1. First, learn the basics. Once you've gotten your account going, start following some PR professionals such as Perfect Pitch PR, Allen Weinkrantz and Mary Lower, just to name a few. These are people who are good at what they do. So watch their tweets. How are they formatted? What kind of stuff do they share? How do they respond to followers and engage in conversations?
2. Find your voice. As with all social media, you'll quickly gain an online reputation once you dive in. Do you know what you want that reputation to be? Figure out what kind of information to share, what style of tweets to use. Then be consistent. If you have a team of people handling your Twitter account, make sure everyone is on the same page. While it should be a no-brainer, one bit of advice bears repeating -  the misspoken tweet is the one that everyone will read. And post on their blogs. And pass on to their millions of friends. So don't let it ever get out in the first place.
3. Build relationships. Twitter is an avenue for two-way conversations. If you exclusively promote yourself, refuse to follow others or don't make the time to listen to how users perceive your company, then you might just want to kiss Twitter's usefulness goodbye. You'll quickly get marginalized or even, gasp, "unfollowed". How do you build relationships? That subject could be a whole post in and of itself, but in short, ask questions, share useful information and be genuine. Your Twitter followers will appreciate it.

Are you ready to take your PR work to the next level? Then take the Twitter plunge. As you learn to use this social media tool effectively, you'll discover a whole new world of influence.

First of all, editors, publishers, producers and reporters receive at least hundreds of press releases daily along with other letters and requests. So, it is not surprising that as much as 97% of these releases never have any results.

You have to get the media’s attention if you want your press release to be published at all. How do you do that? Following are some steps that will help you:

1. Target your press release to specific publications
   
   Build a media outlet list. Don’t send out your press release to every publication you can think of. Make sure that the publications that you will choose are related to your press release (e.g. if you are marketing a new vitamin supplement, you shouldn’t send your press release to a publication about the latest technology.)
   
2. Target specific people
   
   Once you have a list of media outlets, find out who the key people are in these outlets. By checking their website, you can find out who deals with what your press release talks about (e.g. if your press release talks about easy DIY projects, you have to find out who is responsible for such a topic). If you cannot find a person who handles topics related to your press release, move on to another media outlet.
   
   An easier way to build this list of people would be to utilize Google News. Just type in keywords into the search box and you will find stories that are similar to your press release. Usually, the reporters’ names are published along with the story. Just list down the names and contact them through phone or you can check their email address from the publication’s website.
   
3. Build a database of all your contacts
   
   Once you’ve collected the names of the media outlets and the key people that you will contact, build a database with complete details such as first name, last name, publication, address, phone number and whether or not they have published a press release/story for you already.
   
4. Find out which tool you should use
   
   Once you’ve established your contacts, find out if you should send a complete press release, send a tips sheet or media alert. Different media outlets have different preferences. When you have that information, make sure that your press release will stand out. Make sure that your headline contains a compelling piece of information such as a statistic or fact.
   
5. Email key people
   
   Once you have the list of names of key people that you will contact, send them an email. But at this point you should make sure that you won’t trigger their SPAM filters. There are several words that set off SPAM filters such as:  free, “click here,” “click below,” text written in capital letters, etc. To help you find out if your press release contains words that will trigger these filters, you can use software like Aweber which will indicate which words you need to change or remove from your release.
   
6. Grab the editor’s attention at the start of your email
   
   With hundreds of email coming in, most editors, publishers, producers and reporters do not read everything all the way through. As stated earlier, your headline should contain compelling information – use statistics and/or facts.  Your email should be interesting enough to catch the editor’s attention after reading the first ten words. You should also address the person that you are sending the email to, by his/her full name.
   
7. Follow Up
   
   Within 48 hours of sending your press release, you have to call up every editor, publisher, producer or journalist that you sent your press release to. Determine whether your press release was received and whether the media has any interest in it.
   
   If your release gets little or no attention at all, do not be discouraged. Treat it as a learning experience. Ask them what kind of stories they want so that you will know how to tailor your next press release.

