject, the goal is to keep your company in front of prospective and current customers.

Resources on becoming a new school PR expert:

• I highly recommend purchasing The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
• While waiting for the book to arrive, download and read the condensed ebook which focuses on web-based press releases with suggestions on how to properly optimize your PRs for the web.
• Brian Solis’ PR Tips for Startups is an excellent resource for an overview on the history of PR and where we are today in the Web (PR) 2.0 world.  Solis provides thought-provoking and actionable tips for the reader to implement.

• Another resource from David Meerman Scott is his Gobbledygook Manifesto which will help you to analyze your corporate marketing and PR materials, remove meaningless catch-phrases, and communicate with your prospective and current customers in way which they will understand.

Becoming proficient at maximizing social media, web-based PR and marketing, and understanding all of the available tools to you will not happen overnight.  It will take time to build these networks and is a space that is ever-changing to meet the speed of technology.  But, don’t be afraid of it, embrace it and utilize these resources to help you start understanding the Web (PR) 2.0 world.

The best part is it’s FREE and simple to use!  Just copy and paste your PR into the system, add some other basic information such as company name and email, and you’re immediately provided with your score and suggestions on how to improve your copy.

Though not hard to use, the team over at HubSpot have even created a how-to video for their new tool:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Head over to PressRelease Grader now and see how your latest press release scores.