NewsCactus Blog

The NewsCactus online newsroom is mobile friendly. Newsroom visitors on mobile devices are able to easily navigate and locate company information.

Mobile marketing is one of the fastest growing trends in the communication industry. Using a tool that’s mobile compatible puts you and your organization ahead of the curve.

By way of example:

At a recent social media seminar I announced that the PDF handouts for my presentation were being published in my newsroom simultaneously as I spoke.

One of the features of NewsCactus online news release distribution is scheduling the date and time for publication. Before leaving for the presentation I set the publish time to be noon.

At the conclusion of my presentation one of the attendees approached and complimented me on the content in the Codella Marketing newsroom. I asked how he was able to see it so quickly, since I knew he hadn’t left the room to surf the Web on his desktop computer, and he said he looked it up on his phone.

Not only was he able to view the handouts, but he was impressed with how slick the auto-publishing process was and how well the newsroom looked on his mobile device.

The traditional approach to creating a press release is to use the inverted pyramid writing style and answer the five W’s — who, what, when, where, why and how.

The release format would include:

• Contact information
• Headline
• Sub-heading
• Dateline
• Lead sentence/paragraph
• More details
• Quote
• Boilerplate

For a variety of reasons, this format is becoming ‘old school.’

Everyone is busy, including journalists. New press release formats get to the point faster and highlight key points easily. They also include links to supporting resources and accompanying multimedia files.

The social media release is gaining popularity, as well as housing your corporate news in a social media newsroom.

The NewsCactus online newsroom is equipped with social media bookmarking functionality. Its modules and additional links also fit the bill for social media releases.

A social media release is designed to be more authentic, to create a dialogue and provide open access to information by anyone. It should foster and support a sense of community.

A social media release should include:

• Contact information
• Headline
• Sub-heading
• Quick facts
• Multimedia elements
• Dateline
• Lead sentence/paragraph
• More details
• Quote
• Boilerplate
• Keywords
• Tags/bookmarks

And when you write a release, stick to the conventional wisdom in KISS — keep it simple stupid. More often than not, less is more. Write so the announcement is something you’d actually be interested in and read if you were someone else. Don’t use industry jargon or buzz words, rather write in language that’s easily accessible for your intended audience, and be sure you know who that audience is when you set out.

There’s a trend in the public relations industry to provide more than the typical written press release. Many organizations are utilizing news wire distribution services that include multimedia distribution of logos, photos, audio or video files.

The reason for this trend is people are now accustomed to multimedia online. It’s not just about the written word.

Additionally, savvy public relations practitioners realize that journalists are no longer the only audience for press releases. Through the power of the Internet, those releases can be viewed by bloggers, shareholders, customers, etc.

For this reason, an online newsroom is vital.

Adding multimedia items to your press release in your newsroom helps tell more of the story. We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Enough said.

From carefully crafted news release headlines, to behind-the-scenes keywords and descriptions, to social media bookmarking, the functionality of a NewsCactus online newsroom covers all the bases.

Many corporate communicators see the benefits of blogging, but they hang back, uncommitted to embracing the trend for several reasons. Either they know that their CEO won’t take the time to blog, their legal department would never approve a blog, or they just don’t have the internal resources to create and maintain a blog.

Of course, these are valid reasons for not entering the blogosphere. But as we’ve seen before with new technology, you either climb on board, or the train leaves the station without you.

At NewsCactus, we see many benefits to participating in what we call online positioning. You see, it’s all about controlling the search results for your company, people, products or services. As we’ve said before, your company-controlled website is no longer your only concern. Google search is your new corporate home page. And how do you manage content on that page?

No longer is a static corporate website adequate. Companies need to maintain a web presence — several sites, including social media and networking sites, and online advertising. It’s about promoting and maintaining your brand in the same physical and virtual places used by your key constituencies.

Read more