Lately, however, blogging has proven to be a powerful tool for marketing. Bloggers generally talk about their personal experience and most of the time they mention products or services that they’ve used. They use their blogs to tell other people whether they’re happy with the product or not. This is why blogs are so attractive to search engines. When consumers want to know about a product or service, they look it up in the Internet.  Commentaries or reviews from different blogs are usually listed first.

Gone are the days when only the big corporations (having budgets for advertising) had exposure in media. According to Buzz Bruggeman, blogs have levelled the playing field between big and small companies. Today, many small companies get the word out about their product or service through reviews and commentaries of personal experiences of the consumers. Perhaps bloggers can be considered as small scale journalists. Because of the noise that these blogs are generating, bloggers, like editors and publishers, are now getting a lot of spam.

So, how can you generate a buzz on the blogosphere using your press release?

You can send your press release to these blogs but always keep in mind that these blogs are usually just hobbies of their writers. So, your release has to be more personal. How?

1. Communicate with the bloggers. Get to know them. Treat them as well as you would editors, publishers, producers and journalists.
2. Send a short email announcement instead of a full blown press release.
3. Attach pictures to your email to make your release more interesting.
4. If your story is interesting, you do not need to ask the bloggers to allow you to do the blogging on their blogs. After all, they blog because of something that they find interesting.
5. Give something exclusive to the bloggers – something that their readers can only get through their blog (e.g. freebies of the product, or free testing of an online service for the first 100 testers, etc.)
6. You don’t pay anything to send your emails. So, don’t limit yourself to the top 10 blogs. Go for the top 100 or top 500 blogs on the web.

Businesses today have a much better chance of being known. The Internet has made it easier to reach millions of people worldwide. Still, you have to establish a good working relationship with people like the bloggers who are almost always online.
Remember that the Internet can also be easily accessed by determined detractors of your company or product. But even if this happens, blogging can still come in handy since you can ask other consumers to share negative experiences that they might have had and you can solve all issues through discussions and suggestions to improve your product or service.

Press releases continue to be an area where marketers make many mistakes, when they could be a powerful publicity tool. That's we decided to revisit our post 7 Rules for Writing Powerful Press Releases in this video. Kate does a much better job of presenting the information than I could in print.

1. Technorati.com - Technorati is a blog search engine that indexes millions (according to them) blog post in real time. Search for keywords related to your business or brand to find out what people are saying about you in the blogosphere.
2. MonitorThis – Sparse and unpretentious, MonitorThis allows you to search for keywords and see the resulting feeds from 20 plus different search engines.
3. Monitter.com - Monitter is an aptly named, well, real-time monitor of Twitter, following up to three keywords at a time. Part of what makes this program so powerful is the ability to track keywords by zipcode. Maybe not so important for large corporations, but for small businesses, finding out what locals are saying about them on Twitter could revolutionize customer service.
4. Twitter Search - Another Twitter tool, this one from Twitter itself. Twitter Search allows you to see in real time everything being said about a keyword, link or user activity.
5. Twilert.com - If you don't have time to actively monitor Twitter, here's something a little less time intensive. Twilert sends you regular e-mail updates about the keywords you're following. You can choose the frequencies of these e-mails, with options ranging from daily to monthly.
6. Wholinkstome.com - Do you know who is linking to you? Well, this handy application will tell you. Wholinkstome provides backlink analysis and, according to them, doesn't rely on third-party data, but instead independently crawls the web checking out links. The program also provides anchor text reports, domain reports, and anchor URL reports.
7. Boardtracker.com - What kind of mention does your brand get amongst the discussion board chatter? Boardtracker will let you know! People like to vent in these types of settings, so staying abreast of forum threads is a handy tool indeed.
8. Socialmention.com – You’re keeping on top of Twitter, blogs and discussion boards. Now what about Facebook? Social Mention is there for you. It is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across social media applications, such as Facebook, FriendFeed, Digg, Flickr and YouTube. Great for getting a quick feel for the pulse of things.

Some people would probably think, “Oh, so a press release is just news that you read about and an ad just makes people buy stuff.” To some extent, this simple statement may be true but it’s more complicated than that.

