Online Press Release Distribution Gets Your Message out

Your company has just launched a new enhancement to your product.
You've hired a new vice president of marketing.
You're running a new online fund-raiser.

It used to be that you had to write a press release, mail (or email) it to a list of reporters, call them (if they take calls) and pitch your story. Once the reporters reviewed your press release - if they did - they then chose whether it was newsworthy enough to publish.

The Internet has shifted the balance of power from news venues to news makers - peole who know how to get information directly to people who are most interested in it. Instead of being concerned with a gate-keeper, whose responsibility is to assure that they write for the broadest possible audience, news makers understand that distributing their news releases online gets them into search engines, which, in turn, provides timely information to people who are searching for it.

Similar to the traditional press release, an online news release requires good writing skills, an understanding of the target audience, objectivity and a timely, compelling topic. Unlike traditional releases, however, online releases allow niche and specialized news out to a very broad audience.

News Release Distribution
You have two options to distributing news releases. The first is through traditional wire services, the second is through online news release distribution services.

Traditional wire services will submit your news release in feeds to reporters covering a particular topic, geographic region, or industry. Although traditional wire services can be beneficial, you normally pay considerable additional fees to specify geographical or topical distribution. Also, you pay by word for the longer releases.

Not all online news release distribution services are created equal. Since distribution is handled differently by different vendors, pricing ranges dramatically, based on services that they provide.

First, some companies "distribute" your release by putting it on their website and submitting it to Google and Yahoo. Although this is a very important element of release distribution, many vendors stop there - and do not give your news real visibility.

Second, there are distribution companies that have developed agreements to have news republished (or syndicated) on other sites. Big, well-known news sites, like Yahoo! News, get a lot of traffic - and having your release included there is a good step in getting visibility.

Third, there are just a few companies that offer advanced distribution. Some of the features that these vendors provide include publishing topic-specific RSS news feeds, sending news summaries to reporters who have specifically asked to receive them, and syndicating your news to bloggers through specialized feeds.

The best combination, however, includes these three approaches, but also leverages social media sites like Twitter, Technorati and many others to broadcast and your news.

Summary
As you make your decision about how to distribute your news releases, consider the value of online distribution as a way to drive traffic to your website and get quick visibility.