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October 3, 2009
Social Media Press Release Blown Away in Hail of Bullets
This week, I saw an optimized press release blown away by Google News because it was mistaken for a social media press release. It fell under a hail of bullets, an innocent victim of a formatting decision. Before I share this tragic story, let me provide some background.
Two years ago, I asked, "Is the Social Media Press Release a Meatball Sundae?" I had just finished reading Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?, which defined "meatball sundae" as "the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas." And I answered my rhetorical question by accusing the "social media press release" alias "social media news release" alias "social media release" of being a meatball sundae.
I said the meatballs were the press releases, which should be optimized for news search engines, and the sundae toppings were the "Technorati tags, Digg buttons, del.icio.us bookmarks and other Web 2.0 features," which should be added to online stories and blog posts.
And I pointed out that adding Technorati tags to your social media press releases doesn't get them into Technorati, submitting social media news releases to social news sites like Digg was social media suicide, and using a jazzy new format that features bullet points and del.icio.us links wasn't going to make bloggers care about your content.
Six months later, I took a second look at the questions I'd raised in a blog post entitled, "Does Social Media 2.0 deserve a second life?" Instead of jumping to conclusions, I said the right approach to Social Media 2.0 was to test it, test it, and test it again.
Many of the new distribution options and PR measurement tools worked. But adding social media elements to press releases didn't. Blogs and other social media enable two-way conversation, but most press releases - even many of ones that use the social media format - are essays, not interviews; broadcasts, not conversations; lectures, not discussions.
One of the things that I didn't test back then was the suggested use of bulleted text in social media press releases, versus the narrative format of traditional press releases. Although I prefered the narrative approach, I figured that it was totally fine use bullets. I mistakenly figured that format isn't content, so it probably didn't matter.
Then, this week I drafted an optimized press release about an iPhone application for a client who shall remain nameless. As a courtesy, my client sent the draft to a third-party firm that had designed and developed the iPhone app. The final approved version came back -- with bullet points listing the key features.
Since it had already taken a month to get Apple's approval to even announce the new iPhone app, I didn't make a big deal about using a list of bullets in the optimized press release. Hey, I'm open minded.
But the next morning, I was shocked, shocked to find that Yahoo! News had indexed the optimized press release, but Google News hadn't. The optimized press release had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in Yahoo! News, but I couldn't find it -- even when I typed the entire headline into the search box and hit the Search News button.
Now, Google News can be arbitrary, whimisical and capracious when it comes to crawling press release distribution services. For example, its automated system is currently best able to crawl headlines or anchor text links that have 22 words or less.
But, I already knew that. So, I talked with the technical gurus at my press release distribution servce. Then, I went looking to see if anyone else had encountered this phenomenon before, or if it was the result of a recent change to the Google News algorithim.
That's when found a post by Rebecca Corliss on HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog entitled, "Study Shows Social Media Releases Are Less Effective than Traditional Press Releases." In May 2009, Corliss conducted a study comparing the results of social media releases and traditional releases by publishing them across five newswires.
As you can see in the graph to the left, the traditional release format performed much better.
And one of her findings jumped off the page. She said, "Don't use formatting. Many portal sites don't accept it. (For the technical folks, we're talking about XHTML.) Ditch the bullets, the itallics and bold type. It complicates the code and makes it more difficult for your release to be syndicated. "
Corliss added, "Use social media and multimedia elements in your PR strategy, not your press releases."
So, after conferring, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with my fellow wizards, I decided that it was time to test the narrative format in a second press release versus the bulleted text in the first.
Now, I also made some edits to the headline -- changing "launches iPhone app" to "iPhone app launched by" -- and I revised the subhead and lead paragraph. But, these were just to put a fresh look on the announcement for Yahoo! News users.
The most significant change that I made was to rewrite the bulleted text into the narrative format.
Two days later, I submitted the second press release -- selecting the same news release distribution package -- and found that both Google News and Yahoo! News had indexed it. Oh, and it had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in both news search engines. So, press release optimization still works.