Simply put, one key to the success of a company, business, website, book, etc. is to get the word out. Some companies rely on advertisement while others rely on press releases. Why? Let us go through the differences:

1. Cost
   
   This is perhaps the most obvious difference between a press release and an advertisement. With advertising, you pay for content and ad space. This can be very expensive, depending on when and where you want the public to see your ad.
   
   When you issue a press release, there is no cost to you. It is basically free publicity for your business or company.
   
2. Written Content
   
   Advertisements call for colourful and descriptive language. It comes with a call to action. Ads are used to persuade consumers to buy your product or service. Therefore an ad has to sound very appealing to your audience.
   
   A press release has to be written in a news style format. You have to be careful with your words because if editors read a lot of hype about your company, product or service in your release, it will come off as self-promotion and it will go straight to the trash. You can still do your pitch but do it in a creative and subtle way.
   
3. Your Creativity
   
   Advertising pushes one to exercise his/her creativity to any level.
   
   Press releases do not encourage too much creativity. Since these come out as news, your creativity is limited to tailoring your release to what is currently in the news.
   
4. Control
   
   As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Since you pay for advertisements, you have almost complete control on when, where and how your ad will be run.
   
   With a press release, you do not have any control over how your message/story will be presented by the media. In fact, there’s no guarantee if your release will even run at all. When you send out your press release to media, this does not automatically obligate them to publish your story.
   
5. Placement
   
   Although advertisements are all around us - billboards, TV, radio and magazines – it’s a different story with newspapers. Ads are never placed on the front page. Many of these newspapers do not even run ads in the upper third of their pages unless it’s a full page ad.
   
   Since press releases are news, they are given priority and are therefore seen more easily in broadsheets.
   
6. Longevity
   
   Since advertisements are paid for, the length and frequency of these ads depend on how much your company can spend. For as long as you have the resources, your ad can run repeatedly for a specific period of time.
   
   From the beginning, there is no guarantee that a press release will even be run by the media. When they do publish your press release, it happens only once. They will not repeat it. Of course, if your press release involved a book launch or any event that turned out to be a smashing success, you have a chance of having more free publicity in other departments within the same publication.
   
7. Your audience
   
   Advertising is a direct way for you to get to the consumers. From the time you create your advertising plan, you tailor your message to your specific target audience – whether they are men, women, parents, teens, etc.
   
   A press release is targeted at editors or producers. You try to persuade them that you have a newsworthy company, product or service. If you are able to prove that you have something “good,” you will end up with a news story or a feature article.
   
8. Endorsement
   
   Most advertisements are presented very well. After all, companies spend a lot of money to get the word out to the consumers. But people know that these companies shell out big bucks to get them to buy the company’s product or service. According to Michael D. Driscoll, a public relations manager in the non-profit sector, “Consumers today are far more cynical than previous generations, with only a small percent saying they have a great deal of confidence in advertising messages. Anyone can buy visibility . . .”
   
   A press release however, is more credible. After all, you did not pay for this service. The publication made the decision to feature your company free of charge. This third party endorsement will be perceived as a non-biased coverage.
   
9. Your contacts
   
   When you advertise, your main point of contact is usually the advertising representative of the ad agency of your choice.
   
   When you issue your press release, you develop a relationship with editors and reporters of the publication/s that you deal with. This is crucial because if you develop a sound relationship with media, chances are you will get more free publicity in the future.
   
10. Shelf life
    
    TV ads that have been archived sometimes cannot be viewed. If you have slow internet connection, or if you have not installed the proper software required for viewing, or if there is no HTML description about the commercials so that search engines can archive them, viewing these commercials would be next to impossible.
    
    It is easier for search engines to search for archived press releases and news articles. These are easily accessible provided you have your own computer and a reliable internet connection.

With all these differences, what marketing strategy is better?

At first glance, larger companies who have the budget will probably do better with advertising. Meanwhile, small companies that have limited resources will benefit more by using public relations to reach their target audience.

However, the BEST marketing strategy would be a combination of advertising and public relations. The reality is, both strategies complement each other. In fact, big businesses have come to realize that a combination of both strategies would contribute to further success.

1. Not being prepared: You always need to plan properly keeping in mind the goal you want to achieve. This plan should consider alternative actions in the event that the plan doesn’t go according to plan. Once you have a proper plan in place, you are able to communicate effectively with the media. By planning you are clear about what you want to convey and how to do it effectively.
2. A poorly written press release: Your press release should be simple and to the point. At the same time, you need to grab the attention of the reader. You need to avoid lengthy boring descriptions and edit for error; a press release with grammatical errors is a big turn off. We’ve detailed the art of Press Release Writing elsewhere on this blog.
3. Thinking within the box: You should not just stick to the traditional Public Relations methods but always strive to find innovative ways to connect with your audience. On the Internet, there are so many channels for public relations. You could, for example, interact with your audience through social networking sites.
4. Not reading the newspaper: Keep yourself abreast with what is happening round you. It is very important that you do not operate in a vacuum and are aware of news and events happening. This benefits you in two ways; you can utilize local and world events as tie-in to your news and also avoid poorly timed press releases.
5. Bad timing: Careful timing is crucial for most public relations tasks, whether it’s addressing a concern or announcing a new development. You need to have a head start on your tasks and also considering the lead time for newspapers, magazines and other media channels.
6. Don’t treat the media as an outsider: You should always try to see them as your alley, but respect the power of the media, what they write, can make or break you.
7. Poor choice of language: Impressive jargons don’t impress the editors who don’t have a lot of time to read through. In both speeches and written statements, keeping the news simple and direct will help you achieving your objective.
8. Being unprepared for a follow up: Always ensure you are prepared to answer any questions at a later stage if you want to be heard. If you don’t then you stand to lose your news.
9. Creating a story when there is none: Don’t send a Press Release unless it’s really required. Do not try to create news where there is none. If you do that, when a major development does happen the editors might just ignore it. That could be disastrous.
10. Not getting the correct expertise: Most business either spend a lot on highly priced PR firms or they try to do it themselves. It is important you find a balance in between.

Press releases have been around for several years but these are now widely used in Internet marketing. Well written press releases that follow the editorial guidelines of the online news website, paper, magazine, television or radio station that you are submitting to will get the best results.

But having a great press release is sometimes not enough to bring in your desired outcome for your business or product. Proper press release distribution is also key to getting it out to the right audience.

Media outlets receive thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of press releases everyday. With this large volume coming in, it takes only seconds and perhaps the first paragraph of your press release for editors and producers to make the decision to either use your release or throw it into the bin with the junk mail.

Before deciding on where to send your press release, you have to remember the following:

1. Build a media list
   
   Start small. Your local media would most likely be interested in your story and this would also serve as a “rehearsal” for you to hone your writing skill. Additionally, many larger media outlets scan these local media, so there is a probability that they will pick up on your press release.
   
   However, before sending your release to your local media, you should also do some research. Get information as to how press releases are submitted to them.
   
2. Get specific contacts for your press release
   
   Don’t send your press release to just anyone you can think of. If you do this, you will be accused of spamming. This kind of approach has been detected by some editors and some of them have even built up a list of such persons or companies who have been sending press releases indiscriminately. This is their “black list” and if your name ends up in such a list, you will never be able to send out your release through them.
   
   Addressing your press release to a specific person will give you better results than addressing it to the media outlet.
   
3. Become familiar with the editor and/or reporters
   
   You should get to know the preferences of the editor, producer or reporter with whom you may end up working with.  For example, some editors prefer to receive press releases through email, but others do not. Some prefer fax or mail.
   
   You should also familiarize yourself with their deadlines. That way, you will know when your press release should be given to them.
   
4. Never send press releases as attachments to emails
   
   Viruses have been known to be sent through email attachments. Most people are wary of opening these attachments, so they usually end in the trash folder. Always copy and paste your press release into the body of your email.
   
   You should also address emails individually and you should never send bulk email.

Now that you are aware of what you should know about before having your press release published, where do you send it?

1. YOUR OWN WEBSITE
   
   This may seem an obvious choice but surprisingly, most people who have their own websites do not post their press release on their site because they are afraid of being penalized for duplicate content. This is just a bad excuse. If you don’t want to get penalized, post it to your own site FIRST. When it gets indexed, usually in just a few hours, you can go ahead and send your press release to a bigger audience. This way, it will be clear that your website is the original source of the press release.
   