But, what's the net-net? The excessive use of bullets can kill press releases. The Associate Press doesn't use them -- even for AP News in Brief. And according to Newsknife, the Associated Press was the No. 1 source in Google News for September 2009 as well as for the year to October.
So, write your next press release the same way that AP writes its online stories. Oh, and this isn't some dyed-in-the-wool defense of traditional journalism. Check out the number of YouTube videos from The Associated Press that appear in Google News.
Back on June 28, 2009, the YouTube Biz Blog invited any professional news outlet that is already included as one of the 25,000+ sources in Google News to become an official partner on YouTube and more easily share your news videos on both YouTube and Google News.
So, I'm all for innovation -- as long as it works.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 3, 2009 2:10 PM
Comments
Greg Jarboe October 4, 2009 11:07 AM
I'd be right there with you, Greg, if SEO was one of the objectives of the Social Media Release. It's not. In fact, the working group behind the SMNR advises that a traditional release be produced for the SEO value AND to link to the SMNR, where bloggers and journalists can go for more resources and information. I've long noted that the biggest mistake made with the SMNR is its name; it should have been the Social Media Press Kit. That alone would have produced greater understanding of its goals.
To claim it's a failure because it doesn't produce a benefit it wasn't meant to is like asserting that the automobile is a failure because it doesn't fly.
I suggest you look at the studies that have shown value for the SMNR in terms of the goals it IS meant to produce -- from Text 100 and RealWire, which I covered here (it shows SMNRs produced double the coverage of traditional releases):
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/analysis_shows_social_media_releases_generate_double_the_coverage/
Shel Holtz October 4, 2009 10:03 PM
Shel, thanks for the link to the Text 100 survey and RealWire analysis of its data. As for the Text 100 survey, I agree that bloggers are becoming more important. But note that bloggers prefer to be contact personally via email. And, in the US, 0% had used SMR elements in the past year, although 43% say they intend to use them in the next year. So, the best practice would be to pitch bloggers via email with links to important and relevant Website pages, YouTube videos, Flickr photos. As for RealWire, the UK-based wire service wasn't covered in the HubSpot study. The pick up of an SMR is significant, but Adam Parker, the CEO of RealWire, says, "The most likely reason for the improvement in performance of SMNRs is that the additional investment needed to produce a SMNR means that clients are more likely to use them for the most interesting stories. It is this investment in quality that then pays dividends with the features of the SMNR allowing the user to enhance that storytelling and so produce the improved results." So, getting clients to invest more in telling their story seems to be the key. As for SEO, it is one of the objectives for HubSpot as well as for my firm, SEO-PR. It's also why I'm the PR correspondent for Search Engine Watch. At SES New York 2009, I presented case studies showing that optimized press releases had generated $2.5 million in ticket sales for Southwest Airlines in 2004, 1.3 million searches on SuperPages.com for “florists” in 2005, 450,000 unique visitors to The Christian Science Monitor in 2006, 1,100 attendees to the Wharton Economic Summit in 2007, a 36% increase in searches for Better Homes and Gardens brand names in 2008, and 749 inlinks to the toy and product recall finder on Parents.com in 2009. We did this by combining blog outreach with press release optimization -- instead of trying to create a single social media press release. So, we unbundle the elements in the SMR -- and get measurable results.
Greg Jarboe October 5, 2009 5:29 AM
Unbundling seems to me to defeat the purpose, Greg, of a one-stop shop for all the resources a blogger or journalist might need to cover the story. The goal of the SMNR is increased coverage, and they do seem to produce that. In fact, I'm sitting in a presentation at a conference as I type this listening to a speaker talk about how a SMNR resulted in far more coverage than they'd ever received before, or anticipated, around a crisis communication issue.
The HubSpot study is one I criticized at the time it was released, since its evaluation was based on DISTRIBUTION of social media releases, which the working group does not advise. Your post mentioned Technorati tags, which are not designed to get the release into Technorati, but rather to help reporters and bloggers research what other bloggers are saying about the topic.