2. Your local media
   
3. Online industry publications
   
   Use your favourite search engine. Search for websites in your industry and check which ones might be interested in running your story.
   
4. Online news sites
   
   Submit your website to a number of these online news sites. Some require payment that is usually expensive but there are some free ones.
   
5. Blogs
   
6. Newsletters
   
7. Free press release listing sites
   
8. Free online press release distribution services

Distributing your press releases personally can be a powerful experience if you have established a positive relationship with an editor. But if you don’t know any editors, your press release would probably not be used. This is where you will need to hire a press release distribution service.

A press release distribution service will distribute your press release on your behalf. They are relatively easy to use and they are usually inexpensive. There are several free online press release distribution sites on the internet but only a number of them are really good ones.

Following are the criteria that you should base your choice of a free online press release distribution service:

1. Cost
   
   While these sites claim to be “free,” they may offer additional services that require payment. Some of these sites even have premium paid services.
   
2. Google page rank
   
   For a rough idea, you can go for press release sites that have a Google page rank of 4 or higher. You might also want to consider sites based on their ranking in the SERPs.
   
3. Google News
   
   Find out if the press release distribution site is getting its content indexed by Google news by typing “site:sitename.com” in the Google News search box.
   
4. Traffic
   
   Check the traffic of the PR site by going to Alexa.com. Set your own standard for which you think is acceptable traffic for a good press release site.

Writing a great press release and sending it out through the right online and offline channels will ensure that you get the best results for your story. Just like any project, it takes skill, patience and good timing for a successful outcome.

1. Newspapers
   
   Since newspapers come out on a daily basis, turn around for stories should be within 24 to 48 hours of publication. However, if your press release is tied in with the approaching holiday season, or if your press release involves promoting online events, you should send your press release at least three weeks in advance so that the writer/reporter will have ample time to do research and write the story.
2. Magazines
   
   Magazines are usually prepared up to three months ahead of the date of its publication. As with the newspaper release, if the press release involves upcoming events or holidays, it should be sent well ahead of time to give the writers enough time to work on the story. In this case the press release should be sent out at least two months ahead of publication.
   
   
3. Television and radio
   
   There is really no perfect time to send a press release to television and/or radio stations. If a press release sent to television and/or radio stations are considered newsworthy, you just might receive a call anytime for an interview. In any case, you should always be prepared to answer questions, and you can even ask a show’s producer to provide you with a list of questions that you will be asked. This way, you can plan your answers and you can inform them if you do not wish to answer any of their questions.

So, is there really a specific time or day that is perfect to send a press release? It really depends on certain factors:

1. Location of target audience
   
   There are different situations in different countries when it comes to sending out press releases. Following are some examples:
   
   For locations like Israel, where the work week is Sunday to Thursday due to national and religious holidays and traditions, sending a press release on a Sunday or Monday is commonplace.
   
   In the United Kingdom (approximately 5 hours ahead of EST), Monday morning is when they have the least news. News items are listed in reverse release date order (newest first, oldest last). Thus, press releases received on Monday mornings have a greater chance of being used.
   
   If you are an Australian living in Australia and your target market is in the US, you need to send your press release on Tuesday so that it arrives in the US on Monday Morning.
   
   A business located in New York (EST) that is sending a press release for a target audience in California (PST), should send a press release at 7:30 AM PST well ahead of other news.
2. Work week schedule
   
   As stated above, some countries have a different work week schedule based on national and religious holidays and traditions. But generally, in most countries, press releases are best sent in the middle of the week. This is because, Mondays (or in some countries – Sundays) are very hectic since it is the first day of the week. Most people have to go through a pile of mail and email that was sent to them over the past weekend. Fridays (or Thursdays) meanwhile are also busy days because everybody is rushing to finish outstanding tasks before the weekend. Besides, many people look forward to having the weekend off.
3. Events and Holidays in certain locations
   
   One UK company claims that the best time to issue a press release to UK publications is during US public holidays such as Thanksgiving or Independence Day. During these days, UK companies do not have to compete with hundreds of stories from the US therefore UK press releases have a greater probability of being used.
   