I'm sold on the one-stop shopping concept with SEO driven by the concurrent traditional distributed press release. I'm well aware of the Southwest Airlines case study (and much of your work -- I do follow you and get a lot out of your reports). But I do think you're missing the point of the SMNR. I wrote a primer on SMNRs, in case you're interested:
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/yet_another_social_media_release_primer/
I hope to meet you someday, Greg.
Shel Holtz October 5, 2009 5:31 PM
As Rick says in Casablanca, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." At the end of the day, we want to generate results for clients. So, Shel, I think this is the beginning of a fruitful conversation. If the SMNR generates increased coverage, that's a plus for clients and the PR profession. So, I will read your primer and try to keep an open mind. By the way, I know Dan Janel from my days at Ziff-Davis back in the 1990s. So, say "hi" for me the next time you see him.
Greg Jarboe October 5, 2009 8:16 PM
Thank you. This goes to show how the little "technical" details can make a huge difference in the outcome of a result.
Tom Troughton October 7, 2009 10:14 PM
It has been a hard job to find such informative and important tags from net. I went through your post, which made me update about online marketing products. I've been concerned with these all, since so long and doing work for my friend to promote his online business.
Shortcuts to Internet Millions October 19, 2009 6:12 AM
It is hard to believe that the study you sight is accurate. i have found smnr much more effective then traditional media. My company spent thousands on media buys in magazines - with no online translation in numbers and or buzz.
smnr bumped up many of our sites by 30% and at little to no cost.
I have also found the links showed directly in reflection to new users. this was easy to see because i also created french versions of the releases and picked up users from many french speaking countries. i think that this action online, can translate to a direct connection for the viewer. and that is the goal of good pr, to bring a brand to the forefront, and then to sustain it in a relevant and timed (timely) fashion.
Veronica Kovachi
veronica kovachi November 12, 2009 4:58 PM
I have also found the links showed directly in reflection to new users. this was easy to see because i also created french versions of the releases and picked up users from many french speaking countries. i think that this action online, can translate to a direct connection for the viewer. and that is the goal of good pr, to bring a brand to the forefront, and then to sustain it in a relevant and timed (timely) fashion.
Veronica Kovachi
veronica kovachi November 12, 2009 4:59 PM
I have also found the links showed directly in reflection to new users. this was easy to see because i also created french versions of the releases and picked up users from many french speaking countries. i think that this action online, can translate to a direct connection for the viewer. and that is the goal of good pr, to bring a brand to the forefront, and then to sustain it in a relevant and timed (timely) fashion.
Veronica Kovachi
veronica kovachi November 12, 2009 5:00 PM
I have also found the links showed directly in reflection to new users. this was easy to see because i also created french versions of the releases and picked up users from many french speaking countries. i think that this action online, can translate to a direct connection for the viewer. and that is the goal of good pr, to bring a brand to the forefront, and then to sustain it in a relevant and timed (timely) fashion.
Veronica Kovachi
veronica kovachi November 12, 2009 5:01 PM
I've always been sceptical about SMNRs as I've never had a problem with well written press releases either issued for news aggregation or as back up information for tailored approaches to both bloggers and trad media.
I've also never seen any convincing proof that an issued SMNR works better than a release (ie not released by someone selling them)
I'm inclined to agree with Greg that the SMNR is a misused term and it's basically media office material. Which, in turn, means that the narrative in the press release and well signposted resources (photo, videos, voice recordings) available for adapting works just as well - just good practise anyway; and for listed companies, sometimes the narrative form is a must.
Am very suprised about the Google listings though. Well done for highlighting it. And thank you for being brave enough to share it.
Claire Thompson (claireatwaves) November 23, 2009 11:12 AM
Some nice info !
I think i already saw this once before.
Easy IM Profits January 18, 2010 12:27 PM
Thanks. I should have tested bullets sooner, but I was writing a book on YouTube and Video Marketing from last September through this May. So, I'm circling back to the press release optimization topic now that the book has been published.