   Conversely however, Christmas is usually not a good time to send out a press release unless it is tied in with the Holidays. Most people are wrapped up in everything that takes place during the season that they are not particularly interested with anything else.
   
   When there are major events like the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, earthquake in China, Hurricane Katrina, World Trade Center attacks, death of Princess Diana, etc., it is not wise to send a press release. You cannot control events but you can control the time when you will send your press release. After all, you want to make sure that you have the attention of your audience when your press release comes out.
4. Sending an embargo with your press release
   
   This is probably more effective with large corporate communications professionals. These pros usually send their press release to key reporters on a Sunday or in some cases even on a Friday, with a Monday embargo which these reporters must agree to honor or they will not receive the release. According to one such corporate communications pro, “The combination of stories that hit at the same time the release is generally distributed increases awareness of the story, and likewise, increases pick-up by other outlets that day and often, into a second news cycle.”

Regardless of the time that you send your press release, make sure that your story is newsworthy. It should not be advertising or marketing. If you already have such a story, make sure that your press release meets all editorial guidelines of the magazines, newspapers and other forms of media that you are sending it to.

You need to have a well written press release if you want to get the attention of editors and/or producers of various media. If you have an effective press release, it will result to publication features, interviews on radio and television and ultimately increased sales, new markets and many other opportunities for you.

But what makes a good press release? There are certain steps that you need to take in order to come up with a great press release:

1. Make sure that all your information is organized
   Your press release should have answers to the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why), and also the answer to the question of “how.” Your press release should always have a date.
   
   
2. Make sure the information that you have is newsworthy
   If your information will come off as something that anybody can just get anywhere, it will be just a waste of everybody’s time and your press release will eventually get tossed.
   
3. Your headline should stand out
   Your headline should be keyword rich but keep it short and simple. Keep it to a maximum of ten words. The key point raised in the opening paragraph should be conveyed in the headline. Make the tone of the headline as light-hearted as possible so as to catch the readers’ attention and imagination.
   
4. Choose your words carefully
   Perhaps this is where many fail in writing their press releases. The most common mistake is the overuse of jargon. Don’t try to impress people with words. Jargon can only make the press release hard to understand. Make it simple.
   
   Abbreviations should always be written in full the first time they are used unless they are very common like CEO or MP.
   
   Refrain from self praise as much as possible as this may only result to your press release being seen as lacking substance and credibility.
   
   Use keywords repeatedly throughout your press release to ensure higher ranking in search engines. Just make sure that this is done seamlessly. It should be coherent. It should not appear to be an article that is overstuffed with keywords.
   
   Do not create copy that is written for a general audience. It will come off as too impersonal and will not appeal to personal experience. This will not retain the attention of your audience and may not engage the imagination of the readers.
   
5. Be objective
   Avoid using “I, “We,” or “You.” A press release should always be presented in an objective manner, from a third person point of view. Providing references to any statistics, facts and figures will also help keep the press release objective and professional. Avoid expressing personal opinions unless they are done in quotes. All conclusions should be drawn from facts and statistics only and not from general opinion.
   
6. Provide examples and “quotes” from people who always make the news
   Using examples of theories applied in real situations and the tangible outcomes will help readers to understand the press release better. Additionally, if you quote people who always make the news, you will add an authoritative voice to your press release. Just make sure that the quotes are important and relevant to your piece and chances are these will be replicated in other published articles.
   
7. Use Pictures
   The use of professional quality images in the form of photographs, graphics and illustrations always help to sell the story to the editor and help tell the story to readers.
   
8. Proofread your work
   Always proofread your press release before submitting it to the editor. Spell checkers spot only misspelled words. Wrong words that are spelled correctly are not detected. You should also keep in mind that there are different language settings, depending on your target readers. UK English differs from US spelling.
   
9. Always provide additional background information
   At the end of your press release, provide a brief background about your business, company or book. You should also provide some information on the newsmakers that you quoted. Most important of all, you should also provide a point of contact should your audience need more information.
   
10. Ask for help
    If you’re having trouble coming up with a great press release, ask for professional help.